Inteligence Series 13 - Soekarno & The Sea Goddess
19 November 2020
Intelligence Series 18 - A TV Series & Drone Inspired Free Fall Case
Intelligence Series 18 - A TV Series & Drone Inspired Free Fall Case
Intelligence Series 18 - A TV Series & Drone Inspired Free Fall Case
Intelligence Series 18 - A TV Series & Drone Inspired Free Fall Case
Intelligence Series 18 - A TV Series & Drone Inspired Free Fall Case
The Financial Debunker
Strategy Series - Game Changer that Massacred the "Song" Chinese
*This is not a historical article emphasizing the chronological details that perpetuates the fall of "Song" dynasty. This is an article focusing on how the selection of a "disruption" or "Game Changer" technology (which we prefer to use the term instruments) was recognized by an effective leadership (together with our definition of an effective leadership) and the projected capacity to obliterate the mighty sophisticated Song Dynasty of the 12th century.
** If you are overly attached to your racial and religious identity, please refrain from reading further.
*** If you are an individual who upholds high moral and ethical codes, the content of this article might be threatening to your set of beliefs.
A DIVERSE MERIT BASE ADMINISTRATION
After a 10 years hiatus since the death of Mongke Khan, the Song Dynasty Chinese nightmare was relived once again by the barbaric leadership of Kublai Khan (the founder of the Yuan Dynasty) in 1268. This time, the barbarians hire the best engineers of the period in hedging the situation to their favor - restructuring the Mongolian conservative administration into one that is more diverse "multiracial" and merit base administration. The administration of Kublai Khan witnessed the employment of Persian Financial Officer, Han Chinese Generals, Strategists and Chinese/Manchu soldiers (captured from Jin Dynasty). Despite Kublai was known for his brutality, yet professional artisans, engineers and specialists of all kinds were known to have their lives spared.
...It was such approach that provide Kublai Khan his decisive win over the "Song" Chinese. In today's world, those that practices such modus operandi in their government and governance is the world's conqueror. Muslim readers attached to our articles should familiarize themselves with Hilary Clinton's aide Huma Abedin whom provided vital advice and intelligence to the Clinton's administration for the United States government in putting the Middle East at their feet....
...In modern Hong Kong today, the billionaire JL (probably a proxy of the United States from the 1970s) had been Washington's voice in strumming the right tunes to create an atmosphere of discord among the Chinese themselves in the name of democracy. A move well played....
THE WALL (literally and metaphorically)
The extraordinary landscape of XiangYang provides the natural barrier (wall) from enemy's penetration. It was also the vital city for Kublai to conquer as it occupies the waterways of South China where the Han River was a major tributary into the Yangtze River. Combined with the "Song" Chinese skills in creating sturdy mighty walls over time, nobody ever anticipate that these walls were meant to shatter and crumble not by natural forces but merely the ingenuity and the will of men.
Despite the Song Walls are shattered, the wall that defines the Chinese community never shattered, they were transformed several times - constructed, conjoined, modified, expanded, destructed, reconstructed and solidified over two millenniums from the 7th century BC until the last of the Han Chinese Ming Empire around the mid 16th AD (under the Zhu. Now the Han Chinese ruled China once again after the Chinese Communist Party won the Civil War against the Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai Sek who was backed by the United States government.) before the Manchurian took control over as the Qing Dynasty.
As the Chinese lives behind these comfortable walls that provide them shelter and protection for centuries, this made them isolated from truly understanding the world and communicating with the world despite they had great historians that recorded all the major events. Their understanding was plainly academic, understood only by the upper circle elites. They fail to analyze history in greater depth and utilize the information to their maximum advantage than the Mongols which they consider them "barbarians".
The construction of Chinese walls (from the science fiction magical ice walls in the Game of Thrones which was obliterated by the icy breathe of ice dragon to Donald Trump's imaginary wall to put the Mexican at bay. The human wall will always be humanity's manifestation of fear.) was a manifestation of fear, anxiety and despair that had ravaged the Han Chinese for centuries. As the physical wall materialized, the Han Chinese instinctively create an invisible wall to isolate themselves from the rest of the world. This wall (the metaphor ones that existed during the Song Dynasty even until the time of Mao) is much harder to shatter and was peaked during Mao's period Communism when China was cut out from the rest of the world. Mao's most humiliating signature was his arrogance in executing nonsensical agrarian reforms (including economical and political reform) without discussing with relevant specialist (he consulted with one who recommended the lands to be dug as deep as 5 meters to bring the nutrients from deep under the ground to the surface - only to end in more disaster) - the result was a devastating famine that wiped out tens of millions of Chinese.
...The invisible wall was slowly crumbling during the times of Deng Xiao Ping. He reformed the Chinese to open up to the world. The opening of China saw an exponential growth in China's progress. As globalization creeps into China, they were forced to embrace it. Now, the United States is the one at odds with their free market style business model which sees their needs to contradict themselves by escalating worldwide trade war upon nations that don't align to their interest....
Nevertheless, the United States (with Russia) had most of the best cards in hand to bend many countries to their will as their military forces had the best cutting edge technology. While China is certainly the rising dragon, the United States inherited Kublai Khan's way of leadership and Kublai is a very dangerous entity as he/she/it had slayed China severely in the past.
The Hong Kong today is a direct reminiscence of the Middle East. Will the violence spiral out of control? Will this instability spread to Asia as the web of international power play starts dominating the atmosphere? Let's talk about leadership.
...Many misled that China is impenetrable. It is true that China had opened up but the Chinese walls which are bounded to their way of thought in accepting new foreign ideas and alien talents are still far behind the Westerners. This is the key component that separates the cream from the milk among the top leadership....
GAP OF LEADERSHIP CAPABILITIES
The "Song" Chinese was too conservative and practiced over-sentimental Confucianism, this in turn breeds nonsensical loyalty to the Royal Zhou Family. Dissatisfaction among many factions resulted in heavy infighting (and defection towards the more merit-based Khanate). The continuation lineage of the Emperor was ludicrously imperative to be preserved that even a two years old toddler could ascend the throne. Such generational fatous practices created "Gap of Leadership Capabilities" between the Han Chinese and Mongol Leaders (toughen by their nomadic lifestyle and strengthen by selection base on a combination of merit cross lineage with tradition that encourages war and competition) which amplified during pivotal times when leadership capabilities in warfare was crucial in deciding the victor from decades of instability and warfare.
PROGRESS EXTREMIST MACHIAVELLIAN DICTATORIAL LEADERSHIP
...Leadership capability is complex and there are not many around the world history that deserves recognition....
For every decisions (policy-making and manifestos) you make, for every words (pariah or racist) you speak, for every actions (handbags you possessed or sport cars you drive) you take, for every associates (either sugar tycoon or runaway fugitive) in your circle, being a leader puts you at the center of attention of love and hate. Being aware of all the changes that could affect the mood of the people and progress of the nation is the ultimate key to great leadership. This requires the leadership to have an open minded attitude in his bidding to mold the structure of his nation (sadly the word Ummah had been abominably misused by certain factions to portray the significant duality of the Muslim and Malay community due to their last political exit from the federal. The exact meaning of Ummah in Arabic is community which theoretically should be more inclusive in nature.). Open mindedness is crucial in every leadership and that implies the readiness to learn the overwhelming amount of information and knowledge. However, one of the key characteristics to great leadership is the wisdom to discern which knowledge and information are crucial for the sustainable growth of the nation.
Unfortunately, not many leaders could discern the depth of knowledge significantly. Lately, an ex-premier depicted the negative side of Machiavellian politics in his last interview (which his son was then slammed with a 9 million USD taxation charges the day after the interview.) regarding his older mentor who will use political position to gain and preserve political power, what went so wrong was his lack of understanding on the importance and truth of Machiavellian politics.
...Machiavellian - being or acting in accordance with the principles of government analyzed in Machiavelli's The Prince, in which political expediency is placed above morality and the use of craft and deceit to maintain the authority and carry out the policies of a ruler is described....
Note that many of the world's best leader are Machiavellian in nature from Vladimir Putin (for the recent intentional leaking of the identity of the British Intelligence responsible in recruiting Russian moles during the fall of the Soviet Union 20 years ago. A point must be made "you reap what you sow".), Deng Xiao Ping (Tian An Men 1989 violent crackdown to curb unrest), our neighboring Lee Kuan Yew (the admittance of 3000 individuals under the Internal Security Act who are not in line with his thoughts in nation building), Tony Blair (his probable intentional false discovery on the Uranium Yellow Cakes that led to the Iraq invasion and the control on Iraqi oil. Machiavellian but not dictatorial.) and The Clintons (is it not obvious?).
Being Machiavellian is the only way forward in most Asian countries - Lee Kuan Yew once argued. Lets not discuss Scandinavian countries as their history and culture do not correlate or conform with Asians in general. In an interview with Lee Kuan Yew - Lee pointed out his obstacles during his early days of Singapore. Singapore was rife with low educated Chinese, remnants of UMNO supremacists, Malay Islamic nationalist, Chinese Communists, Remnants of Pre-Colonial Chinese Gangsters, politicians with skewed obsolete idealism like Jeyaratnem and his fellow politician who is more charming and charismatic but less worthy than him. Lee was arrogant but luckily his temperament matched his decisive pragmatism that brought prosperity to his small nation. He knew Singapore could not afford a Sino-Romantic Brotherhood system. Many unnecessary forces needs to be cut down and he did just that including sacrificing the Chinese identity and substituting it with good (bad ones also perhaps?) Western values.
...So what is Lee in summary? He is an extremist just like many extremist but a progress oriented extremist. A Progress Extremist Machiavellian Dictator hiding under the mask of "Democracy". Lee was very much similar to Kublai in his approach - Kublai Sinicized the Mongols in the name of progress, Lee did the same by Westernizing Singapore to catch up with international standards....
Unfortunately, Malaysia does not have such a leader yet, Mahathir seems to learn his lessons too late at 94 and the Malays are more rigid than the Chinese, Najib (a devoted husband indeed. He is very suitable to be a CEO and a self-conflicted half-baked Machiavellian that brought disasters to his loyalists and family.) is docile in nature, Zahid is more destined to be a Malay leader than a Malaysian leader (Conduct a survey over any Sabahans, Sarawakians and Non-Malays if they will ever vote Zahid to be the Prime Minister - our bet will be a low 0 to a high 3% unless they are in his circle. He is overly attached to the idea of Muslim Solidarity and Muslim Superiority. There is a huge possibility that he will take the nation inclined towards such idealism. He is the man behind the Permanent Residency for Zakir Naik and another Palestinian Scientist that was assassinated by the Israeli government in Kuala Lumpur. Islam will be prioritize followed by progress. Zahid finds the Chinese community lacks loyalty as he was the home minister who gave 200 Traitorous Malaysian Chinese from Penang a second chance to redeem themselves after they cut off their Malaysian Passport to gain British citizenship which the British then bailed out (Which country wanted scumbags who cut their own passport?). This was after a plea by MCA or DAP at that period. Yet Zahid should have just streamline the education than having unresolved issues with the Chinese community in general.) and Anwar is still in the grey zone (great diplomacy, many facets, more progress oriented as he had the chance to learn from the follies of other leaders - yet deep inside, much still needed to be resolved. He seems to be confuse between making verbal unfulfilled political pledges to the people than making real progress for the people.). Being Machiavellian does not guarantee you heaven but is far from wrong as long as the leader has the wisdom to bring his nation prosperity. Obviously, Machiavellian selfish leaders do exist such as Nicholas Maduro - which the country had not much progress both in military and economy which witness hyper-inflation that starve his nation.
THE "SONG" CHINESE WERE THE GREEKS FROM THE 9TH TILL THE 12TH CENTURY
The Mongol empire under Genghis stretched from Japan to Persia and to Europe. Never was in history was such a regime stretched so vast, though Genghis khanate never lasted long as it was divided into four khanates decades later. One of them was under Kublai Khan. Kublai was ambitious and he lived under the shadow of his grandfather Genghis. He viewed the Song dynasty as the prize to match his ego. He believed that if he could conquer China, then he could rule the world.
The last one standing in the eyes of Kublai is the mighty Song Dynasty. Despite of inner infighting and weak leadership that breeds incompetency and dissatisfaction - the Song were the Greeks (worth the claim as Genghis never succeeded and Kublai took two decade of refinement in his military to finally achieve this goal) of the period - yet more sophisticated. The Songs
1) had the best naval technology and military equipment of the period.
2) had the best walls to protect them from invasion.
3) were the pioneer in gunpowder and explosives since the 9th century.
4) had 16 catapult designs to counter any catapult. The pioneer of traction trebuchet.
5) had XiangYang which provides them the natural terrain from foreign invasion.The fall of XiangYang was a leeway to conquer the rest of China.
6) had a relatively competent civilization of the period in terms of literature, science, mathematics, agriculture, history and governance.
7) had an army and civilians much larger than Kublai's khanate by a ratio of at least 10 to 1.
Despite the natural, intellectual and the many advantages that was bestowed upon the "Song" Chinese, in the year 1279, 6 years after the late siege of XiangYang in 1273 that began in 1269 - Kublai managed to unite China under the Yuan Dynasty establishing himself as the first Mongol ruler to rule over the Chinese.
THE GAME CHANGER
XiangYang and the majestic walls guarded by at least half a million Song armies provide the ultimate obstacles to the Mongols. To conquer, many tries had been made, 10 years was the amount of time to take a step back to analyze the failures while making the correct preparations and military recuperation. The best weapons had been engineered, the best strategist and tacticians had been recruited, yet Kublai and his team of advisers still think that the arduous preparation was insufficient to make a breaking penetration. The siege began at 1269 and ended only in 1273 after Kublai enlist two Muslim Persian Engineers named Ismail and Al-Aud-Din (who were probably enlisted by the Mongols after the siege of Baghdad or the fact that many Persian engineers were jobless in Persia as the 12th century saw an absence in "what historian claimed as Persian Dynasties".)
...to create a new version of counterweight trebuchet with explosive shells (this new version of trebuchet as opposed to the Chinese pioneered traction trebuchet provides longer range and higher accuracy) that could sling 300 kilograms of explosives from a distance of 500 meters. The counterweight trebuchet smashed the walls of XiangYang after a 5 years fruitless siege and the XiangYang Song Chinese civilians were then massacred to serve as a reminder for their subsequent campaign - that those who resisted would suffer similar fate....
A DIFFERENT ENDING (a double edged sword)
The Wall made the Chinese weak and badly social-able in accepting other cultures and people of different ethnicity. This resulted in a very narrow minded "Song" Chinese (this is also reflected in the core of the Malaysian Chinese Community that frowns upon cultures and ethnicity that they deem inferior or alien to theirs. A recent example is their knee jerk blatant rejection towards a 6 pages introduction to the "Khat" chapter in schools.)
1) administration that was adamant of it's administration to be purely "Song" Chinese. (Sounds like those PAS-UMNO speeches which supports senseless extremism leadership doctrines. How can any Non-Malay and Non-Muslim leaders associated to this union condone to speeches that rejects outright Non-Islamic leadership?)
2) administration that fail to court and hire other talents by establishing diplomacy with the rest of the world. They had 10 years to send spies over the world during the hiatus from the death of Mongke Khan until the full force of Kublai Khan.
Should the "Song" Chinese had been more flexible and open-minded like the Mongols whom gladly accepted foreign influence (including a more diverse selection of attractive ladies in the royal harem also, we suppose.), the Song would have an upper hand against the Mongols and probably a much significant advantage if they have recruited the Persian Engineers first.
...Thus, the counterweight trebuchet was the double-edged sword that could have brought back the military baton to "Song" Chinese and reverse their dire fate....
SO WHO ARE WE?
...As the art of war transform from time to time, so are the requirements in today's modern warfare that gets more dynamic, complex and multidimensional ranging from trade, communication, intelligence, media, social media, air, land, sea, geophysical (exploiting nature) and the latest is space. At this age, looking through a keyhole will get you no where, let us assist you in exploring your horizon as we are the "Han Strategist" and the "Persian Engineer" at this marvelous and dynamic age.
So, where is Kublai Khan?
*Malaysian Political Updates 1 :
Will 11- 11 Be The 7th Prime Minister Numeric (And Poetic) Retribution ?
Many knows among the Malaysian Political Circles that the 7th Prime Minister is a man who believes in the significance of numbers, this is why there are two historical date of birth for the 7th Prime Minister, one around June and the other around December. This deserves a whole new topic on it's own. Don't trust what you hear and what people says.
11 is associated with the establishment of UMNO (May 11th), the 6th Prime Minister residential address and also The Prime Minister in waiting residential address. The previous election was designed to fall on May 9th so that a great celebration could be held in PWTC on May 11th. The 6th Prime Minister was also obsessed with the numbers 1 and 11.
11 November 2019 or 11 - 11 (reminds us on the passing of Al-Ghazali, the Persian Sufist Polymath at the year 1111 AD) will also be the date that the 6th Prime Minister should have his fate determined whether he would be required to defend for himself or completely acquitted. Noticing the pattern in Malaysian political landscape - our instinct tell us that the 6th Prime Minister would be required to defend for himself. It seems the selection of 11 November is not altogether co-incidental at all.
***Malaysian Political Updates 2 : Vivian Balakrishnan (whose daughter is a friend of Najib's daughter Nooryana Najwa as they both graduated from Harvard.), Singapore's Minister of Foreign Affairs visited Anwar's daughter Nurul Izzah Anwar in Permatang Pauh. Are we looking into Power Puff Girls in action?
****Malaysian Political Updates 3 : Congratulations to Mr Anwar Ibrahim for his Hajj pilgrimage. He even met the Singapore's Secretary of Defense during his pilgrimage. Seems our diplomacy with Singapore will be picking up through Anwar.
*****Malaysian Political Updates 4 : Four smiling leaders before the National Day parade. We certainly hope they are discussing extensively on Kublai Khan.