Chapter Eighty-Eight: The Earth Under the Mushroom Cloud (Part II)

Shanghai, China, late at night

The prosperity of the former "Far Eastern City that never sleeps" has now been burned by the tragic war, and the whole city can no longer see the red, red, green and green neon lights, nor can you hear the sound of drunken gold fans, only the diffuse smoke of gunpowder, sporadic fires and lodging corpses. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The sound of military trumpets, rumbling cannons and machine-guns like fried beans echoed through the streets of China's largest metropolis.

-- With the withering of the blue sky and white sun flags, the rice-shaped flags, and the star-striped banners, and the continuous advance of the sickle, hammer, and red flags toward the center of Shanghai, the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army's campaign to liberate Shanghai finally entered the final and most brutal stage of street fighting.

After about two months of fierce fighting and repeated tug-of-war, the "Iron Wall of Shanghai," which was originally garrisoned by 200,000 "party-state tigers" and more than 30,000 US and British intervention troops, collapsed in the overwhelming offensive of the 500,000 workers' and peasants' Red Army. At the same time, the underground parties of all stripes that had been lurking in Shanghai in advance also called on the progressive masses from all walks of life in Shanghai to raise their banners and launch an armed uprising to strike a fatal blow at the Shanghai defenders from the rear. In addition, the underground party in Shanghai also organized a number of armed factory guards to protect Shanghai's waterworks, power plants, and gas stations from being sabotaged, in case the enemy dogs jumped over the walls.

In the face of such a desperate situation, General Tang Enbo, who was appointed by Chairman Chiang as the commander of Shanghai's urban defense, had already fled to Taiwan two weeks earlier, and General Stilwell, who had led US and British reinforcements to assist in the defense of Shanghai, also left Shanghai and fled to a warship anchored in Hangzhou Bay.

At this moment, in the besieged city of Shanghai, there are less than 10,000 "youth troops" left under Chairman Chiang's direct descendants, still stubbornly resisting -- this unit was single-handedly led by the "crown prince" Chiang Ching-kuo ♂, and it is extremely political, and its officers and men are basically the sons and daughters of local tyrants and inferior gentry who have a grudge against the workers' and peasants' Red Army, or executioners who have wantonly slaughtered the revolutionary masses in the base areas, are full of blood debts, and are heinous executioners. This "youth army" may not necessarily be the strongest in combat effectiveness, but its stance and fighting spirit are definitely the firmest, and it can basically be said that it is not the same as the Red Army. According to the propaganda of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, these stubborn enemies were basically the most hardcore reactionary elements and class enemies in the country, or the black five of the black five categories.

Therefore, despite the complete despair of the battle, they are determined to fight to the death. In the face of the workers' and peasants' Red Army, which had already poured into the urban area, these stubborn enemies retreated to the area around the Bund and continued to fight against the Red Army soldiers by relying on the high-rise buildings of the Puxi Bund and the bunkers and barricades that had been repaired before the war.

However, what you don't know is that in the Shanghai HSBC building, which has been closed behind them, there is a fuse of a super killer weapon in an underground vault with heavy organs, which is "ticking tock" and sounding the countdown......

It was an atomic bomb produced at the Oak Ridge plant in the United States!!

-- In order to guard against the pervasive latent underground party, the US military did not tell any Chinese when it planted the nuclear bomb at HSBC.

At present, Vice Admiral Stilwell, the Supreme Commander of the US Forces stationed in China, who has placed this timed nuclear bomb, is sitting on the light cruiser USS St. Louis in the waters of Hangzhou Bay, south of Shanghai, outside the port of Jinshanwei, staring at the hands on the bulkhead clock, anxiously waiting for the moment of nuclear explosion.

-- According to the Pentagon's original nuclear strike plan, it was planned to use Shanghai's Hongqiao Airport as a forward base to take off a group of B-29 "Super Flying Fortress" bombers to bomb Beijing, which had just been selected as the capital of New China.

As soon as the atomic bombs and B-29 bombers arrived in Shanghai, Hongqiao Airport was attacked by the Soviet Union's air force to aid China, and all the planes and aviation fuel depots were blown up, and even the airport runway was seriously damaged, which could not be repaired in a short time. As an alternative base, Hangzhou Jianqiao Airport, because of the active uprising of the Hangzhou defenders, was planted with a red flag before the fall of Shanghai.

In desperation, General Stilwell had no choice but to arrange ships to re-transport the atomic bomb. Unexpectedly, the defenders of Wusongkou Fort rebelled at this time and blocked the Huangpu River waterway...... The US fleet stranded near the mouth of the Yangtze River once tried to destroy the Wusong Fort and forcibly break into the Huangpu River to transport the atomic bomb, but it encountered a sneak attack by the Red Army's torpedo boats and dive bombers at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

General Stilwell, who had no idea at all, had no choice but to send a secret telegram to Washington to ask for instructions, and the reply he received immediately was: Detonate on the spot!

To be honest, Lieutenant General Stilwell was very resistant to such a cruel and inhumane order from Washington. But the reluctant soldier takes obedience to orders as his duty...... Therefore, he had to put the atomic bomb into the underground vault of the HSBC bank building on the Bund in Shanghai, install a timed detonation device, then lock the vault, block the gate of the HSBC bank with bricks and sandbags, and finally lead the remaining American and British allies and expatriates to withdraw from Jinshanwei in the south.

By this time, all the Liberty ships carrying expatriates and soldiers had left Jinshanwei and fled to Zhoushan and Taiwan in the south, and only General Stilwell and the light cruiser St. Louis on which he was traveling were still in danger of being bombed by Red Army planes and lingered in the waters south of Shanghai.

Because Lieutenant General Stilwell had to confirm the explosion of the atomic bomb with his own eyes in order to relieve himself of the burden on his heart: if something went wrong with this nuclear final battle weapon, which was the divine light of hope for mankind in the United States, when it detonated, then the American troops who had already evacuated Shanghai really had no choice but to stare dryly -- in case the timed detonator on the atomic bomb failed, or the abandoned "Chinese allies" on the Bund failed to resist the moment of the nuclear explosion, but let the Red Army soldiers rush into the HSBC before that, And the timing fuse on the atomic bomb was lifted, so that an intact American atomic bomb fell into the hands of the Bolsheviks in China...... The consequences are unimaginable!

At least Lieutenant General Stilwell thinks he can't afford this responsibility, and he will definitely go to a court-martialed prison by then!

And what made him even more upset was the US ambassador to China, Stuart Leiden, who was sitting in the same boat...... When he learned that the US military was going to use the atomic bomb on the Bund in Shanghai, this descendant of the Presbyterian missionary who was born and raised in China and was more like Chinese than American, immediately became furious, waved his fist to fight Stilwell, and shouted in his mouth: "This is the biggest mistake made by the White House in China this century, and this perfidious nuclear strike will not frighten any enemy, but will only drive all those Chinese who originally had a good impression of the United States to the Bolsheviks!" ”

- Internally and logically, Stilwell actually agreed with Ambassador Stuart's statement, but out of the duty of a soldier, he could only order his men to drag the overly agitated ambassador out and throw him into a small dark room for the sailors to calm down...... Well, listening to the faint roaring and banging sound coming from the other end of the bulkhead, Ambassador Stuart Layden estimated that he would not be able to calm down for a while.

So, should you just go too far and give him an injection of anesthetics or some sleeping pills?

Lieutenant General Stilwell was so cranky that before he knew it, it was time to detonate the atomic bomb...... Then he saw a violent flash of light, shining behind the northern horizon, and in an instant it lit up the dark sky!

Then, after a long while, the light cruiser USS St. Louis, anchored on the north shore of Hangzhou Bay, heard a dull explosion.

At this point, Lieutenant General Stilwell, who had suffered and lost for a while, finally sighed with relief, but then his face was full of bitterness.

-- The Shanghai nuclear explosion should have been successful, but the image of the United States in the minds of the Chinese should probably be destroyed.

Especially the murderer who personally planned the Shanghai nuclear explosion, in the minds of the Chinese, I am afraid that it can be compared with the devil, right?

Alas, it seems that when you get older, you become sentimental...... In fact, if you think about it carefully, what is there to sigh about? No matter how many layers of justice and morality are put on, isn't the essence of war about killing and being killed? Those who can cut people are strong, don't complain if they are slaughtered, the truth of this world is the social Darwinism of the jungle, from ancient times to the present, which hero has not stepped on a mountain of bones to become famous?

Looking at the distant sky reddened by firelight, Vice Admiral Stilwell let out a long sigh one last time, then turned around and called the captain, commanding in a deep voice, "...... Well, it's all over! Anchor now! There's nothing we do here! ”

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

On the other hand, when the light cruiser St. Louis slowly lifted anchor and sailed away from Jinshanwei and gradually disappeared into the night horizon, behind it, China's largest metropolis, the city that never sleeps in the Far East, the adventurer's paradise, and the drunken Shanghai Tang, fell into an unprecedented catastrophe.

-- Since the Shanghai nuclear bomb exploded underground, rather than being detonated in the air, a considerable part of the energy of the explosion was held underground, and the sound and light effects caused were not as good as those of the previous ones, at least the mushroom cloud was much smaller, but the damage caused was just as terrifying: The energy of the nuclear bomb caused most of Shanghai to fall into a violent earthquake, and the ground in the urban area trembled like a wild horse, "throwing" the citizens, vehicles, trees, and even houses on the ground into the air! As for the exquisite and gorgeous reinforced concrete Western buildings on the Bund, they are like soap bubbles swept by the wind, either disappearing in an instant, or only a pile of twisted and ugly wreckage remains...... The Shanghai HSBC building, which was the heart of the explosion, completely evaporated from this world, leaving only a hot hole like a crater in the ground, emitting high temperature and red light like a metallurgical plant.

Then, the heat wave of the nuclear explosion caused another fire - at this time, Zhabei in Shanghai was still a shantytown full of shacks, not only densely populated, but also full of flammable building materials. In the previous street battles between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, a lot of flames had been ignited sporadically, and now the super high temperature gas wave with a speed of 400 meters per second caused by the nuclear explosion has turned into countless flowing flames splashing all over the sky, a splendid scene of fire trees and silver flowers never sleeping...... In the midst of this cruel and beautiful night scene, the entire Zhabei area turned into a sea of fire, with all kinds of explosions, cries for help, and howls one after another.

As the war undermined the city's self-rescue mechanism, the fire in Zhabei soon grew to uncontrollable proportions and spread rapidly to other parts of the city. The waves of nuclear explosions and the foehn winds of fire whipped up countless spark-laden embers, sowing these deadly fires into the unburned neighborhoods. Wherever the hot wind of Mars blows, the flames of the sky spread. Factories are burning, shops are burning, wharves and warehouses are burning, Shanghai's characteristic shikumen houses are burning, cars and street trees are burning, and soldiers and citizens who have not had time to flee are also burning...... Many people had just struggled to crawl out of the ruins of their collapsed houses, and before they could wrap their wounds, they found themselves in despair surrounded by flames!

By the time the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army besieging the city began to order its troops to withdraw from the city and at the same time try to save the citizens, the whole of Shanghai was engulfed in flames, and at first glance it seemed as if the sky was burning and the earth was burning. The burned houses collapsed one after another in the flames, and many people burned to undistinguishable char along with their own beams. Some Shanghai citizens were lucky enough not to be buried directly in the rubble, but fled to some open fields in a mess in an attempt to escape the fire, and then they were completely wrapped in dumplings by the rampant fire, and thousands were burned to death together.

Others were cornered by the fire demons and jumped into the Huangpu River with a few pieces of wood or buckets in their hands, trying to escape the flames by relying on the surging water. Tens of thousands of tons of heavy oil flowed into the Huangpu River, floated on the water, and was ignited by the fire, turning the Huangpu River into a burning river of flames, and the citizens who jumped into the river became meatballs in hot pots......

In fact, because there was basically no one to fight the fire in the midst of the chaos, the fire in Shanghai took three days and three nights to extinguish, more than half of the city's houses were destroyed, and the number of dead and injured citizens exceeded 3 million. It is not known when the radiation contamination caused by the underground nuclear explosion in the Bund area will be removed. Those Shanghai citizens who were lucky enough to escape came back to see the tragic situation in their hometown, and they all cried and looked up to the sky and lamented: "Shanghai is dead!" ”

However, although the casualties of the Shanghai nuclear bombing broke the record of any previous nuclear explosion and brought unforgettable pain to the Chinese people, General Stilwell's notoriety did not make the Chinese curse for too long - because there was a great teammate who pulled away the hatred for him.

-- After learning the news of the nuclear bombing in Shanghai and the heavy defeat of the Red bandits, Chairman Chiang, who had already taken refuge in Taiwan, was overjoyed, turned around and discussed with his beautiful wife, and then cheekily took the merits of greed for heaven for himself and made a speech on the radio station, declaring that the US Government had dropped the atomic bomb on the "Bolshevik bandits who had brought disaster to the country" at his invitation, so this was not only a victory for a friendly country, but also a victory for the party-state, and a victory for him Chiang Kai-shek.

Then, in order to boost morale and reverse the defeat, after boasting about the achievements of the Shanghai nuclear bombing, Chairman Chiang claimed that more atomic bombs would be dropped on the heads of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army...... No matter how ferocious the bandits, they will be reduced to dust under the nuclear bombs of friendly countries......"

In the end, his Meiling lady also helped: "...... At present, all the major cities that are still under the rule of the party-state must take a clear stand, learn from Shanghai's experience, and would rather die for the sake of the broken jade than for the sake of the whole building, and would rather dedicate a dead China to God than hand over a complete China to the Red Party......"

All in all, it remains to be seen how effective this speech will be in motivating the party-state loyalists. However, the reaction provoked on the front line in eastern Zhejiang was immediate: a group of Shanghainese "party-state veterans" who had just retreated to Ningbo by boat listened to Chairman Chiang's speech on the radio, and immediately mutinied, and rushed to the mouth of Fenghua Creek with their regiment commander in tow, dug up the ancestral grave of the Chiang family there, and set fire to the ancestral hall of the Chiang family......