"More than one sentry had been found in the morning with his throat cut." (p. 128)
If every man, woman, child and dog set out to kill just one invader, then there would not be enough invaders to go round. Of course, every man, woman etc will not set out to do that but, if enough of them did, then there would not be enough invaders to go round.
By leaving thirty years between expeditions, the Chertkoians gave the Vaynamoans enough time to develop technologies to defeat the Third Expedition. When the victors ask Elva what should be done with Bors Golyev, she replies:
"'There's been too much suffering already...'" (p. 142)
So Bors is to be spared?
"'Just take him out and shoot him.'" (ibid.)
Next, action must be taken against Chertkoi. But that planet sounded ripe for revolution. The pitched battles audible underground need only spread up the towers.
It has been only months for Elva but her young son is now a great-grandfather. Of course, we want to read more about this future history.
9 comments:
Morale is a tricky thing.
Eg., a Western traveler was in Persia during the early period Mongol rule. A single Mongol soldier rode up to a caravan, and told the men in it to kneel in a line.
Then he went down the line, chopping off their heads with his sword.
"We should kill him -- there's only one!" the European said.
"Silence! Do you want to -anger- him?" the man next to him hissed.
(They eventually did turn on the Mongol and kill him; but then everyone ran in separate directions, abandoning everything that might have slowed them down.)
Conversely, during WWII Japanese soldiers routinely fought to the death, with no unwounded/conscious prisoners taken, or vanishingly few. In some places, wounded Japanese soldiers would wait with a grenade until American troops came near and then pull the pin and kill the Americans and themselves too.
In the Marianas, Japanese civilians lined up on a cliff, threw their children over it and then jumped themselves, despite a Japanese-speaking American in a boat below begging them to give up and promising good treatment.
One Japanese technique against American tanks was to have soldiers waiting in covered foxholes with a mine on a stick. When the tank rolled over, they'd ram the mine upward on the stick.
If it hadn't been for the Emperor telling them to give up, the troops and most of the civilians in Japan would probably have behaved like that.
"Duty, heavier than mountains; death, lighter than a feather." And they really meant it.
Between those two extremes fall most of the human race, whose resistance is variable, often depending on opinions of who's going to win.
War's a contest in inflicting and enduring pain. Both matter. The Japanese were better at enduring pain than we were, but we were much, much better at -inflicting- it.
American and British troops beat the Japanese repeatedly in the later stages of the war because they simply overwhelmed Japanese fanatical determination with firepower and flamethrowers. You don't have to be as brave as the enemy; you just have to be brave -enough-.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Chertkoi, as we see it described, as matters got worse and worse there, does not sound so much ripe for revolution as ripe for utter chaos and collapse. So badly so, complete with mass famines and cannibalism, that I doubt any kind of regime capable of maintaining any kind of order and a high tech society could have arisen from the ruins of the Chertkoian Directorate.
Any occupation by Vaynamo, hindered as it still would be, after all, by STL, would have its hands full simply struggling to keep order and TRYING to prevent mass famines. In both of which it might fail.
Mr. Stirling: Whoa! That is a dramatic example of the terror inspired by the Mongols early in their empire.
Yes, over and over, in both fiction and non fictional sources, I see mention of how fanatically courageous Japanese could be. Japanese culture and the values it stressed WAS different from that of the West. It explains why Japan refused to be a signatory to the Geneva and Hague conventions on the laws of war and proper treatment of POWs. Japan's culture stressed the utter disgrace of being captured, which explains the contempt Japanese had for POWs.
Granted, not all Japanese officers, even high ranking ones, were like that. I read of how Admiral Yamamoto, ordered the forces under his command not to be brutal to captured Allied military personnel.
Yes, it took command of superior resources, plus sheer numbers, by the enemy, to finally persuade the Emperor that enough was enough and Japan had to surrender.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Chaos and collapse much more likely than regime change.
Paul.
Paul: I agree. It's a startling dysfunctional society to last that long. I think that later in his career Poul would have been a bit more subtle with it.
Note how similar Cherktoi is to the dystopian giant continent-city of North America in THE CORRIDORS OF TIME.
Sean: pre-Meiji Japanese culture had a strong element of thanatophilia, particularly among the samurai aristocracy. Especially under the Tokugawa Shoguns, the preoccupation with an "honorable death" got completely out of hand, perhaps because large-scale warfare gave way to duels and feuds.
Note the "Tale of the 47 Ronin", where everyone dying is the whole point: all the 47 know that they'll have to commit seppuku after avenging their lord. The incident is still commemorated every year at Sengakuji Temple.
And the story became even more popular after the Restoration.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Again, I agree. It fits in with what I have read about Japanese history and culture. And I believe this thanatophilia has been bad for Japan.
Ad astra! Sean
Re: Japan in WWII.
The "Supernova in the East" series of podcasts here were fascinating in a train wreck sort of way.
https://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-series/
Kaor, Jim!
I also recall a series of SF books by different, writing as tho they were historians, on what might have happened if Lee had won at Gettsyburg or if Japan had handled Pearl Harbor differently, or if the US had invaded Japan (that is, no Hiroshima or Nagasaki).
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I forgot to add that your comment about THE CORRIDORS OF TIME and giant continental city in North America seemed like an echo of Asimov's THE CAVES OF STEEL and the roofed over planetary city of Trantor in his FOUNDATION books (albeit in ruins in the later parts of the FOUNDATION series).
Ad astra! Sean
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