登陆注册
5152700000018

第18章 THE UNPARALLELED INVASION(5)

But on May 1, 1976, had the reader been in the imperial city of Peking, with its then population of eleven millions, he would have witnessed a curious sight. He would have seen the streets filled with the chattering yellow populace, every queued head tilted back, every slant eye turned skyward. And high up in the blue he would have beheld a tiny dot of black, which, because of its orderly evolutions, he would have identifiedas an airship. From this airship, as it curved its flight back and forth over the city, fell missiles - strange, harmless missiles, tubes of fragile glass that shattered into thousands of fragments on the streets and house- tops. But there was nothing deadly about these tubes of glass. Nothing happened. There were no explosions. It is true, three Chinese were killed by the tubes dropping on their heads from so enormous a height; but what were three Chinese against an excess birth rate of twenty millions? One tube struck perpendicularly in a fish-pond in a garden and was not broken. It was dragged ashore by the master of the house. He did not dare to open it, but, accompanied by his friends, and surrounded by an ever-increasing crowd, he carried the mysterious tube to the magistrate of the district. The latter was a brave man. With all eyes upon him, he shattered the tube with a blow from his brass-bowled pipe. Nothing happened. Of those who were very near, one or two thought they saw some mosquitoes fly out. That was all. The crowd set up a great laugh and dispersed.

As Peking was bombarded by glass tubes, so was all China. The tiny airships, dispatched from the warships, contained but two men each, and over all cities, towns, and villages they wheeled and curved, one man directing the ship, the other man throwing over the glass tubes.

Had the reader again been in Peking, six weeks later, he would have looked in vain for the eleven million inhabitants. Some few of them he would have found, a few hundred thousand, perhaps, their carcasses festering in the houses and in the deserted streets, and piled high on the abandoned death-waggons. But for the rest he would have had to seek along the highways and byways of the Empire. And not all would he have found fleeing from plague-stricken Peking, for behind them, by hundreds of thousands of unburied corpses by the wayside, he could have marked their flight. And as it was with Peking, so it was with all the cities, towns, and villages of the Empire. The plague smote them all. Nor was it one plague, nor two plagues; it was a score of plagues. Every virulent form of infectious death stalked through the land. Too late the Chinese government apprehended the meaning of the colossal preparations, the marshalling of the world-hosts, the flights of the tin airships, and the rainof the tubes of glass. The proclamations of the government were vain. They could not stop the eleven million plague-stricken wretches, fleeing from the one city of Peking to spread disease through all the land. The physicians and health officers died at their posts; and death, the all- conqueror, rode over the decrees of the Emperor and Li Tang Fwung. It rode over them as well, for Li Tang Fwung died in the second week, and the Emperor, hidden away in the Summer Palace, died in the fourth week.

Had there been one plague, China might have coped with it. But from a score of plagues no creature was immune. The man who escaped smallpox went down before scarlet fever. The man who was immune to yellow fever was carried away by cholera; and if he were immune to that, too, the Black Death, which was the bubonic plague, swept him away. For it was these bacteria, and germs, and microbes, and bacilli, cultured in the laboratories of the West, that had come down upon China in the rain of glass.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 快穿:兜里必须有糖

    快穿:兜里必须有糖

    【每个世界1v1,结局无cp】有一天,做了许久心愿任务的阿棠突然获得了一个第39号系统,而后她发现自己的灵魂居然被系统安装了一个福利(大雾)。第39号系统:以后你的主题是爱情!阿棠:???(一脸懵逼.jpg)虽然她做任务很顺利都是因为她泡得到仔,但是现在真的让她主做泡仔任务,她是真的方了~附:此文恋爱为主,或许很苏~ (新书《靠近男配一点点》已出,欢迎各位小可爱们来看看哦!) 喜欢就点个收藏哦!
  • 足球狂想家

    足球狂想家

    “什么我真的死了吗?”“我艹,老子可是小说里的主角啊!”“什么新任老婆居然是我的旧情人?”“原来人死了,强烈的梦想可以让人重生?”
  • 人元录

    人元录

    这是个混乱的时代,也是最好的时代。斗争不止,门阀林立,各派争伐,国家征战。然而,乱世总有英豪出,沉浮本是英雄主。他,不是英雄。
  • 民国军阀的后宫生活

    民国军阀的后宫生活

    民国军阀的争斗,为地盘、为军队、为权势,也为女人。不妨穿越回去看一看,没有一个军阀不拍着自己的胸脯,趾高气扬地保证“我是个铮铮的汉子”。这样,便出现了民国军阀妻妾多的独特风景线。读民国历史,不可不读军阀史,不可不读女人在军阀历史中的星星点点。与浓重的铜臭味和血腥气相比,军阀的妻妾们就好像是给这部残忍历史添加的一点点佐料,酸甜苦辣尽在其中。民国军阀的妻妾们,千姿百态,一支笔是无法勾勒完整的。这是最大的遗憾。但民国军阀的妻妾们何尝没有遗憾呢?这些遗憾,又岂是一个词、几句话、数篇文章能够写尽的呢?与其面面俱到,倒不如抱残守缺吧。多留些空间给与我一起品读民国军阀妻妾的朋友们。
  • 第一次情缘

    第一次情缘

    这是一个不靠谱的时代,现实中的人尚且可能突然变身,更何况是网络上认识的人呢!怎么会因为这个就和这个陌生结婚了呢?往往这个时候她会觉得自己太冲动。每次想到这里她都会觉得自己的思想不够openmind,有点后悔了。如果从此她跟董世京一辈子都不再见面,她可能还有可能自然地遇到自己的王子。想着想着,她就伤感自己没有遇到真正的爱情。
  • 青少年心理健康大讲堂

    青少年心理健康大讲堂

    当代青少年最大的健康问题就是心理健康问题。虽然他们的生活丰富多彩,然而很多青少年却并不快乐;虽然他们努力争取上进,然而心中的烦恼却日益增多。心理上的阴影淹没了他们的笑容,心理上的障碍让他们冷却了生命中的很多激情。青少年各种心理健康问题以及由此而导致的严重后果,向全社会敲响了警钟:再也不能忽略青少年的心理健康问题了!
  • 人生即是修行:智者的糊涂处世哲学

    人生即是修行:智者的糊涂处世哲学

    世人都希望自己比别人聪明,岂不知自以为聪明者却未尝不会犯糊涂;世人都不希望自己犯糊涂,岂不知有时犯糊涂者未必不是聪明人。很多人在社会生活和工作中所推崇的“装糊涂”,其实质目的在很大程度上说也不过是为了藉此避免犯糊涂。 概而言之,糊涂有装糊涂和犯糊涂之分。心里明白而表面糊涂则是装糊涂,表面明白而心里糊涂则是犯糊涂。装糊涂是“明知故犯”,是韬光养晦的智慧体现;而犯糊涂是“事后方知”,是悔之无及的愚蠢表现。自古而今,真正的智者其实大都是以装糊涂的办法而尽力避免做出犯糊涂的事情。
  • 许我向你看(上)

    许我向你看(上)

    那一天的很多细节,韩述都已经成功地忘记了,记忆好像有块黑板擦,悄无声息地抹去了他害怕回想的片断,留下满地粉尘……唯有一幕他怎么也擦不掉——她站在被告席上,而他在台下。韩述不敢看她的眼睛,却期盼着她能望他一眼。可是她没有,他知道,一秒也没有。桔年的心里住着一个人,她坚信那个人只是闭上了眼睛,很多年后,她做了一个梦,那个人终于睁开双眼对她微笑,然后她却哭了。521级台阶上的那颗石榴树,年年开出一样火红刺目的花朵,曾经一笔一划刻下的“hs&jn”,谁陪着谁一起来看?
  • 芊芊卓心

    芊芊卓心

    浊气除清气生玄气聚金丹生,金丹成破黄门,黄门破大道成天境起。大道分三,上清,中门,下乘。四大圣门青流门,廷云阁,众生寺,水月谷。仙山一点青,流水进无门,剑欲断,情欲生,一指断江山。相思廷,相思生,相思引,一廷寻相思,一云寄离别,一阁纳众生。一小山,一小寺,一小僧,众一小愿,生一世间,普度众生。清流水,浩明月,万花蝶舞一谷生,幽兰芳香随风起,娓娓道来落叶情。
  • 快穿之我可是专业反派

    快穿之我可是专业反派

    顾辞生前是个电竞职业选手兼游戏主播,一次通宵打游戏猝死,与编号666的系统签订契约成了一名光荣的任务者,专职反派BOSS,偶尔客串炮灰女配,擅长徒手拆cp,手撕白莲花,怼哭男女主,撬主角光环。顾辞坚信,自己可以靠实力,勤勤恳恳脚踏实地地走上人生巅峰!666:总觉得我家宿主身上有bug。顾辞:(微笑)别瞎说,我只是个靠谱的未成年人类。