American Strategic Deception Bureau

　Alas, we have really lost all the face as the world hegemon!

　Watching the various riot news scenes on TV news and listening to the manor guards yelling and driving away the refugees fleeing from New York City, Kong Xiangxi, an outstanding representative of the four major families of the Republic of China, could not help but break out in a cold sweat.

　Recalling the war years in China.

　I was careless! Times have really changed. Even in the United States, absolute safety isn't guaranteed!

　Could it be that the "Third World War" that President Chiang has been nagging about every day since 1949 is really going to break out now?

　As long as World War III breaks out and the United States and the Soviet Union launch a nuclear war, his luxury villas across the United States will also be at risk of being reduced to ashes!

　Oh, what bad luck! How come I have come to the United States and still have to be prepared for danger?

　Do you want to do as I do in my hometown in Shanxi, and cast some silver winter melons weighing dozens of kilograms and hide them at home to protect against thieves and bank failures?

　Wait, if the one coming to your door isn’t a thief but a nuclear bomb, then even if you cast a silver winter melon, it won’t be of any use!

　So, starting from January this year, Kong Xiangxi was worried all day long, unable to eat or sleep.

　Since Dad is so worried, as his children we naturally have to share his worries.

　Well, Kong Lingwei, the rebellious daughter of a street urchin who dressed as a man, was a suave womanizer, slept with courtesans and took concubines, opened fire in the streets, fought with warlords for women, and pioneered modern LGBT culture in China, is probably no longer a possibility. However, his second son, Kong Lingjie, is still very filial to his old father.

　Upon learning that Kong Xiangxi was worried about the outbreak of nuclear war and the advent of the era of radiation, Kong Lingjie immediately contacted someone to design a super-luxurious underground shelter. When he received the blueprints for the shelter, he became worried that the design was unreliable, not only wasting a huge amount of money, but also potentially costing his family's lives.

　Therefore, the very action-oriented Mr. Kong found friends in the political circle in Washington and got to know Fieri's elder brother Bernard. Then, through Bernard's connections, he asked Fieri, now the most famous doomsday wasteland survival expert in the United States, to evaluate the Kong family's shelter plan.

　This may not sound like a big deal, but for a Chinese person living in the United States, it is not easy at all.

　You should know that Kong Lingjie used to be Taiwan's representative to the United Nations. After immigrating to the United States, he became a close friend of the Republican Party. Two years ago, he was also an important figure in Nixon's campaign team. He had clashed with the Kim family on the other side, who supported the Democratic candidate Kennedy.

　Now he can turn around smoothly and deal with people on the Democratic side again, which also shows that his network of contacts is indeed extraordinary.

　From Kong Lingjie's position in Nixon's early team, we can see that in the 1950s, Mr. Nixon's subordinates were all reactionary and eccentric people. As a whole, they were incompatible with the trend of the times that advocated progress and rebellion:

　The 1960s was a rebellious era with hippies everywhere and rock music booming! Who cares about the clichés of those extreme old conservatives?

　It is no wonder that he was defeated by Kennedy in the election, and it took him another eight years to enter the White House. He only truly shined in the 1970s.

　In short, although he still had a lingering resentment towards the Four Great Families of the Republic of China, considering that these four families had been driven out of the mainland for over a decade, and that the business was introduced by his eldest brother Bernard, Fili still upheld his professionalism and carefully reviewed the Kong family's refuge plan.

　——Anyway, even without the shelter, these old thieves will live a long life. It’s better to use their money to support the infrastructure of the United States!

　Besides, the problem has already come to him, he can't just be perfunctory and ruin his reputation as the "authoritative expert on doomsday survival"!

　As a result, after looking through the blueprints of the Kong family's private underground shelter, even with his experience, Fili was shocked.

　I almost shouted out on the spot: "Mr. Kong, spectacles are ruining the country!"

　-

　It turns out that the shelter sketch designed by Kong Lingjie was not just a big hole dug underground, but also a building on the ground.

　Specifically, he planned to build a four-story building in southwest Houston as the headquarters for his oil company. The building would be covered in bulletproof glass, with the company offices occupying the middle two floors, the ground floor serving as a dining hall for employees, and the fourth floor housing the Kong family's private residence.

　The actual shelter, built in the basement of the company building, was a reinforced concrete structure divided into two floors, totaling 3.8 square feet. It was larger than the bunker Hitler built in the Reichstag in Berlin. The entrance door was made of armored steel and could withstand tank fire.

　The shelter was equipped with three main and emergency power systems, three fire suppression systems, 700 beds, a dozen double bedrooms, male and female bathrooms, an emergency room, a recreation room, and four holding cells separated by steel poles. The entire shelter could accommodate up to 1000 people and included a six-month supply of food, a separate deep well, and a water filtration system to facilitate survival in the radioactive wasteland following a nuclear explosion.

　In addition, they always have an armored vehicle, a company of armed guards, a large stockpile of ammunition and weapons, and military radio equipment in sealed metal boxes that can protect against electromagnetic attacks. This is so that after the apocalypse, they can rush out of the shelter and kill everyone.

　The most outrageous thing is that there is even an artificial lake built on the shelter, so that in the event of a nuclear bomb attack, the lake water will prevent neutrons from penetrating. And when necessary, the water in the artificial lake can be quickly drained to reveal a secret hangar with helicopters parked below.

　——Imagining the scene of a helicopter taking off from the bottom of the lake, Fili immediately thought of Marvel and the Triskelion Building of S.H.I.E.L.D. on the banks of the Potomac River.

　, and the flying aircraft carrier that rose into the air from the underwater dock at the bottom of the river, majestically and oppressively oppressing everyone...

　Damn it, Kong Lingjie, this rich guy, actually wants to turn his oil company into a scaled-down version of Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters?

　Is this a spectacle? This is clearly a spectacle!

　How come these four major families of the Republic of China are still so powerful even after fleeing to the United States?

　Fili muttered with some envy and jealousy - the total assets of his Jin family probably didn't even add up to a fraction of the Kong family's!

　Who says America discriminates against and persecutes people of color these days? If it really did discriminate against and persecute people, how could it tolerate such a frivolous Chinese tycoon?

　-

　Of course, although Kong Lingjie's "underground Confucius Mansion" plan looks very intimidating, like a man-made wonder.

　But as an authority on survival in apocalyptic wastelands, Ferry immediately discovered the problem after calming down.

　Well, it’s a fatal problem!

　First, Kong Lingjie and his father were no longer government officials, but merely wealthy businessmen. However, the scale of his shelter was incredibly large, practically rivaling Hitler's Wolf's Lair, capable of accommodating a thousand people! This was practically national-level standards, wasn't it?

　Of course, seeing that he was planning to store so much munitions and ammunition in the shelter, Firi could roughly guess what this guy was thinking:

　Maybe he's read too many exciting novels and movies about decisive killing and fighting for supremacy in radioactive wastelands, and recalled his father's old idea of ​​"whoever has a gun is a king" during the warlords' melee in the Republic of China era. He wants to rely on the munitions stockpiled in advance to conquer a place in the post-nuclear America?

　Well, that’s a good idea, very ambitious!

　But the problem is...

　Mr. Kong, do you remember that you are not white, but a yellow-skinned Chinese?

　Your company building is not built in Shanghai or Nanjing, but in Texas, the base of the rednecks in the southern United States!

　Southern states openly discriminated against people of color. Only last year, under President Kennedy's pressure, were some laws repealed. But the overall social atmosphere remains one of white supremacy, with people of color destined to be enslaved, or at least not to disrupt the lives of white people.

　According to this logic, your social status as a yellow-skinned billionaire is probably not as good as that of the white clerk in your company.

　At least two years ago, you couldn't even have sex with white prostitutes in Texas. You could only have sex with black or Latino girls, no matter how much money you had!

　In this situation, if it were normal times, the Texas rednecks would be able to restrain their deep-rooted racial discrimination because you are the boss who pays them, and smile and flatter you, the rich yellow monkey - making money is not shameful!

　But when the apocalypse arrives, social order collapses, and money becomes worthless, and everyone respects power, will these white citizens of Texas flee to the shelters and still listen to the orders of a yellow monkey like you? I'm afraid they'll turn against their superiors at any moment.

　Of course, your company can also hire more Chinese people, so that they can stick together in normal times and rise up in times of emergency.

　But the problem is that Houston is not New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. There are not many Chinese living in the entire state of Texas right now.

　Your company is an oil company with very high technical requirements, so you must hire a large number of white employees to keep it running.

　Therefore, it seems impossible for a Chinese person to "rise from the wasteland" on the ground of Texas.

　The more people run into the underground shelter, the more instability it will bring, and the owner may even lose control of the shelter!

　By then, I'm afraid the refuge will be in a coup, with the remaining members of the Kong family fleeing in a helicopter, with rockets bombarding them from behind...

　Secondly, in addition to the fact that the "Underground Confucius Mansion" shelter was too large and completely unnecessary, its location itself was also problematic.

　——Why did you build your Kong family’s shelter in downtown Houston?

　Anyone who has watched Hollywood science fiction space movies will have often heard the astronauts calling "Houston" in the movies.

　Why do astronauts call Houston? Because Houston, Texas, is the United States' space city! It's NASA's headquarters!

　Therefore, if the United States and the Soviet Union really fought a nuclear war, the first target that the Soviet intercontinental missiles would destroy after launching would be Houston, in addition to New York and Washington.

　In the ranking of major American cities most likely to be hit by nuclear bombs, the "City of Angels" Los Angeles ranks lower than Houston!

　——Because Los Angeles is mainly based on cultural industries and has no outstanding industries, its importance during the war was far less than that of San Francisco and Seattle, let alone Houston.

　Building an underground shelter against nuclear war in Houston is like building a vacation estate on the Somme or Verdun - isn't that just waiting to be bombed?

　The Kong family's underground shelter's level of protection could at best withstand the shockwaves of a nuclear explosion. However, if a high-yield nuclear bomb struck directly, and the explosion center was only a few kilometers away from the shelter, it would be smashed to pieces like an egg under a hammer.

　So why did you have to dig a shelter in Houston? Everyone else is building it in the country, right?

　In this way, based on his experience, Firi wrote a report with extensive references and detailed content, criticizing the

　The inappropriateness of building a giant shelter in Houston, Texas was then faxed to Washington, D.C., and his elder brother Bernard passed it to Kong Lingjie.

　The result attracted the other party's high attention, and they invited Fili and his brother to visit their Locust Valley Manor to discuss the matter in person.

　Coincidentally, the CIA also learned that some Chinese were planning to build a large underground project in a sensitive area like Houston. Naturally, they were quite wary and suspicious about this, so they sent Fili to take advantage of the situation and investigate before the FBI could.

　So, Phili took Marita to New York and went to Locust Valley to visit the old thief from Shanxi who once made great contributions in the history of the Republic of China.

　Author's words: PS: This book does have fantasy elements, but according to the plan, there will be more and more of them in the later stages, and the dramatic changes will have to wait until at least the Nixon era.

　During Kennedy's presidency, the protagonist was still mainly dormant and quietly doing things.

　Putting aside other things, the women around the protagonist, except Marita, can't even speak English well. Do you expect them to speak Spanish to deceive Americans?

　It takes at least three or four years to learn English.

　Chapter 151: The National Pests of Locust Valley Manor

　Long Island, located on the outskirts of New York, is a traditional wealthy area in the United States located at the mouth of the Hudson River and on the Atlantic coast.

　Due to its proximity to the metropolis of New York and its beautiful scenery, Long Island's beaches are often crowded with affluent middle-class people fishing, strolling, playing beach volleyball, and sunbathing. Those with even greater wealth can sail out on yachts to watch the sunrise or surf, a truly elevated expression of their upper-class superiority.

　With its precious natural beauty, far from the hustle and bustle of the city, and its proximity to New York City, the world's financial center, properties on Long Island are extremely valuable, often fetching over a million dollars. Even mansions costing tens of millions are not uncommon here.

　These mansions have greenhouse gardens, private tennis courts, and indoor swimming pools, encompassing everything that the common people dream of.

　According to American common sense, such excessive property taxes will lead to superior community security. This is not only because more taxes can recruit more police forces, but also because those who can live there are at least wealthy middle-class people. Even if they commit serious crimes, they will generally do it outside.

　-By the way, Dr. Seaver and his family in the famous long-running TV series "Growing Pains" lived in Long Island.

　Then, even in Long Island, New York, where wealthy people gather, among the many luxurious manors scattered around the area, the 34-acre Locust Valley Manor is the top-level one, comparable to Trump's Mar-a-Lago in Florida in the future, or even better.

　Fili and his brother got out of the car and walked in. They saw luxury and splendor everywhere: neatly trimmed shrubs, mosaic-paved paths, gurgling fountains, tall circular columns like temple buildings, floor-to-ceiling windows inlaid with stained glass paintings, and copper roofs that were faintly visible between the trees... Even the palaces where modern European royal families live, except for being larger in scale, are probably of this level, right?

　In addition, there are groups of maids moving around, and strong bodyguards armed with live ammunition patrolling outside, making it look like a royal family.

　As for the various antiques and curios displayed in the Locust Valley Manor, the sculptures and paintings on display are so luxurious that they are comparable to the Palace of Versailles, which is awe-inspiring.

　Such extravagance and wealth, this kind of wealth that rivals a nation, left the two Irish brothers in awe. Although it wasn't to the level of "Grandma Liu Entering the Grand View Garden," they were still filled with an indescribable shock.

　Moreover, the Locust Valley Manor they saw now was not in its most glorious state. Thirteen years later, when President Chiang's widow, Soong May-ling, moved to the United States and lived in Kong Xiangxi's Locust Valley Manor, she turned it into a palace and renovated it several times, making it even more luxurious.

　Even now, President Washington's Mount Vernon is nothing but a shabby chicken coop compared to Kong Xiangxi's Locust Valley Manor!

　"Alas, of the over $10 billion in aid the White House approved for the old Chinese regime, I wonder how much of it was actually used, and how much ended up in these mansions! Just look at this estate and you'll understand why the Republicans were blaming President Truman for 'losing China'. No matter how much aid we gave, it wouldn't be enough to withstand the devastation of these thieves!"

　Bernard looked around the magnificent manor and muttered a little sourly, and Ferry agreed with him.

　——Although many "nationalist supporters" always say that the main reason for the party-state's defeat in mainland China was the insufficient and untimely aid from the United States when they were whitewashing Chiang Kai-shek.

　But to be honest, the United States has been very generous in terms of its financial support.

　In the 1940s, when the US GDP was less than $500 billion, President Roosevelt and President Truman still contributed nearly $10 billion to aid Chiang Kai-shek's Chongqing government.

　After the end of the Liberation War, when President Chiang was driven out of the mainland and had to occupy Taiwan, massive amounts of American aid continued to flow in.

　Otherwise, with the party-state's organizational and management capabilities, it would be difficult for it to gain a foothold on the island.

　Of course, Chiang Kai-shek's party-state was certainly a mess, a mess, but compared to the puppet regimes that the US later supported, such as South Korea, South Vietnam, and Afghanistan, it was truly outstanding.

　At least he didn't have to ask the American soldiers to come out and play for him, and he still couldn't hold on. Instead, he actually carried the burden on his own for four years!

　Other US proxy regimes do not yet possess such combat capability!

　Even Israel, known as the little overlord of the Middle East, immediately returned to its decadent nature after the initial batch of Eastern European Jewish veterans from the Soviet Union were exhausted, the kibbutz farms that nurtured new recruits were all privatized, and Israel's socialist elements were completely eliminated.

　Despite months of relentless bombing and fierce fighting, the Israeli army, with its 300,000-strong army, was unable to capture Gaza City, a city the size of a county. Instead, it was subjected to daily anti-tank gymnastics by Hamas fighters. This demonstrates that the Israeli army, after its decline, is now at best on par with the South Vietnamese warlords.

　Therefore, Ferry did not have any contempt for the remnants of these reactionary regimes. Instead, he comforted his brother: "Bernard, these are all things of the past. There is no point in bringing up the past. At least these magnificent palaces and mansions have been left on American soil. It is still hard to say who they will eventually belong to! As for now..."

　He looked up at the manor sign and made a cold joke, "Pests should live in Locust Valley, right?"

　-

　The meeting with former Nationalist Finance Minister Kong Xiangxi left Phili feeling quite disappointed.

　More than ten years after being driven out of the mainland, this former corrupt official had already become depressed. What appeared before Philip was just a tired and haggard old man, who had none of the demeanor of the villain in the movies. He really "didn't look like a devil at first sight".

　Communicating with him was also very difficult - even though he had been in the United States for so many years, Kong Xiangxi's English was still very poor, and he had to rely on an interpreter to communicate with him.

　But the translator he hired didn't seem to be very good. His translation was incoherent and Bernard was confused.

　As a time traveler, Firi wanted to try to listen to the "Mandarin" spoken by the man himself, but the more he listened, the more confused he became.

　Well, compared to the more difficult Minnan dialect and Cantonese, Shanxi dialect is ultimately closer to Mandarin. So, even though Kong Xiangxi spoke the Shanxi Taigu County dialect, which was mixed with some Jiangnan Wu dialect, he was still able to basically understand it.

　But the problem is, being able to hear does not mean being able to understand.

　In the old society, the upper class in China generally liked to speak in a pretentious manner, indirect manner, and as if they were playing charades. Just one person's name could be called a courtesy name, a pen name, a self-name, and many other names. Different names would be used in different occasions, leaving the listeners with the greatest difficulty in guessing the riddle.

　Although Europe and the United States also have similar metaphorical expressions, the metaphorical routines of old China are completely different from the metaphorical and satirical techniques of Europe and the United States.

　Even experts in this field will be confused when they hear things on different tracks.

　So, for Fili, Kong Xiangxi's words meant "I understand every word. But when they are put together, I don't know what they mean."