杰克伦敦1910年写的细菌战灭绝中国的科幻小说:前所未有的入侵

 

杰克伦敦1910年写的细菌战灭绝中国的科幻小说:前所未有的入侵(THE UNPARALLELED INVASION)
（张习如　译）

世界和中国之间的麻烦，在1976年达到其顶峰。 因此，美国自由女神像屹立二百年的庆祝活动被延期。 世界上的许多国家的其他计划也出于同样的原因被取消，改变或者推迟了。 世界冷不丁醒来，发现了这个七十年来未被察觉的危险，但事态已经不可控制地向着它必然的趋势发展。

实际上，1904年的变局已经揭开了这一 巨变的大幕，并在七十年以后，给整个世界带来了恐慌。1904年当日俄战争发生的时候，历史学家曾严肃地指出，这一事件标志着日本正式进入国际大家庭。 实质上，它其实标志着中国的觉醒。 人们曾经期待过这种觉醒。 西方国家曾试图唤起中国，但最后失败了。 出于他们天生的乐观骄傲和种族自我中心主义，他们因此得出结论，这任务是根本不可能成功的，中国永远不会醒来。

但他们忽略了一点： 他们和中国之间没有共同的心理内核 。 他们的思维过程是根本不同的。甚至 没有任何共同的词汇。 西方人的头脑试图进入入中国人的心灵，但还没有进入多远，就发现一条深不可测的迷宫。 而中国人的心灵同样进入西方的头脑很短的距离，就碰上了一堵不可逾越难以理解的墙壁。本质上这是因为语言的障碍，而导致由于没有任何办法将西方的思想传递 到中国人的心灵中去。 中国人仍然是沉睡着的。西方的物质成就和进展对中国人完全是一本合拢的书，西方人也打不开中国的书。在以英语为母语的民族的胸腔深处，有一种吼出喊出撒克 逊语言的能力;而中国人的内心深处是说出自己的象形文字的能力，但中国人的心灵却吼不出撒克逊语，而讲英语的心灵也难以理解象形文字。 他们心理的质地是这样的完全不同。 使得这两个民族精神上的差异犹如外星人一般。 所以西方的物质成就和进步，并没有给沉睡的中国留下任何印痕。

直 到日本在1904年对俄罗斯取得了胜利。 日本民族从此成为了东亚民族中的异类和榜样。 日本以一种奇异的方式接受了所有西方的知识。 日本迅速吸收西方的思想，并消化它们，并干练地将其应用于实践，于是她突然迸发，全副武装，成为了世界权力的一极。 没有办法解释这种日本特有的对西方外来文化的开放性。 正如我们也没法解释在动物王国中的任何生物的突然运动一般。

在决定性的击败了俄罗 斯帝国之后，日本立即着手实施自己的帝国梦想。 韩国成为了她的一个粮仓和殖民地; 利用条约特权和老奸巨猾的外交使她得到了满洲的垄断权。 但日本并不满足。 她转身向后看，她的眼睛盯住了 躺在那里的幅员辽阔的，并拥有世界上最庞大的工业文明的支柱——铁和煤的储备的中国。 除了天然资源外，决定工业发展的另一重要的因素是劳动力。 而在该领土上有着四万万人口，占地球总人口的四分之一。 此外，中国人不仅是优秀的工人，而且他们的宿命哲学（或宗教）和他们顽固的神经特点使他们在合适的管理之下可以成为极好的士兵。 不用说，日本准备进行管理。

但最妙的一点是，从日本的角度来看，中国是他们的亲族。 令人费解的谜语般的汉字对日本人并不是一个令人费解的谜。 日本能够理解，西方人永远无法学会，或希望了解的内容。 日本人和中国人的心理过程是相同的。 日本人与中国人一样具有相同的思想符号，有同样的细微之处。 日本人看中国人的心灵时可以轻松越过我们犹豫不理解的障碍。 也可以在我们无法感知的转折点转折，翻越周围的障碍物，并达到我们无法进入的中国人的心灵深处。 他们是兄弟。 不久前，一方就借用了对方的书面语言，以及在这无数代之前，他们从共同的蒙古人种之根分开。虽然曾有被不同的环境条件带来的改变和其他血液的输注，但在其 生命的底部，是一个共同的遗产，一种时间没有抹煞的交织在一起的共同之处。

于是日本开始了她占领中国的计划。 在与俄罗斯的战争之后不久，她的代理人涌进了中国帝国。 她的工程师和间谍在边境1000英里外艰苦工作，穿着像苦力，打着流动客商或是传教僧人的幌子；记下每个瀑布的马力，建工厂的可能地点，山的高度和位置， 战略优势和弱点，山谷中的农场积累的财富，在一个地区或可以强制征收的劳动者人数和公牛的数量。 从未有过这样大规模的普查，因为可能已没有其他人比日本人更顽强，更耐心，更爱国。

但在很短的时间内秘密行动就被弃置了。 日本的人员开始重新训练中国军队，她的训练官将中世纪的士兵变成了二十世纪的战士，习惯了所有现代战争的机械并获得了高于任何西方国家的士兵平均水平的枪 法。 日本工程师深化和拓宽了中国复杂的运河系统，建立工厂和铸造厂，用电报和电话将整个帝国联系起来，开创了铁路建设的时代。 这些机器文明的曾经的反对者，现在在他们的国土上发现了巨大的石油储量，铜矿和铁矿，生产着世界上最好的天然气的天然气井。

在中国的帝国 议会充满了日本的使者。 在政治家的耳朵边上低声诉说。日本人重建了帝国的政治。 他们驱逐了中国的传统学者，并斥之为反动暴力分子，而选派要求进步的革命的官员进入办公室。 并在每个乡镇和城市开始发行帝国报纸。 当然，日本的编辑按照直接从东京来的政策负责这些报纸的导向。 正是这些文字教育了巨大的人口并使他们获得进步。

中国最后终于清醒了。 西方在这一点上失败了，而日本却成功了。 她已经将对西方文化和成就的理解传递给了中国。 日本自己突然惊醒时就已经震惊了世界。 但在当时她只有四千万人口。 中国的觉醒，与她的四亿人口和世界科技的进步加在一起，就更为惊人。 她成为了国家中的巨人，在国际事务中开始听到她的尚不明朗的声音。 日本怂恿着她，骄傲的西方人民怀着崇敬的心情倾听。

中国在迅速和明显 地上升着，可能仅仅因为她的高质量的劳动者。 中国人是完美的工人，而且一直如此。 在纯粹的工作能力上，世界上没有工人能与他相提并论。 工作于中国人就像呼吸那么自然。 工作对于中国人就像远洋旅行和冒险对于西方人一样。 自由对中国人来说就集中体现在辛苦的劳作。 辛苦的耕作和没完没了的劳动是他生活中唯一需要的权力。 而中国的觉醒不仅给了其庞大的人口自由和不受限制的劳作手段，而且是最机械和最科学的劳作手段。

中国返老还童了！ 这时的中国离完全失控只有一步。 她发现了自己新的自豪感和意愿。 在日本的指导下，她开始自作出新的主张，但并没持续很久。 在日本的建议下，她一开始已驱逐了所有的西方传教士，工程师，训练官，商人，教师。 她现在开始驱逐来自日本的代表。 后者被中国政治家接见，获得荣誉和勋章之后被送回日本。 西方惊醒了日本，日本也补偿了西方，但日本却没有被中国补偿。 中国感谢她的好心的援助，并把她的背包和行李甩到了门外。 西方国家笑了。 日本曾经的梦幻已经化为泡影， 她大大地生气， 中国嘲弄了她。 于是武士刀拔了出来，日本贸然发动战争。 这场战争发生在1922年，满洲，韩国，和台湾在七个月的血腥后离日本而去，日本再次回击，结果却是彻底破产，并只好龟缩在她的峡小，拥挤的岛屿。 日本从此推出世界舞台。 此后，她致力于艺术，她的任务变成了像世界展示她创造的奇异和美丽的世界。

与预期相反，中国并没有被证明是个好 战国家。 她并没有拿破仑一般的梦想，而只是积极投身于和平的艺术。 在世界惶惶不安之后，他们终于发现，中国最可怕的地方不是战争，而是商业。虽然，后来还会知道这并非中国真正的危险之处。 中国继续开始享受她的机器文明。 中国并没有建立一个庞大的常备军，她建立一个非常出色高效的民兵组织。 她的海军是如此之小，并成为世界的笑柄，她也没有试图加强她的海军。 世界的通商口岸也从未有中国的战舰访问过。

真正的危险在于中国的繁 殖力，于1970年开始，第一次有人提出预警。而 一段时间之后，毗邻中国的所有领土已经开始抱怨中国移民，但现在世界突然了解到，中国的人口是五亿。因为她的觉醒，中国人口又增加了几亿。博彻特公爵呼吁 关注中国人的数量已经超过白人的事实。 他做了一个简单的加法。 他把美国，加拿大，新西兰，澳大利亚，南非，英国，法国，德国，意大利，奥地利，俄罗斯欧洲部分，以及所有斯堪的纳维亚半岛的人口相加。 结果是四亿九千五百万。 比中国人口少了五百万之多。博彻特的数据传到了整个世界，全世界都颤抖了。

许多世纪以来，中国的人口一直不变。 她的领土与人口已经饱和，这是说，她的领土，与原始的生产方法，已经支持了人口的最上限。 但是，凭着她醒来时开始实施的机器文明，她的生产力已大大增加。 因此，在同一地区，她能够支持更多的人口。 出生率开始上升，死亡率下降。 在此之前，当人口过多生活资料过少时，过剩的人口会被饥荒扫除。 但现在，由于机器文明，中国人的生存手段已经大大增加，再没有饥荒，她的人口持续地增加。

在这段过渡和发展力量的时间里，中国并没有表现出 征服世界的打算。 中国不是一个帝国主义的种族。 而是勤劳，节俭，爱好和平的。 战争被中国人看成一个不愉快的，但有时必须执行必要的任务。 而西方种族却在不停地争吵和战斗，在整个世界冒险，中国则完全冷静下来，在她的机器上工作和成长。 现在，中国开始派出大量移民，在所有的边境上，中国移民以一种可怕的冰川一般的缓慢而坚定的势头蔓延到邻近的领土。

继勃彻特的数字提出报 警后，法国在被长期威胁后，于1970年作了一个决定。那时 法属印度支那已完全被中国移民占领。 法国人要求停止。 却无法阻挡来自中国的人流。 法国在她不幸的殖民地和中国之间的边界集结了十万部队，中国派出了一百万民兵战士。 后面跟着战士的妻子和儿子，女儿和亲属，以及他们的家庭行李，组成第二集团军。 于是法国部队像一只苍蝇一样被拍死了。 然后中国民兵战士与他们的家人一起共超过五百万人冷静地在法属印度支那落户并计划停留个几千年。

法国愤怒了。 她派出一艘又一艘舰队开往中国沿海，并为此几乎倾家荡产。 中国没有海军。 她撤回到内陆并拒绝回应。 对于法国舰队封锁她的海岸并轰炸暴露的城镇和村庄。 中国并不介意。她对这个世界无所要求，也不在乎他们。 平静地撤离法国枪炮的范围后，中国继续工作。 法国哭了，绞着她的无能的双手，呼吁其它惊呆了的国家支援。 随后，她派遣一支队伍大胆地深入中国，计划到北京兴师问罪。这支队伍由二十五万强大的战士组成，是法国之花。这种队伍的登陆和进入内地都没有遭受任何抵 抗。 但这是最后一次见到它。 在第二天这支队伍就失去了联络。 没有一个幸存者回来告诉人们发生了什么事。 它已被中国的血盆大口吞噬，这是人们知道的所有消息。

在随后的五年中，中国在所有的边境的方向，在快速地扩张。 暹罗成为了帝国的一部分，并且缅甸，马来半岛也被侵占，而沿西伯利亚南部边界，俄罗斯被中国人一步步推进。 这个入侵的过程很简单。 首先出现中国移民（或者更确切地说，中国人已经在那里，不知不觉地居留和扩张长达数年）。 接下来出现是武装冲突和扫荡所有反对派的民兵战士大军，以及他们的家庭和家庭行李。 最后作为殖民者在征服的领土安定下来。 从未有这么奇怪和有效的方法可以征服世界。

中国人进入尼泊尔和不丹，和整个印度北部边界。 在西部，布哈拉，南部和西部，阿富汗，甚至被吞噬。 波斯，突厥，与所有中亚都感受到这种洪水一般的压力。 正是在这个时候，勃彻特修改他的数字。 他已经错了。 中国的人口，必须是7亿，8亿，没有人知道多少亿，但无论如何，这将很快成为十个亿。 勃彻特宣布世界上的每一个白皮肤的人类后面都有两个中国人与之对应，于是世界颤抖了。 中国的增长应该已经开始很久了，可能始于1904年。 有人记得自该日起，中国再没有发生一次饥荒。 并以五百万一年的速率增加，在七十多年的时间里总人口会增加三亿五千万。 但谁知道？ 实际上可能有更多的人口。 谁会知道这个陌生的二十世纪的中国，返老还童的中国，富有成效的中国，咄咄逼人的具有威胁性的新中国会怎么样！

1975 年全世界在费城举行了大会。 所有的西方国家，以及东方的几个国家，派代表出席了会议。 没有达成任何结论。 有国家建议奖励生育提高出生率，但被算术家嘲笑着指出，在这一方面已经没有任何国家能超过中国。 没有人能提出应对中国的可行的办法。 用联合国权力谴责和威胁中国，是这次费城会议和国际力量唯一做到的事情，中国笑了。 李唐福，皇座背后的力量，屈尊回复。

“中国为什么要 为什么国际大家庭的和谐负责？说：”李唐福说。 “我们是最古老的，光荣的，高贵的种族。 我们有我们自己的天命要完成。 抱歉我们的天命与你们不同这一点不令你们感到愉快，但是是你们你们会怎么做？ 你们曾经也饶舌过什么高人一等的种族啦，全地球是你们的财产啦，对此我们只能说，还得走着瞧。 你们侵入不了我们。你们的海军无足轻重。 不要大喊大叫。 我们知道我们的海军规模是很小的。我们的海军仅有治安的用途。 我们不在乎海样。 我们的优势在于我们的人口，将很快成为十个亿。 多亏了你们，我们配备了所有现代战争的机械装备。 把你们的海军送过来啊。 我们不会注意到它们的。 你们也可以向内地讨伐，但要记住法国的前车之鉴。 你们可以驻扎50万士兵在我们的海岸，这将消耗掉你们的大量的资源。 但我们亿万人会将你们一口吞下。 发一百万过来;发五百万过来，我们会一样吞他们下来。 哈哈！ 灭掉你们的部队简直不足一提，小菜一碟。我们可以发动一千万苦力到你美国的海岸，像你们曾经威胁我们一样灭掉你们，而这一千万仅仅是我们的每年人口增长数 额的一半。“

对于李唐福的发言。 世界不知所措，无助，害怕。 他说出了真相。 没有办法打击中国的惊人的出生率。 如果她的人口为十亿，并在二十五年内一年增加二千万，最后将是十五亿，等于世界总人口在1904年的总和。 而且。 没有办法阻止这种恐怖的如滔天洪水般的人口过度繁衍和蔓延。 战争对此是徒劳的。 中国嘲笑着打算封锁她海岸线的计划。 她欢迎入侵。 在她宽敞的肚子里容得下集全世界之力派出来的队伍。 在此期间，她的黄色人种的洪流会席卷整个亚洲。 中国笑了，并通过他们的杂志阅读学习心神不定的西方学者贡献的专著。

但有一个学者中国人未能注意到，这就是雅克布斯.兰宁道尔学者。 实际上他被称为是一个学者也是很勉强的。 雅克布斯.兰宁道尔是一个科学家，而且在那个时候，也还只是一个很不起眼的在纽约市卫生局实验室工作的科学家。 雅克布斯.兰宁道尔的头脑和其他人区别不大，但在这头脑中，逐渐形成了一种想法。 此外，他的智慧足以使他为这个主意保密。 他没有为杂志写任何的文章。 相反，他专门为此休了假。 1975年9月19日，他于傍晚抵达华盛顿，接着直奔白宫，一次与总统的密谈已经被安排好。 他与总统莫耶是密谈了三个小时。 密谈的内容直到长时间之后才被世界各地所了解，而当时世界上还没有人对雅克布斯.兰宁道尔感兴趣。 第二天，总统召见他的内阁。 雅克布斯.兰宁道尔出席了会议。会议内容完全保密。 但是，当天下午，国务卿，鲁弗斯考德里离开华盛顿，并在第二天早上坐船到了英国。 之后这个秘密开始蔓延，但只在政府首脑之间传播。这个国家只有不到六个人被信任并告知这个想法。 之后这个想法开始在所有的造船厂，兵工厂，海军码头实施。 法国和奥地利的人们开始怀疑这些不正常的行动，但政府对此未知的项目进行保密的呼吁是如此诚恳，最后这些活动得到了默许。

这是伟大的休战 时间。 所有国家都庄严承诺自己不与任何其他国家打仗。 俄罗斯，德国，奥地利，意大利，希腊和土耳其的军队开始逐步动员，第一波行动开始。 力量集结后开始向东移动。 所有铁路上都充斥着到亚洲的部队的列车。中国是这一切行动的最终目标。 过了一段时间后，庞大的海上行动。 来自各个国家的远洋军舰远征而出，舰队随后，一直到中国沿海。 国家清空了他们的海军码头。 他们派出了预算官，工兵，和灯塔守护者，他们派出了过去陈旧的巡洋舰和战舰。 同时他们开始招募商船加入。 统计表明，共有58640艏商船，配备探照灯和速射火炮，由各国开往中国。

中国在微笑地等待着。 在她的土地边，沿着她的国界，驻扎了以百万计的欧洲战士。 她动员了五倍于此的民兵等待入侵。 这次看来与上次一样。 但中国突然感到困惑。因为这支庞大的队伍并没有开始入侵。 她无法理解这一现象。 广大的西伯利亚边境一切都归于平静。 她的海岸城镇和村庄甚至没有遭到炮轰。 在世界历史上，从来没有过如此强大的战争舰队的聚集。 世界上所有的船队，百万吨的战舰聚集在她的海岸线上，却什么都没有发生。 没有任何尝试。 他们想使她离开她的地盘吗？ 中国笑了。 他们以为能够厌倦死她，或饿死她吗？ 中国又笑了。

但是，1976年5月1日，在京师那一千一百万人口的城市中，一位市民将目睹一个奇怪 的景象。 他看到喧闹着的黄种人民众挤满了街道，每一个排在一起的头都向后倾斜，每一双吊梢眼都转向天空。 在蓝色的天空中，他会看见一个黑色的小点，小点越变越大，可以确定是艘飞艇。 这个飞艇盘旋在城市上空来回飞行，降下奇特而无害的“导弹”：易碎的玻璃试管，在街道和房子的顶部粉碎成数以千计的碎片。 但是，并没有任何人因这些玻璃试管丧命。 什么都没有发生。 也没有爆炸。 虽然三名中国人被掉在他们头上的试管砸死了，但对于每年增长两千万的中国来说这算得上什么？ 一个试管掉在花园中的鱼塘里，并没有破裂。 这家的主人把它捞上岸。 但他不敢打开这管子，于是，他在他的朋友的陪同下，通过数量不断增加的围观人群，将试管交给了所在地区的长官。 长官是一个非常勇敢的人。 在群众的注视下，他用他的黄铜烟管打碎了试管。 结果什么都没有发生。 比较靠近的一两个人声称他们看到一些蚊子飞了出去。 这就是全部的情况。 人群大笑后四散而去。

不仅是北京，整个中国都在被这些玻璃管轰炸着。 小飞艇从军舰上出发，每艇仅有两人，他们盘旋着经过所有城市，乡镇，村，一人指挥船，另一人投掷玻璃管。

六 个星期后，如果有人再次在北京出现，他会发现一千一百万人大都不知所终。 他也许会看到其中的一少部分，大约几十万人，他们的尸体溃烂，分散在房屋和无人的街道上 或是堆积在被丢弃的堆得高高的运尸车上。 而其他人会分布在帝国各个公路和小道上。 所有人都在逃离鼠疫灾区，远离北京，成千上万的人撇下未掩埋的尸体，火速撤离。 但瘟疫不仅仅发生在北京，而是发生在帝国所有的城市，城镇，和村庄。 瘟疫毁掉了这个国家。 不是一种两种瘟疫，而是十几种的瘟疫。各种致命的传染病都在大地上快速蔓延。 直到此时，中国政府终于理解了之前的准备工作，来自世界的舰队，锡制飞艇，和玻璃试管的含义。 政府文件是徒劳的。 他们无法阻止人口从鼠疫灾区逃离，把疾病从北京一个城市传到所有的土地。 医生和卫生官员死在自己的岗位上，一切都已经被死亡征服了，无视皇帝和李唐福的法令。 李唐福死在第二个星期，皇帝隐藏在颐和园里，死在第四个星期。

如 果当时只流行一种瘟疫，中国有可能应付。 但当时流行了十几种瘟疫，没有生物对此全部免疫。 从猩红热前逃脱的人被天花带走了。 对霍乱免疫的人被黄热病带走了，如果有幸免疫，黑死病也能把他带走。 这些细菌，病菌和微生物在西方的实验室被培养，又通过玻璃试管送到中国。

然 后所有组织消失。 政府崩溃了。 当签订条款的人几天后就会死去的时候，法令和宣言毫无用处。数以百万计的逃亡者在这片土地上狂奔，什么都顾不上。 他们把传染病从城市带到农村，，无论他们逃到哪里，就把灾祸带到哪里。届时正值 炎热的夏季，这是雅克布斯兰宁道尔精心挑选的日期，因此瘟疫到处肆虐。 人们已经无法知道到底发生了什么事情，只能从为数不多的幸存者的故事中了解只言片语。 生物袭击使整个帝国充斥着逃亡者。 广大军队在从中国的边界消失了。 农场充斥着被糟蹋的庄稼，无人下种，地里生长的庄稼无人看管，也无人收获。 这里最大的问题是流民。 他们集结成几百万的群体，冲向被西方的巨大军队封锁的帝国边界，与其遭遇，并被驱赶回去。 这场在边界线上的屠杀是惊人的。 防卫线再次后退二三十公里以躲避众多死者的传染。

但瘟疫还是爆发了，守卫边境的德国和奥地利的士兵以及土耳其士兵被击倒。虽然已经为 这种情况的发生做了准备，依然有欧洲的六万名士兵因此倒下，但疫区随即被国际医生集团免疫隔离。 但是在这场斗争中，有人发现了一种新的鼠疫病菌，它来自于鼠疫病菌之间以及与其他病菌之间的杂交，从而产生了一个新的且可怕致命的菌种。 首先由温伯格发现，并怀疑其为致病菌，后来被史蒂文斯分离，并被海恩法特，诺曼和兰德斯研究。

这是对中国的一次前所未有的入侵。 对于这十几亿人来说，他们毫无希望。 只能蜷缩在停尸的房子里面腐烂和发臭，失去所有的组织力和凝聚力，他们的一切努力都化为乌有，只能等待死亡。 他们无法逃脱，被从自己的陆地边界驱赶回来，也被从海洋边界驱赶回来。 因为有七万五千艘军舰在沿海岸线巡逻。 白天，军舰排风口的烟雾的使海面暗淡，夜间，闪烁着的探照灯扫过黑暗，找到每一艘逃跑的中国帆船。 数量庞大的帆船船队没有一艘能逃得了的。 没有人能越得过巡洋舰的范围。 现代战争机械阻碍了中国人的杂乱无章的逃亡，而瘟疫继续做它该做的事。

但旧的战争模式在这里已经被彻底的 笑话和嘲弄，除了巡逻执勤之外它似乎也只值一晒。 中国曾经嘲笑战争，于是她得到了战争，但这是超现代的战争，二十世纪的战争，来自战争科学家和实验室，是雅克布斯兰宁道尔的战争。 几百吨的枪支和实验室制造的可供投掷的微生物制剂相比，就如玩具一般，后者才是真正的死亡使者，横行在十亿人口的大国上空的毁灭天使。

在 1976年的夏季和秋季，中国是一个地狱。 微生物武器到达了每一个最偏远的藏身地，无处躲避。未掩埋的尸体繁衍着细菌导致传染能力翻倍，最后，每天数百万人死于饥饿。 此外，饥饿削弱了受害者的身体，并摧毁他们对瘟疫的天然免疫能力。 整个国家陷入了自相残杀，谋杀和疯狂之中。 至此，中国灭亡。

直到次 年2月，在最寒冷的天气中，各国开始了小心翼翼的第一次远征。 这支探险队伍由科学家和专职部队组成，他们从各个侧面进入中国。 尽管采取了最详尽的抗感染预防措施，依然有数位士兵和医生染病致死。 但是远征勇敢地继续了下去。 他们发现中国满目疮痍，到处都是萧瑟的旷野，只有成群的野狗和和绝望的幸存者们像土匪一样地徘徊。 所有发现的幸存者都被当即处死。 然后开始了一项庞大的工程，彻底地把中国打扫干净。 五年的时间内，亿万珠宝被找到并搜走，然后全世界人民都迁入了中国，不是分区居住，而是杂居而处——这是阿尔布雷希特男爵提出的想法，并根据美国的民主程 序实施。 1982年及其以后，大批兴高采烈的各个国家民族在1982年和随后的几年里共同落户中国，成为一个巨大的且成功的民族混合实验。 并产生了在机械，智力和艺术方面的辉煌产出。

1987年，全世界的联盟已经解散，法国和德国再次因为阿尔萨斯 – 洛林地区的古老争议争敌对起来。 到了四月，战争的威胁和阴影再次降临这个世界，于是4月17日一场大会在哥本哈根召开。所有世界国家的代表全部出现，并一致严肃地宣誓永远不会把用于中国 的实验室战争方法用于他们彼此之间的战争中。

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THE UNPARALLELED INVASION

It was in the year 1976 that the trouble between the world and China reached its culmination. It was because of this that the celebration of the Second Centennial of American Liberty was deferred. Many other plans of the nations of the earth were twisted and tangled and postponed for the same reason. The world awoke rather abruptly to its danger; but for over seventy years, unperceived, affairs had been shaping toward this very end.
The year 1904 logically marks the beginning of the development that, seventy years later, was to bring consternation to the whole world. The Japanese-Russian War took place in 1904, and the historians of the time gravely noted it down that that event marked the entrance of Japan into the comity of nations. What it really did mark was the awakening of China. This awakening, long expected, had finally been given up. The Western nations had tried to arouse China, and they had failed. Out of their native optimism and race-egotism they had therefore concluded that the task was impossible, that China would never awaken.

What they had failed to take into account was this: THAT BETWEEN THEM AND CHINA WAS NO COMMON PSYCHOLOGICAL SPEECH. Their thought- processes were radically dissimilar. There was no intimate vocabulary. The Western mind penetrated the Chinese mind but a short distance when it found itself in a fathomless maze. The Chinese mind penetrated the Western mind an equally short distance when it fetched up against a blank, incomprehensible wall. It was all a matter of language. There was no way to communicate Western ideas to the Chinese mind. China remained asleep. The material achievement and progress of the West was a closed book to her; nor could the West open the book. Back and deep down on the tie-ribs of consciousness, in the mind, say, of the English-speaking race, was a capacity to thrill to short, Saxon words; back and deep down on the tie-ribs of consciousness of the Chinese mind was a capacity to thrill to its own hieroglyphics; but the Chinese mind could not thrill to short, Saxon words; nor could the English-speaking mind thrill to hieroglyphics. The fabrics of their minds were woven from totally different stuffs. They were mental aliens. And so it was that Western material achievement and progress made no dent on the rounded sleep of China.

Came Japan and her victory over Russia in 1904. Now the Japanese race was the freak and paradox among Eastern peoples. In some strange way Japan was receptive to all the West had to offer. Japan swiftly assimilated the Western ideas, and digested them, and so capably applied them that she suddenly burst forth, full- panoplied, a world-power. There is no explaining this peculiar openness of Japan to the alien culture of the West. As well might be explained any biological sport in the animal kingdom.

Having decisively thrashed the great Russian Empire, Japan promptly set about dreaming a colossal dream of empire for herself. Korea she had made into a granary and a colony; treaty privileges and vulpine diplomacy gave her the monopoly of Manchuria. But Japan was not satisfied. She turned her eyes upon China. There lay a vast territory, and in that territory were the hugest deposits in the world of iron and coal - the backbone of industrial civilization. Given natural resources, the other great factor in industry is labour. In that territory was a population of 400,000,000 souls - one quarter of the then total population of the earth. Furthermore, the Chinese were excellent workers, while their fatalistic philosophy (or religion) and their stolid nervous organization constituted them splendid soldiers - if they were properly managed. Needless to say, Japan was prepared to furnish that management.

But best of all, from the standpoint of Japan, the Chinese was a kindred race. The baffling enigma of the Chinese character to the West was no baffling enigma to the Japanese. The Japanese understood as we could never school ourselves or hope to understand. Their mental processes were the same. The Japanese thought with the same thought-symbols as did the Chinese, and they thought in the same peculiar grooves. Into the Chinese mind the Japanese went on where we were balked by the obstacle of incomprehension. They took the turning which we could not perceive, twisted around the obstacle, and were out of sight in the ramifications of the Chinese mind where we could not follow. They were brothers. Long ago one had borrowed the other's written language, and, untold generations before that, they had diverged from the common Mongol stock. There had been changes, differentiations brought about by diverse conditions and infusions of other blood; but down at the bottom of their beings, twisted into the fibres of them, was a heritage in common, a sameness in kind that time had not obliterated.

And so Japan took upon herself the management of China. In the years immediately following the war with Russia, her agents swarmed over the Chinese Empire. A thousand miles beyond the last mission station toiled her engineers and spies, clad as coolies, under the guise of itinerant merchants or proselytizing Buddhist priests, noting down the horse-power of every waterfall, the likely sites for factories, the heights of mountains and passes, the strategic advantages and weaknesses, the wealth of the farming valleys, the number of bullocks in a district or the number of labourers that could be collected by forced levies. Never was there such a census, and it could have been taken by no other people than the dogged, patient, patriotic Japanese.

But in a short time secrecy was thrown to the winds. Japan's officers reorganized the Chinese army; her drill sergeants made the mediaeval warriors over into twentieth century soldiers, accustomed to all the modern machinery of war and with a higher average of marksmanship than the soldiers of any Western nation. The engineers of Japan deepened and widened the intricate system of canals, built factories and foundries, netted the empire with telegraphs and telephones, and inaugurated the era of railroad- building. It was these same protagonists of machine-civilization that discovered the great oil deposits of Chunsan, the iron mountains of Whang-Sing, the copper ranges of Chinchi, and they sank the gas wells of Wow-Wee, that most marvellous reservoir of natural gas in all the world.

In China's councils of empire were the Japanese emissaries. In the ears of the statesmen whispered the Japanese statesmen. The political reconstruction of the Empire was due to them. They evicted the scholar class, which was violently reactionary, and put into office progressive officials. And in every town and city of the Empire newspapers were started. Of course, Japanese editors ran the policy of these papers, which policy they got direct from Tokio. It was these papers that educated and made progressive the great mass of the population.

China was at last awake. Where the West had failed, Japan succeeded. She had transmuted Western culture and achievement into terms that were intelligible to the Chinese understanding. Japan herself, when she so suddenly awakened, had astounded the world. But at the time she was only forty millions strong. China's awakening, with her four hundred millions and the scientific advance of the world, was frightfully astounding. She was the colossus of the nations, and swiftly her voice was heard in no uncertain tones in the affairs and councils of the nations. Japan egged her on, and the proud Western peoples listened with respectful ears.

China's swift and remarkable rise was due, perhaps more than to anything else, to the superlative quality of her labour. The Chinese was the perfect type of industry. He had always been that. For sheer ability to work no worker in the world could compare with him. Work was the breath of his nostrils. It was to him what wandering and fighting in far lands and spiritual adventure had been to other peoples. Liberty, to him, epitomized itself in access to the means of toil. To till the soil and labour interminably was all he asked of life and the powers that be. And the awakening of China had given its vast population not merely free and unlimited access to the means of toil, but access to the highest and most scientific machine-means of toil.

China rejuvenescent! It was but a step to China rampant. She discovered a new pride in herself and a will of her own. She began to chafe under the guidance of Japan, but she did not chafe long. On Japan's advice, in the beginning, she had expelled from the Empire all Western missionaries, engineers, drill sergeants, merchants, and teachers. She now began to expel the similar representatives of Japan. The latter's advisory statesmen were showered with honours and decorations, and sent home. The West had awakened Japan, and, as Japan had then requited the West, Japan was not requited by China. Japan was thanked for her kindly aid and flung out bag and baggage by her gigantic protege. The Western nations chuckled. Japan's rainbow dream had gone glimmering. She grew angry. China laughed at her. The blood and the swords of the Samurai would out, and Japan rashly went to war. This occurred in 1922, and in seven bloody months Manchuria, Korea, and Formosa were taken away from her and she was hurled back, bankrupt, to stifle in her tiny, crowded islands. Exit Japan from the world drama. Thereafter she devoted herself to art, and her task became to please the world greatly with her creations of wonder and beauty.

Contrary to expectation, China did not prove warlike. She had no Napoleonic dream, and was content to devote herself to the arts of peace. After a time of disquiet, the idea was accepted that China was to be feared, not in war, but in commerce. It will be seen that the real danger was not apprehended. China went on consummating her machine-civilization. Instead of a large standing army, she developed an immensely larger and splendidly efficient militia. Her navy was so small that it was the laughing stock of the world; nor did she attempt to strengthen her navy. The treaty ports of the world were never entered by her visiting battleships.

The real danger lay in the fecundity of her loins, and it was in 1970 that the first cry of alarm was raised. For some time all territories adjacent to China had been grumbling at Chinese immigration; but now it suddenly came home to the world that China's population was 500,000,000. She had increased by a hundred millions since her awakening. Burchaldter called attention to the fact that there were more Chinese in existence than white-skinned people. He performed a simple sum in arithmetic. He added together the populations of the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, European Russia, and all Scandinavia. The result was 495,000,000. And the population of China overtopped this tremendous total by 5,000,000. Burchaldter's figures went round the world, and the world shivered.

For many centuries China's population had been constant. Her territory had been saturated with population; that is to say, her territory, with the primitive method of production, had supported the maximum limit of population. But when she awoke and inaugurated the machine-civilization, her productive power had been enormously increased. Thus, on the same territory, she was able to support a far larger population. At once the birth rate began to rise and the death rate to fall. Before, when population pressed against the means of subsistence, the excess population had been swept away by famine. But now, thanks to the machine-civilization, China's means of subsistence had been enormously extended, and there were no famines; her population followed on the heels of the increase in the means of subsistence.

During this time of transition and development of power, China had entertained no dreams of conquest. The Chinese was not an imperial race. It was industrious, thrifty, and peace-loving. War was looked upon as an unpleasant but necessary task that at times must be performed. And so, while the Western races had squabbled and fought, and world-adventured against one another, China had calmly gone on working at her machines and growing. Now she was spilling over the boundaries of her Empire - that was all, just spilling over into the adjacent territories with all the certainty and terrifying slow momentum of a glacier.

Following upon the alarm raised by Burchaldter's figures, in 1970 France made a long-threatened stand. French Indo-China had been overrun, filled up, by Chinese immigrants. France called a halt. The Chinese wave flowed on. France assembled a force of a hundred thousand on the boundary between her unfortunate colony and China, and China sent down an army of militia-soldiers a million strong. Behind came the wives and sons and daughters and relatives, with their personal household luggage, in a second army. The French force was brushed aside like a fly. The Chinese militia-soldiers, along with their families, over five millions all told, coolly took possession of French Indo-China and settled down to stay for a few thousand years.

Outraged France was in arms. She hurled fleet after fleet against the coast of China, and nearly bankrupted herself by the effort. China had no navy. She withdrew like a turtle into her shell. For a year the French fleets blockaded the coast and bombarded exposed towns and villages. China did not mind. She did not depend upon the rest of the world for anything. She calmly kept out of range of the French guns and went on working. France wept and wailed, wrung her impotent hands and appealed to the dumfounded nations. Then she landed a punitive expedition to march to Peking. It was two hundred and fifty thousand strong, and it was the flower of France. It landed without opposition and marched into the interior. And that was the last ever seen of it. The line of communication was snapped on the second day. Not a survivor came back to tell what had happened. It had been swallowed up in China's cavernous maw, that was all.

In the five years that followed, China's expansion, in all land directions, went on apace. Siam was made part of the Empire, and, in spite of all that England could do, Burma and the Malay Peninsula were overrun; while all along the long south boundary of Siberia, Russia was pressed severely by China's advancing hordes. The process was simple. First came the Chinese immigration (or, rather, it was already there, having come there slowly and insidiously during the previous years). Next came the clash of arms and the brushing away of all opposition by a monster army of militia-soldiers, followed by their families and household baggage. And finally came their settling down as colonists in the conquered territory. Never was there so strange and effective a method of world conquest.

Napal and Bhutan were overrun, and the whole northern boundary of India pressed against by this fearful tide of life. To the west, Bokhara, and, even to the south and west, Afghanistan, were swallowed up. Persia, Turkestan, and all Central Asia felt the pressure of the flood. It was at this time that Burchaldter revised his figures. He had been mistaken. China's population must be seven hundred millions, eight hundred millions, nobody knew how many millions, but at any rate it would soon be a billion. There were two Chinese for every white-skinned human in the world, Burchaldter announced, and the world trembled. China's increase must have begun immediately, in 1904. It was remembered that since that date there had not been a single famine. At 5,000,000 a year increase, her total increase in the intervening seventy years must be 350,000,000. But who was to know? It might be more. Who was to know anything of this strange new menace of the twentieth century - China, old China, rejuvenescent, fruitful, and militant!

The Convention of 1975 was called at Philadelphia. All the Western nations, and some few of the Eastern, were represented. Nothing was accomplished. There was talk of all countries putting bounties on children to increase the birth rate, but it was laughed to scorn by the arithmeticians, who pointed out that China was too far in the lead in that direction. No feasible way of coping with China was suggested. China was appealed to and threatened by the United Powers, and that was all the Convention of Philadelphia came to; and the Convention and the Powers were laughed at by China. Li Tang Fwung, the power behind the Dragon Throne, deigned to reply.

"What does China care for the comity of nations?" said Li Tang Fwung. "We are the most ancient, honourable, and royal of races. We have our own destiny to accomplish. It is unpleasant that our destiny does not tally with the destiny of the rest of the world, but what would you? You have talked windily about the royal races and the heritage of the earth, and we can only reply that that remains to be seen. You cannot invade us. Never mind about your navies. Don't shout. We know our navy is small. You see we use it for police purposes. We do not care for the sea. Our strength is in our population, which will soon be a billion. Thanks to you, we are equipped with all modern war-machinery. Send your navies. We will not notice them. Send your punitive expeditions, but first remember France. To land half a million soldiers on our shores would strain the resources of any of you. And our thousand millions would swallow them down in a mouthful. Send a million; send five millions, and we will swallow them down just as readily. Pouf! A mere nothing, a meagre morsel. Destroy, as you have threatened, you United States, the ten million coolies we have forced upon your shores - why, the amount scarcely equals half of our excess birth rate for a year."

So spoke Li Tang Fwung. The world was nonplussed, helpless, terrified. Truly had he spoken. There was no combating China's amazing birth rate. If her population was a billion, and was increasing twenty millions a year, in twenty-five years it would be a billion and a half - equal to the total population of the world in 1904. And nothing could be done. There was no way to dam up the over-spilling monstrous flood of life. War was futile. China laughed at a blockade of her coasts. She welcomed invasion. In her capacious maw was room for all the hosts of earth that could be hurled at her. And in the meantime her flood of yellow life poured out and on over Asia. China laughed and read in their magazines the learned lucubrations of the distracted Western scholars.

But there was one scholar China failed to reckon on - Jacobus Laningdale. Not that he was a scholar, except in the widest sense. Primarily, Jacobus Laningdale was a scientist, and, up to that time, a very obscure scientist, a professor employed in the laboratories of the Health Office of New York City. Jacobus Laningdale's head was very like any other head, but in that head was evolved an idea. Also, in that head was the wisdom to keep that idea secret. He did not write an article for the magazines. Instead, he asked for a vacation. On September 19, 1975, he arrived in Washington. It was evening, but he proceeded straight to the White House, for he had already arranged an audience with the President. He was closeted with President Moyer for three hours. What passed between them was not learned by the rest of the world until long after; in fact, at that time the world was not interested in Jacobus Laningdale. Next day the President called in his Cabinet. Jacobus Laningdale was present. The proceedings were kept secret. But that very afternoon Rufus Cowdery, Secretary of State, left Washington, and early the following morning sailed for England. The secret that he carried began to spread, but it spread only among the heads of Governments. Possibly half-a-dozen men in a nation were entrusted with the idea that had formed in Jacobus Laningdale's head. Following the spread of the secret, sprang up great activity in all the dockyards, arsenals, and navy-yards. The people of France and Austria became suspicious, but so sincere were their Governments' calls for confidence that they acquiesced in the unknown project that was afoot.

This was the time of the Great Truce. All countries pledged themselves solemnly not to go to war with any other country. The first definite action was the gradual mobilization of the armies of Russia, Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece, and Turkey. Then began the eastward movement. All railroads into Asia were glutted with troop trains. China was the objective, that was all that was known. A little later began the great sea movement. Expeditions of warships were launched from all countries. Fleet followed fleet, and all proceeded to the coast of China. The nations cleaned out their navy-yards. They sent their revenue cutters and dispatch boots and lighthouse tenders, and they sent their last antiquated cruisers and battleships. Not content with this, they impressed the merchant marine. The statistics show that 58,640 merchant steamers, equipped with searchlights and rapid-fire guns, were despatched by the various nations to China.

And China smiled and waited. On her land side, along her boundaries, were millions of the warriors of Europe. She mobilized five times as many millions of her militia and awaited the invasion. On her sea coasts she did the same. But China was puzzled. After all this enormous preparation, there was no invasion. She could not understand. Along the great Siberian frontier all was quiet. Along her coasts the towns and villages were not even shelled. Never, in the history of the world, had there been so mighty a gathering of war fleets. The fleets of all the world were there, and day and night millions of tons of battleships ploughed the brine of her coasts, and nothing happened. Nothing was attempted. Did they think to make her emerge from her shell? China smiled. Did they think to tire her out, or starve her out? China smiled again.

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 identified as 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 rain of 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.

All organization vanished. The government crumbled away. Decrees and proclamations were useless when the men who made them and signed them one moment were dead the next. Nor could the maddened millions, spurred on to flight by death, pause to heed anything. They fled from the cities to infect the country, and wherever they fled they carried the plagues with them. The hot summer was on - Jacobus Laningdale had selected the time shrewdly - and the plague festered everywhere. Much is conjectured of what occurred, and much has been learned from the stories of the few survivors. The wretched creatures stormed across the Empire in many-millioned flight. The vast armies China had collected on her frontiers melted away. The farms were ravaged for food, and no more crops were planted, while the crops already in were left unattended and never came to harvest. The most remarkable thing, perhaps, was the flights. Many millions engaged in them, charging to the bounds of the Empire to be met and turned back by the gigantic armies of the West. The slaughter of the mad hosts on the boundaries was stupendous. Time and again the guarding line was drawn back twenty or thirty miles to escape the contagion of the multitudinous dead.

Once the plague broke through and seized upon the German and Austrian soldiers who were guarding the borders of Turkestan. Preparations had been made for such a happening, and though sixty thousand soldiers of Europe were carried off, the international corps of physicians isolated the contagion and dammed it back. It was during this struggle that it was suggested that a new plague- germ had originated, that in some way or other a sort of hybridization between plague-germs had taken place, producing a new and frightfully virulent germ. First suspected by Vomberg, who became infected with it and died, it was later isolated and studied by Stevens, Hazenfelt, Norman, and Landers.

Such was the unparalleled invasion of China. For that billion of people there was no hope. Pent in their vast and festering charnel-house, all organization and cohesion lost, they could do naught but die. They could not escape. As they were flung back from their land frontiers, so were they flung back from the sea. Seventy-five thousand vessels patrolled the coasts. By day their smoking funnels dimmed the sea-rim, and by night their flashing searchlights ploughed the dark and harrowed it for the tiniest escaping junk. The attempts of the immense fleets of junks were pitiful. Not one ever got by the guarding sea-hounds. Modern war- machinery held back the disorganized mass of China, while the plagues did the work.

But old War was made a thing of laughter. Naught remained to him but patrol duty. China had laughed at war, and war she was getting, but it was ultra-modern war, twentieth century war, the war of the scientist and the laboratory, the war of Jacobus Laningdale. Hundred-ton guns were toys compared with the micro- organic projectiles hurled from the laboratories, the messengers of death, the destroying angels that stalked through the empire of a billion souls.

During all the summer and fall of 1976 China was an inferno. There was no eluding the microscopic projectiles that sought out the remotest hiding-places. The hundreds of millions of dead remained unburied and the germs multiplied themselves, and, toward the last, millions died daily of starvation. Besides, starvation weakened the victims and destroyed their natural defences against the plagues. Cannibalism, murder, and madness reigned. And so perished China.

Not until the following February, in the coldest weather, were the first expeditions made. These expeditions were small, composed of scientists and bodies of troops; but they entered China from every side. In spite of the most elaborate precautions against infection, numbers of soldiers and a few of the physicians were stricken. But the exploration went bravely on. They found China devastated, a howling wilderness through which wandered bands of wild dogs and desperate bandits who had survived. All survivors were put to death wherever found. And then began the great task, the sanitation of China. Five years and hundreds of millions of treasure were consumed, and then the world moved in - not in zones, as was the idea of Baron Albrecht, but heterogeneously, according to the democratic American programme. It was a vast and happy intermingling of nationalities that settled down in China in 1982 and the years that followed - a tremendous and successful experiment in cross-fertilization. We know to-day the splendid mechanical, intellectual, and art output that followed.

It was in 1987, the Great Truce having been dissolved, that the ancient quarrel between France and Germany over Alsace-Lorraine recrudesced. The war-cloud grew dark and threatening in April, and on April 17 the Convention of Copenhagen was called. The representatives of the nations of the world, being present, all nations solemnly pledged themselves never to use against one another the laboratory methods of warfare they had employed in the invasion of China.