George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 350

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The Three Gorges Dam had burst.

They had opened all the floodgates in preparation for an emergency and were frantically draining water, but even that enormous volume couldn’t be managed instantly. Eventually, the Three Gorges Dam, which had been lowered to its minimum water level (155m), was forced to release a massive surge.

Yet, the damage China suffered wasn’t as catastrophic as many had feared. Was it all just fear-mongering from scientists and civil engineers who had warned of mass casualties if the Three Gorges Dam collapsed?

Of course, that wasn’t the whole story. If their worst predictions had come true, southeastern China would have suffered irreparable devastation. Everything downstream of the Yangtze River would have been obliterated—people, cities, nature, everything.

But that didn’t happen.

So, what actually occurred?

Not the ‘entire’ dam, but a ‘portion’ of it burst. It might sound unbelievable, but that’s precisely what happened. Miraculously, a section of the upper part of the dam gave way, likely due to a missile strike, unleashing a torrent of water. However, the central and lower sections remained intact. While the water level decreased significantly, it prevented the absolute worst-case scenario: a mind-boggling deluge sweeping through the southeast.

Nevertheless, the fact remained that the dam had burst. The massive outflow swallowed dozens of major cities and vast swathes of farmland along the Yangtze River like a raging water dragon, including Yichang, Zhangzhou, Yueyang, Wuhan, and even Nanjing and Shanghai. The extent of the damage varied from place to place.

Fortunately, the number of direct fatalities from the Three Gorges Dam collapse was relatively low. Even then, most casualties resulted from accidents during the chaotic evacuation, not the floodwaters themselves.

But if you were to ask whether the evacuation was carried out effectively, the answer would be a resounding no. It wasn’t just one city, but all the cities along the Yangtze River. How could anyone effectively manage hundreds of millions of people thrown into panic by war? It was an impossible task.

Moreover, it wasn’t enough to simply move people; they needed shelter and food. The shelters didn’t need to be luxurious—just a roof to keep out the rain and wind—but providing that for hundreds of millions was a monumental challenge.

Fortunately, the Guangzhou-Nanjing coalition had been the most concerned about the potential Three Gorges Dam collapse, second only to the Communist Party itself, and they had prepared a ‘response manual.’ This greatly aided the Communist Party’s evacuation efforts. In fact, it was the former Guangzhou-Nanjing leaders who mobilized the people, which minimized confusion.

In the process, they managed to construct some shelters, but these were mostly hastily built concrete structures without proper electricity. This was due to wartime conditions and severe budget limitations. Furthermore, these shelters weren’t nearly large enough to accommodate all the displaced citizens. At best, they could only house about 1 million people.

Of course, considering the wartime situation and financial constraints, accommodating 1 million people was a considerable achievement. However, the muddy water surging from the collapsed Three Gorges Dam paid no heed to human circumstances or efforts.

Thus, the Communist Party managed to mitigate the situation by implementing a nearly miraculous, if somewhat desperate, strategy.

This strategy centered on extreme self-sufficiency, where the evacuees would build their own shelters. The plan was to relocate all 100 million displaced people to the underpopulated lands of Hubei, Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, Jiangsu, and Anhui provinces, which had plenty of available space. In essence, they intended to pour all 100 million people into the regions already devastated after the previous battle at Shenzhen.

So, did it work well? Surprisingly, it was working reasonably well. The self-built shelters were terribly crude, but they were better than nothing, and certainly better than being swept away by the floodwaters.

The real problem was food. Hygiene was a secondary concern, as the shelters were intended for short-term use—a month at the shortest, half a year at the longest. But food was a constant necessity.

If you were to ask if there was enough food to feed hundreds of millions of people, the answer would be ‘yes.’ But if you were to ask if they could distribute that food effectively, the answer would be ‘no.’

From the beginning, proper control was nearly impossible. Initially, about 30% of the evacuees broke free from official control and scattered across China.

These people had little to no trust in the Party. They typically left to find relatives or return to their hometowns. The lack of transportation was a major obstacle, but they were determined to avoid being herded like cattle. Of course, they weren’t actually being led to a slaughterhouse, but they had become deeply distrustful of everything the Party said.

The Party members were furious about this defiance, but they tried to downplay it.

It was impossible to completely ignore. How could they ignore the fact that tens of millions of people were striking out on their own, rejecting the Communist Party’s authority? But it was equally impossible to force them all back.

Even the people who remained were difficult to manage, so how could they possibly bring back those who had left? Instead, they turned a blind eye, as they now had a bit more administrative flexibility.

And 10% of those who remained enlisted in the People’s Liberation Army along the way. Some sought proximity to power, others hoped to protect their families, but the most common motivation was simply, ‘If I’m a soldier, I’ll get fed properly.’

And that assumption was correct. Despite the chaotic situation, the authorities would borrow money if necessary to ensure the soldiers were fed. What would hungry soldiers do? Initially, they would probably just grumble.

Even if things escalated, it would likely only result in isolated incidents of fragging [attacking a superior officer], coups, or desertions. But if those incidents became widespread, wouldn’t that simply create hordes of bandits and brigands?

Anyway, the majority followed instructions and were put to work building shelters. Still, because it was their own shelter and because the higher-ups in the Party, who were acutely aware of the dire circumstances, made frequent inspection visits and distributed supplies, they didn’t descend into banditry.

And 10% of those who were building shelters returned to their cities. While cities close to the Three Gorges Dam were completely submerged, cities like Nanjing and Shanghai, located far downstream, only experienced flooding comparable to monsoon rains, so the Party ordered their residents to return.

The main problem, as mentioned earlier, was food, which was largely imported from Russia and the United States. Originally, China had been a self-sufficient country, but the warlords’ administrative incompetence and exploitative practices had made it impossible to feed all these refugees through domestic production alone.

For true self-sufficiency to be possible, everything had to return to normal, but with hundreds of millions of refugees in the aftermath of the war, how could that be achieved?

So, to summarize, China was working with the United States to somehow manage this crisis. And China wasn’t the only country that suffered damage.

***

“Your Excellency, the aquaculture farms are suffering immense damage due to the fresh water flowing from the Yangtze River.”

Among the countries besides China, South Korea was the most significantly affected by the Three Gorges Dam collapse.

“I feel really screwed.”

“Pardon me?”

“It’s nothing. Forget it, forget it.”

Hyeon Won-seop sighed, regretting the harsh language he had unconsciously used, but he felt more inclined to continue cursing than to devise a solution. He couldn’t think of a solution, so what could he possibly offer? Should he dissolve solar salt and rock salt in the West Sea [Yellow Sea] to increase the salinity? Or should he launch a massive rescue operation akin to Noah’s Ark, preserving all kinds of fish living in the West Sea in a giant tank? At least Noah’s Ark had land animals, but the targets to be rescued were fish—the fish that appear on dinner tables every day. It would be odd if he didn’t sigh.

In fact, the West Sea had already been devastated and was becoming a disaster zone due to the massive influx of fresh water released to mitigate the damage from the Three Gorges Dam collapse a few days prior.

‘It’s fortunate that at least the East Sea [Sea of Japan] is intact.’

If the dam had completely collapsed, it would have likely ravaged even the East Sea.

“What about the nuclear power plants?”

In reality, if the nuclear power plants had been swept away by the flood, reports would have already been filed and there would be widespread panic, but Hyeon Won-seop asked just in case.

“Fortunately, Nanjing and Shanghai, where the nuclear power plants are located, have suffered almost no damage.”

“That’s a relief. At least no radiation has mixed into the fresh water.”

It wasn’t just a platitude; it was a genuine relief. He was currently focused on appeasing the fishermen, but if radiation had leaked, he would have had to contend not only with the fishermen but also with widespread public outrage. And that situation would have been a nightmare.

“Then we can at least breathe a sigh of relief.”

Hyeon Won-seop sank back into his chair.

The long and brutal Chinese civil war had finally ended. It had detonated a dam like a final, destructive firework, but it wasn’t a fatal blow to Korea. Frankly, from a national perspective, they should be grateful that the dam had only partially collapsed.

The industrial complexes along the Yangtze River were all flooded. So, where would China get its consumer goods?

They were importing food from the United States and Russia, but they would inevitably need to import high-quality consumer goods from Korea. There were many countries that could supply cheap goods, but few could offer a comparable balance of quality and price.

There was a rival across the sea called Japan, but they wouldn’t be able to offer competitive prices. Moreover, there were also international political considerations, so China would ultimately rely on Korean consumer goods. That meant, as Hyeon Won-seop said, they could breathe a sigh of relief.

Small and medium-sized enterprises were experiencing unprecedented growth, and the economy, which had been hemorrhaging money, began to recover due to the surge in demand. This would also stabilize the North Korean region to some extent.

The internal phone in the office rang while Hyeon Won-seop was wearily massaging his bloodshot eyes. Hyeon Won-seop hesitated to answer, sensing an ominous premonition, but he couldn’t ignore it, so he eventually picked up the receiver.

“What is it?”

The news from the other end of the line was more than enough to shatter Hyeon Won-seop’s fleeting sense of relief.

-Mr. President, the United States has just formally requested that we send troops to the Middle East.