Chapter 140: The Faces of All Beings in the Dark Ages (Part II)

New York, USA, 18 January 1949

New York, which is late at night in the cold winter, has long lost the bright lights and bright lights of the city that never sleeped. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

At this time, there is hardly a single light in the empty and deep streets of New York. The roads were littered with piles of garbage, mud mixed with residual snow, and scrawny wild dogs around the corner of the alley were still searching for food. On either side of the street, there is not even a single open shop to be seen, except for the closed doors. The lively scenes of the past with bright lights all night long have long disappeared without a trace, like a passing dream.

-- As the war situation worsened day by day, even the United States, which claims to be the world's largest in industrial strength, gritted its teeth and broke out several waves of "warship sea," "aircraft sea," and "tank sea," but it was still being wiped out one after another.

Since the beginning of the war, the standard of living of all ordinary Americans has been declining rapidly, and as time went on, as news of defeat continued to spread, many people now almost had a problem even eating. Especially this year, due to the eruption of a volcano in Iceland, it has led to more than two consecutive years of irregular and unusually low temperatures, which have almost devastated North American agriculture. What's worse is that with no end in sight, the panic in the market is growing stronger day by day, and ordinary people who have no special connections or connections, even with government-issued ration cards and tickets, may not be able to sell the food in the quota, because there is often nothing in the official stores, so citizens can only go back and wait, and then wait for weeks or even months, until the ration documents expire...... And in the underground black market, where ration cards are not required, the prices of flour, fruits, meat, and vegetables have skyrocketed, and a single steak can cost an average person a month's salary.

In fact, as a "chosen nation" blessed with a unique natural environment, the U.S. government has a huge amount of food and other supplies stored on its own territory, enough for all citizens to spend openly for a year or two without any problems. However, the real problem lies in the fact that the authorities simply cannot guarantee the fair distribution of goods to everyone who needs them -- all kinds of collusion between officials and businessmen, illegal reselling, embezzlement, and hoarding are not uncommon; in the official ration stores, there are always three days and two ends of supply and stock, while in the black market, where people eat people and do not spit out bones, there is a dazzling variety of goods, but the prices have also skyrocketed to unimaginable levels, resulting in countless civilians going bankrupt and living worse than death. At the same time, the law and order situation has deteriorated dramatically: you must know that the United States has never banned guns, and it is still a time of war, and many people have access to guns. When these people with sharp weapons find that they can't even eat, it becomes a matter of course to raise guns and rob in order to survive.

In addition to the daily food needs, heating, electricity, fuel, cloth and a host of other daily necessities are becoming increasingly scarce. As a result of the full rationing of gasoline, cars on the streets are becoming scarcer by the day. Moreover, even if some of the most powerful guys could get gasoline, they wouldn't be able to get new cars -- since the outbreak of the Pacific War, all the automobile factories in the United States have stopped producing civilian vehicles and are focused on producing military vehicles. In the private sector, the old cars from seven or eight years ago or even more have been driven to the present point, and they are almost reaching the end of their lives...... In New York City, a significant portion of bus and trolley routes have been suspended, leaving people to work by bicycle or on foot.

Although Soviet Red Army planes have not visited the East Coast so far, even to save power and create tension, the city of New York has implemented extremely strict lighting controls to squeeze out enough power to turn on the power-hungry centrifuges at the Oak Ridge plant and produce more weapons-grade uranium metal fuel. As a result, the lights in New York have gradually been extinguished -- in order to ensure the implementation of the light control, the city authorities initially adopted the measure of zoning power cuts, and every night after six or seven o'clock, except for some key security units and upper-class communities, the rest of the neighborhoods are shut down. The problem is that there are still many people who secretly light kerosene lamps or candles to light them, which in turn causes a sharp increase in the number of fires.

As a result, the government had no choice but to promulgate martial law on the one hand, prohibiting citizens from going out at will at night in order to maintain law and order. While sending a large number of gendarmes and police officers to conduct night patrols in the city of New York, arresting any inhabitants who dared to violate the lights or martial law - a rather disgusting chore for the gendarmes and police who were ordered to make night patrols: on a winter night in New York, the cold wind was howling, and after several hours of patrolling through the dirty snow, the calories of the ration in the stomach had long been exhausted, and everyone was eager to catch a few unlucky bastards and find some ballast, and have a hysterical beating and seizure, Not so much that they were faithful to their duties, but to get out of the cold and loneliness for a while......

As a result, every night many unlucky people were beaten to the point of bleeding and then loaded into trucks and transported to the concentration camps to do hard labor, including homeless people who were kicked out by their landlords because they were unemployed and could not pay their rent. In addition, there are some bad children who are disobedient and arrested.

-- Never-ending darkness, cold, want, hunger, and fear have become the main theme of New Yorkers' lives this winter.

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But in spite of the bleak city of wartime New York, the rich and powerful of the upper class, who were never short of money, still enjoyed their nightlife in a haunted manner – the wool-carpeted halls of the gilded and silver-adorned marble luxury hotels were warmed by the full heat of the rooms. The lavish crystal chandeliers still shine as brightly as ever, the black bands still play as well as ever, the beautiful actresses with bare thighs dance so enthusiastically, and the flowery soprano seems to sing more softly and beautifully than before. The extra-thick special curtains covering the floor-to-ceiling windows effectively block out the bright lights and melodious music in the room...... In fact, even if some leaks out, no stunned young man dares to harass him.

-- In wartime New York, wealth and poverty, prosperity and depression, joy and decadence, pleasure and suffering, were often separated by only one street......

Long tables covered in snow-white linen are already filled with fine wines and tempting delicacies, and the mere sight of them is mouth-watering. Oily salt-and-pepper lamb chops and roasted pigeon, creamy mushroom soup and baked apples, oily pork sausages and pan-fried cod, and a variety of cakes, desserts and cheeses...... Coupled with the intoxicating variety of wines in the glass bottles of different shapes, it is definitely exquisite and hearty.

And at a time when everyone is starving, and the poor are fighting for a steak, it's a staggering luxury.

However, all the dignitaries, rich and celebrities, and wives and ladies who were qualified to attend this dinner party did not have much appetite for these sumptuous wine and delicacies at the table. And when facing the dancers and singers on the stage, they were also somewhat absent-minded.

Most of the men and women in the entire hall, whether eating, drinking, or chatting, secretly turned their eyes from time to time to look at the only protagonist of the party in the center of the venue, a tall, arrogant and majestic old handsome man with a corncob pipe in his mouth...... Although he was wearing a tuxedo at this time, he still showed the toughness of a professional soldier.

-- He is the former Marshal of the Philippine Republic and a five-star general of the U.S. Army, as well as Douglas, who has just been elected the 34th President of the United States and is about to enter the White House. MacArthur...... At this moment, a fat man with oily hair and pink face was toasting him with a smile on his face:

“…… Congratulations on your election! Mr. President MacArthur! We look forward to your presidential inaugural address in two days......"

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ps: Today, there is an even more unbelievable revelation that Hawking in a wheelchair seems to have been to Lori Island with Hillary - but what can he do there? At most, you can just look at it. If you can't just watch a romantic action movie at home, why do you have to go to the scene to watch it? Well, some people speculate that Lori can lick him...... In addition, he was accompanied by a large number of sanctimonious scientists and writers, and it seems that the discipline of scientists is not necessarily high.

Thinking that many veterans of the American scientific community overwhelmingly supported Hillary Clinton in the general election, could it be that they went to the island together to play Lori's friendship?

Alas, this year is the current political circle, which is really more thunderous and bloody than the entertainment industry, and the reality is more imaginative than the novel! If there is an online writer who writes that Hawking plays Lori, it is estimated that he will be sprayed to death by readers, right? (To be continued.) )