Chapter 184 "Jungler" Wade Goes Online_1

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In the 191st year of the Crisis Era, before the Deep Space Fleet set out.

Zhang Beihai arrived at the surveillance center for escapees at the Fourth Star Harbor Command in Jupiter Orbit.

A person was waiting for him there, Wade, who had woken up two years earlier than him. Upon seeing Zhang Beihai's name, Wade immediately thought of the cryptic message left for him by Lin Sen two centuries ago:

"The octopus from Hokkaido."

"Life is full of deceit, but trust is more abundant, and cartoons are more real than reality."

Wade realized that Zhang Beihai was also a part of Lin Sen's plan, and that he was someone who could cooperate with his own plans. Or perhaps it was he himself who was to cooperate with Zhang Beihai's plans.

As a former PDC Strategic Intelligence Bureau director of "absolute rationality," Wade also knew that his plan could be exposed.

Indeed, when he accepted the task of monitoring escapes from Lin Sen, he became a "wild" Wallfacer's Assistant, tasked with completing the "wild" Wallfacing plan entrusted by Lin Sen.

If the Trisolaran Faction sent out a "wild" Wallbreaker to breach the plan of him as a "wild" Wallfacer's Assistant, then the secret plan for the decisive escape battle could also fall through.

In a dim and secret meeting room, Zhang Beihai met Wade.

Wade, "Former PDC Strategic Intelligence Bureau director... Wade, greets you."

This statement on the surface acknowledged Wade's identity as the director of the Strategic Intelligence Bureau and not as the person in charge of the escape surveillance center.

Zhang Beihai, "Executive Captain of the Natural Selection... Zhang Beihai, reporting for duty."

Zhang Beihai had not figured out Wade's intentions. Though both were from the Common Era, his current identity was that of the Executive Captain of the Natural Selection, here to accept the escape monitoring system.

The escape monitoring system needed to perform surgery on the body of the Executive Captain, implanting a "Poison Canister" on the heart.

This was not only to prevent the Executive Captain from choosing to escape directly, but also to provide mental comfort to ordinary people, as well as to strengthen the resolve of all combat personnel.

Wade, "We come from the same era, and you are undoubtedly the finest military personnel of that era.

"I would like to hear your thoughts on defeatism, which is a question I pose to all the Executive Captains."

Zhang Beihai, "In these two hundred years, human technology has exploded so rapidly that we have grown into giants of the stars, and this era hardly has any soil for defeatism."

Wade, "Then why is the Trisolaran Interstellar Fleet still heading toward the Solar System, when their Whirlwind Stomp has even reached the edge of the Solar System and might arrive in the inner Solar System in just over a decade?

"Shouldn't the Trisolarans be choosing to surrender now?"

Zhang Beihai, "Perhaps they dare not surrender. With their transparent thinking, they might never have experienced a situation like this in their history, and they do not know how to choose.

"Or maybe, in the harsh environment of Trisolaris, they have to be uncompromising, and no matter what disasters they face, they would hold out to the very last moment.

"Even if they face our now mighty human civilization and are overpowered, they must persist to the last moment.

"Never give up until the last moment, perhaps that is the Trisolaran spirit, and it has always been our spirit too."

Wade, "Your understanding is very profound and thorough, much better than some of the foolish explanations I've seen online.

"They even believe it's due to different ways of thinking—Trisolarans have completely transparent thought processes, and they think humans are already aware of their intentions to surrender."

In the original work, this kind of understanding of the Trisolarans seems self-deceptive; one can only say that after long deceit, one also starts to believe it.

Zhang Beihai was somewhat puzzled, not understanding Wade's point.

"Such explanations are too far-fetched, utterly self-deceptive, and even more to be guarded against than defeatism, but I feel you might have another opinion."

Wade, "I think you should study Lin Sen more, many of his analyses have now been proven.

"Recent astronomical observations have discovered that the Trisolaran Interstellar Fleet has once again crossed through a patch of interstellar dust clouds, exposing them for the seventh time in two centuries since they set sail."

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"Their fleet has lost the strict formation; the 'brush' shape is unrecognizable compared to its first passage through the dust cloud."

"We have also discovered that the vast majority of Trisolaran warships have now entered a state of deceleration. From the analysis of the dust cloud manifestation, one warship has not decelerated and will reach the Solar System a century and a half ahead of the fleet, which means... it has broken away."

"This confirms that Lin Sen's analysis of the Trisolaran fleet from two centuries ago was entirely correct; Trisolaran warships might be very weak, unable to even withstand a dust cloud."

"Their fleet is probably battered and tattered by now, and the most likely scenario is that the warship has malfunctioned and can't even decelerate."

"If this is not a Trisolaran stratagem, setting aside factors like beliefs, from the most rational military perspective, what might be the reason?"

Zhang Beihai: "Indeed, I don't think this is Trisolarans' feint of presenting weakness, but that the warship has really malfunctioned."

"Then the most likely scenario is that they have prepared several secret weapons, their trump cards. Trisolarans are confident that they can use these secret weapons to defeat us."

"Even the imminent Trisolaran Soothsayer Imprint could be their trump card."

Wade: "Yes, actually Lin Sen had anticipated this long ago. From the development of military weapons, this is totally possible."

"Soon after the invention of gunpowder, the method of using tubular objects to direct the launch of projectiles took to the stage of history, which has continued ever since."

"The Fire Lance of the Song Dynasty utilized just an iron-wrapped bamboo tube, igniting gunpowder to generate explosive force to shoot out shrapnel projectiles, with a killing range of less than 20 meters."

"By the 20th century, firearms, though unrecognizable from the Fire Lance, were essentially still the same."

"Until the emergence of the nuclear bomb, which completely broke this pattern and changed the modes and the levels of war."

"Just like our battle with Trisolaris, it might also be a confrontation between different levels of warfare, one that is an unimaginable mode of war to us."

Zhang Beihai might have guessed Wade's implication: "What do you mean by that?"

Wade: "I am the director of the PDC Strategic Intelligence Bureau, and I will always be.

"For the most critical intelligence, everything can be sacrificed.

"Two centuries ago, I sent a brain to the Trisolarans for intelligence, and now, for intelligence, I need you all."

"I need your fleet to change its course after departure and head in the direction of this Trisolaran Soothsayer Imprint. I need you to find out just what that mode of warfare is."

"Actually, this is the essence of the decisive battle escape plan, it's not about luring the Trisolaran Soothsayer Imprint or Trisolaran fleet to intercept us."

"Rather, we need to take the initiative to head to the Trisolaran's flight path, engage them proactively, and force them to use their trump cards."

"Although it's likely a suicidal mission, you all must use your flesh and blood to detect what exactly the Trisolarans' trump cards are?"

Zhang Beihai: "From the moment I donned this military uniform, we were prepared to make sacrifices.

"But once the Deep Space Fleet leaves the Solar System, humanity will have no hold over us; can we really carry out such a task?"

Wade: "Who knows? The escape monitoring system is not only aimed at Executive Captains, but also has a restrictive effect on ordinary crew members; I've considered every detail, and I've worked hard for more than a decade for this system."

"No one is clear whether, once you all have left, the omnidirectional broadcast will become targeted, broadcasting only to the 13th and 14th hour zones of right ascension."

PS: 1. There are issues with the original description of the Trisolaran fleet. For instance, the seventh passage through the dust cloud by the Trisolarans was discovered in Crisis Era 205, but it was also said that the event happened 15 years ago, which would be Crisis Era 190.

By itinerary, in Crisis Era 205, the Trisolaran fleet would be less than 2 light years from the Solar System. The dust cloud event should have been discovered by humans within two years; this book follows that logic.

Additionally, when Logic negotiated with the Trisolarans and the Trisolaran fleet changed direction, Sophon stated that humans could confirm it after 30 minutes; humans do not possess Sophons, which is clearly problematic as well.

2. In the original novel, the explanation for the Trisolarans not surrendering is deemed to be the difference in thinking between humans and Trisolarans. Trisolarans have a completely transparent mode of thought and believe that humans already know their intentions to surrender.

This explanation also fully shows that they are accustomed to self-deception; Zhang Beihai's explanation is not beyond their comprehension but rather something they are unwilling to admit, showing a mode of thought that has completely solidified.