Chapter 24: Strategic Planning

-Taizong POV-

The tea swirled gently in his cup, the small spoon being used to stir the brew was held delicately in his hand. The milk quietly dispersed and muddled with the surrounding liquid, transforming the dark brown tea into a lighter blend. Taizong sipped the tea, the table in front of him covered in maps and reports.

The city of Chizhou was marked in red. The city was one of the C.U.I’s ‘re-education camps’, to any who could read the careful subtext it was nothing less than a torturous brainwashing facility. Dozens of parahumans passed through it every month and were beaten down to be reshaped into soulless dolls loyal only to the C.U.I.

An abominable practice, one which earned them no small amount of enemies.

Across from him sat Liu Min, a former military officer for the C.U.I. From all accounts that had been dug up on the man he had once been a leal hound of China, focused entirely on the defence of his country from outside forces.

Then his wife had been found raped and murdered.

Officially no suspect had been found, unofficially a platoon of Chinese Imperial soldiers had been using the town as a rest stop at the time.

Liu Min had been furious, intent on tracking down and bringing his wife’s murderer to justice. He had investigated as quietly as he could, even going as far as interrogating the townsfolk under the authority of the C.U.I.

Authority that they had not given him.

Once word inevitably got out about his investigation he was unceremoniously stripped of his rank and sent to one of the many camps dotting the Chinese countryside.

The man had caught his attention at one of the many meetings he had attended, he was the one to first bring up the idea of raiding the C.U.I using the teleportation function of the drones of his creator.

In truth Taizong had been musing on such a plan for a while. The city of Jinzhou needed more people if it wanted to properly leverage its many advantages, after all they were mere tens of thousands in a city made for millions.

Liu Min, by being the one to bring it up, had saved him the burden of appearing warlike and overly aggressive. In truth that hatred and bloodthirst the man carried made him a perfect fit for his right hand man.

In order to pursue this sadly necessary war against the C.U.I certain unpopular measures would need to be taken. The C.U.I would need to be broken, everyone in New Jinzhou agreed on that, but they weren’t seeing far enough. In order for Jinzhou to remain a serene paradise the surrounding land needed to be rendered feeble and impotent.

Permanently.

China would need to be broken up into several warring states, each too focused on the others to turn an eye on his city.

The means required to do this and maintain it would be cruel.

Liu Min had such a capacity for cruelty, and a deep well of hatred that would never allow the C.U.I to return.

Such a man would allow him to go through with his plans and come out smelling like roses to his own people, after all it was the dastardly Liu Min coming up with those plans not him!

Liu Min, for his part, was fully aware and onboard with both his plans and taking the blame, so long as he could hurt the C.U.I it was enough for him.

“From the drones reconnaissance the camp has a three meter fence lined with barbed wire, dozens of soldiers patrol the area constantly with rotating shifts to maximise efficiency. The camp itself is underground and requires retina scans to be allowed access. It is likely that the interior possesses cape and tinkertech defences, but the drones were unable to breach the underground section of the base,” Liu Min read from his report.

Unfortunate, but it made sense.

His creators drones weren’t purpose designed for reconnaissance and infiltration. Sure they could teleport, but they required clear coordinates in order for their V.I to make the jump. Trying to teleport underground to a base they had no idea of the dimensions of apparently tripped a safety alert and caused the drone to instead teleport home.

Taizong briefly thought about asking Yà lì shān dà for new drones capable of the task, before thinking better of it.

His creator would not always be there, better to learn to fend for oneself.

“Has Cai Lun figured out a solution for the sensors?”

“No, not yet. The sensors he has designed so far are either too power hungry to be placed on a drone or lack the needed fidelity. He is confident that he will find the solution, but this is a project that will still take weeks.”

Taizong nodded at that, staring at the city on his map before moving on.

Trying to attack and rescue the prisoners now would be foolish, they lacked the needed information. Once they had the capability to properly map out the underground camp they could circle back to it.

“What of the resistance groups I asked to be researched?” Taizong asked.

Liu Min shuffled through his papers at the question before speaking once again.

The first group of note is the-“ Lie Min took a deep breath, looking pained as he continued “-People’s Liberation Front. A communist Revolution centred around Guigang.”

Taizong felt his own brows furrow, he supposed people might be feeling misplaced nostalgia for the old government now that everything has begun spiralling out of control.

“Well, they’re still enemies of the C.U.I. Get in contact with them and see if we can start supplying them with weapons. Hopefully they can do some damage,” Taizong ordered.

Liu Min looked up wearily.

“I assume you don’t mean to arm them with our best?”

Taizong scoffed at that.

“No, simply give them contemporary weapons that can match their C.U.I counterparts”

Liu Min nodded at that, looking relieved. “Very good, my lord. The next insurgents of interest is the Restorationist Movement led by General Ming. It seems to be a cult of personality centred around the general, they seem to want to make him Emperor.”

Taizong nodded at that, it wasn’t unusual for generals to command more respect from their soldiers than distant bureaucrats and emperors. It also indicated this General Ming was charismatic or competent enough to earn their men’s admiration.

Promising.

“We’ll be supplying them with the same for now, but see if we can attach a liaison to this group.”

Liu Min seemed confused at the request, but nodded and wrote it down.

If this General Ming was as competent as Taizong suspected it might be worth investing more resources into the man. The liaison would be sent to confirm this competence, no need to give more resources if the man was simply a braggart with good luck.

Besides, if he could get General Ming to trust him it would make it easier to assassinate him later.

Couldn’t allow him to stabilise China after all!

“There are also many minor rebellion groups popping up every day and are usually crushed in the same amount of time, though some are holding on longer,” Liu Min continued before hesitating.

“There is also the individual known as Sun Wukong, who appears to be travelling West, he’ll likely reach Huaxi in about five days or so. He appears to have drawn quite a large gathering that seem adamant in following the man.”

Taizong could only groan softly at that. No doubt those people assumed Sun Wukong to be a wise liberator leading them to freedom.

While it was true Sun Wukong was all of those things, Taizong knew without a shred of doubt that the beast was simply following his impulses. No doubt he allowed that group to follow him because he thought it would be interesting. Hopefully he would knock over a few more C.U.I bases and then leave forever.

“Please, continue,” Taizong motioned for him to hurry along.

“In addition to local insurgents there is also quite the large number of foreign actors becoming involved. South Korea is taking advantage of China’s current anarchy by making a push against North Korea.”

Taizong raised an eyebrow at that.

“How much progress are they making,” he asked, morbidly curious.

“Initial progress was fast, but has since been bogged down after the Government of North Korea started sending starving and diseased men, women and children to march against the soldiers. As you might imagine this has pushed the South Korean’s logistics to their limits. It doesn’t help that there are a few suicide bombers mixed in,” Liu Min said, grimacing at a few gruesome pictures attached to the report.

“Well, at least this means one of China’s allies is unlikely to join in on this civil war,” Taizong commented to himself.

“Indeed, in addition to this Russia has begun massing troops at the border.”

Taizong’s eyes snapped to Liu Min at that.

“For defensive purposes?”

Liu Min glanced at his report.

“According to the Russians it’s a purely defensive measure to prevent immigrants entering their country in order to flee from the war,” Liu Min said, looking as dubious about that as Taizong felt.

“Keep an eye on them,” he ordered.

“Yes sir, no other foreign actor is being as blatant as Russia and Soth Korea. All have sent in smaller teams, ostensibly to observe.”

More likely, Taizong thought to himself, they were looking for targets of opportunity. The C.U.I wasn’t the only nation to kidnap parahumans, simply the most famous.

“And what has the C.U.I done in response?”

“They have set up observation posts around our walls, it appears they have given up on trying to take Jinzhou back with force…for now. They have instead pivoted to focus on the Restorationist Movement, likely because that revolutionary group has access to more weapons and supplies than the Liberation Front. The bulk of their parahumans have been sent to the borders they share with many countries, particularly Russia. They have also publicly condemned South Korea, but have done little else to aid their ally.”

As expected.

“Allow the observation posts to persist, they will see nothing we do not allow them to see. Let them grow complacent from our appearance of inactivity. Have the drones on standby to sabotage the supply lines of the Russians if they decide to invade,” Taizong eventually decided.

He would allow the Russians to fight the C.U.I’s parahumans, that would only be helpful to his goals, but the region being governed by Russia would be just as bad as a unified China. So he would ensure they would be unable to push too deeply into the country.

“Are there any soft targets for us to target?”

Liu Min placed a hand to his chin at that, clearly having difficulty thinking of a target that could be defined as ‘soft’ when it came to the controlling and tyrannical C.U.I.

“The war colleges might count, they’re lightly patrolled and their loss would mean the destruction of a lot of institutional knowledge. There are also a lot of refineries spread across the country, their loss could slow the war machine of the C.U.I down immensely.”

Taizong nodded at that. He would be playing the long game now, exhausting as many of China’s options while spending as little of his own as he could. Taizong had been created to see to the citizens of New Jinzhou and he would not sacrifice them simply to hurt the C.U.I.

No, that was the job of the many revolutionary groups he was nurturing.

He knew, or at least suspected that Yà lì shān dà would not approve of such measures. They had crafted this wonderful city to serve as succour for those weary of suffering. But Taizong had been created to be the perfect statesman and leader. And there was no leader, past or future, that wouldn’t sacrifice others so that the people of their own nation could live safe and happy lives.

Besides, what they didn’t know couldn’t hurt them.

AN: So yeah, turns out that Taizong has his own plans. Alexander was worried about absolute power corrupting any leader that governed Jinzhou so he created a perfect leader who could not fall to such corruption. Alexander just forgot that even good leaders often do horrible and immoral actions for the sake of their people.

So now the plan is to turn China into a fractious and impoverished realm that cannot threaten Jinzhou. After all they’re not Taizong’s people, so why should he care. Many other nations are starting to get involved. South Korea has begun an invasion of North Korea. Russia is massing on the borders, but they wouldn’t do anything right?

Finally there are a lot of smaller groups adding a degree of unpredictability. Alexander will be leaving soon, and just like Japan he’s leaving an absolute mess behind him.

Thanks for reading, please comment!