COVID 38

COVID 38 was a worldwide bug infestation that came about as a result of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War. It was one of the most significant in game events in GS6 as it affected every continent and almost every country on Earth.

Background
By 1938, the 2nd Sino-Japanese War had started to grind into a stalemate. Conquerus, the Japan player, was looking for ideas to break the stalemate. Having been inspired by a recent biology lesson and the Japanese having dropped plague infested flies and diseases in the real 2nd Sino-Japanese War, he devised a plan to cripple China and deal a decisive blow to end the war. He would name it Operation Sora no Boru meaning Operation Empty Bowl in Japanese.

Conq began collecting as many invasive species as he could. He reached out to his allies as well as other neutral countries in order to purchase their pests. He acquired water hyanciths, argentine ants and cane toads from Brazil, Russian wheat aphids from Iran and khapra beetles from Afghanistan.

Realising that invasive species are well, invasive, Conq also made sure to take precautionary measures in order to prevent the pests from reaching Japan or Manchukuo. He began purchasing ladybugs from Italy as well as stockpiling ladybugs from Manchukuo as ladybugs are natural predators of many of the pests that Conq had planned to drop on China. He also ordered that the aircraft drop the pests in more inland provinces rather than the ones bordering the frontlines. Furthermore, Conq mandated that people and things moving between Manchukuo and Japan or Korea and Japan had to be sanitised and checked for invasive species.

Sora no Boru
On the 14th of January 1938, two and a half thousand Japanese aircraft took off for China. They carried millions of bugs, seeds and toads with them. The Chinese managed to muster up about a thousand aircraft to counter them. Both sides inflicted heavy casualties on each other, but Japan was able to successfully complete the operation. The provinces of Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, Chongqing and Hubei, major wheat growing provinces of China, were hit by Russian wheat aphids, khapra beetles and argentine ants which prey on wheat. The provinces of Yunnan, Chongqing, Sichuan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangxi and Guizhou, major rice growing regions of China, were hit by water hyacinths and khapra beetles. Khapra beetles prey on rice crops too and water hyacinths clog up rice paddies. The provinces of Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, Chongqing, Yunnan, Guangzi, Guangdong and Hubei, major livestock and sugarcane growing regions of China, were hit by cane toads. Cane toads eat sugarcane and when consumed by livestock are extremely poisonous.

Problems
While the initial air raid appeared to be a success, there were several issues with Operation Sora no Boru.

The Chinese government was very quick to address their pest problem. They ordered Chinese citizens to eat many of the pests both to keep the pest population down and for sustenance if they were starving. The Chinese also ordered wheat fields to be sprayed with pesticides and started breeding ladybugs.

Another problem that Conq had not anticipated was the rapid spread of the bugs. As China shared land borders with French Indochina and the British Raj, the pests dropped by Japan entered their territory. From there, they managed to make it onto British and French ships and entered Western Europe. From there, the pests spread around the world infecting Central Europe, Eastern Europe, the Americas and Australia. As a result of this, there was worldwide outrage towards Japan for inadvertedly introducing invasive species across the world. Furthermore, as Conq had not informed his allies Italy and Germany of his plans, they were equally as unprepared for the infestation as the Western Europeans.

Aftermath
COVID 38 was extremely consequential for GS6. It led to a global halt in international trade and commerce as well as several famines in Asia. As a result of it, Japan's global standing was severely diminised. While it had killed a great many Chinese people, the operation had failed in its primary goal of crippling China and bringing an end to the war. The Chinese would continue to mount stiff resistance against the Japanese onslaught until the end of GS6. Conq would continue devising new plans to try to gain the upper hand with his most notable being the Rape of Guangzhou, the Yangtze River Flooding and the Plague Bombings.