Chapter 146, Apocalypse of Nuclear War (Part 2) (Happy Singles’ Day!)
January 23, 1949 AD, East Coast of the United States, New York, Manhattan
What was once the gateway to the New World and the economic and financial center of the United States of America was now trembling with the echoes of air raid sirens.
Every street and alley in Manhattan was clogged with cars with luggage tied to their roofs, and the sidewalks were crowded with citizens dragging suitcases and luggage ready to flee. All kinds of noisy car horns, screams, and fights came one after another, and the scene was chaotic.
——After the West Coast city suffered a nuclear explosion, although the United States was at the juncture of power transfer between the old and new presidents, the Pentagon, which was not affected by the change of government, began to evacuate residents of the East Coast cities and persuade them to relocate far away. Take a temporary refuge in the countryside of the city.
However, after all, there were only a few days before and after, and the entire New York had not yet developed a sense of urgency to face war and destruction soon. At present, the large amount of materials and industrial equipment scattered in New York City has not yet been moved away. The evacuation work of millions of New Yorkers has just begun. There are still many citizens who are greedy for their homes and property and are reluctant to leave. However, the terrifying figure of the Soviet Union's latest jet strategic ultra-long-range bomber has already appeared on the radar screen of the patrol ship off New York... As a result, with the sharp and loud air raid sirens, on a peaceful day The long, busy streets of New York suddenly rang out, and millions of New Yorkers who were unprepared were suddenly plunged into extreme chaos.
Previously, in order to show the government's war preparations, the state government mobilized a large number of National Guard troops to the New York City area. It was originally intended to suppress riots and maintain order. But when the air raid siren sounded, these rookies, who had never been on the battlefield, truly felt the horror of war for the first time. Most of them felt scared - they thought they could take up arms at any time and fight with the enemy's infantry. Shooting, but it can't stop the nuclear bombs falling from the sky. Even hiding in the air raid shelter is useless. On the West Coast before, the Air Force had proven their incompetence. They can no longer defend the skies of the United States. The Soviets can attack any American city from the sky without any scruples, and use the mushroom cloud of atomic bombs to easily destroy everything they want to destroy, while the Americans on the ground can only watch all this. It happened, and I was completely helpless, not even able to save my own life.
So, as soon as the air raid sirens sounded on the streets of New York, the morale of these National Guard soldiers, which was not high in the first place, suddenly disappeared - the Soviet high-altitude bombers were about to arrive overhead with nuclear bombs, so they themselves What's the use of wandering around New York City? Could it be that I have to use my flesh and blood to resist the high-temperature shock wave of a nuclear explosion? Or shoot down Soviet jet bombers at stratospheric altitude with the rifle in your hand?
Faced with the nuclear explosion crisis that manpower could not withstand, the National Guard stationed in New York City immediately disbanded. The members carried their own firearms and ammunition, snatched cars on the street, and fled to the suburbs. When the rest of the citizens saw that the soldiers had run away, they immediately joined the fleeing team...
A terrible massive refugee wave broke out immediately. Millions of New Yorkers broke into any store on the street without hesitation, beat down shopkeepers who tried to protect their property, frantically looted all the food, fuel, clothing and daily necessities they could find, and then took whatever they could find. Transportation vehicles, carrying all the belongings they could take away, hurriedly began to escape from their neighborhood.
At this moment, everyone has only one common idea left in their minds, which is to escape to the suburbs before the nuclear explosion lands, as far as possible from the city center, especially Manhattan, to avoid the possibility of a nuclear explosion coming next. During the explosion, he suffered a disaster. On the highways leading from the center of New York to the suburbs, huge convoys of fleeing people continued, and serious congestion occurred everywhere. On this chaotic road, all class distinctions have been blurred, whether you drive a Rolls-Royce or a Ford truck. God treats everyone equally, and will not run faster just because someone's car is more luxurious. Some stingy guys piled all their belongings on the top of the vehicle, from pots and pans to furniture, clothing, quilts, luggage, food and drink supplies, and piled them up into a hill. As a result, the view of the vehicles behind was seriously blocked, causing Many traffic accidents...
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However, this wave of escapes from New York has come too late. Just as a black bartender from Brooklyn and a securities trader from Wall Street were running side by side on the street, a dazzling light lit up from behind them, drowning everything around them instantly...
"...Ah -" The fleeing New York citizens suddenly let out countless extremely miserable shouts. Some people fell directly onto the road and covered their eyes with their hands in pain. The rest of the people also felt as if their skin was smoking all over their bodies, as if they were being roasted by fire...
A securities trader in a vest endured the smoke from his clothes and the burns all over his body. After the light temporarily dimmed, he instinctively turned his head to look. As a result, he couldn't help opening his mouth in extreme horror. He was completely overwhelmed by the horrific scene in front of him. Shocked.
——Only a loud noise was heard over Manhattan Island, and the blue sky burst into flames. The air became as hot as a furnace, the flammable paper advertisements caught fire, and the flowers and plants on the roadside dried up instantly. , and the human skin was instantly burnt and smoking...
Next, in the direction where the light came from just now, the destructive power was far greater than the shock wave of any tsunami and hurricane. It spread rapidly in an instant, and all the buildings were quickly ignited as if they were made of paper, or were destroyed. The shock wave crushed it into pieces. The skyscrapers made of steel and iron seemed to be made of cardboard. They twisted, disintegrated, exploded in the shock wave, and finally collapsed and collapsed. The people inside the skyscraper were like ants being swept up into the air by the strong wind, and turned into ashes before they even hit the ground. Cars, buses, trams, and small boats on the East River were all blown around like matchboxes by the air waves, and some of them even hit me!
However, before a car or tram could hit them head-on, a violent shock wave arrived first. In an instant, everything nearby was shattered by the hot high-speed airflow, and everyone's clothes quickly burned. Then all the internal organs, skin and flesh were burned away, leaving only a pair of charred bones, which were broken inch by inch in the shock wave, and finally fell to the ground, turning into a puddle of ashes scattered by the wind.
In this way, New York, a prosperous city known as the "Big Apple" and the most famous city in North America, was finally succumbed to the nuclear explosion catastrophe that human beings could not withstand, and in the blink of an eye, it turned into a sea of fire and hell where humans and animals could not survive. ——The intense light waves during the nuclear explosion blinded thousands of people immediately; while the terrifying high temperature turned everything in the center of the explosion into ashes. The tiles on the roof and the bricks and stones of the house melted, changing from black to olive color, and a layer of shiny glass was burned on the surface of the cement components. By the way, the trees and houses within a few kilometers of the A fire broke out... Then, the shock waves and air waves formed by the huge air pressure difference at the moment of the explosion destroyed all the buildings along the way. Even outside the New York City limits, people in New Jersey can still feel the hot storm blowing over them, bringing the breath of death!
Those people and animals near the center of the explosion vaporized and disappeared like dry ice at the moment of the nuclear explosion, leaving at most a vague human trace on the stone slabs and walls. A little further away from the center of the blast, the charred remains of men, women and children could be seen at that moment. Further away, some people were lucky enough to be alive, but their skin was either severely burned or their eyes were burned into two holes.
Within one or two kilometers from the center of the explosion, as long as a person stands in the open air or close to a window, his clothes will burn and his exposed skin will be severely burned. The instantaneous high temperature caused by the intense light radiation also ignited a wide range of fires in all directions, causing everything that can catch fire to burn. Finally, it will merge into a rapidly spreading sea of fire, burning until there is nothing left to burn. until.
The shock wave that appeared a moment later formed the most violent super storm in New York's history, razing countless majestic buildings to the ground in an instant - such as the famous Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and Brooklyn Bridge. and the Statue of Liberty, these landmark buildings that symbolize New York and even the United States in the world, were reduced to rubble in the flash of nuclear explosions...
On the other hand, a large fireball is rolling upwards with blazing smoke and dust, expanding bigger and brighter... The evaporated water vapor gradually formed a straw hat-shaped cloud above the fireball, which was in contact with the ground. The rolled up dust pillars mixed together and eventually turned into a huge mushroom cloud that towered from the ground to the stratosphere in New York. It was as eye-catching as the legendary Tower of Babel in Babylon in the Bible!
In this regard, a New York Times reporter who narrowly escaped death described this in a lyrical tone as follows:
"...Another sun seemed to appear in the sky, emitting dazzling light. Huge smoke clouds rose into the sky, and hot winds swept in, destroying everything on the earth...The terrifying flames seemed to be erupted from hell. Turning the solid earth into flowing lava, the rivers, lakes and seas boiled, Fish were cooked and floated on the water, bustling cities were destroyed, and people covered in fire ran around until they turned into ashes. Black rain fell from the sky, pouring on the survivors, burning their skin. Skin, people are terrified, watching the end of the world coming..."
——Like any previous nuclear explosion, the mushroom cloud in New York also contained a large amount of radioactive dust, which mixed with the water vapor in the cloud to form a highly radioactive "black rain" that fell down, polluting rivers and ponds, and also Most of the refugees who drank radioactive sewage died within a week.
Moreover, just as the first mushroom cloud soared into the sky over New York, the end of the horizon shone like the sun again...
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——The sky burned, the atmosphere began to evaporate, the wind was filled with destructive energy, and the whole world was burned to ashes...
Such a scene does not seem very realistic, but it happened in a series of large cities on the east coast of the United States.
Whether they were poor or rich, soldiers or civilians, they could only hold their heads and moan, and then they were burned to ashes indiscriminately.
Everything was burned, whether it was living things or inanimate dead things, leaving only a white ashes.
——When New York, the most prosperous metropolis in the entire capitalist world, is gradually heading towards destruction under the shroud of the mushroom cloud of nuclear explosions, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Boston, Massachusetts, Richmond and Norfolk Military Ports, Virginia, Trenton, New Jersey, Miami, Florida, Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia, New Orleans, Louisiana, Baltimore, Maryland, and Harry, the capital of Nova Scotia, Canada Fax, have also become targets of Soviet jet ultra-long-range strategic bombers dropping atomic bombs.
At this time, the U.S. Air Force had no countermeasures at all. The gunships used for high-altitude interceptions were still being modified at this time, and they had no way to defend themselves against the enemy. I could only watch helplessly as one mushroom cloud after another rose up one after another, destroying more than half of the famous cities in the best part of the east coast of the United States.
So, Einstein, who had just left Princeton University with a group of nuclear physicists and was evacuated to a rural farm, stared blankly at the mushroom clouds rising in the distance while murmuring the ancient words he had just heard. A war poem from the Indian mythological epic "Mahabharata":
"... Just a single bombardment squandered all the destructive power in the universe!
Pillars of blazing smoke and flames, as bright as ten thousand suns, rise into the sky shining brightly...
It is an unknown weapon, the thunder of steel, the messenger of death, which reduced the entire race of Rexili and Andaka to ashes...
Their limbs were burned beyond recognition, with only their hair and fingernails falling to the side,
Pottery shattered for no reason, the feathers of birds turned pale, and after dark, all crops were attacked...
In order to escape the fire, the soldiers jumped into the river, washing themselves and cleaning their weapons...
People who are intoxicated and victorious, evil people without mercy, people who use steel and lightning are the destroyers of that nation..."
——At this moment, Mr. Einstein, who had always been uninterested in war, finally discovered with sadness that the United States of America, which had accepted his family during the Nazis’ massive anti-Semitism and which he regarded as his last refuge, seemed to He was about to be destroyed by the power of atoms he discovered!
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On January 22, the third day after President MacArthur took office, twelve East Coast cities, including New York, Philadelphia, and Miami, were simultaneously attacked by Soviet jet ultra-long-range strategic bombers carrying nuclear bombs from the Atlantic direction. , nuclear explosions occurred all over the place, and mushroom clouds appeared everywhere. Although Washington, the federal capital, was not hit by a nuclear bomb, a striking mushroom cloud still rose in Baltimore, dozens of kilometers away from Washington.
So, looking at the mushroom cloud rising at the end of the horizon, President MacArthur and his cabinet members could only give up their plan to go to the Pentagon to take command, and continued to hide in the countryside. At the same time, they prayed to God very devoutly, hoping to make this happen. This disaster will be over soon.
On the 23rd, the mushroom cloud on the East Coast had just dissipated, and the ruins of New York were still filled with mourning. Twelve jet-propelled Soviet "Flying Bears" carrying nuclear bombs crossed the Pacific again and visited the West Coast of the United States again, paying tribute to the last nuclear explosion. , or a follow-up nuclear strike was carried out on a large city on the west coast of the United States that was not completely blown up. The San Diego Naval Base, which had been turned into a radioactive ruin, was hit by another atomic bomb this time and was completely declared scrapped. San Francisco, which was lucky enough to escape the net last time, failed to escape the bad luck this time. An atomic bomb directly hit the city and was razed to the ground. Also affected are West Coast cities such as Sacramento, the capital of California, Pasadena, San Jose and Salem, Oregon.
On the 24th, President MacArthur, who had just returned to the White House, had not yet had time to figure out the situation of attacks on the United States in the past two days. The Soviet jet ultra-long-range strategic bomber group in the Atlantic Ocean carried twelve atomic bombs across the ocean for the second time and carried out the second nuclear explosion on New York, killing a large number of New Yorkers who were lingering in their hometown and unwilling to leave. . At the same time, nuclear bombs also detonated industrial cities such as Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee in the Great Lakes region, Toronto and Montreal in Canada, and places such as Atlanta, New Orleans, and Houston in the southern United States.
In this way, if you include the six cities on the west coast of the United States that were atomically bombed before President MacArthur took office, then in just one week from beginning to end, a total of forty-two Soviet atomic bombs were dropped. Arriving on the soil of the United States of America, it caused tens of millions of casualties. The economic and property losses are even more immeasurable - the instant destruction of Wall Street alone is enough to turn the United States upside down!
What’s even more frightening is that in the face of such an arrogant Soviet aerial butcher, the U.S. Air Force has no countermeasures, nor can it come up with any countermeasures that can effectively defend the U.S. domestic airspace—the only U.S. military currently has the ability to climb 20,000 meters. Fighting against enemy planes at high altitude, they were being urgently converted into gunships A considerable number of the B-36 "Peacemaker" bombers have now been destroyed along with the factory in the nuclear explosion. The remaining B-36 "Peacemaker" that are still intact are due to many railways, roads and spare parts. The manufacturer was destroyed by a nuclear bomb, and the modification process was also slowed down a lot. Moreover, even if a batch of B-36 high-altitude gunships are successfully modified, it is still unknown whether they can stop Soviet jet bombers.
The most terrible thing is that even if the B-36 high-altitude gunship aircraft is really able to fight against the Soviet jet ultra-long-range strategic bombers, it can support an air defense line. However, because the number of B-36s is too small, it is not enough to protect the entire United States airtight. In fact, it is the limit to ensure the safety of the skies above the capital Washington and several major cities. Other minor cities can only continue to suffer nuclear explosions.
However, the destructive power of an atomic bomb to a ground city is definitely much higher than that of a thousand ordinary aerial bombs.
No matter from which point of view, continuing the war will only lead to the United States being ravaged one-sidedly until its final defeat.
Therefore, the helpless President MacArthur saw that the war could no longer continue. Although there were still two million federal troops in the United States, they could only be used to suppress the local insurgents. The president had to tentatively extend an olive branch to the Soviets. Trying to negotiate a decent truce. However, the appetites of Stalin and the "red heads" of the Kremlin far exceeded MacArthur's most pessimistic assumptions!
"...Unconditional surrender?! Are you kidding? Are you trying to make me the last president of the United States with infinite humiliation?" ※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※