Chapter 120: Is this considered nuclear winter? (Chinese)
For Europeans in 1947 AD, the spring of that year seemed extremely cold, almost despairingly cold.
In January, a severe cold wave that had never happened in a century swept across the European continent, bringing extremely cold weather that lasted for more than a month to the war-torn European land - the temperature in London, England dropped to minus 20 below zero. degree, while the mountainous areas of Eastern Europe and Ukraine The temperature in Crane suddenly dropped to minus 40 to 50 degrees, with dripping water turning into ice and urine turning into icicles... The Danube, Rhine, Elbe, Po River in northern Italy and Thames River in the UK were all affected by this cold wave. The entire line was covered in ice, and the ships were frozen. Even Sicily, which rarely experiences snowfall, received half a meter of heavy snow this winter. Even the Arabs in Morocco and Algeria were surprised to see tiny snowflakes slowly falling on the Sahara Desert. And many Egyptians saw for the first time in their lives, fine ice floes floating on the Nile...
As for the major cities in Europe, the situation is even worse. The snow in Rome and Madrid is up to one meter thick, and the snow in Paris and Berlin is up to three meters thick. Amsterdam, which just suffered a nuclear bomb, has thick snow because it is close to the coast and has sufficient water vapor. Up to six meters high, even the chimney on the roof was buried by the snow. Many unlucky Dutch people were buried alive in their homes by the heavy snow. Those who were not buried alive began to try to imitate the Eskimos in building igloos. The temperature in the water city of Venice also dropped to minus 15 degrees Celsius. Citizens found that their city was frozen in a large ice puddle. They could go shopping on the ice without rowing.
If it were in peaceful times, the government would definitely do its best and take various disaster relief measures, such as requisitioning primary and secondary school classrooms and idle hotel ballrooms, setting up temporary heating centers, airdropping food to villages besieged by heavy snow, dispatching snowplows and spreading salt Cars clear roads, restore transportation, etc.
However, in Europe during World War III, there was no such condition: cities in various countries generally suffered serious war damage, and road and railway transportation were not fully repaired. When a severe cold wave came, rivers and ports froze, and even water transportation followed. Broken. What's even more terrible is that European metropolises such as Madrid, Paris, London and Amsterdam have just been hit by atomic bombs (the next ones to be hit by nuclear bombs are Stockholm, Leningrad, Helsinki and Tallinn), and many other cities have been hit by atomic bombs. Carpet strategic bombing. At least 10 million people were forced to live among the ruins and rubble in crude shacks and tents. At this time, they had no heating, no electricity, no fuel, no house, lack of clothing, and even food supplies were in short supply. In the severe cold weather of minus 30 to 40 degrees Celsius, it seems that there is no other way out except to freeze and starve into a zombie in despair - even if you want to escape, in this severe cold and snowy weather, there is a long-term lack of food. With his thin physique and little clothing, he wouldn't be able to walk very far before he would die!
According to incomplete statistics afterwards, more than 3.8 million people died of freezing and starvation across Europe during this month of unprecedentedly miserable extreme cold weather. Finally, the weather got a little warmer. Although the roads and railways were still impassable, at least it was not so easy for people to freeze to death. Unexpectedly, the United States from across the ocean came to send warmth again, presenting a Valentine's Day gift called the atomic bomb to the European people - the flash of this nuclear explosion was really...warm enough!
However, no matter how many people die during the winter, those who are still alive will continue to struggle to survive and reproduce. A few weeks passed after the nuclear explosion, and the snow and ice in Europe finally melted and spring flowers bloomed. The hungry and lean European farmers quickly began to cultivate the land and sow seeds... Who would have thought that the crops had just sprouted, and another late spring cold came with heavy snow, bringing the temperature back to sub-zero temperatures again!
Looking at the snow-covered fields and thinking about the prospect of no harvest, the common people in various European countries are crying without tears and feeling gloomy.
What's even more frightening is that they will have to experience such nightmare days several times again - if they can still survive...
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May 12, Yugoslavia, Belgrade
Although it is the brightest time of the day at noon, the sky in Belgrade is as hazy as dusk.
After completing his inspection of the rural areas around the capital, General Secretary of the Yugoslav Communist Party Josip Broz Tito set out on his way home with a haggard look on his face.
Although it is already late April, it is still snowing heavily on the streets of Belgrade, and the wipers are struggling to remove the fluffy snow flakes. There was mud on the road, and as soon as the car passed by, the mud splashed high. Looking at the confused wind and snow outside the car window, Tito couldn't help but feel a little dazed.
The weather in Yugoslavia this year is very terrible. Let’s not mention the severe cold of minus 40 degrees in January and February. March has just warmed up a little. However, starting from mid-to-late April, the temperature in various places has once again plummeted contrary to common sense. The coldest It even dropped to minus 13 or 14 degrees Celsius for a few days, and now it's still 2 to 3 degrees below zero. Freezing rain fell in most areas across Yugoslavia, and the streets of the capital, Belgrade, were covered in snow up to their feet.
In such an unseasonal cold wave, General Secretary Tito, who was already quite young, accidentally caught a severe cold and coughed so hard that his lungs were about to come out, no matter how much aspirin he ate or how much hot tea he drank. It didn't get better either, and I finally got antibiotics and felt a little better. However, despite his worrying health condition, General Secretary Tito still dragged his sick body around to inspect the situation of the extreme cold disaster, and then became more and more frightened as he looked.
——Looking through the entire Yugoslavia, I am afraid no one has ever seen such a cold spring. The weather in May is still like winter, with snowflakes and ice chips floating in the sky from time to time. People find sheep frozen on the pasture, tender flower buds that have just bloomed are frozen to death, and there are ten centimeters of ice in ponds and rivers. Due to the thick ice, the newly planted crops in the ground were ravaged by the severe cold. Farmers had to wear thick coats and gloves to work in the fields, trying to save some remaining crops. However, wheat and corn at this latitude have never experienced such unseasonal cold. Even if thanks to the hard work of Yugoslav farmers, this year's crops will not be lost, at the very least, most of the grain output will be reduced!
Therefore, during the inspection, all the officials complained to Tito, saying that there would definitely be an unprecedented famine in the second half of this year. And there is absolutely no way to tap the potential within Yugoslavia to solve the famine... At present, it seems that there is absolutely no way.
If you want the Yugoslavs to survive these difficult years, the only feasible way in everyone's opinion seems to be to kneel down and extend your hands to the Soviet big brother - but the problem is that the Soviets are not philanthropists, and the Kremlin Where are the aid and relief materials so easy to get?
Tito couldn't help but feel his brain twitching when he thought of the package of exchange conditions proposed by the Kremlin: adopting a unified currency for the entire socialist camp, unifying diplomatic stance, joining the Economic Mutual Assistance Association, and endorsing the "theory of limited sovereignty"... Tito knew very well. From the perspective of the Serbs and Croats, whose national pride has been inflamed to excess by propaganda and who have always been arrogant, this series of demands that seriously interfere in Yugoslavia's internal affairs is absolutely unacceptable. If he dares to nod and agree casually, then there will immediately be a political turmoil that shakes the country. However, if we do not do this, we will not receive aid supplies from the Soviet Union. At that time, the hungry people in the country will still rise up in rebellion under the instigation of some careerists.
Either there will be civil unrest due to a political crisis, or there will be civil unrest due to the outbreak of famine. This dilemma gave General Secretary Tito a splitting headache.
In the end, General Secretary Tito could only decide to wait and see - maybe... this autumn's harvest will not be as bad as imagined?
In any case, he and the Yugoslav government still have some time to think and deliberate before the crisis breaks out, right?
However, compared to the Yugoslavs who still have a choice, the British on the isolated island have no chance to choose a way out...
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June 10th, England, southern Cornwall, north shore of the English Channel
Under the leaden gray sky, former Nazi German artillery lieutenant colonel Heinrich, who escaped from the prisoner of war camp at the end of last year, was wrapped in an ill-fitting fur coat and stood on the top balcony of a certain manor building, overlooking Looking at the bleak fields covered with frost flowers, I remained silent for a long time.
——Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich and those who followed him relied on some fuel, clothing, and food they grabbed last Christmas when they united with the black troops to break into the city of Bath. The most important thing was the intact houses in the city. More than two hundred Nazi German prisoners of war finally survived this difficult winter.
However, Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich knew very well that it would be difficult for them to survive in a foreign country for a long time just by burning, killing and looting. Moreover, they do not have a stable channel to obtain arms replenishment. Bullets and artillery shells are missing every time. In fact, they cannot fight any high-intensity sustained battles. When the last bullet is fired and the British can only fight with the bayonet... At that time, it is still unclear who robbed whom!
So, after the extremely cold weather at the beginning of the year ended and the temperature rose enough to allow humans to engage in outdoor activities, Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich led his troops to leave the city of Bath, which had been looted, and headed south to Cornwall, which was said to have little power. County grabs territory. Then, relying on the guns in his hands, Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich successfully occupied a strong and intact British country manor, and then imitated the medieval feudal system, proclaimed himself a lord, and knighted his men, just like a standard German appearance Like the owner of the Gram Manor, he began to operate this small territory and prepared to resume food production as a long-term solution. Naturally, the Germans became knights and retainers, and the British peasants captured along the way happened to serve as serfs. role.
Although they actually don't even have a horse...it's quite impressive to think that a German Junker was able to carve out territory in England and become independent.
However, the weird weather that followed made Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich's plan to resume production and dominate the land completely come to nothing.
——Since April, as the days get longer and longer, the temperature in England has become colder. The howling wind and snow are always coming, making people feel like they are in the polar regions. Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich had lived for so many years, but he had never seen such weird weather. It was obviously early summer, but the temperature in the morning dropped below zero. The terrible cold wave froze the newly softened land to a very solid state again.
In order to save these crop fields that symbolized hope for the future, starting from late May, Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich lit bonfires in the cornfields for more than ten consecutive nights, and arranged for people to take turns guarding the firewood to prevent the bonfires from extinguishing. The corn was frozen to death... However, he failed in the end. June came with ice and snow, and the land of England was covered with a thick layer of glass-like ice and snow. Almost all green plants were frozen overnight under the frost. Those crops that barely survived the cold wave in May were inevitably killed by the frost in June.
Seeing that the crops were destined to be harvested, and the food he had hoarded was running low, and he might not even last until this fall, Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich, who was full of melancholy, climbed up and looked out into the distance, looking at the surrounding countryside from the balcony. go. All I saw were desolate and dilapidated tones - the trees had no leaves, the mountains were bare, the fields were sad, the hills were gloomy, and the branches were withered...
He has never seen such a miserable year, but it is not difficult to imagine what kind of tragedy will happen next: this year, the entire rural area of Great Britain will probably not have any decent harvests, and there is already a serious shortage of food. There will be further extreme scarcity. After overseas trade was cut off and the fire of civilization in industrial society was extinguished by Soviet nuclear bombs, for the people on the island of Great Britain, food failure meant large-scale death.
The "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" - war, hunger, plague, and death - that have frightened Europeans since ancient times, will intensify and descend on the island of Great Britain, which is overpopulated and is increasingly unable to sustain food, as well as the island of Ireland next door. It is difficult to escape this disaster. After the remaining people lose civilization and order and enter the Dark Ages, they will split into more camps, fight for more food, stage all kinds of evil and cruel bloody farces, and even be forced to starve. Being forced to eat people is like a purgatory scene at the end of the world.
Such a nightmare-like prospect made Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich feel trembling from the depths of his soul. He took a deep breath and turned to look at the rough English Channel on the horizon, the European continent on the other side of the channel, and the more distant motherland and hometown...
It looks like this cursed island can no longer stay. Maybe... now is the time to go back and try your luck! Even if you really can't find a big ship and there are no sailors available, even if you build a raft and risk crossing the sea, it's much better than starving to death and freezing to death in this hellish place!
Anyway, with his military rank, he should not be qualified to go to a military court wearing the title of war criminal. According to common sense, the most Soviet people can do is lock themselves in a labor camp... Under the current circumstances, if the food in the labor camp can be sufficient, then going there may be a good way out.
Just like that, Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich lit a cigar for himself, blowing out smoke rings in the cold wind, thinking vaguely, and at the same time recited in a low voice a very appropriate poem he had just read. Poetry, "Darkness" by the British poet Lord Byron: "...the bright sun went out, and the stars were lost in the dim eternal void, without light, without a way, the frozen globe of the earth turning blindly, in the moonless sky Shrouded in the underworld..."
However, what today's Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich does not know is that under the newly established socialist German regime at this time, there is also devastation everywhere and the social order is almost collapsing. The people are also in dire straits, and millions of Germans are struggling on the edge of life and death...
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June 20, Berlin, Germany
"...Woooooooo————"
Accompanied by the long whistle and drifting soot, a long passenger train rumbled out of the Berlin station and headed for the distant east.
In the crowded and noisy carriage, Mrs. Maria Smit hugged her small suitcase and huddled in the narrow seat with a dull expression - compared to Christmas, she seemed to have suddenly aged ten years. Above, and only one person is left, with no relatives to accompany him...
——Before the extremely cold weather came in January, she and her co-workers were organized by the government to go to the countryside far away from Berlin to repair a power plant. As a result, Mrs. Smit had to entrust her two sons, ten-year-old Simon and eight-year-old Justin, to the care of a relative in Berlin.
The result, after more than two months. When she returned to Berlin from the construction site with snowflakes all over her body and frostbite on her face and hands, she was shocked to learn that her relative's dilapidated old house had been suddenly destroyed late one night not long ago. The heavy snow collapsed instantly, and her two sons Simon and Justin, as well as the whole family of the relative, were all crushed to death under the rubble and snow on the spot! Even the corpse has been burned to ashes now!
This huge blow caused Mrs. Maria Smit to have a mental breakdown. After burying the urns of her two underage sons in a daze, she drank heavily all day long and almost wanted to commit suicide several times... …If she hadn’t been thinking about her husband, Captain Lucas Smit, who was still sailing a merchant ship for the Soviets in the distant Pacific, risking his life to earn money, she might really have followed her sons. Went.
Then, as signs of climate anomalies intensified across Europe, Germany's food and fuel supplies became increasingly tight. The embattled German socialist government had no choice but to temporarily stop the debris clearing and urban reconstruction projects, and mobilized part of the surplus population to respond to the Soviet Union's call and move to Siberia and the Far East, where food supplies were relatively abundant, to build socialism. By the way, reduce the pressure on the motherland...
At this time, Mrs. Smit lost her job because of this, and on the other hand, she missed her husband even more after the death of her son. So as soon as she learned the news, Mrs. Smit took the initiative to sign up, hoping to leave temporarily. This home that left her with countless sad memories - just like this, she pinched With photos of her two sons and a letter from her husband from the East, she took a small suitcase of luggage and boarded the international train to Vladivostok, muttering to herself from time to time, "... I'm sorry, please forgive me, dear Lucas, I failed to take care of the children..."
And just like Mrs. Maria Smit, there are many Europeans who left their broken homeland for various reasons and went to the East to work hard in these difficult years... quite a few of them settled down in the East. , never returned to Europe...
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Next, with the arrival of summer in the northern hemisphere, signs of various global climate anomalies becoming clearer, and various bad news pouring in from all over the world, this spread to catastrophic low temperature weather on a global scale, finally causing Wang Qiu to , Ma Tong and other travelers’ attention...
As a result, various debates quickly broke out among them regarding the above issues:
"...How could this happen? Could it be that too many nuclear bombs have been dropped recently, which really damaged the environment and created a nuclear winter?"
"...How is this possible? You imagine that human beings are too powerful and the earth is too fragile!
The most powerful atomic bomb today is two or three times as powerful as the Hiroshima atomic bomb in our world, with a yield of about 50,000 to 60,000 tons. If you want to develop a nuclear weapon with a larger yield, you have to go Only a hydrogen bomb can do it.
The total yield of five hundred such powerful atomic bombs combined could not even catch up with the ‘Big Ivan’ bomb that the Soviet Union tested in 1961!
Since in our world, the year when the 'Big Ivan' test exploded, the earth was not blown up to the point where it was unsuitable for human survival, or any very terrible nuclear winter was created, then these small-yield nuclear bombs that are growing mushrooms everywhere now, Even less likely to create a nuclear winter. ”
"...Wait? 1961? The Chinese people seemed to have a really bad life that year! Something like '30 million people starved to death'..." "...Please, don't you know? That's all It’s a joke made up by a street stall literary publication! It can’t be taken seriously! Besides, the so-called ‘nuclear winter’ has been confirmed after the Cold War, but it was just a well-intentioned hoax concocted by a group of anti-war scientists..."