Chapter 87, The Earth Under the Mushroom Cloud (Part 2)
Indonesia, Java Island, Jakarta
After a daily heavy rain in the afternoon, the air in downtown Jakarta, also known as the "Coconut City", became particularly fresh.
Looking down from the air, with Fatahira Square as the center, the old town of Jakarta, which was built in the 15th century, is showing an elegant and humanistic atmosphere of a modern European city. And even the originally messy slums seemed to have become much cleaner after being washed away by a heavy rain.
Of course, overall, the city is a lot depressed. Many shops on the streets are closed, and there are far fewer cars on the roads than in colonial times. There are still traces of bombing on some buildings... However, for the country's freedom and independence, these are necessary prices.
Sitting on the balcony of the Presidential Palace of the Republic of Indonesia, which was converted from the old Governor's Palace, President Sukarno, the "Father of the Nation", thought so confidently.
——After the Japanese troops withdrew from Indonesia, Sukarno and his cronies took over control of this vast country of Thousand Islands.
Although Indonesia is still divided among itself, the territory actually controlled by Sukarno, the president and founding father, is quite limited. A bunch of Sudanese chiefs in Sumatra and Borneo occupied the land and became kings, disobeying the central government's orders. The British army, which had just returned to Singapore, also came to take advantage of the situation and dispatched fleets and marines to seize the Palembang oil field. Sukarno, who lacked a naval fleet and air power, could only stare at this... But in any case, most of the things happened. Toward a good direction. At least the island of Java, where the best of all Indonesia is gathered, has been controlled by Sukarno's republican government. As long as they have a firm foothold on the island of Java, then as long as they take a little rest and recuperation, it will only be a matter of time before they conquer the whole country.
——Although Indonesia has a vast territory, most of it is tropical rainforest that is difficult to develop, and there is not much land that can really accommodate a large number of people. Only on the island of Java, due to the large number of volcanoes, a large amount of volcanic ash has been deposited, just like natural fertilizer, making the land on the island very fertile. A small island of 130,000 square kilometers can actually be home to hundreds of millions of people, with a population density higher than Japan is much higher.
Relying on such sufficient human resources and the arms left behind by the Japanese army before their retreat, Sukarno's government of the Republic of Indonesia raised a large-scale army in a short period of time. Although the offensive capabilities of this ragtag group have yet to be tested, at least the size of this force is enough to bluff people.
In the recent defense battle of Jakarta, Sukarno took command in the Presidential Palace and mobilized 180,000 troops to easily defeat a thousand British Marines who crossed the sea to attack. He wiped out more than 200 enemies and suffered about about 100,000 losses. Four thousand... Well, this exchange ratio is indeed embarrassing, but Sukarno also showed great strength after all, fully proving that he could not be overthrown by just a few gunboats and a few thousand miscellaneous troops. However, the current Western European and American colonialist powers have long since run out of gas, and at most they can only use this little power to invest in the East.
——The Netherlands, the old owner of the Indonesian colony, has now become the Dutch Socialist Republic in Europe. The Queen of the Netherlands, who lives in London, has no soldiers left. The British have already wiped out an entire generation of young people in this war. They are still fighting endlessly in Europe. They are also fighting India, Burma, Malaya, Vietnam and China in Asia. They can invest thousands of people to intervene. The Indonesian colony has reached its limit.
In an interview with reporters not long ago, Sukarno once said pitifully: "...after being repelled by the Japanese, Britain should fully understand the limits of its own strength and stop dreaming of returning to the East. It will make the already exhausted British involved in one wrong war after another, until they start war with countless peoples throughout East Asia at the same time... I think Churchill When the Prime Minister considered entering East Asia, he never thought about how to exit with dignity. As a result, after Britain had been defeated for a generation, the war was still far away, even if the cost of the war was paid by others, every moment of every day. There are British soldiers bleeding and dying, and this strong mental pressure will crush the confidence of the British army to continue fighting.”
As for Americans? If they want to interfere in Indonesia, they should wait until the Pacific Fleet overthrows the Japanese Navy Combined Fleet!
Although Sukarno currently has no naval fleet of his own, he is still unable to regain the distant Palembang oil field occupied by the British army, and he is unable to cross the sea to conquer the separatist forces on Sumatra, Borneo and other outer islands. But at least in the It is now possible to walk sideways on Java Island without any problem.
In his opinion, as long as they continue to persist for a period of time, those imperialist powers that are fierce and internally weak will have no choice but to retreat in despair.
However, just as President Sukarno was looking up at the clear blue sky after the rain, stretching a few times on the balcony, and preparing to return to the office to continue reviewing documents and drafting a speech for tomorrow's mass rally, something sounded in his ears. Suddenly a shrill air raid siren sounded!
——As the air raid siren sounded, the originally peaceful and lazy atmosphere in Jakarta suddenly disappeared. Pedestrians on the street ran for cover, shouting and yelling. President Sukarno was also carried into the air-raid shelter of the Presidential Palace by two burly guards.
A moment later, several B-29 "Super Fortress" bombers roared in from a distance. The four powerful engines on the fuselage dragged out four white mist trails, and the rumble of the engines resounded through the sky. Its frequency is low and its intensity is high, bringing a heavy sense of depression to people's hearts.
On the ground, the few anti-aircraft artillerymen began to fire "dong dong". Unfortunately, they could not reach the enemy planes 10,000 meters above the ground, so they could only embolden themselves. On the other side, many bold citizens ignored the air raid sirens and instead stood on rooftops or climbed trees, curiously looking at the huge planes above them. In general, due to the several previous attacks organized by the British and Americans This small-scale air raid did not cause serious damage to Jakarta, not even as many people died as a major typhoon. Citizens were not too nervous about such a small-scale bombing, thinking it was nothing more than that.
However, this time they were dead wrong! ! !
A few minutes later, golden light erupted over Jakarta, fireballs volleyed into the sky, and mushroom clouds rose into the sky─Ah! It's an atomic bomb attack! ! !
At the last moment before death, many Jakarta citizens saw a constantly churning fireball soaring into the sky, getting bigger and bigger, constantly changing colors, from violet to orange, like the Buddha holding a gemstone and turning it, colorful and radiant. Brilliant. The fireball and the huge smoke column rising below turned into a strange green mushroom cloud, rising into the blue sky, and finally gradually disappeared at an altitude of 20,000 meters.
Unfortunately, Fatahillah Square and the Presidential Palace, which were located near the center of the nuclear bomb explosion, were burned to ashes in the heat comparable to the surface of the sun. The concrete turned into powder, the gravel and pebbles re-solidified into purple glass balls after melting, the trees turned into charcoal, the human body turned into ashes, the artillerymen on the anti-aircraft gun positions melted with their weapons, and the shadows of people and objects were imprinted On the ground and on the remaining walls... Even if you hide in a solid underground air raid shelter, you can't escape the butcher's knife of death. At the same time, a terrifying shock wave also rushed through the city, knocking down most of the buildings within a five-kilometer radius in an instant. Within seconds, the extremely hot and dry foehn winds scorched the trees on the streets and thousands of citizens who had no time to take shelter. Many people were burned to death immediately, and many half-dead people were rolling on the ground, screaming in pain as they were burned.
A few minutes later, another sticky, black rain of radiation fell from the sky, bringing deadly radioactive fallout to the panicked survivors.
Then, in those urban areas that were far away from the center of the explosion and had not been directly destroyed by the nuclear explosion, fires ignited due to the high temperature heat wave of the atomic bomb explosion - the terrifying nuclear explosion burned the air to the point where it was stronger than the wood in an instant. With the temperature above the ignition point of the cloth, there is no need for fire at all. Wherever this terrible high-temperature airflow blows, it starts to burn! The cloth is burning, the wood is burning, the house is burning, and even the living and the dead are beginning to burn - first the hair, then the clothes, and then even the skin and subcutaneous fat. The dead are lucky because It is impossible for them to die again. For those who were burned alive, it was equivalent to having gasoline poured on them and lit as sky lanterns. The burning pain felt like falling into the flames of hell, which was so miserable that it was indescribable. At the same time, they also have to endure the pain of suffocation caused by high temperatures.
The fire brigade in Jakarta had already been paralyzed by the nuclear explosion, and panicked people fled in all directions, forming a chaotic mess. They didn't know whether they should find a place to hide or rush to put out the fire - in fact, even if they wanted to put out the fire, there was no running water. But it was too late to draw water slowly from the well. Soon, the rapidly approaching flames forced the remaining citizens to make a choice. They rushed out of the flames with desperate shouts, trying to hide in the open space where the fire could not reach them. But strong winds blowing from the Java Sea fueled the fire, and the huge fireball "sowed" everywhere, carrying star-like slag, leaping from one building to another. The fire spread much faster than expected.
As a result, less than half an hour after the nuclear explosion, the fire had already taken advantage of the wind and spread to wooden houses and bamboo sheds throughout Jakarta, devouring everything that could burn. The metal melted and the tiles turned into Black powder, many people hiding in air raid shelters were roasted alive.
Fire snakes were scurrying around the streets, thick smoke was billowing, and there were loud crashes and heart-rending screams of terror everywhere in the firelight. People were rushing around like rats. Some people were surrounded by flames and eventually burned to coke. Some people were trapped in the building, being knocked down alive by the thick smoke and suffocated by lack of oxygen. Desperate people almost went crazy and jumped in desperately when they saw water. The garden ponds and swimming pools were densely packed with people who wanted to escape, but the high temperature quickly turned these ponds into boiling cauldrons. The people in the water became cooked dumplings.
——Another five hours later, the US Air Force stationed in Singapore sent several planes to the skies above Jakarta to detect the situation after the atomic bomb explosion. After a while, they sent a report back to the airport by radio from the air, saying that the entire city of Jakarta was engulfed in a sea of flames, with thick smoke covering the sky and igniting the mountains and forests outside the city. It was impossible to judge the city of Jakarta from the air. Does it still exist...
Although a sudden rainstorm basically extinguished the flames in Jakarta twelve hours later, the radioactive dust that filled the air and sewage continued to kill survivors. What's more terrible is that due to the sudden destruction of the central government of the entire republic, the island of Java fell into anarchy in a short period of time. Thugs were rampant all around Jakarta for a while, and countless people were fighting each other for gold, silver and food.
Therefore, it was not until a week later that all parties confirmed the destruction of the central government of the Republic of Indonesia and the death of President Sukarno.
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Madrid, Spain
At this moment, the Puerta del Sol in the center of Madrid is a noisy scene with red flags waving and crowds of people.
Tens of thousands of workers, citizens and students gathered here with excitement on their faces, fanatically shouting various revolutionary slogans and singing revolutionary songs to celebrate the collapse of Franco's reactionary regime and the Spanish government-in-exile of the Second Republic. "Returning the Capital Ceremony".
Accompanied by the melody of "The Internationale", Prime Minister Juan Negrín, who had just ended his years of exile, and several members of the Spanish Second Republic's government-in-exile behind him, appeared at the temporary venue amid deafening cheers. A podium built on one side of the square.
Looking at the enthusiastic faces under the podium and the familiar street scenes around him, Prime Minister Juan Negrin couldn't help but feel filled with emotions, as if in a dream - since the civil war failed and he was forced to flee overseas, the internal situation has Prime Minister Greene traveled to France, Mexico, and various countries in South America. He was displaced for many years and even thought that he would never return to his homeland. Unexpectedly, today, there is still a day when I can be proud and make a comeback!
Although the war in Spanish territory has not yet been extinguished, Franco and his legionnaires are still entrenched in the Andalucia region in the southernmost part of Spain, and together with the British troops stationed in Gibraltar, they continue to resist. The Catholic Church in the countryside continued to instigate landlords and peasants to rebel, and the Basques and Catalans' demands for autonomy were also a headache, but all of this was nothing compared to the arduous Spanish Civil War that year.
At a time when the red flag of socialism is about to be planted all over Europe, Prime Minister Negrin does not believe that there is a possibility of another failure. As long as they cling tightly to the thick legs of the invincible Soviet Red Army, neither the British, the Portuguese nor Franco will have any hope of making a comeback.
In fact, as far as he knew, after the liberation of Spain, Portugal's reactionary regime would become the next target of the European socialist camp. And the end of the British Empire may be coming.
So, while smiling and waving in response to the cheers of the crowd in the square, he leaned in front of the microphone and cleared his throat... However, at the moment when Prime Minister Juan Negrín started his speech, the square was filled with terrible scenery. Suddenly a shrill air raid siren sounded!
oh! Damn Brits! Damn Franco!
Prime Minister Negrin suddenly felt as if ten thousand alpacas were rushing out of his heart, and he almost couldn't breathe...
But no matter what, this gathering and celebration will definitely not go on. When the Soviet Red Army fighter groups stationed near Madrid began to take off one after another to meet the enemy. The people gathered at the Puerta del Sol in the city also dispersed and ran in all directions, looking for air-raid shelters with empty seats. As for the capital return celebration that the Spanish Second Republic government has been planning for many days, it can only announce its postponement for the time being.
While squatting in the underground bunker, Prime Minister Juan Negrín was still thinking about how to modify his speech for next time.
But what happened next proved that he was overthinking this, because he would never need to give another speech in his life.
——A few minutes later, an atomic bomb with the equivalent of about 50,000 tons of TNT exploded over Madrid, an ancient plateau capital located in the center of the Iberian Peninsula: a fireball appeared first, and turned purple after a few seconds. Clouds and flames rolled and spiraled upwards. Shock waves and deadly radiation comparable to those of a super typhoon swept across the city, destroying half of the buildings and a quarter of the population in Madrid...
A few hours later, when the Soviet Red Army and International Brigade soldiers who came after hearing the news, risking radiation sickness and wearing simple home-made protective equipment, cautiously entered the city of Madrid, they discovered that the entire city was They all fell into deathly silence.
With the help of the strange shimmer that penetrated the nuclear radiation smoke cloud, the Pravda reporter accompanying the army was surprised to see that a large block in the center of Madrid had disappeared, with only a few cement telephone poles and iron frames standing alone, and others Unidentifiable wreckage was still slowly smoking, and the acrid smell of burnt corpses hung in the air. A few charred survivors could be seen scattered on the streets, staggering around like zombies. There were still some seriously injured people lying on the roadside who had been horribly burned. They were lying on the ground groaning slightly in pain. When the Red Army soldiers tried to lift them up, the scorched black skin on their bodies fell off piece by piece, like people stripping off their bodies. The gloves fell off, and the scene was really terrible.
Then, the Plaza Mayor, Puerta del Sol, the Cervantes Monument and the Don Quixote statue in downtown Madrid were all buried under the rubble in a mess. The trees in Retiro Park were burned to charcoal by the fire, and even the artificial lake was evaporated dry in the high temperature. The streets were choked with unidentifiable garbage of all kinds, making it almost impossible for cars to drive. On the Manzanares River that runs through downtown Madrid, most of the bridges have disappeared. The water has turned black, and countless burnt corpses are floating on the river. It is almost impossible to tell whether they are men or women. .
The Red Cross then set up first aid stations outside the city and soon received thousands of wounded. Many people were burned or crushed, and then became infected and suppurated because the inflammation was not treated in time. With these injuries and symptoms, the first aid station could barely save them. But other Madrid citizens did not have any serious injuries on the surface, but their hair continued to fall down, they also suffered from nausea and vomiting, and finally even vomited blood... With the medical technology of this era, there is no way to deal with radiation sickness. , so that at least hundreds of people die quickly every hour, and doctors are helpless.
——In short, the government of the Second Spanish Republic, which had just ended its overseas exile and moved back to Madrid, was declared destroyed before it could officially open its doors. There is no doubt that this is a resounding slap in the face from the American and British capitalist camp to the socialist camp at a time when red flags are sweeping across the European continent. What’s even more frightening is that the United States of America is punching the whole world with a series of uranium kinetic light wave explosions, and it is far from over yet...