Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Through the information in Alice’s data storage, Chen Jin had known about the history of the mysterious ancient country of the East for a while now. Its history as compared to the Z country of Earth could be said to be totally different to the point of being unrecognizable.
Their greatest point of divergence laid in how the historical character “Wang Mang”, who seized the throne during the Han Dynasty, was able to successfully establish the Xin dynasty that had lasted for more than 500 years at its peak. The”Wang Mang” here and the events surrounding him up to the establishment of his new dynasty was so similar to that of Z country that he seemed to be an interdimensional traveler from Earth. After “Wang Mang” seized the throne, he successfully implemented a series of reformations and built his dynasty into one that was countless times more powerful and prosperous than the preceding Han Dynasty.
At its peak, the Xin dynasty had a territory of over 30,000,000 square kilometers, numerous subjects, and countless dependent states. Its population was more than a billion. It entered the age of early thermal weapons much earlier. It even sent out large troops consisting of millions of soldiers and conquered Europa, becoming an Empire so large that the sun and moon would always be shining on one of its territories. It seemed that it was only a matter of time that it came to rule over the entire planet.
But…
The inertia of history was, as always, overpowering. No matter how big the territory of the Empire, as long as the outdated feudal system and unlimited and final power of the emperor remained unchanged, it would never be able to emerge from “The Law of Vicissitudes.”
All of the efforts of the past could be destroyed with just a downright ridiculous emperor. This would, in turn, cause the empire to disintegrate and be torn apart. It would fall into a state of disunity where war would plague the lands. Even the Xin dynasty was unable to escape from this fate.
Following its wake was the “Zhou,””Tang,””Kang,””Ning,” and other unified dynasties. The lifespan of each dynasty hovered around 300 years. The last dynasty era was “Da Hua.” In its last stages, it implemented the rule of the constitutional monarchy. After a meeting, they decided to grant to the people the power to rule themselves. The dynasty then continued.
Another similar point was how science was not an important part of peoples’ education. The application of technology was not viewed as important, either. After the start of the Second Industrial Revolution, Da Hua State had lost much of its overseas colonies to the swiftly rising West. Its territory shrunk to only a third of its original size. It lost many wars and won little. The armored fleet of the westerners even came and fought on the borders of Da Hua’s homeland. The state was forced to sign a treaty that humiliated the nation and forfeited its sovereignty. Following which was the Hundred Days Reform, the abolishment of the imperial examination system, implementing the constitutional monarchy, suppressing the various armed rebellions… Through 30 years of difficulties, the reforms achieved its first success and the strength of the nations was greatly increased.
Next, they relied on the advantage of the huge population that they possessed. After the eruption of the second and third world war, Hua State did not emerge in a disadvantaged position. On the contrary, it recovered much of its colonies and firmly became a hegemony of the East. Together with Melica who dominated the Mi continent, and the Red Empire who was led by the proletariats, they constituted the three world powers. They formed a stable trilateral relationship. Between the three, there were cooperation as well as competition. With the addition of the nuclear threat, these three great nations co-existed for close to 300 years.
In the end, they still fell together.
“So, the Hua state on the opposite side of this planet was a constitutional monarchy with a long and splendid civilization. It was far more powerful and mightier than Earth’s Z country.” Chen sighed with a well of emotions. It was his conviction that he had no regrets of being born Chinese, either in this life or the next. With regards to foreign lands, he had never thought that the grass was greener on the other side. But, if he had a choice, he would choose the grass in the Da Hua State! He wanted to live in her most brilliant era and experience its heyday. He could also live in her most turbulent era and make up for his regrets by establishing a noble cause!
Although the Da Hua State had been through a period of amnesia and degradation in its recent history, they became determined and worked with a firm resolve to strengthen the country in later years. They were able to rise up rapidly and were capable of counterattacks. Even if more deaths were incurred, they had never compromised with the foreign tribes! More importantly, all the dynasties after the Xin were headed by the Hua ethnic group. The nomadic foreign tribes had never stood in the spotlight. In other words, ever since the invention of gunpowder weapons, which were akin to magical tools, there was nary a chance for the foreign tribes to encroach on their sovereignty.
This was an unbroken lineage of the Hua nation in its utmost purity. She had left behind a culture and civilization that was infinitely resplendent and outstanding. Her buildings were generous and graceful, delicate and lively, yet dignified and reserved. Her literature was filled with artistic imagery and rhymes. It was also versatile and filled with creative energies. Her calligraphy and paintings, song and dance, theatre, medical science, peoples’ customs, and culture, all formed a self-contained unit that was radically different from that of the West.
He knew her pros and her cons. She would not forcefully compare herself with other cultures to see who was more lowly or noble. But, if Chen Jin could choose, he would prefer this culture that was birthed from its native lands and could influence its core values from all sides. He liked the parts of her that were outstanding, but he would also criticize the other parts that were rubbish. But, no matter what, he loved this country. He loved her culture… This had nothing to do with any of the ruling classes.
Hence, after the UAV formations entered the ancient state of the East, Chen Jin plastered his eyes to the virtual projections. He watched the images and information that were relayed back to the UAV “Golden Eagle” with some infatuation and intoxication.
“That stone terrace is at least 300 meters tall. And it’s even built on the Pamir Mountain which is more than 4,000 meters tall. It’s said that this is an altar of worship that was ordered by Wang Mang to be built here. It was only completed with the efforts of millions of slaves and a time of 15 years. However, due to the building delays, Wang Mang passed away by the time it was completed. The ancient city walls; courtyards in the quadrangular shape; many neighborhoods are like this. It seems as if the civilians of the Da Hua State didn’t like to live inside cement constructions. They seemed to prefer living in wooden antique-style constructions. There are widespread presences of magnetic levitation high-speed rails, dense roads, bridges spanning huge distances… Even super irrigation works that transformed the entire Southwest desert into good farmland. The Da Hua State is a devil in construction works.”
Chen Jin brightened. “Hey! The UAV has detected more than a hundred cities. Besides one big city that has been destroyed, all the rest are untouched. Their missile defense system intercepted an overwhelming majority of attacks…The phrase is right, ‘the one who strikes first gets the advantage; the one who strikes later suffers disaster.’ But, there are still no traces of survivors, not even a single one. According to Alice, the areas that are 23 degrees or more in latitude, both north and south, became extremely cold during the nuclear winter. Crops were unable to grow and the environment was unsuitable for humans to survive. Hence, it’s not really possible for survivors to exist in the north of the Da Hua State. There may be larger groups of survivors gathered in the tropics where the colonies and dependent states are. There will not be too many survivors in the Da Hua State itself.”
The UAV could penetrate deep into the hinterlands without any worries. Using a total of five days, a rough scan of more than a third of the Da Hua State territory that measured 1,500 square kilometers had been completed. He found 213 whole cities. Chen Jin did not pay too much attention as to whether or not there were any “darlings” to be found in these cities. His focus was on the existence of survivors. Even though more than a third of the area had been scanned, there was no trace of life detected on the highly sensitive “Life Detecting Instrument” carried on the UAV “Golden Eagle.” That meant that no survivors had been found.
This caused Chen Jin to breathe a slight sigh of relief. He muttered, “Is it possible that the survivors of the Hua State have all died?” Or had they all fled to the tropics to avoid the disaster? Chen Jin could not say for certain. He let the UAV formations continue to penetrate deeper and survey the lands towards the southeast.
Suddenly, something happened! “Master, UAV ‘Rainbow Wings’ received an unknown wireless signal! This is a type of radio frequency sent by humans. It employs a simple encryption. I can guess part of its meaning. It means ‘XX is found.’ This is repeated three times”.
Alice said gravely, “Master, survivor forces… may exist.”
A tremor went through Chen Jin.