Chapter 120: Is This a Nuclear Winter? (Medium)

For Europeans in 1947, the spring of that year was unusually cold, almost desperately cold. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

In January, a once-in-a-century cold wave swept across the European continent, bringing extremely cold weather that lasted for more than a month to this war-torn European land -- the temperature in London, England dropped to minus 20 degrees, while the temperature in the mountainous areas of Eastern Europe and Ukraine dropped to minus 40 or 50 degrees Celsius...... The Danube, the Rhine, the Elbe, the Po in northern Italy, and the Thames in England were all frozen in the cold, and ships were frozen. Even Sicily, which has traditionally experienced almost no snowfall, fell half a meter of snow this winter. Even the Arabs of Morocco and Algeria were surprised to see tiny snowflakes falling on the Sahara Desert. For the first time in their lifetimes, many Egyptians saw fine ice floes floating on the Nile......

As for the major cities in Europe, the snow is as thick as one meter in Rome and Madrid, the snow in Paris and Berlin is up to three meters thick, and Amsterdam, which has just been hit by a nuclear bomb, because it is close to the coast, has plenty of moisture, and the snow is actually up to six meters thick, and even the chimney on the roof has been buried by snow, and many unlucky Dutch people have been buried alive in their homes by heavy snow, and those who have not been buried alive have begun to try to learn how to build igloos by Eskimos. The temperature in the water city of Venice also dropped to minus 15 degrees, and the citizens found that their city was frozen in a large ice mound, so they could walk around on the ice without rowing boats.

In peacetime, the government would certainly do its best to take various relief measures, such as requisitioning primary and secondary school classrooms and vacant hotel and dance halls, setting up temporary heating centers, airdropping food to villages besieged by heavy snowfall, dispatching snowplows and salt trucks to clear roads, and restoring transportation.

However, in Europe during the Third World War, there were no such conditions: cities in various countries were generally severely damaged by war, road and rail transportation were not completely repaired, and when the great cold wave came, rivers and ports were frozen, and even water transportation was cut off. What's worse is that the European metropolises of Madrid, Paris, London and Amsterdam have all just been hit by the atomic bomb (Stockholm, Leningrad, Helsinki and Tallinn will be next), and many cities have been carpet bombed. At least 10 million people have been forced to live in ruins and rubble, in rudimentary shacks and tents. At this time, they had no heating, no electricity, no fuel, no houses, no clothes, and even food supplies. In the bitterly cold weather of minus thirty or forty degrees Celsius, there seems to be no other way out except to desperately freeze and starve into zombies - even if you want to escape the famine, in this cold and snowy weather, and you have a thin physique that lacks food and clothing for a long time, no matter how you look at it, you can't go far and will die!

According to incomplete statistics, more than 3.8 million people died of cold and starvation in Europe during the unprecedentedly miserable extremely cold weather for more than a month. I finally survived until the weather warmed up a little, and although the road and railway were still not passable, at least it was not so easy to freeze to death. Unexpectedly, the United States on the other side of the ocean came to send warmth and presented a Valentine's Day gift called the atomic bomb to the European people -- the flash of this nuclear explosion was really ...... It's warm enough!

But no matter how many people die in the winter, those who are still alive have to continue to struggle to survive and reproduce. A few weeks after the nuclear explosion, the snow and ice finally melted and spring bloomed in Europe. Hungry and lean European farmers hurriedly began to plough the land and sow the seeds...... Who would have thought that the crops had just sprouted, and another inverted spring cold with goose feathers and heavy snow roaring, making the temperature return to below zero again!

Looking at the snow-capped fields and thinking about the prospect of no harvest, the people of all European countries are crying without tears and gloomy.

What's even more terrifying is that they have to go through nightmares like this several more times if they survive......

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12 May, Belgrade, Yugoslavia

Although it is the brightest day of the day, the sky in Belgrade is overcast and dusk.

After concluding his inspection of the rural areas around the capital, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, Josep Brown. Broz. Tito set out on his way home with a haggard face.

Even though it's late April, the streets of Belgrade are still snowing lightly, and wipers are laboriously removing the fluffy flakes. There was mud on the road, and as soon as the car passed, the mud splattered high. Looking at the confused wind and snow outside the car window, Tito couldn't help but be in a daze.

The weather in Yugoslavia this year was very terrible, not to mention the severe cold of minus 40 degrees Celsius in January and February, and just a little warmer in March, but from mid to late April, the temperature in various places once again plummeted unreasonably, and even fell to minus 13 or 4 degrees Celsius on the coldest days, and now there are still minus 2 or 3 degrees. Freezing rain fell in most parts of the country, and snow covered the streets of the capital, Belgrade, up to the feet.

In the midst of such a cold wave that violated the season, General Secretary Tito, who was already young, also accidentally fell ill with a severe cold, coughing so much that his lungs were about to cough out, even if he ate more aspirin and drank more hot tea, he did not get better, and finally took antibiotics to get a little healthier. However, despite such a worrying state of health, General Secretary Tito dragged his sick body around to inspect the situation of the extreme cold disaster, and then the more he looked at it, the more terrified he became.

-- In all of Yugoslavia, I am afraid that no one has ever seen such a cold spring. In May, the weather is still like winter, the sky is always filled with snow and ice chips, sheep are found frozen in the pastures, the tender buds that have just bloomed are frozen to death, the ponds and rivers are covered with ten centimeters of ice, and the newly planted crops in the fields are ravaged by the cold, and the farmers have to wear thick coats and gloves to work in the fields in an attempt to save some of the remaining crops. However, such unseasonally cold is something that wheat and corn at this latitude have never experienced. Even if we rely on the hard work of Yugoslav farmers, this year's crops will not be wiped out, but at the very least, I am afraid that most of the grain production will be reduced!

Therefore, along the way of the inspection, all the officials complained to Tito, saying that there would definitely be an outbreak of famine on an unprecedented scale in the second half of this year. And to tap the potential of Yugoslavia to solve the famine...... At present, it seems that there should be absolutely none.

If the Yugoslavs want to survive this difficult year, it seems to everyone that the only feasible way is to kneel and stretch out their hands to the big brother of the Soviet Union - but the problem is that the Soviets are not philanthropists, and where is the Kremlin's aid and relief materials so easy to take?

Remembering the Kremlin's package of quid pro quo, Tito could not help but feel a twitch in his brain: the adoption of a unified currency of the entire socialist camp, a unified diplomatic position, a membership in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, and a preference for the "theory of limited sovereignty...... Tito knew very well that in the eyes of the Serbs and Croats, whose national pride had been over-inflamed by propaganda, and by the arrogant Serbs and Croats, this series of demands for serious interference in Yugoslavia's internal affairs was absolutely unacceptable. If he dares to nod his head casually and agree, then it will immediately be a political storm that will shake the country. But if they don't, they won't get aid from the Soviet Union, and the panicked people will still revolt at the instigation of some careerists.

The dilemma of civil strife due to either a political crisis or a famine was a headache for General Secretary Tito.

In the end, General Secretary Tito could only decide to wait and see—perhaps...... This fall's harvest isn't as bad as expected?

In any case, he and the Yugoslav government had some time to think about before the crisis erupted, didn't they?

However, compared to the Yugoslavs, who still had a choice, the British who were isolated on the island did not even have a chance to choose a way to live......

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June 10, south of Cornwall, England, on the north shore of the English Channel

Under the leaden-gray gloom of the sky, Heinrich, a former Nazi German artillery lieutenant colonel who had escaped from a prisoner of war camp at the end of last year, stood on the top balcony of a manor house overlooking the frost-covered fields, and remained silent for a long time, wrapped in an ill-fitting fur coat.

-- Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich and the more than 200 Nazi German prisoners of war who followed him survived this difficult winter, thanks to some fuel, clothing, food, and most importantly the intact houses in the city that were captured by the black Americans last Christmas.

However, Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich knew very well that it would be difficult for them to survive for a long time in a foreign land by simply burning and looting. Moreover, they do not have a stable channel for ammunition replenishment, and the bullets and shells are one less than one, and in fact, they cannot fight any high-intensity sustained fighting. When the last bullet is finished, you can only fight the British with a bayonet...... At that time, who robbed whom, I'm afraid it's still uncertain!

So, after the extremely cold weather at the beginning of the year was over and the temperature rose to allow humans to move in the wild, Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich led his troops out of the ransacked city of Bath and headed south to Cornwall, which was said to have little power. Then, with guns in hand, Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich succeeded in taking possession of a well-fortified English country estate, and then imitated the medieval feudal system, proclaimed himself a lord, and knighted his subordinates, like a standard German Junker manor, and began to run this small territory, preparing to resume food production in the long run—the Germans naturally became knights and squires, and the English peasants captured along the way played the role of serfs.

Although they didn't actually have a horse...... But it is quite touching to think that the German Junckers were able to cede land in England and stand on their own.

However, the strange weather that followed completely frustrated Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich's plan to resume production and occupy the land as king.

-- Since the beginning of April, as the days have become longer, the temperature in England has become colder, and the howling wind and snow have been incessant, making people feel as if they are in the polar regions. Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich had lived for so many years in his life, but he had never seen such strange weather, and it was already early summer, but the temperature in the morning dropped below freezing. A terrible cold snap froze the land that had just been softened hard again.

In order to save these crops, which symbolize the hope of the future, Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich has been lighting bonfires in the cornfields for more than ten consecutive nights since late May, and has arranged for people to take turns guarding the firewood to prevent the bonfires from being frozen to death...... However, he ultimately failed, and June came with snow and ice, and the land of England was covered with a thick layer of glassy ice. Almost all the green plants were frozen under frost overnight. The crops that barely survived the May cold spell died in the June frost.

Seeing that the crops were doomed to be lost, and that there was not much food left in his stockpile, and that he might not even make it until this autumn, the melancholy Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich climbed up and looked out over the countryside from his balcony. It was full of gloomy and dilapidated hues—the trees had no leaves, the mountains were bare, the fields were sad, the hills were gloomy, and the branches were withered......

He had never seen such a miserable year, but it was not difficult to imagine what would happen next: a year in which the entire countryside of Great Britain would not have a decent harvest, and the already severe shortage of food would become even more desperately scarce. And after overseas trade was cut off and the flames of civilization in industrial societies were extinguished by Soviet nuclear bombs, for the people of Great Britain, a failed harvest meant mass death.

War, hunger, pestilence, and death, the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse", which have been feared by Europeans since ancient times, will be exacerbated by the overpopulation and increasingly unself-sufficient food, and the island of Ireland next door will probably not be spared this disaster. After losing civilization and order, and entering the Dark Ages, the remnants will split into more camps, fight more for a mouthful of food, perform all kinds of evil and cruel bloody scandals, and even be forced to eat people by hunger, just like the purgatory scene when the end of the world comes.

Such a terrifying prospect that seemed like a nightmare made Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich feel a tremor from the depths of his soul. He took a deep breath and turned to look at the choppy English Channel on the horizon, the European continent across the strait, and his more distant homeland and homeland......

This cursed island looks like it can't stay anymore. Maybe...... Now it's time to go back and try your luck! Even if you can't find a big ship and there are no sailors available, even if you set up a raft and venture across the sea, it's much better than starving to death and freezing to death in this hellish place!

Anyway, with his own military rank, it should not be enough to wear the title of a war criminal to a military tribunal. According to common sense, the Soviets put themselves in labor camps at best...... In the current situation, if the food in the labor camp can be filled, then going there may be a good way out.

So Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich lit himself a cigar, puffed out smoke rings in the cold wind, and muttered in a faint manner while whispering a poem he had just read, the English poet Byron's "Darkness": "...... The bright sun was extinguished, and the stars were lost in the dim eternal void, without light, without path, and the frozen sphere of the earth turned blindly, shrouding the gloom under the moonless sky......"

However, what Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich does not know is that under the newly established socialist German regime, the new socialist German regime was also full of devastation and the social order was on the verge of collapse. Millions of Germans are struggling on the brink of life and death......

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20 June, Berlin, Germany

“…… Woo woo woo --- "

With a long whistle and smoke drifting away, a long passenger train rumbled out of Berlin station and headed far east.

Crowded and noisy carriages, Maria. Mrs. Smit curled up in her cramped seat with a small suitcase - she seemed to be suddenly more than ten years old compared to Christmas, and was left alone with no family......

-- Just before the extremely cold weather in January, she and her co-workers were organized by the government to go to the countryside far from the city of Berlin to repair a power plant. As a result, Mrs. Smit had to entrust her two sons, 10-year-old Simon and 8-year-old Justin, to a relative in Berlin.

As a 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 crushed by a sudden snowfall in the middle of the night not long ago, and her two sons, Simon and Justin, as well as the relative's entire family, were crushed to death under the rubble and ice and snow on the spot! Even the corpses have been burned to ashes by this time!

This huge blow made Maria. Mrs. Smit had an instant nervous breakdown, and after burying the urns of her two minor sons in a trance, she drank heavily and almost tried to kill herself several times...... If it weren't for thinking about her husband Lucas. Captain Smit, who was still driving merchant ships in the far reaches of the Pacific Ocean to work for the Soviets, risking her life to earn money, may have really gone with her sons.

Then, as signs of climate anomalies intensified across Europe, Germany's food and fuel supplies became increasingly tight. In desperation, the German socialist government had no choice but to temporarily stop the project of clearing the ruins and rebuilding the city, and mobilized part of the surplus population to respond to the call of the Soviet Union to move to Siberia and the Far East, where food supplies were relatively abundant, to build socialism, and by the way to reduce the pressure on the motherland......

At this time, Mrs. Smitt was unemployed on the one hand, and on the other hand, she missed her husband more and 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 temporarily leave this homeland that left her with countless sad memories - in this way, she took the pictures of her two sons and the letter sent by her husband from the East, carried a small suitcase, boarded the international train to Vladivostok, and muttered to herself from time to time, "...... I'm sorry, please forgive me, dear Lucas, for not being able to take care of the children......"

And with Maria. Like Mrs. Smit, the Europeans who left their ruined homeland for various reasons to work in the East have many, many more in this difficult year...... A considerable number of them settled in the East and never returned to Europe......

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Next, with the arrival of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, the further clarity of various signs of global climate anomalies, and the various bad news from all over the world, this wave of catastrophic low temperature weather on a global scale finally attracted the attention of Wang Qiu, Ma Tong and other travelers......

As a result, in response to the above questions, they soon broke out into various arguments:

“…… How so? Could it be that too many nuclear bombs have been dropped recently, which has really damaged the environment and blown up a nuclear winter? ”

“…… How is that possible? You imagine that the power of human beings is too strong, and that the earth is too fragile!

Today's most powerful atomic bomb in the present year is two or three times the equivalent of the Hiroshima atomic bomb in our world, and the yield is about 50,000 to 60,000 tons.

And the total yield of 500 atomic bombs of this power combined is not enough to catch up with the 'Big Ivan' that the Soviet Union tested in 1961!

Since in our world, the earth in the year when 'Big Ivan' was tested was not bombed to make it unsuitable for human life, or to create a very terrible nuclear winter, then these small-yield nuclear bombs that grow mushrooms everywhere today will not blow up any nuclear winter. ”

“…… Wait a minute? In 1961? It seems that the life of the Chinese in that year was indeed not very good! What 'starve to death of 30 million' or something like that......"

“…… Please, don't you know? That's all nonsense from a stall of literary publications! Jokes! Can't be taken seriously! Moreover, the so-called 'nuclear winter' has also been proven after the Cold War, and is nothing more than a benign hoax concocted by a group of anti-war scientists at the time......" (To be continued. )