It's highly likely having a reverse Nanjing right now and possibly a concentration camps also China NEVER forgot what Japan did to them even though Japan has actually apologized to it
If Japan is under Chinese occupation, the Japanese certainly will be treated bad but not that bad since China apparently engages in paternalism if going by the options with the other minor "allies" aka puppet regimes given the tone in some descriptions. Being overly harsh to them might hurt they image for they other puppets.
Since Japan is not one of the options is likely still is a independent country.
Taiwan, I think was invaded and annexed since the US probably has no interest in protecting it or was invaded when the US was busing invading Mexico. Ironically I think the island has more chance to emerge intact post-war since it's doubtful they would be targeted by nukes, the only thing they would need to focus is survive the background radiation than anything else.
I should have known this job was going to be shit when I took it. I respect the hell out of Zhu for what he did in Korea, but the man doesn't know what's good for him or his subordinates. Here he is, making us waste time on the homefront when all the action is going to be abroad, in Indonesia or Kazakhstan or wherever the hell the oil is. All for the sake of "Serving the People". Well, I've been working with the people of Henan, and they are idiots. Just today, I watched as a digging machine sank into the mud of the construction site, only for the one that was going to dig it out to sink too. Getting them both out took up the rest of the day. Incidents like that happen all the time, and these country bumpkins have the audacity to whine about it too.
[audible sigh]
I know I shouldn't blame it all on Zhu, but if he'd just pressured the General Staff a little more, perhaps we would have been able to bring in the entire Infrastructure Corps, instead of relying on these rice buckets. At this rate, we won't get this first project done before the end of the year. It's a supply depot, for crying out loud! You dig a hole, you pour some concrete, and in go the goodies. How hard can that be?
[various expletives follow]
[sounds of disorder]
[silence]
…I need another drink.
– Excerpt from an audio recording by Major Fu Xinhan,
Henan Province Construction Department
To be honest, the thought of arming random workers in the case of emergency troubles you somewhat. Organized into a proper militia, you'd have no problem with it, but the present approach seems far more irresponsible. Even if most Red Guards are bored party children or careerist volunteers, this initiative appears to be driven by their more enthusiastic elements, the kind that could whip the masses into a frenzy. Giving them access to these guns does not seem conducive to the project of revolutionary preparedness. Still, trustworthy Zhu is supervising the construction directly, and the material benefits of this partnership are hard to deny. Really, what's the worst that could happen?
By the mid-2070s, the Chinese people had endured almost a decade of constant war against the Americans, not to mention the longer period of escalating deprivation. Every meager bit of surplus production was channeled into the war effort, and with the energy crisis reversing the nation's progress in rural mechanization, the specter of famine could no longer be assuaged. Unrest was inevitable, and everyone knew it.
To forestall a great domestic crisis, the Party adapted a tried-and-true strategy from the Mao years: forced rustication. The idea was to send unruly workers–those that couldn't be conscripted–to the countryside, where they would be safely dispersed and put to work on the collective farms. As a result, agitation would decrease, and the food supply would be more secure. Two birds, one stone, zero problems.
Problems followed, of course, but the way they did was quite interesting. First, there was the fact that the Party had already tried something like this a generation ago. Back in the 2040s, a climate-induced period of agricultural precarity had also produced a move towards mass rustication, only to be met by mass worker revolt. The "One Step Back" Campaign, as it was then called, culminated in a forced end to the population transfers, along with a more expensive approach of further rural mechanization. (Ironically, this was part of why the present energy crisis was as bad as it was.) Since the memories of this conflict were still relatively fresh, it was all the more foolish to try the exact same strategy again. Already, the Party should have known better. Yet this was only the start of their mistakes.
You see, at the same time that ordinary proles were being made to bear arms or work farms, a parallel development was unfolding in the higher echelons of Chinese society. While less affected by immediate scarcity, the children of party cadres could still be troubled by the devolving situation around them, and could express their distress in ways that were considered disruptive. However, owing to their filial ties, these wayward youth could not be penalized as easily as their proletarian counterparts. The solution, then, was to pawn them off on the Red Guards, and subsequently send them down to the countryside as well. I hope you can see what could go wrong with this approach.
In the minds of Party leaders, it was thought that the rusticated cadres would be a boon to the countryside. Here, they could use their advanced education for the benefit of the masses, and maybe even learn to shut up for once. Instead, the most rowdy among them would make common cause with the similarly discontented workers and peasants, the former of whom had also been recently ejected from the cities. With the Red Guards making use of their cross-regional contacts, these uproarious elements would set off the beginnings of a genuine mass protest movement, their first tactic being a halt to any further food shipments. Since the logistics of the agricultural sector had already been thoroughly militarized, this quickly led to physical clashes with local PLA units, who would then requisition far more food than necessary in retaliation. This in turn led to the further escalation of the crisis in the countryside, as desperate peasants threatened to burn their own harvest if the army did not adjust their quotas. Before long, there were too many of these 'defections' for all of them to put down. Worse, the Red Guards were starting to give the movement some ideological content. Should not the People decide their working conditions in common, they asked. Their demands were simple: relief for the countryside, and the restoration of the workers' residency status.
From the Party's point of view, the answer to either demand was obviously 'no'. But as the countryside burned, the provincial cities were also starting to become agitated. Besides the growing lack of food, there was the simmering anger of those whose family members had been rusticated, who now wanted to know whether their loved ones were still alive out there. When the rebellious Red Guards led marches of peasants into the cities, this anger turned into momentary relief, only to foment into rage as soon as they discovered how bad the situation really was. It was at this point that the People's Weapons Caches became historically relevant, as the fresh masses of rebels demanded the armaments that rightly belonged to them. Overwhelmed by the crowds, and encouraged by their insurgent colleagues, the local garrisons of Red Guards had no choice but to give in. And with that, the Rustication Revolts were properly underway.
Compared to the previous course of history, the presence of revolutionary arsenals would make the revolts meaningfully more successful, with the rebels gaining a foothold in Hunan and Yunnan particularly. Even so, theirs was still a losing battle, and the enclaves of the "People's Commune of China" would be steadily reduced in the last months of the Sino-American War.
When the bombs finally dropped, there was little left of the Red Guards in Hunan, just a few hundred insurgents trapped in the Jinggang Mountains. This location had been no accident, as they had chosen the same refuge as Zhu and Mao had a hundred and fifty years ago. Bolstered by this parallel, and insulated from the fallout, the rebels would sit out the initial post-war period in relative peace. As in the initial course of events, they would congregate around a local Buddhist monastery, setting the stage for their eventual synthesis of Maitreyist eschatology with Maoist fervor. Before this shift could come to fruition, however, their greater numbers would force the rebels down from the mountains, vying with local raider bands for control over the villages of Hunan and Jiangxi. In this context, their ambition would prove their downfall, with the inevitable toxicity of the Century of Annihilation whittling down their numbers to nothing. After a few years, they would be nothing more than a historical curiosity.
20% progress on Red Guards Partnership
New project unlocked: Ideological Aptitude Tests (400) New Red Guards Mandate: Complete Ideological Aptitude Tests at a decent (40+) quality in the next year (15% partnership progress estimated)
Fuel Saving Designs [Energy] (0->450/450) 36
The project to reduce the nation's fuel consumption begins without much fanfare, although the Ministry of Energy is slightly disappointed by your lack of research facilities. To make up for that, you'll probably need to increase your ongoing financial contribution to the project, if only by a slight amount. Such are the epic highs and lows of party-state bureaucracy.
+15 to ongoing research cost
Recycling Campaign (0->300/300) 60
The People know that hard times are coming, if they are not here already. Thus, the frugality you intend to promote has already taken hold of them, though they yet lack the expertise to produce a proper amount of savings. To facilitate the latter, Lin organizes a popular information campaign through the schools, newspapers, and residents' committees, enlightening the masses on the methods of conscientious consumption. The results of this effort are already apparent, as the throughput of the consumer sector has markedly. While this trend is also a direct result of the energy, Lin assures you that the People are becoming thriftier by the day.
As the domestic situation in China worsened, what started as a success story became a sign of general desperation. At first, the frugal use and reuse of everyday goods and assets was taken as a point of pride by the Chinese people. Growing up on stories of American waste and excess, they felt like they were creating a new way of life through their thrifty, innovative practices. Durable, reusable objects were thought to carry a history within them, an animistic impulse which matched well with many folk beliefs. Even if the Party framed it as the "class character of proletarian reproduction", the underlying sentiment of material kinship was understood by many.
What turned this emerging tradition into something darker was the sheer extent of the country's social crisis. Even if the initiative had started as a call for popular invention, necessity was still its mother, and she would grow crueler with age. With the effective collapse of the consumer-oriented economy, and the emergent threat of famine, the avoidance of waste became a matter of life or death. What little waste was still produced would end up in one of the nation's many large landfills, and in their desperation, this is where the People would end up as well. Generations of trash were turned over for the slightest hint of something reusable, which would then be sold on in the illegal money economy. The health impact of this survival strategy was obviously atrocious, but those who resorted to it had more immediate problems on their minds. Plus, given the specter of annihilation which hung over everyone, these junk dealers would not even have the time to die of the cancers and poisons which built up in their bodies. The bombs would get to them first.
However, not even the end of the world could put a stop to the People's tragic attraction to trash. While most major trash heaps were located near large population centers, there were always a few pockets of survivors in every such locale. Wary of the irradiated city centers, they would turn to the landfills for their immediate needs, their recycling skills helping them to survive just a little longer. In time, they too would succumb to the slow death of the Century of Annihilation, and the bodies of these initial survivors would turn the piles of refuse into impromptu burial hills. Theirs was a sad fate, especially since some of them would continue to roam these sites as single-minded Stiff Corpses, their actions a cruel parody of the people they had been. In time, these beings would be known as the original Trash Keepers.
After the first waves of death, it would be decades before anyone would settle near these haunted places again. By then, their objective danger had been augmented by many superstitions, and the choice to exploit them once more was often highly controversial. Even if there were no physical Trash Keepers present, it was thought that their ghosts still had some power here, and that they had to be appeased in order to secure a safe recycling.
The main mode of appeasement was to leave part of one's junk haul behind, to offer up a valuable artifact for the satisfaction of the ghosts' eternal search. Over the years, this practice would produce an abundance of offerings, a collective treasure which should not be removed from its home. And so, to keep the items from being taken, a new generation of Trash Keepers would come to watch over the landfills, in time becoming a distinct class of priests and scholars. As part of their own practices, they would study the offerings and compile their records into vast "Catalogs of Antiquity", praising the ingenuity of the pre-war world. In this manner, they became one of the foremost authorities on history and technology in the Middle Realm, at least until more proper academic institutions would arise. But that wouldn't be for centuries, and is outside the scope of this telling. For now, let us simply praise the efforts of the Trash Keepers, and pray that their search may someday be stilled.
1% Global Bonus to Industry and Environment
New project unlocked: Recycling Centers (400, one year)
When organized labor asked to be prepared for the worst, they should have considered what the worst would be. So should you, for that matter. Instead, you both become a victim of your own success.
Throughout the country, major industrial enterprises are instructed to run regular preparedness exercises, teaching its workers how to quickly secure factory equipment and evacuate the premises. The drills themselves go off without a hitch, and might even help to preserve some of our peripheral industrial capacity. In the course of evacuating the factories however, their workers learn an important lesson about their post-nuclear circumstances: they are all going to die.
Nobody says this out loud, of course. And yet, as masses of workers stand outside their abandoned workplaces with not a shelter in sight, the truth is all too obvious. Before long, people are calling these drills 'death marches' or 'grave-digging exercises', and getting them to participate becomes a lot more difficult. The general discontent is palpable, and both the ACFTU and the minister of Heavy Industry begin to blame you for this blatant display of unpreparedness. If you are to recover from this blow to your political influence, you had best act according to their advice, and begin to invest in the construction of discrete Factory Bunkers. Only by securing the workers against the destruction of their workplaces, can their present tendencies towards fatalism and defeatism be nipped in the bud.
-15 Political Support
1% Global Bonus to Industry
10% progress on ACFTU partnership
New project unlocked: Factory Bunkers (450, nine months per level) New ACFTU Mandate: Complete three levels of Factory Bunkers (20% partnership progress estimated)
Requisition the Grain and Materials Reserve 1d 5
"There's nothing left, Lifeng! Your people squandered it all!"
"Jie, I am going to need you to calm down."
"You knew this when you offered the reserves to me! Fuck, you knew it when you made me minister!"
"Yes, I did. Now, will you let me explain myself, or do I need to start treating you like a monkey rather than a minister?"
That got to her, as she remembered what sort of people Zhang liked to call 'monkeys'. It was the sort she had once called her friends, and who were now either in the grave or in a permanent state of re-education. The reference pissed her off, but it also shut her up, since she recognized the threat within. Zhang probably thought he was being clever, cutting at her resolve as with a scalpel. In truth, his instrument was far less delicate, and rather one-note.
He took her silence to mean acquiescence. "Now then, you understand as well as I that every plan has its windfalls and drawbacks. The windfalls we leave for their respective managers or ministers to claim. The drawbacks, however, those end up on our plate. I hope you can recognize the asymmetry here."
"So you robbed the reserves in order to cover for your buddies?"
"In order to cover for the state. Surely, you don't think more recriminations would be to the health of the Party?"
Matter of fact, she was less and less sure about that these days. But that wasn't for him to know.
"Did you ever cover for me?"
"Indubitably." Zhang moved over to the window, as if that would make the atmosphere more collegial.
"Why stop now, then? Why not use some favors to bail me out?"
He smiled at that. "Because I trust you now, Jie. You are my equal. And equals do not grant favors, they exchange them."
Sigh. "What do you want, then, Comrade Minister?"
He spread his arms wide. "Robots! I know, I know, you don't like them. But I am sure we can find some uses for them that won't get in the way of your workers."
"I doubt it. Are you sure there's nothing else you need?"
"Nothing I can't get elsewhere. Of course, you could just try to rebuild the Grain and Materials Reserve yourself. The ball is in your court." He wheeled himself back to his desk, ready to start on whatever report spoke to him. The meeting was over.
Accept Zhang's Deal (complete Auxiliary Robotics within 5 turns)
Reject Zhang's Deal (-150 to construction for the next 5 turns)
Influence the Five Year Plan 2d 133/60
The five year plan is not something that's easily altered, not even when you're pretty close with the minister responsible for it. However, every bureaucrat knows that the full workings of the plan aren't determined until after the first few months of its execution, as this is when most of the inter-ministerial horse trading takes place. In your case, that will happen at the State Council commission meetings, where the various ministries will bicker over what 'revolutionary preparedness' really means. By defining it one way or another, and showing your expertise in the matter, you can pull an increased amount of resources towards yourself. So, what does it mean?
Pick two of the following options:
Self-Strengthening: If you let Zhu advocate on the ministry's behalf, he will emphasize the strategic value of constructing bunkers, caches, and all other forms of reserve capacity. This will net us a few more resources. (Flat 100 bonus to Construction)
Education: The People's Republic would be nothing without its People, and unlike the Americans, we trust in the ingenuity of the masses. If we merely teach them the skills of survival, then no amount of nuclear arms will be able to destroy their resolve. (Cut the university ministry requirements in half)
Coordination: The eclectic nature of our ministry should be presented as a strength. We bring the best of every department together, and ensure that the other ministries are all oriented towards the preservation of the People and their Party. (Double the discounts provided by your current partnerships)
Pleasing the Party: This would be incredibly opportunistic, but by emphasizing the importance of securing the revolutionary vanguard, and executing the will of the Central Committee, you can present yourself as a loyal if obsequious entity, and perhaps receive some boons in the process. (Add the Central Committee Partnership, +5 to Political Support Every Turn)
I know the results are technically early; consider it a paradoxical thank you to all the people who signed up to the Patreon. Also, in case anyone's wondering, a project like the People's Weapons Caches will still be available even without its associated, and will even contribute to the strength of your partnership. In general, partnerships require you to align with a given group's interests, even beyond their explicit requests.
Not accpeting the deal would hurt us and besides robotic workers cam assist constructing facilities.
Self-strengthening is another must since it's better to start now in some missile defenses. I kinda want to make the capital to survive, if Washington DC can survive so does Beijin.
[X] Plan: Staying the Course
-[X] Reject Zhang's Deal
-[X] Self-Strengthening
-[X] Pleasing the Party
Zhang's little pet project is gonna cost a lot of research points that we don't really have at the moment, we can offset the majority of his punishment by taking Self-Strengthening. I also doubt we want to annoy the workers via automation seeing as we just gave them an awfully large amount of guns.
Looking back through our planning phase it doesn't seem like we have any options that'll increase political support, it might be time to bring in the vanguard party.
Sticking with our guns is probably the best bet. Self-Strengthening will all but make up for the loss. And guys, we need to take Coordination. Do not underestimate the long-term value of our partnership discounts being doubled, particularly as progress is made.
We also going to lose 150 for five turns, rejecting the deal and accepting self-strenghtning would largely leave us in the same boat we start, minus 50.
We only see the benefits in 2069. By that point the war already begun and manpower shortages probably going to become a issue since China will trow everything they have to secure Alaska and would need to research robots anyway to compesate, might as well start now.
Also robotic workers can also help in our construction efforts too.
We also going to lose 150 for five turns, rejecting the deal and accepting self-strenghtning would largely leave us in the same boat we start, minus 50.
We only see the benefits in 2069, by that point we only enjoy the full benefit for one turn and would need alter the next Five Years Plan again just to see again.
The same can be said about the Robots since we'd need at least two turns to start and they take a base three more turns to complete. Worse even, because a single bad roll could create enough delays that we'd fail to make the deadline.
The same can be said about the Robots since we'd need at least two turns to start and they take a base three more turns to complete. Worse even, because a single bad roll could create enough delays that we'd fail to make the deadline.
Once the war starts manpower shortages are going to become a issue real fast since China is going to be desperate in securing Alaska, we going to have to research them either way to compensate.
Also Zhang is going to be tick off at us and the guy is our backer and can lead to further problems dow the line.
Yeah I'm guessing that more people die to the climate than the Americans. Ain't helped by the fact that considering Fallout is 50s-60s ascetics, than China has been running the Great Leap Forwards and the Cultural Revolution for over 100 years.
Once the war starts manpower shortages are going to become a issue real fast since China is going to be desperate in securing Alaska, we going to have to research them either way to compensate.
Also Zhang is going to be tick off at us and the guy is our backer and can lead to further problems dow the line.
It will become a issue for us. Most generals and ministers are going to give one hard look at us and see a lot of resources being poured in a hypothetical scenario where it could be used in other areas more productly, such as the war effort.
Worst if they manage to gather Chairman Cheng support.
It will become a issue for us. Most generals and ministers are going to give one hard look at us and see a lot of resources being poured in a hypothetical scenario where it could be used in other areas more productly, such as the war effort.
Worst if they manage to gather Chairman Cheng support.
As an aside, we're currently going through a massive energy crisis which is only going to intensify as the war continues. Robots, which are famously known for their consumption of electricity, are not going to be the solution to this problem, we should rely more on our strengths such as the mass mobilisation of the people.
