afterglow

Chapter 687 Chapter Creating...Writing History; Classic Mouth Cannon
The US-Australia Joint Forces Headquarters is located in a building in the western suburbs of Sydney. It was originally an administrative building of the Royal Australian Navy. After evacuating Brisbane, the commander moved here.

"I'm sorry Commander, we still haven't been able to restore contact with Canberra. There's no response from either wired or wireless communications."

A major stood at attention and saluted, reluctantly reporting to Douglas MacArthur about the fourth attempt of the morning.

For a country in a state of war, official documents are exchanged frequently every day, including political, economic, diplomatic, military, etc.

After the routine morning communications, the last telegram received was a brief report from the Canberra air defence force, claiming that a small group of enemy planes were approaching from the north.

After that, there was no news.

How could a city, a capital city, be completely cut off from all contact for no apparent reason?
Such an abnormal situation made everyone feel incredible. You know, even in the European battlefield, the British and American air forces could not do this even if they dispatched thousands of strategic bombers to bomb a city.

Marshal Mai remained calm and said calmly: "Something unusual must have happened, but the situation is still under control. Now, send the fastest plane to check!"

Soon, a photo reconnaissance Mosquito bomber roared into the sky and headed straight for the capital.

Soon after, another transport plane carrying emergency liaison specialists took off.

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Daley was a senior staff officer serving in the headquarters. He was concentrating on planning the defense line north of Sydney when he suddenly received an order to go to Canberra for an emergency inspection.

What happened there that suddenly disappeared without a trace? He wondered.

Forty-two years ago, at the beginning of the new century, after the establishment of the Australian Federation, a fierce internal dispute broke out over the issue of the capital. The two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, refused to give in and the dispute lasted for ten years.

In the end, the federal government chose a trade-off strategy - to pick a place between the two cities with mountains, water and suitable terrain as the capital, so it chose this open valley in the southeastern mountainous area.

Soon, Thomas Daly saw thick black smoke rising into the sky.

His heart skipped a beat and he suddenly felt that something was wrong - because the plane had not even crossed the Great Dividing Range and was still half an hour away from Canberra.

Finally, he saw ruins, complete ruins.

The beautiful little town had been reduced to ashes, and everything was charred as far as the eye could see, just like the legendary ancient city of Pompeii that was destroyed by volcanic lava overnight.

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Daly saw that the Duntroon Military College where he once studied had also been severely damaged and was unrecognizable.

The transport plane circled over the air force airport in the eastern suburbs, and the pilot carefully landed the plane after confirming that it was safe to land.

As soon as he and several of his entourage got off the plane, more than a dozen officers rushed over.

A lieutenant couldn't help crying and saluted while sobbing: "Sir... Sir... I'm sorry... This is hell..."

Over the next half hour, Lt. Col. Thomas Daley debriefed the airfield's combat units.

The radio operator who came with him sent out every detail of the situation via radio.

Many survivors came to the air force base to seek help. As they were far away from the explosion center, the damage they suffered was minimal. Some people said that there were a large amount of supplies stored in the warehouses here, so desperate people rushed here.

The base commander was hesitant about whether to open the munitions depot and wanted to consult the Sydney Command.

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Daley shouted angrily: "My mission is to coordinate emergencies when necessary. Now open the (warehouse) door and provide full assistance. This is an order!"

Soldiers struggled to maintain order and keep survivors in line for food and water.

Even more tense was the medical rescue. Most of the city's hospitals and clinics were destroyed, and here, six military doctors and more than twenty nurses were simply overwhelmed by the thousands of wounded.

Two teenage girls were brought in by their teacher. All three had severe burns on their faces, hands and backs. Major Thomas Daley, who was patrolling everywhere, couldn't bear it and asked the teacher to take them to sit on chairs and rest. He promised to treat them immediately, but the airport medical station was overcrowded and everyone's injuries were serious.

The lieutenant colonel returned helplessly and found that one girl was dead, and the other girl and the teacher were both in shock and coma.

At this time, two small black dots appeared in the distant sky. The airport units recognized them as Ming army planes at a glance, but they could not take any effective response except for a few anti-aircraft guns firing.

Two reconnaissance golden eagles were ordered to carry out aerial photography missions after the nuclear attack in order to study and evaluate the effects.

The two also dropped hundreds of thousands of leaflets, urging the Australian government to stop resisting, otherwise Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide could become the next cities to be destroyed.

On the same day, Ming army planes also dropped leaflets over Sydney.

The US-Australian Joint Command then sent a telegram to Washington to report this sudden and subversive incident.

"At about 10 o'clock this morning, three enemy heavy bombers arrived in Canberra under escort and dropped a special bomb. Canberra was completely destroyed by the bomb, and the number of casualties may be 3 to 1."

The headquarters is unable to accurately count casualties for the time being, this is just a rough estimate.

Canberra is a new city with no historical heritage and can only be considered a small town at best. Last year, the permanent population was only 1.3. However, due to the loss of a large area of ​​land, a large number of people fled south from Brisbane and other places, among which about 6 refugees were temporarily resettled in Canberra.

As a result, they also suffered a real catastrophe.

After the bomber formation returned, a briefing on the attack results was quickly sent back to the mainland.

"The large special illumination bomb was dropped at 10:11 local time and detonated successfully. Visually, the effect was good and it is estimated that it has met the expectations of previous tests."

Soon, a more detailed summary message was sent out, along with a lot of data recorded by shock wave and radiation detectors.

"B-023-325 (Canberra) weather conditions were excellent, with very little cloud cover, no enemy aircraft interception, and relatively weak anti-aircraft firepower. The ammunition was dropped at 10:11 at an altitude of 6,000 meters, visually confirming the destruction of all buildings in the city. Photos are still being developed, and the specific damage is yet to be analyzed."

Zhou Changfeng, Zhu Lingjing and others had been waiting for good news. When they learned that Australia had sent back the good news of a successful drop, the latter's expression was obviously relieved.

She was silent for a while, smiled slightly, looked at everyone and said calmly: "Well, we created... wrote history."

Everyone present applauded and shouted "Long live the emperor". Some were so excited that they wanted to write poems or inscriptions to express their congratulations. Their joy was obvious.

"Your Majesty, you can notify the R&D committee to lift the confidentiality and then make a public announcement," Zhou Changfeng reminded.

According to what was agreed before, the high level of secrecy that had persisted until now would be lowered, and extensive publicity, boasting and intimidation would begin based on a large number of speeches that had been prepared long ago.

Within a few hours, the whole world would know that the Ming army had carried out an unprecedented and horrific bombing of Canberra.

All newspapers received official invitations, claiming that there was important news that required a serious announcement. The newspapers did not dare to delay and sent capable personnel to the Ministry of War.

The Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of War personally attended the press conference and gave reporters a brief introduction to the whole story of the Golden Crow Project - how my country's top talents turned the most cutting-edge, profound and complex physical discoveries into unparalleled weapons in just a few years. Until now, the outside world has finally learned about this highly confidential grand project.

Even though the reporters present were all experienced veterans who had seen all kinds of strange things, their eyes still lit up when they heard it.

The Right Vice Minister continued, "This morning, our Royal Division's planes raided the Australian capital of Canberra and dropped a nuclear fission bomb with a power equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT..."

He was interrupted before he could finish his words. Someone asked loudly, "Excuse me, was it a slip of the tongue? It was 20,000 jin, right?"

"No, it is exactly 20,000 tons, metric tons."

"what?!"

Everyone looked incredulous, and after a brief silence, they suddenly exploded.

At this time, several military officials brought large photos for display - these were photos of test explosions. As for the aerial photos of Canberra, we would have to wait a few more days.

In an instant, reporters swarmed forward to take pictures, and the sound of clicking photos was endless.

Then, they rushed out of the door one after another, and even started chasing and fighting each other, as everyone wanted to return to the newspaper office as quickly as possible.

This was undoubtedly the most bizarre news since the outbreak of the war - without warning, unexpected, and unimaginable.

Today is a good day. For the hawkish people in the Ming Dynasty, it is an unparalleled good day.

As the expedited evening papers were distributed and sold, hotels and restaurants were filled with shouts of excitement and business was booming.

The most fanatical people were even more excited. That night, people kept gathering outside the Forbidden City to cheer. The Imperial Guards and the Embroidered Uniform Guards were therefore on high alert...

People’s joys and sorrows are not the same. When some people are happy, naturally some people are sad.

Washington was gloomy as a C-54 Skyking transport plane carrying two scientists and testing equipment set off overnight, first flying to Hawaii for transit, then flying south to New Zealand, and finally arriving in Sydney after 21 hours.

They were ordered to investigate whether Canberra had been attacked by a nuclear weapon as described by the Ming Dynasty officials. After many twists and turns, they finally arrived at the ruins of Canberra.

Prime Minister John Curtin and a large number of officials have been confirmed dead, but surprisingly, there are still two survivors in the basement of the Federal Parliament House who have survived the catastrophe.

After testing, the residual ionizing radiation here is significantly higher than the natural background radiation. The violent explosion, extreme high temperature, and dense radiation... everything points to that terrible conclusion.

“Is it possible that an American city could be attacked like this?”

"Mr. President, this possibility is very small. The Chinese planes can only reach Seattle, and we have sufficient air defense forces deployed on the West Coast."

"How many bombs do they have left?"

"I'm sorry, we can't tell exactly. Maybe there's none, or maybe there's several."

The White House held an emergency meeting to discuss countermeasures.

"What if they send more advanced aircraft? Even a one-way attack without returning, this cannot be ignored." The president said in a deep voice: "I am worried that the Pacific Fleet will be threatened."

Secretary of State Henry Stimson said: "The best course is to send the fleet to the Atlantic. The Navy must not be exposed to such risks."

"But Mr. Secretary, this is contradictory." Navy Secretary Frank Norfolk said with a wry smile: "The Navy is under tremendous public pressure. We can't do that."

To prevent the spread of panic, the federal government planned to carry out extensive publicity to inform citizens that the power of atomic weapons was not as terrible as the Ming army wrote in the threatening leaflets.

But if the propaganda says it is not scary, then why did the Pacific Fleet flee? Isn't this a lie?

This put the US top brass in a dilemma - either lose credibility or keep the fleet.

As a last resort, everyone could only temporarily adopt a compromise method, dispersing the Pacific Fleet to San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Eureka and other places to avoid being wiped out in one fell swoop.

In addition, there is the indispensable verbal attack segment - accusing the Ming Dynasty court of using demonic weapons that far exceeded conventional bombs during the invasion and committing brutal crimes against humanity.

Immediately, the British followed suit and made accusations.

The Ministry of Rites and the Department of Foreign Affairs were not to be outdone and retorted by citing past colonial plunder and massacres.

Such verbal attacks also extended to the negotiating table.

At the negotiation site on Maui, Admiral William Pratt angrily shouted to Chi Xianze: "The indiscriminate harm to civilians is an unforgivable war crime! You butchers!"

"That's rude, General Pratt." Chi Xianze pretended to be surprised and said, "In Europe, your air raids on German cities also caused a large number of civilian casualties. Is this correct?"

"Our strategic bombing targets are German military factories and military trains. Collateral damage is a deviation that is difficult to eliminate. We subjectively do not want to harm civilians." Admiral William Pratt explained with a straight face: "And you planned an indiscriminate attack from the beginning!"

Chi Xianze knew the essence of quarreling very well. He did not respond at all. He just said nonchalantly: "I remember that there were many aborigines in Australia and America in the past. It's really strange. Why are they becoming less?"

In this way, the negotiations came to a stalemate, the agenda was completely suspended, and quarrels became a daily recurring norm.

For Americans, panic has spread; for Australians, the seeds of hatred have been sown.

However, the opposite of hatred is fear.

There are spineless people everywhere. Some frightened politicians have begun to seriously consider surrendering. It is really horrifying that the top echelons of the federal government have been basically wiped out.

Especially now that Australia's central core has been almost wiped out and major cities have become a mess, it is natural for everyone to have their own agenda under such circumstances.

Some sleeper agents began to boldly approach officials and congressmen who showed cowardice, and in just a few days they had secret communications with several of them.

The Ming court was very satisfied with this. It seemed that the expensive Golden Crow Plan was quite effective, and the whole world was shocked.

What is not satisfactory is that on the Washington side, the Americans seem to be playing the tactic of procrastination, taking protective measures while continuing to compete at the negotiating table.

【I created a P-style event. 】

(End of this chapter)