Chapter 179
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 179
Chapter Title: Vertical and Horizontal Alliances, San Francisco (13)
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“Comrade Major General Yang Yongbin. Why don’t you say something!”
Major General Xie Lu pointed directly at the man.
The Army Major General, who had been checking his watch again, lifted his head with a dignified demeanor. Before he could even speak, Major General Xie Lu pressed on, polite yet forcefully loud.
“Isn’t it because you share the same thoughts as me that you seized Treasure Island? If we join forces, our negotiating power will strengthen accordingly! The Americans will have to pay a much steeper price! I believe that the leadership of Comrade Major General will be essential for the new China that will be built in the future!”
Treasure Island was the direct translation of the artificial island. It was connected to the mainland by only a single four-lane round-trip road. The Army Major General had rammed a cargo ship into that choke point. It had happened before winter arrived.
The ship, stranded on the narrow land, became a fortress in itself. Just like how the Americans had stacked containers to block the mutant hordes. Occupying the rest of the island wouldn’t have been difficult.
‘Leadership is needed... huh.’
An implication of leading the community together. Not a concrete promise, but in a place with so many eyes watching, no greater offer could be made. It would ruin face.
Under Winter’s watchful gaze, the Army Major General smiled faintly.
“A new China, you say. You speak as if China has disappeared.”
The voice carried no malice, which made it feel all the more dangerous. The room fell silent at that soft, almost kindly tone. Even the hardliners who had been raising their voices hesitated. They too couldn’t naturally claim that China hadn’t vanished.
The Major General, fingers steepled on the table, continued in a gentle tone.
“A nation is spirit. All other elements are mere tools to embody that spirit. And soldiers are those who defend that spirit with honorable force in the most precarious moments. In other words.”
He pressed his chest with the lingering trace of a smile on his face.
“My homeland is right here. China has never disappeared, not even for a moment since ancient times. So it’s laughable to talk of revenge for a perished nation. In my view, everyone here is a traitor.”
Winter felt a dark premonition. Madness is most dangerous when rational. Why had April Pacific turned into such hell? Winter’s finger naturally slipped into the trigger guard.
Should he kill Army Major General Yang Yongbin right now? Including the hardliners?
No. Doing so wouldn’t delay whatever he was waiting for—the chances were infinitely low. Right now, he was just sitting there. A plan set in motion would proceed by inertia without the Major General’s interference. Otherwise, there’d be no reason for a coolly mad man to be in this seat. That was rational composure.
Moreover, there was no guarantee the firefight would go as desired. Major General Xie Lu could be protected somehow, but the rest’s survival would be up to luck.
「Insight」 continuously affirmed this chain of judgment.
No choice for now. Winter missed the comms channel that was almost noise-free. Satellite or directional signals couldn’t reach inside the ship. Leaving the room briefly was impossible too. He could only hope the CIA had noticed something.
Feeling the same ominous vibe, Major General Xie Lu’s shoulders stiffened.
“Comrade Major General, you’re turning a blind eye to reality. A nation isn’t something vague like spirit or philosophy. A nation is the people, the politics that guarantee their lives, and the totality of institutions and capital that practically support their livelihood. Gas, water, fuel, electricity, food! Tell me, how much of that remains? What do we have left?”
It wasn’t just aimed at the Army Major General. Her tirade spat at everyone.
“When is the next People’s Congress? Is the Chairman alive? Or can we expect orders from the Central Military Commission? Hell, is there even one army group with intact organization left?!”
Thud. The table shook from her forceful slam. Her commanding voice echoed through the room.
“Comrades! Acknowledge that China has fallen! Remember a soldier’s duty! The military isn’t a band of murderers! We must protect the future of the survivors! Revenge? Retaliation? Go ahead, I say! If it’s just, I won’t oppose it!”
Of course, just revenge didn’t exist.
‘Revenge is self-consolation for the living. It means nothing to the dead...’
Even if a million flowers were offered at the columbarium, would their scent reach the dead? The flowers’ beauty comforts only the living. The dead receive nothing.
Even if it was Winter’s private thought, it aligned with the Major General’s intent.
“Even if our surviving people are but a handful compared to the 1.36 billion before the apocalypse, we must value each surviving child more than the billion who perished! We can’t force that child to follow the dead!”
She pointed accusingly at the assembly.
“Even if the apocalypse was America’s doing! If you truly seek revenge! Shouldn’t you survive with the resolve to lick shit from the gutters? Victory belongs to those who endure to the last moment! What good is dying together? Brag in the afterlife! That we ended 4,000 years of Chinese history in mutual destruction with the enemy! Think the departed comrades will applaud? Ha, nonsense! You’re blinded by petty revenge and abandoning your duty!”
Her fervent rebuke thickened the air. For a moment, her heavy breathing echoed. Amid the suppressed silence, only Yang Yongbin, the Army Major General, remained unchanged. He still held that ambiguous composure. Transcendent, even.
Major General Xie Lu had likely never felt so righteous in her life. Never so sincere. Winter inwardly noted this without belittling her fervor. A fact learned after the boy’s death: life is constant revelation. Ongoing meaning-making reshapes the self. How many never shame their past selves?
Scolding someone that their flawed past disqualifies their current voice is inhumane. Winter believed in people’s potential to change. Even if rare. In the same vein, he wanted to believe the world could change positively someday.
Though doubts of “too late” endlessly repeated.
People reflect when their old self can’t navigate reality anymore.
In that sense, how symbolic was an apocalyptic world. Perfect for good dreams, Winter chided himself.
“Major General Xie Lu. Good words. Youthful passion overflows.”
Yang Yongbin, the Army Major General speaking thus, looked like a kindly neighborhood grandfather.
“You said the nation is the whole.”
What was the intent in revisiting her words?
“I won’t say you’re wrong. But shouldn’t we weigh the components’ importance?”
“What do you mean, Comrade?”
Even in questioning, Major General Xie Lu used “Comrade” diligently. Intentional rhetoric. One word changes the mood, as they say. Whether effective was questionable.
The elegantly aged Army Major General asked the Navy Major General.
“Hard to explain, but I’ll ask anyway. What are you?”
“...I don’t understand the intent.”
“I’m asking what kind of person this Xie Lu Major General is.”
“...”
“Just as you said China is the totality of the people and everything for the people, you are the totality of your spirit and all physical components. Arms, legs, intestines, kidneys, heart, bones, eyes, brain, ears, platelets and white blood cells, bone marrow, DNA, and delving deeper, iron, proteins, salts, and so on forming the person Xie Lu. Right?”
“Let’s say yes for now. Speak.”
“Good. Then one question. Suppose your arm is severed. Right arm gone. Where is Xie Lu then? The severed arm, or the larger mass with the head attached?”
Major General Xie Lu’s face darkened. She wasn’t foolish. She discerned the mad Army Major General’s intent. But the room’s atmosphere. That precarious balance prevented breaking the conversation. Crushing the Major General’s words would declare ignoring the opponent. That meant the meeting’s collapse.
“Both are me, but I’d feel regret from the side with more left.”
“Then again. Now assume you lose the left arm too. Where is Xie Lu? Left arm? Right arm? Or the torso with legs and head?”
“...”
“Continuing, limbs severed one by one, until only torso and head remain. Is Xie Lu as a person now one-fifth, limbs gone? Or is the personality intact, merely inconvenienced body? Hm? Answer.”
No time to formulate counterarguments. Just as Xie Lu had pressed initially, now the Army Major General cornered her.
“If human essence is life-sustaining function, heart matters more than brain? Brain-dead still live. But you wouldn’t affirm that state. So you can’t say heart is Xie Lu over brain.”
“...”
“Know the Tale of Theseus’s Ship?”
Greek anecdote invoked, argument continued without awaiting reply.
“Theseus had a ship. Wooden. Maintenance requires replacing old planks. Eventually, not one original plank remains. Now, suppose those replaced planks are collected and form a new ship. Which is Theseus’s true ship? The one with more original wood, or the continuously replaced one?”
“...”
“Ultimately, what decides authenticity is an invisible abstract concept. Spirit, philosophy, ideology, notion, interpretation, or belief, soul, faith. Isn’t it?”
The Army Major General sighed as if admonishing.
“It may be subjective. But can’t dismiss it outright. Even if China is totality of elements, cutting and trimming to weigh importance, what defines China—the core can only be China’s spirit. Individuals, systems, laws, arts, architecture, cities, territory are like severed limbs of Xie Lu.”
Was the limb-severing metaphor ominous? While Winter pondered, Major General Xie Lu protested with flushed agitation.
“Sophistry! Human life is more important than all else! You’re distorting reality with mere analogy!”
The Army Major General tilted his head.
“You’re not unaware of the misery of mere survival?”
Then he laughed aloud. A hollow laugh, almost a sob.
Though madman’s ravings, much resonated with Winter on survival’s misery. Unread messages piling daily. Those wretched souls expect all happiness post-mortem, peering at afterlife ceaselessly. Their longed-for happiness was low-level. Did they know no better?
Theseus’s Ship. Winter thought of his body remaining in physical reality. Where was Han Gyeowol? Was Chairman Go Geoncheol, holding more of Han Gyeowol, closer to the original? Or Han Gyeowol’s mind, with only brain and spine left?
If neither, was Han Gyeowol torn, existing fully nowhere?
Waning focus. If combat erupted now, Winter couldn’t perform at peak.
“I’ll say it again. China exists. Merely lost much.”
Amid this, the Army Major General declared calmly.
“Thus, I’ll fulfill the mission my homeland assigned. Wartime rules of engagement. When unidentified attack faces nation in crisis, normal command unreachable, how to act. You gentlemen here know, surely.”
Winter barely reined in his wandering thoughts.
“Indiscriminate retaliation against potential enemy states... You’re insane! Out of your mind!”
Major General Xie Lu’s near-scream rebuke was correct.
When unidentified enemy preemptively strikes, paralyzing state functions, retaliate against all possibly responsible nations. Common nuclear power doctrine.
“Without Central Military Commission orders, my duty unchanged.”
Yang Yongbin, Army Major General, appeared the loyal soldier. Or one who’d hit limit and ceased thinking.
At this point, he checked his watch again. Nodded deeply.
“Finally time.”
“You! What are you plotting!”
To Major General Xie Lu, now dropping honorifics, Yang Yongbin replied wearily.
“In 30 seconds, seven nuclear warheads launch.”
The observing room froze instantly.
“W-What...?”
Colonel Lei Yanlie’s stunned query. The Army Major General merely shrugged.
“You all thought retaliation limited to Carrier 9, but no. Second Artillery... no, Strategic Rocket Force mobile nuclear launchers. Secured Treasure Island for that. Launchable from ship, but unstable.”
Winter’s mind numbed. Always thought this might be final apocalypse, but possibility strode close abruptly.
The Major General continued.
“Honestly, I didn’t know for a while. Amid homeland’s devastation, one cargo loaded frantically. Responsible officer suicided, soldiers killed or eaten... Launcher abandoned amid cargo junk, unknown to all—first since Soviet collapse, perhaps.”
Low chuckle rang eerily clear.
“Foolish...”
Major General Xie Lu’s trembling-with-rage reproach.
“Now I see you’re thoroughly mad. Think those warheads escape atmosphere?”
“Who knows.”
Army Major General replied with grim amusement.
“Here, during generals’ and Party cadres’ meeting, nukes launch. Not one or two, but seven. Now, what will comrade captains conclude? Won’t they think missiles reflect this assembly’s consensus?”
“Staking everything on that uncertainty?”
Her question near shriek. Yet amid all eyes piercing like skewers, the mad man’s calm unwavering.
“What’s new? Who here didn’t come risking all in desperation? No margin left, low odds but all-in, life on line?”
“Mad... mad...”
Muttering unexpectedly from a hardliner. He hadn’t anticipated such escalation. Other hardliners paled rigidly.
“AA destroyer captains won’t grasp context. Confusion sure. But launched warheads clearly Chinese; in urgent intercept by US, judgment bases on patriotism. I don’t fight unwinnable battles.”
Outside, explosive roars began. All manner of gunfire.
Should he shoot? Winter hesitated repeatedly.
Taunt tension. If Winter pulled trigger now, all-against-all firefight erupts. That’s what this seat was from start. Major General Xie Lu had wanted Kurt Lee precisely to survive herself in emergency.
This assembly of generals, due to Army Major General’s actions, leaned moderate now.
Yang Yongbin thought differently.
“Among us, surely traitors bribed by US imperialists.”
Sweeping indifferent gaze, continuing.
“Even if all nukes dropped today, fine. US will suspect everyone here anew. Stances shift fundamentally. Helps comrades decide. As military elder, duty to unite you.”
Whose insight right—Winter’s or Major General’s scheming?
Major General stated flatly.
“No compromise. Only retaliation. Death to imperialist foes. Long live People’s Republic of China.”
Major General Xie Lu rose. Glowered at Major General briefly, then retreated toward nearby Winter. Many muzzles trained on her, but none fired. Army Major General remained composed, oddly. Could kill or threaten all, yet.
‘Excluding own death risk?’
Perhaps enough with those staying clumped.
Or simply mad, out of mind.
“Last words.”
Major General Xie Lu announced to assembly.
“I won’t join this madness! Any awake soul! Come to me! I’ll wait with China’s future!”
Then whispered to Winter.
“Go. As promised, protect me.”
Winter led her through faint red crossfire warnings. As guard soldiers enveloped the general, the confused rest surged. Wanting to see outside chaos directly.
Noise intensified outward.
‘No radio...? ’
Emergency; CIA likely overwhelmed.
Fling. Door to outdoors opened; sky finally visible. Deepened night lit in myriad colors. Beams from seaward: US cruisers desperately intercepting nukes. Cannon streams like light rays, myriad interceptors toward nukes. Chinese destroyers barrage to block.
In dark firmament, brightest: seven streaks of doom heavenward.
============================ Author’s Note ============================
#Q&A
Q. Bluecrystal-nim: @Wondering if there’s difference between print and web versions. Any signed edition events or first print limited signed copies planned?
A. Differences minimal. Touched up ch. 23, that scene everyone knows, but judged not affecting completion.
Signed copies... not first print limited, but considering 10-20 author giveaway copies for personal distribution.
Q. Amishu-nim: What’s difference between print and web? Any extras in print like side stories, glossary, etc.?
A. A few illustrations or maps. Didn’t think of glossary. Will consider next volume. Afterwords aid deeper understanding... commentary on research/background sounds good.
Vol.1 already printing, impossible. For vol.2, need be diligent.
Q. HobakHobak-nim: F*ck... took 4hrs to clear. Lol Thought kids’ game... that damn crow chick scary as hell, cosmic horror even.
A. 4hrs faster than me. Skilled. Crow? Thought owl or something.
Q. LewdDemonF-nim: @Planning buy print, any signed events?
A. As above, no such events planned.
But signed copies aren’t occult tools. Why want so bad? Haha.
Q. LongArmMonkey-nim: @Author must be frustrated. People asking repeatedly what mentioned in notes multiple times... Just read main text, question after if curious, too many note-readers. Author-nim died meteor 41,100yrs ago, revived after 100yrs (claims own booger, but my unscrupulous investigation says otherwise...) Willing avenge against great ancient one who dropped meteor???
A. Late readers can’t know old notes/answers, inevitable. Notes aren’t story part.
Revenge... well... haha...