Chapter 196

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“President. They say military clashes have broken out at Shanghai Port as well.”

“What, even Shanghai Port?”

Shanghai Port is the world’s number one container port.

So I thought the Chinese government would maintain good control to prevent any problems there no matter what, but military clashes had broken out even there.

“It wasn’t an external attack—apparently the central army units stationed there fought among themselves. Besides that, reports of coups breaking out in various regions keep coming in.”

When I heard that Guangzhou Port was occupied, I thought the Chinese government would somehow resolve it.

China was a place that had spent astronomical sums to make their internal systems solid and completed a strict surveillance system so the regime wouldn’t collapse.

It was hard to believe such a Chinese regime would fall.

But it was becoming reality.

“Since it’s China, I thought they’d somehow suppress it. But now it seems even the central government has given up. According to current rumors, there’s talk that Chairman Li Jinping was betrayed and already dead, or that he’s been detained, or that he’s already defected to Russia. Just rumors everywhere.”

If the situation was this serious, Li Jinping, the head of the current Chinese regime, should have appeared publicly and issued a statement.

He would have calmed the people and military, saying it looks chaotic for now but they can suppress it soon.

But seeing the silence, something must have happened to him.

“Then the food we sent as emergency aid…”

“It seems the warlord forces will take all of it. Also, for places where military clashes broke out before the food arrived, Gwangwoon Shipping independently halted transportation.”

“That’s good.”

But more than half has already gone to the Chinese side, and now warlord forces were fighting over it.

“…”

My heart was heavy.

Who could have imagined that China, which was so obsessed with control and managed systems so thoroughly, would collapse so futilely?

The drought and floods from global warming, and the ensuing severe food shortage—ultimately, even the perfect control they boasted of had reached its limit.

“You did your best, President. Didn’t you give up food for the weak that no one else cared about? The greedy warlords just intercepted it.”

That’s what war is.

Young people are sacrificed for the ambitions of those above, and countless people must give their lives for no reason.

If those warlords had abandoned their greed and united for the suffering people, things would have been different now.

“The problem is the world economy. Since the collapse of the central government is now a foregone conclusion, China will be in civil war for at least several years, and companies worldwide will be shaken.”

That was one of the reasons I tried to minimize China’s chaos.

If China collapses, the world economy takes a fatal blow.

Just our country alone—China accounts for 25% of our total exports.

In other words, 25% of our country’s revenue is about to disappear entirely.

Is that all?

We’re importing over 20% from China.

This isn’t just our country’s problem.

America and the rest of the world, especially companies that outsourced manufacturing to Chinese factories, will take irreversible damage.

“Wall Street, which gets information fast, has already been dumping all their holdings for two days. Same with other places. Instead, money is flowing into safe assets. Also, companies that outsource manufacturing to China are in emergency mode.”

Right now, the whole world is trembling.

Because an event of a completely different dimension from the usual bubble bursts was unfolding before their eyes.

The great collapse of the Chinese regime.

That massive tsunami was about to spread everywhere.

***

“Report. How are things going?”

“Chairman. The Chinese government seems to be finished as is. The central government has also split internally, and Chairman Li Jinping’s survival can’t be confirmed.”

“Holy shit.”

Chairman Kang Seong-ho cursed without realizing it.

“What about damage on our side?”

“We already moved our production facilities to Korea and Africa long ago. To minimize technology leakage. Of course, some facilities are still in China, but not enough to affect our overall production. However—”

“However?”

“Exports are completely blocked—from displays to various components we export to China.”

The Chinese market is enormous.

The population alone is overwhelming.

Companies don’t cling to it for nothing.

So this incident would inevitably be quite damaging even for Kangsung.

“The fortunate thing is that we don’t rely extremely heavily on the Chinese market. China depends on domestic markets for everything from phones to computers to semiconductors. They strictly censor anything from overseas.”

“But we can’t ignore the damage.”

“Yes. But it’s not fatal. Currently, Kangsung controls semiconductors, and we’re gradually pushing out Ample in the phone market too.”

That’s why he couldn’t blame Gwangwoon.

Because Kangsung had grown this much thanks to Gwangwoon.

“But is it really confirmed that Gwangwoon caused China’s split?”

“Yes. The decisive reason for China’s split is food. We can’t know the details, but Gwangwoon’s Sentinel must have been in contact with Chinese warlords. More importantly, wasn’t the occupation of Guangzhou Port this time also because of food sent by Gwangwoon?”

And by sending food to multiple ports, they induced coups nationwide.

“There was a reason Gwangwoon induced food shortages through various financial crises, bubble bursts, and wars. The reason they pushed so hard to purchase food in advance. It was all build-up for such a situation.”

“The build-up was for the collapse of the Chinese regime?”

“Looking at how things are flowing currently. As proof, aren’t all financial assets moving to safe assets right now?”

Jeong Jin-ho is an aggressive investor.

So he always enjoys risk.

But at some point, he suddenly only put money into safe assets.

That was when I thought something was off.

“It was all for a reason. Since China’s collapse was one of the plans, he organized all assets and moved them to safe assets before achieving it. Some of that was bet on the Chinese market collapsing.”

Thanks to that, Gwangwoon was currently the only one making money in the financial market.

“What a cruel company. Under the pretense of solving the food shortage, they sent food and made it a trigger for war. Tens of millions, no, hundreds of millions of Chinese will lose their lives in this civil war.”

“And the world economy collapses with it?”

“Yes. That’s why the Chinese regime absolutely couldn’t collapse. Isn’t that why even America stopped operations on the Chinese regime? Because the side effects of the regime collapsing would spread worldwide.”

Of those handling money now, how many actually wanted the Chinese regime to collapse?

Probably only Gwangwoon.

“Why on earth is Gwangwoon doing this? If China collapses, the world economy collapses. Isn’t that a loss for Gwangwoon too?”

“Chairman. It seems Gwangwoon is… trying to reshape the world order.”

“What?”

Reshaping the world order.

The words were so grandiose that even Chairman Kang Seong-ho was taken aback.

“China’s internal strife will last for years. We don’t know who will be the final victor, nor who is on whose side. It’s practically an era of warring states. Then who has to take on the manufacturing and hub role that China was handling?”

“That’s Korea?”

“Yes. Korea and Japan will become the main players. But before striking China, Gwangwoon first worked on Japan. The political scene there is already occupied by Korean-Japanese people.”

“Not only that, Gwangwoon has taken control of the African region and is spending astronomical amounts to expand infrastructure. Labor costs are cheap there and infrastructure is built up enough that large factories can certainly be established.”

At those words, Chairman Kang Seong-ho’s eyes lit up.

“That means…”

“Seizing Africa and Japanese politics was preparation for China’s regime collapse. So Gwangwoon could take over all the roles China has been playing.”

“!?”

Only then did Kang Seong-ho realize why Gwangwoon had put effort into Africa and Japanese politics.

Absorbing China’s role whole.

Korea taking the role of Asia’s central hub.

“Gwangwoon must have thought that even if they entered the Chinese market, taking control would be impossible. Because the Chinese government would keep blocking them.”

“So they chose another method?”

“Yes. If you can’t have it, destroy it.”

If you can’t have it, destroy it.

If you can’t control the Chinese market, destroy it.

What a terrifying thought.

“The problem is that even with Gwangwoon’s preparations, we can’t predict the future situation.”

“You’re saying we don’t know whether it’ll be an unprecedentedly brilliant golden age in Korean history, or the worst dark age?”

“Yes. It’s a problem that China is so close to us, but North Korea is right above us. That’s the biggest variable.”

Everyone swallowed dryly.

A brilliantly golden age for Korea, or Korea experiencing the worst dark age.

The difference was truly just a hair’s breadth.

***

“So… all supplies coming our way are blocked?”

“Yes. Military clashes are occurring across all regions of China, and all supply routes are blocked. Dear Leader.”

North Korean leader Kim Jeong-woon’s hands were trembling.

For North Korea, China is the last lifeline.

Due to economic sanctions proposed by the UN, North Korea’s exports and imports were essentially blocked, and China was the only place they could rely on.

Therefore, North Korea depended on China for 98% of trade—food, energy, daily necessities, and so on.

They got everything from China.

Several times they boldly began reforms claiming they’d develop domestic markets for self-sufficiency, but North Korea, already rotten to the core and crumbling apart, wouldn’t change easily.

Moreover, this drought and flood dealt a fatal blow to North Korea, with over 1 million people starving to death.

They were nearly catching up to the statistics of the 1990s, called the Arduous March, when deaths reached 2 million.

“And at a time like this, even supplies from China are cut off?”

It was the same as 98% of North Korea’s supplies being cut.

In other words, people who were barely surviving with just enough not to die would now have their food completely cut off.

Not just the common people, but the upper class too.

With supplies from China cut, even the upper class would soon experience the same hunger.

“What about Russia and Iran?”

“Those two also can’t support us right now. Russia has difficulty with supplies because of the war with Ukraine, and Iran can’t provide support due to the war with Israel.”

His mind seemed to be turning blank.

Cold sweat was streaming from his forehead.

Because the collapse of the Chinese regime was something he couldn’t even imagine.

“If food supplies don’t come, the already simmering public sentiment will boil over further, and the units that are barely getting supplies will also explode with complaints.”

Supplies from China, which handles all of North Korea’s food and energy, were blocked.

This meant a serious existential crisis for the North Korean regime.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in the past, didn’t North Korea experience that famous Arduous March when they could no longer receive support?

But China’s collapse was on an even greater scale.

Because support would be cut off even to the Kim family that controls North Korea.

“F-First, we need to find some solution somehow…”

“Dear Leader!”

“What now?”

“They say tens of thousands of refugees are coming down from the Yalu and Tumen rivers. And some of them are even armed forces, so clashes are breaking out everywhere.”

“W-What!?”

The Yalu and Tumen rivers were routes frequently used when North Korean residents defected to China.

But now that was reversed, and Chinese refugees were coming down through there.

But right now, North Korea couldn’t accept them.

They had nothing to eat here either—how could they take care of refugees?

“Stop them from crossing! Even if we have to shoot shells and bullets to kill them all!”

The landslide from China’s great mountain collapsing was now about to engulf North Korea.

End