Great time travel

Chapter 126, The Difficult Year Without Summer
September [-], [-], White House, Washington, USA

In this climate-changing "year without summer", the weather in the United States is frighteningly cold and eerie.The calendar on the wall had just turned to September, and a thin layer of snow had already accumulated on the South Lawn of the White House, and a few crystal-clear icicles hung outside the window eaves of the Oval Office.Looking at the snow-clad snow scene outside the window, President Truman couldn't help but feel exhausted.

——The United States of America has just survived one of the "coolest" summers, and is it about to usher in the coldest winter yet?
Although the United States is in the midst of World War III at this time, since the US military successfully bombed the Soviet Union on Valentine's Day, there has been no large-scale war between the two sides for almost six months, whether on the Atlantic front or in the The same is true of the Pacific front.

So, from President Truman's point of view, the war business is now very quiet.

In Europe, the U.S. military has given up the last few footholds, even Iceland and the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean, and has completely withdrawn its troops to North America and Canada, separated from the red camp by the vast Atlantic Ocean confront each other.Right now, the U.S. military is certainly unable to go on an expedition to Europe again, but it is even more impossible for the Soviets to cross the Atlantic Ocean and attack the hinterland of the United States. The two sides can only continue to stare across the ocean, and no one can do anything.

On the African battlefield, the U.S. military also completely retreated to the south of the Sahara Desert, and broke away from ground contact with the Soviet Red Army and its allies. To gain a firm foothold in this chaotic place with constant conflicts, we can only be satisfied with the control of several port strongholds along the Mediterranean Sea, while the various sects and tribal forces of the Arabs fight each other in the interior.

Faced with such an unstable and chaotic situation, the Soviets had no power at all to launch a leapfrog attack, apart from occasionally organizing a few long-range bombers from the front-line air base on the Mediterranean Sea to harass the American garrison south of the Sahara Desert. Expedition in the Great Desert——It’s just that the harassment methods of the Soviet Air Force are quite powerful, often by dropping atomic bombs, which have killed more than 1 US troops and more than 200 million blacks...

On the battlefield in the Middle East, the Soviet army, which has been marching southward, has actually fallen into the quagmire of war, and has been tossed to death by guerrillas everywhere.On the battlefields of Asia Minor, even with the Kurds as allies and the use of saturated nuclear explosion tactics to wipe out half of the population of Turkey, the Soviet Red Army failed to suppress the desperate resistance of the remaining half of the Turks in a short period of time.On the Iraqi battlefield, the Soviet army only occupied the front line of Mosul, and could no longer move. So far, there has been no sign of entering Baghdad.In Iran and Afghanistan, it was also very difficult. The Iranians fell on the coast of the Caspian Sea. After Tehran was bombed, they retreated to the coast of the Persian Gulf and continued to resist relying on plateaus and mountains.The Afghans also established a government-in-exile in the city of Peshawar in northwestern India, and with the assistance of the Muslim League led by Jinnah, they continued to resist in the form of guerrilla warfare.Although Stalin’s Cheka fighters have always been tyrannical to all kinds of dissatisfaction, they have arrested more than 200 million terrorists and suspected terrorists and sent them to labor camps. When he died, there was nowhere to complain if he was wrongly caught.However, various resistance movements continued to emerge.

According to the Pentagon's prediction, at least for a few years, the armored torrent of the Soviet Red Army will be firmly trapped in the Middle East and cannot be put into other battlefields.

On the battlefield in India, the U.S. troops have basically withdrawn, watching the Indians fight their own way. Since Gandhi was assassinated and died, and the conservative forces of the National Congress have declined, the Muslim League led by Jinnah has also followed suit because of the disappearance of common external enemies. The radical faction of the Congress Party led by Chandra turned his face.The whole of India presents a three-nation pattern in which the three giants of Nehru, Chandra and Jinnah confront each other. There are also dozens of Indian princes and more tribal armed forces who claim to be kings, fight each other, and even ambitiously want to It's really a scene of a lot of fighting for hegemony if you want to get your hands on the throne of Delhi.

For such a scalp-numbing quagmire involving three to four billion people, neither the red camp nor the white camp seems to have the intention to interfere too much, but just wait patiently for the Indians to decide a final winner, or like Like the Roman Empire, it disintegrated into countless small states.

In East Asia, with the combined fleet of the Japanese Navy sweeping southward across the Polynesian Islands and reaching Easter Island, and the destruction of the last Allied forces that landed on the Japanese archipelago last Christmas, various large-scale military operations have also temporarily come to an end.Especially after the Pentagon voluntarily abandoned the Philippines and recalled MacArthur, the military forces of the United States and Japan have completely separated from frontal contact again, and have become a confrontation across the Pacific Ocean.

According to the latest news, the main force of the combined fleet of the Japanese Navy, headed by the battleship Yamato, has now entered the Indian Ocean westward, first chasing and suppressing the remnants of the Royal Navy’s Eastern Fleet, and then wandering around the Indian Ocean, wantonly hunting and killing in this area. All merchant ships in the sea area - due to the destruction of the Suez Canal, merchant ships from European socialist bloc countries have so far been unable to enter the Red Sea, let alone the Indian Ocean.Occasionally bombarded coastal ports, it seemed that they wanted to completely destroy the entire Indian Ocean shipping route, and it did cause logistical difficulties for the U.S. troops under Eisenhower who were stranded in East Africa: Railway and road traffic in Africa is basically a tragedy , The logistics supply line of the army can only be maintained by sea.

However, the Pentagon, which was determined to abandon the Indian Ocean, said that it basically didn't care about it. It also ordered General Eisenhower, who is currently stationed in Mombasa, the largest port in East Africa, that if the Japanese army attacked from the other side of the Indian Ocean or cut off the sea supply line of the US military in East Africa, If it is really impossible to continue, then you can retreat to Liberia or Congo in West Africa at any time, and then let South Africa stand at the forefront, fighting against the Japanese who came from afar...Under the current difficult situation, as long as you can survive on the Old Continent Keeping a few footholds is already a great success.

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

All in all, although the earth is still in a world war today, the smoke and gunfire all over the world are still continuous.But between the United States and the Soviet Union, the two most critical heavyweights, it has temporarily shifted from a hot war to a cold war, entering a period of relative detente.

For Truman, a wartime president, what really bothered him the most right now was actually the national natural disaster that erupted in his own country.

——With the violent eruption of the Icelandic volcano in the North Atlantic Ocean, a huge cloud of volcanic ash blocked the sun and quickly lowered the ground temperature. At present, most of Europe has fallen into the disaster of low temperature in summer.The situation in North America across the Atlantic is naturally not optimistic.

For Americans, this year's winter and spring have been extremely cold. Maine and other places were hit by blizzards, large areas of the Great Lakes were frozen, and even the port of Detroit was once paralyzed.After finally waiting for the warmth of spring and the blooming of flowers, it seemed that summer was about to enter. Unexpectedly, several inexplicable super cold waves followed, which suppressed the temperature again.Three abnormal cold snaps before and after made the streets of Manhattan, New York actually snow in June.During the cold wave in early June, the snow on Wall Street was as thick as three inches, which made passers-by both amazed and frightened at the same time.

——Anyone with a little bit of knowledge can know what a terrible nightmare this abnormal weather will bring to agricultural production!

At the end of July and early August, the New England region of the northeastern United States (the coastal state north of New York, the oldest place in the United States) was hit by frost again, except for a few of the most cold-resistant grains and vegetable varieties, such as wheat and onions. In addition, the vast majority of crops were frozen to death.According to the forecast of the agricultural department, at least [-] states in the United States will have no corn harvest this year, and the hay production will also drop sharply, which will inevitably lead to the death of a large number of livestock, and the production of dairy products and meat will naturally follow. , Let the people of the whole country survive the year of famine...

— unlike the man-made economic collapse of the Great Depression, where coffee and beans were used to burn boilers, fruits and vegetables rotted in the fields, cows were thrown into the Mississippi River, and citizens starved in cities Garbage... This time there is a real food shortage in the United States.

In Canada, the results of the unnatural summer were even worse, and the cold wave was even more severe. Even wheat was not spared.In the peaceful years before the outbreak of World War II, Canada exported millions of tons of grain and feed to Europe every year.Now, in this dreaded "year without summer," Canadians find themselves without bread and milk, and thank God for potatoes.

——In this year, the whole of Canada first experienced the bloody civil war, which led to the desertion of a large number of cultivated land in the war, and the government's strategic material reserve warehouse was also burned due to the civil war.Then, because of the cold wave in summer, all crops in Canada were almost wiped out, and the prices of wheat and hay soared all the way.In autumn, when the harvest is supposed to be, the food shortages are even more severe.Especially in the cities where street fighting took place in Quebec, Canada, the daily bread ration has been reduced from 150 grams to [-] grams, not even enough to feed a child.All edible things are stuffed into the mouths of hungry citizens, such as berries, lichens and cat meat, and some people write articles on wild survival science knowledge in newspapers to guide residents in identifying non-toxic plants.The desperate Canadian authorities had no choice but to reach out to their neighbors in the south for help, and the trains transporting food from the United States to Canada had to be escorted by military police, because every station was crowded with hungry people who came to gun food.

Compared with Canada, which is struggling with hunger and cold, the US's agricultural production is slightly better.The complete failure of the harvest is mainly concentrated in New England in the northeast and the areas along the Great Lakes. Although the Mississippi River Basin in the south is also experiencing a poor harvest, the total output value of agricultural products has decreased by 50% compared with last year, and the total output of wheat, barley, corn, and fruits and vegetables has generally declined. ...but at any rate, there are still some gains.Without the need to export surplus grain overseas on a large scale, with this year's harvest, it can barely feed every citizen of the United States of America.

— After all, American farmers these days don't have to feed their British relatives across the Atlantic.But in turn, they had to extend a helping hand to Canada and the disaster-stricken areas in the north of the country... As a result, the food supply of the American people still seems to be stretched.

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

In order to cope with the increasingly severe disaster situation, the US federal government has drastically lowered the food rationing standards of ordinary people three times. The American people soon found sadly that eggs, butter, chocolate and meat are gradually disappearing from store shelves. .The meat ration per person has been reduced to one hundred grams per day, which is equivalent to a few thin slices, and there is very little fresh meat, basically only canned Spam luncheon meat.Butter rations became white lard, then downgraded to granulated sugar.The bread ration of American citizens has also been reduced to 10 grams per person per day. The federal government also stipulates that bakers who produce rationed bread must add at least 5% rye flour to white bread, and at least [-]% to rye bread. potato flour, called "wartime bread".And ordinary people generally only buy black bread in ration stores to make full use of the bran and chaff in the grain.

From the perspective of calorie value, this dietary standard is still in line with science, because a healthy adult consumes [-] calories per day without strenuous exercise. If a certain degree of physical labor is required, then increase It's almost the same when it reaches [-] calories.Therefore, in theory, the daily calorie ration of American civilians is sufficient to maintain people's basic survival needs, and they will not be in a state of starvation.

However, eating well does not mean eating well. If you want to eat pure refined white bread and tender and juicy steaks, or get some refined flour and egg powder to cook pastries yourself, the citizens can only spend a few dollars. Doubling to ten times the price, and risking being caught, to buy in the black market... In some places, people in the city often trek dozens of kilometers on foot to the countryside to secretly exchange food from farmers with their belongings.

Then, the local governments and parliaments of the states also introduced a series of wartime restrictions aimed at reducing food consumption-California State regulations: meals in hotels and restaurants are limited to two dishes, only one of which can be a meat dish .New York State regulations: Alcohol not only needs to be purchased with a ration ticket, but also only sold two days a week.Washington State banned bakeries from making cakes and puffs during wartime.Texas stipulates that ordinary people can only buy skim milk, and only pregnant women and children can buy whole milk, which is more nutritious.The state of New Jersey made it illegal to feed common food to pets in wartime, and many citizens were fined for feeding bread to birds.In Maine, where the famine was worst, potatoes should only be served with the skin on, and potato peelers were banned in all restaurants and restaurants.Louisiana, a grain-producing area, stipulates that in order to ensure national health, calcium and vitamins should be added to the flour used to bake rationed bread, although it is difficult to actually achieve it in reality.

Despite all the wartime measures to limit food consumption, the actual effect, aside from adding all sorts of troubles to the lives of ordinary people, is rather dubious.As a federal country with high local autonomy, the U.S. central government’s power even in wartime is far inferior to the militaristic German, Italian and Japanese fascist regimes, so the control and supervision of agriculture has been very unsuccessful.No matter how the government puts an end to it, the black market for food is still getting more and more rampant, just like the bootlegging business during the Prohibition era. The huge profits on the black market make farmers more willing to sell their agricultural products to black market dealers who are willing to pay high prices. The results are limited. Food is even more inaccessible to legal circulation, with at least one-third of the country's butter, eggs, and pork production going to the black market instead of government ration stores, making life even harder for ordinary people.While the heavy laborers who worked hard in the arsenal for a day ate the smelly black bread with a lot of potato powder and fish meal, the gentlemen of the upper class still ate and drank in luxurious restaurants.

In order to educate the people to cope with the crisis of food shortages, President Truman bit the bullet and resumed the "fireside chat" of the Roosevelt era at the unanimous request of his staff. Planting vegetables instead of flowers on balconies, and persuading farmers to pull out corn that requires higher temperatures to grow normally, and plant more high-yield and cold-resistant potatoes... The wife of the president suggested that housewives use more substitutes, such as yogurt instead of cheese, and mashed potatoes Instead of flour, vegetable powder instead of fruit, vanilla plus margarine instead of cream.

In addition, in order to solve the shortage of meat supply, scientists and entrepreneurs began to study how to use yeast to produce protein. The basic method is simply to convert wood and paper wastewater into sugar. It is said that this yeast protein The taste of the finished product after pressing is very similar to pork and beef, so it is called "artificial meat". Unfortunately, consumers generally believe that its taste is even far inferior to canned Spam luncheon meat...

In fact, the US government currently has a relatively sufficient supply of strategic reserves. As the world's leading developed agricultural country, even after so many years of war consumption, the federal government still has enough supplies for the people of the whole country to feed for a year. A large amount of grain, sugar, 25 tons of lard, salted fat and butter, and a large amount of oats and corn for feed, in addition to hoarding a lot of leather, cloth and silk.As for the production of coal and oil not affected by climate change, it is more than enough to meet the country's maximum demand.

However, Iceland's volcanoes erupted from spring to autumn without any signs of stopping. The huge volcanic ash cloud not only covered the whole of Iceland, but was also pushed by the wind and gradually spread in all directions...so no one knew that this would have an impact on the whole world. How long the catastrophe in terms of agriculture will last, let alone how many "years without summer" there will be in the future-so, it is still necessary to prepare for this early and take saving measures in advance.

However, even in such a bad situation and under great pressure, President Truman never considered the possibility of an armistice and peace...

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

PS: Taiwan has really raised donations from mainland fruit fans!The bigwigs of the party and the state donated nothing, but called on the mainland fruit fans to donate 20.00 yuan each to pay the salaries of their party comrades.However, only [-]% of the official party members in Taiwan paid their party dues on time. Looking at the face of "letting you inferior mainlanders give you money, I am giving you face", I think there are only masochists and love for the party and the country. Only those who are serious will give generously, right?