Mukden, Manchuria, The United Federation of China
[I meet Suru Aisin-Gioro in the city's center, which contains the former imperial palace that was used by the Qing Dynasty's royal family—the Aisin-Gioro clan (Whom he's probably related to, judging from his family name). During the zombie war, this palace served as a stronghold for several thousand Manchus who were able to survive an undead siege until the Chinese Army liberated them. Suru Aisin-Gioro was one of the leaders of the besieged and after it was lifted, he formed the "Manchu National Army" to liberate the rest of Manchuria from the undead. Since the war's end, he has managed to contribute to the revival of the Manchu language to the point that it is now co-official in Manchuria alongside Mandarin Chinese. In present-day Manchuria, the population has fallen to about 15 million out of a pre-war population of 108 million. However, about 9 million people are ethnic Manchus—making them the majority in their homeland for the first time since the 19th century.]
I am a Manchu. Let me make that clear before anything else—too many people around the world, especially you Americans, just see us as Chinese. I've seen American history textbooks and articles in National Geographic that say that the "Chinese" Qing Dynasty was established and ruled by "invaders from the north"—implying that we're Chinese instead of properly referring to us as Manchus—or even worse, they say that Manchu customs—such as arranging our hair so that it falls from the back in a single queue*—are Chinese customs or that Manchu words, such as Amban, are Chinese words**. I can't even begin to explain my anger towards that bigoted idiot Sax Rohmer***. All of this is an outrage and I'm glad that the world is beginning to see us as Manchus now instead of Chinese and that our language is being revived. However, all of this came at a heavy cost; Manchuria is in ruins and even though only a million Manchus out of a prewar population of over 10 million died—in contrast to over 800 million Han Chinese dying—we're still a destitute region in the United Federation of China. In a few months, we're going to have a plebiscite to decide whether we want to declare independence from China or not, and I'm positive that most will agree to an independent Manju Gurun.
I'm sure you know that the infection started in southern China. As a result, we in Manchuria weren't aware of the threat until the cases became more serious. The Chinese media was under tight control before the war but I still managed to get some information about the outbreaks and they were merely portrayed as "traitors rioting" by the state media but some of my friends—who're Manchus studying overseas and in parts of southern China—told me that it wasn't just a series of riots and that it was actually much more serious.
We Manchus were in general more aware that something was wrong. This was due to our cultural connections in Xinjiang. The Qapqal Xibe Autonomous Prefecture there is an ethnic enclave for the Xibe people, who're actually an ethnic subgroup of us Manchus and speak a language that is essentially a dialect of Manchu. Because of this, we were easily able to access the media in Qapqal. And as you know, the infections started in southern China but then started to spread through bitten refugees trying to escape overseas. Being smuggled via ship was riskier and costlier than overland smuggling so most refugees opted for a way to smuggle themselves overland. Many of them went to Xinjiang so they could have themselves smuggled into Central Asia as going into Russia was asking for trouble and Mongolia, India, and Vietnam were discouraged due to treacherous deserts, mountains, and jungle, respectively. Consequently, the Xibe media reported some of the early outbreaks such as the one in Ürümqi and we got an idea of what was happening.
(* This is probably an unintentional consequence of the "Queue Order" made by the Manchu prince Dorgon in 1645. The "Queue Order" forced Han Chinese men to arrange their hair in a queue similar to that of Manchu men and when many Han Chinese emigrated to the US, the queue became associated with China as a whole, not just Manchuria.)
(**Some American history textbooks mention the "Chinese" using officials known as Amban to administer parts of the Qing Dynasty. This doesn't necessary state that the word is Chinese although it may imply that it is.)
(***Sax Rohmer was a British author best known for creating the fictional character "Fu Manchu" who is a well known offensive racial steroetype of Asians in general but especially Chinese and Manchus.)
Wouldn't the Chinese government try censoring the Xibe media?
Usually they would've but for some reason they didn't. They were probably too busy securing and cracking down on infections in other parts of China. Either that or they couldn't read Xibe. [He chuckles slightly] the alphabet used to write Xibe and Manchu is extremely complicated despite being easier to use than the Chinese script*. But then again, their main newspaper also wrote articles in Chinese**, so I'm not sure why the Guoanbu left them alone.
But anyways, thanks to the Xibe media, we were aware that something was wrong. One of the articles in their newspapers also mentioned "odd behavior amongst reactionary rioters." In other words, the article said that people were all of a sudden trying to bite others and that these people and their victims were the ones labeled by the government as traitors and being arrested by the Guoanbu.
Eventually, the government declared martial law and the PLA started patrolling almost every area of the country, including Manchuria. I was living in Harbin when this happened because I had a job teaching Manchu to students at Heilongjiang University. One day, a unit of PLA soldiers burst into the university and demanded to know if anyone was bitten. They declared that anyone bitten by another human with odd behavior was to step forward for a checkup. I was surprised at their behavior because I had read in the Cabcal Serkin about government forces storming buildings and arresting people for seemingly no reason if they had bite marks. The Cabcal Serkin also mentioned that the government forces would act in a brusque, and often violent manner and forcibly check people against their will. I then realized that this was because the government forces mentioned were probably members of the Guoanbu, which was why the PLA was so kind, compared to them.
Nevertheless, when no one came forward the PLA unit ordered everyone to line up for a checkup. They said it was "government business" and that we had to comply. They also promised that it would be done quickly and that we will not be required to take any shots or have our blood taken, nothing like that. Their behavior was mild and they managed to check everyone in the university in just 4 hours. Afterwards they left, but not without warning us to avoid anyone with odd behavior, especially someone who tries to bite another person.
After this incident, life went on normally for the next few months. But then this changed when I received an email from a Xibe acquaintance of mine asking me if he could stay in my house with his family and said it was an emergency that he would explain once he got to my house. I immediately replied yes and about 5 days later a Xibe family was in my residence. My friend immediately stuffed a wad of 100-Yuan notes into my hand and thanked me profusely for letting his family come. Although I tried to refuse the money, he still insisted that I take it. I could tell that they had not slept for a while. After the rest of his family was asleep, my friend started to explain to me his reason for seeking refuge in my home. What I found out shocked me. It was then that I realized that China could collapse at any moment.
(*During the Qing Dynasty, government documents, memorials, and imperial decrees were written in Manchu with Chinese and/or Mongolian translations. Many works of Chinese literature were also translated into Manchu and Europeans who came to China during this era often learned Manchu instead of Chinese because the script was easier to master.)
(**The Qapqal News (Cabcal Serkin in Xibe) was the world's only Xibe language newspaper before the war. Articles were written in Xibe, Kazakh, Uyghur, and Chinese.)
At this point, the government and the PLA still had dominance within most of the country so why did you think China would collapse immediately?
Because I heard that the dead were starting to take over. These were still the early stages. Until this point, I merely assumed that the problem that was being explained in the media was some sort of disease scare or a new secessionist group. My friend told me that the problem was some new plague that resurrected the dead and made them hungry for human flesh.
He told me that he had originally intended to escape to Chongqing because he had a friend who lives there. However, his friend told him that half of Chongqing was overrun by the undead and that the entire city may fall to them soon. Consequently he turned to me for help.
He wasn't the only one who left; everyone in the Qapqal Xibe Autonomous Prefecture tried to escape because most of Xinjiang was overrun by the undead and almost everyone—Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Xibe, Kyrgyz, Mongols, Chinese—all were trying to find a way to escape. Most of the Uyghurs went to either Kazakhstan or Tibet. Those who chose the former made a huge mistake; the initial outbreaks in Central Asia began in Kyrgyzstan and Eastern Kazakhstan. Due to the weaker forces there—especially in Kyrgyzstan—the undead were already beginning to take over those countries and the Kazakhs had their own version of Yonkers at Almaty. Nazarbayev fled to Mongolia with his government and told his people—or rather what was left of them—to flee to the Caspian Sea. Many of the Kazakhs living in Xinjiang had relatives in Kazakhstan and therefore most of them knew what happened there and so decided to flee to Mongolia or Tibet. The Mongols chose to enter Mongolia en masse. It was an incredible irony that their ancestors had lost so much returning to Dzungaria from Kalmykia back in the 18th Century* yet they now had to move again due to encroachment. Those who fled to either of those places survived relatively intact due to either the Gobi Desert or the Tibetan Plateau protecting them from the undead hordes.
Everyone else however, was essentially doomed. Many considered fleeing to Tibet but the native Tibetans—who used the influx of refugees to their advantage to regain control of their country—formed their own government and declared that they would take no more refugees due to a lack of sufficient resources and to avoid being marginalized in their homeland. Indeed, Tibetans only make up about 40% of the total population of the present People's Republic of Tibet, although they do have lots of influence in government affairs.
But anyways, most of the Xibe had already fled to Tibet by the time the Tibetans closed their borders. However, as my friend was among the few who were unable to make it, he had no choice but to flee to another part of China.
(*Most of the Mongols living in Xinjiang were Oirats, also known as "Western Mongols" or Kalmyks. The Oirats were widespread throughout Eurasia during the middle ages and many settled on the coast of the Caspian Sea in modern-day Kalmykia where they established the Kalmyk Khanate. In 1771, due to Russian encroachment, about 200,000 Kalmyks fled from Kalmykia to Dzungaria. About 96,000 made it to Xinjiang alive.)
How did he get to your home from Xinjiang?
He had no choice but to flee to Russia. At the time, the Russians were busy dealing with outbreaks in the European side of their country and also trying to keep the Central Asian swarms contained. Due to the small population density of Central and Eastern Siberia as well as Russia's border with China consisting of only Manchuria and a small portion of Xinjiang, the Russians didn't have to deal with outbreaks there yet.
My friend crossed into the Altai Republic of Russia with the intent of flying from there to Manchuria. However, he didn't know that Altai was one of the most remote regions in Russia and that scheduled flight services from Gorno-Altaysk airport were unavailable. Fortunately for my friend, he managed to bribe some wealthy Russian living in the area to fly him in his private jet to Jilin Province, right next to Heilongjiang. The hard part was getting there undetected as the area was full of Guoanbu agents and PLA soldiers. Consequently, when they landed they were immediately arrested. They were just lucky that the "wealthy" Russian they bribed was actually a member of the Russian Mafia! As soon as the Guoanbu tried to apprehend him and his crew, they immediately brought out sub-machine guns and slaughtered the Guoanbu. After this incident the Russians merely returned to their plane and declared that they would be fleeing to Mongolia and wished my friend's family good luck—this I found to be odd considering that this was the Russian Mafia.
Anyways, due to my friend, I knew what was happening to China and probably the world. I knew that the time to prepare was now.
How did you prepare?
By gathering a bunch of my friends for a meeting.
Wouldn't the Guoanbu have been suspicious?
Yes. Which is why I couldn't have hosted the meeting at my house. I could've hosted it in Harbin but that would've been too conspicuous.
Therefore, I decided that we would meet here in Mukden—then known as Shenyang—because this city was the traditional capital of the Manchus and therefore a bunch of Manchus congregating here wouldn't be seen as suspicious. We also decided to meet on Banjin Inenggi* to make it seem less suspicious.
(*Banjin Inenggi (ᠪᠠᠨᠵᡳᠨ ᡳᠨᡝᠩᡤᡳ) is a Manchu holiday celebrated on the 13th day of the tenth month of the lunar calendar and commemorates the day the Manchu emperor Hong Taiji changed the name of his people from Jurchen to Manchu in 1635.)
How did you contact them without interference from the Guoanbu?
Simple: by typing my e-mails in Manchu instead of Chinese. Back then Manchu was still dangerously close to extinction and it was in the process of being revived. My friends just happened to be people who could speak it and the Chinese government was too busy enforcing martial law while trying to suppress the undead to try deciphering messages written in Manchu.
I told my friends to bring traditional Manchu attire and weapons as well as lots of food, water, and other survival tools and congregate near the palace. I managed to contact over 500 of my friends and I even posted my plan on many Manchu culture sites. This resulted in over a thousand people congregating in front of the palace on the day.
Wouldn't there have been issues arising from overcrowding and subsequently attracting the Guoanbu's attention?
[He smiles] Yes, that was definitely a possibility. But the cornerstone of this plan was that I wrote the announcement in Manchu and that I specifically stated that only those who were very fluent in the language could come. Although it's true that there were a few thousand speakers back then, not all of them lived in Mukden. Also, I wrote in my plan that China was going to collapse at any moment and that we must be sure to defend ourselves from a new threat that has already destroyed our Xibe brothers and sisters. I also wrote that if we survive we'll be able to reestablish the glory of the Manchus and make Manchuria a Manchu state again like it was in the era of the Daicing Gurun*!
Which brings me to what I did in front of the palace. I announced to everyone—in Manchu so none of the nearby Chinese and possible Guoanbu spies wouldn't understand—that the threat being spoken of in the media and amongst the populace in hushed whispers was actually a new disease that brought the dead back to life and made them hungry for human flesh. I continued by saying that China will soon fall as the government has allowed Xinjiang and parts of Southern China to fall and that it was only a matter of time before the undead horde reaches Manchuria. "We must prepare to face the undead hordes before they reach our land! We shall reconvene here in three days. Until then, inform all of your Manchu friends of what I just announced. Tell them to construct fortresses and stock them with plenty of food, water, and weaponry. The most important thing to remember is that the undead have not even a modicum of intelligence and the only weapon they have is their vast number. We shall hold out in our fortresses!" I then said to the crowd "Musei niyalma waka akv ombi! Musei Manju niyalma sirambi!"—Our people will not die! Our Manchu people shall succeed!
(*Daicing Gurun (ᡩᠠᠢᠴᠢᠨᡤ ᡤᡠᠷᡠᠨ)—Manchu for "Great Qing Empire" also known as the Qing Dynasty)
What did you do to prepare for the siege during those three days?
Naturally our main problem was being able to garrison the Mukden Palace. The palace had been a museum since 1955 therefore we had to find a way to infiltrate it, neutralize any possible problem we could get from the museum staff or security, and also keep out refugees. The latter issue could be easily resolved; the palace had an enormous wall surrounding it, fortifications could easily be built or modified, and the interior could easily be garrisoned with our troops. But first we had to find a way inside. We decided that the easiest way to secure the palace was to have some of us enter the palace as tourists and then converse with all of the staff members and security guards. We decided that we could bribe or persuade any Manchu we find into joining our group and guarantee them and their families' protection as well as the prospect of a revived Manchuria.
When we were doing this, we were surprised to see more Manchu employees then we expected. We were able to convince most of them to join our mission. However, the problem was that the supervisor found out. Being a Manchu herself, she didn't mind our objective, and even offered her support, on the condition that we allow all of the employees and security guards to join us. This was a significant problem because while the original plan of withstanding an undead siege could definitely be maintained, we only wanted Manchus in our group so that way we could work on reviving our culture and most importantly our language. It was common knowledge that the Manchu language and the people were almost completely absorbed by the Han Chinese due to the latter's sheer number.
We were able to solve this conundrum by agreeing with the superintendent on the condition that the language of communication in our circle be Manchu and that anyone who couldn't speak it was to learn it. Luckily for us she agreed to this condition.
I immediately informed all of my Manchu friends of my plan and also posted it on the cultural sites I used. I also announced on those sites that any Manchus living in Beijing should try the same thing with the Forbidden City. I knew this wouldn't be plausible; 300,000 Manchus lived in Beijing at the time so I only recommended the plan to those who lived close to it and I said that the other Manchus should all flee immediately and go to either Mongolia or some very remote area of rural China or Manchuria and find an area to defend themselves.
Were you still worried about the fate of the Manchus who lived in Beijing?
Yes I was. Especially after I heard some extremely dire news.
The next day, our group was able to enter the Mukden Palace and seal it off from anyone outside. There were about two thousand of us because the employees and security guards of the Palace and their families—along with family members of our group—decided to come. It was a miracle that the palace was able to house us all. We were expecting the Guoanbu to immediately start questioning our motives and PLA troops to start attacking the palace but for that reason we had an excuse that it was a cultural event.
However, that turned out to be the least of our worries. Many of the people we brought were watching the news on their phones and they told everyone that Beijing was being overrun by the undead. Apparently several airports and hospitals that were attempting to contain the undead hordes were overwhelmed and many of Beijing's districts were being devoured by them. The PLA was fighting desperately against the onslaught yet it was clear from what we saw that the situation was hopeless.
Seeing what was happening in Beijing was enough; I was easily able to tell everyone that we'll have to fortify the palace and start cultivating gardens for our food. New gardens were created in the courtyards and we were able to find many swords and bows used by the Manchu emperors and the Jakvn Gvsa* within the palace. These we used to supplement our weaponry and then armed most of our group.
After all of our fortifications and gardens were built, all that was left was to wait out the undead siege. There were no reports of any undead in Shenyang yet. Nevertheless, we made sure no one left the palace in order to avoid giving up our position. During this time, we started teaching Manchu to all of the people who couldn't speak it. Within a few weeks we were able to have discussions in just Manchu and I felt like I was in the Qing Dynasty.
Everything was serene for about a week. This changed when we saw smoke coming from the middle of Shenyang. I listened to the news and became aware that there was an outbreak. In response to this, I immediately ordered everyone to get ready for an attack. Not only would we have to deal with the undead hordes, we would also have to deal with the inevitable flood of refugees who'd be searching for a safe fortress. I told everyone to be prepared to slaughter large crowds of refugees if we wanted to survive. I told them their sheer numbers would just end up destroying the entire palace and leave everyone to the mercy of the undead.
I know many people would consider this to absurdly inhumane, but this policy was absolutely critical. Since the war ended, I've read about many places that were adequately fortified and had plenty of food, water and supplies to survive. However, when the hordes of refugees came, these places were all destroyed or the people who managed them foolishly allowed large numbers of people inside and the masses ended up sucking up all the supplies and subsequently doomed everyone to starvation. An example that I often think about is about that rich New Yorker who tried to shelter himself along with dozens of celebrities in his extravagant fortress. He probably would've succeeded had he kept his mouth shut and didn't brag about his hideaway. After all, I just think it was absurd that the hordes of refugees who stormed his fortress and subsequently doomed everyone there were able to see the place on TV. That being said, I read that many of the body guards and security that were present were either completely unprepared, didn't know how to use weapons, or figured that they shouldn't shoot the "not-so-rich people who were just looking for a place to hide." Idiots. Due to that refugee horde, that extravagant fortress just became a center of chaos and the undead hordes from New York City just followed the refugees. In short, refugee hordes can easily doom well defended fortresses.
We were able to avoid this problem for two reasons. Firstly, we were able to unite everyone to a common cause; survival, and we also emphasized that we were Manchus and that the survival of our nation could fall on us as the other Manchus could be devoured. Consequently, we were ready to shoot down any refugee horde. We would use traditional Manchu bows as are main weapon against them in order to conserve bullets for dealing with the undead when they came and also because the arrows could be easily produced from trees we could grow in the courtyard.
The outbreak appeared to have started in the Tiexi District of the city. Since the Mukden Palace was in the Shenhe district, we knew that people from the other districts would try to find a place to hide in the other districts and that once those districts were overrun they would pour into Shenhe and try to storm the palace. The second reason we didn't have to deal with a refugee horde was because few very people came our way. The PLA was trying to suppress the outbreak and the local commander ordered everyone in the city to evacuate to the countryside. He said that those who remained in the city risked being cornered into small pockets where the undead could easily devour them. That commander has my respect. Without his orders, there would've undoubtedly been a horde of refugees coming to storm our palace. That being said, a few dozen did come and try entering. We fired some warning shots at them and told them to leave. We were quite sure that none of them were Manchus; I'd made sure to spread the fact that the Mukden Palace was already garrisoned by us and that we had no more space for anyone else to all of my Manchu acquaintances and also told them to spread that fact amongst their friends. Nonetheless, they started to beg for entry; we told them that we had no more room. They threatened to tell the PLA but we told them that they're probably too busy dealing with the undead to care and that we'd tell them that a bunch of refugees were trying to enter a place that could handle no more and in short were trying to doom us all. That managed to get most of them to leave peacefully. That being said, we still saw about 20 or so come back about a week later. They were running towards us and we could see an undead horde following them. We had no choice but to kill them. Even if we let them in, some of them could've been bitten. Afterwards we waited for the undead to start surrounding the palace.
At the time we didn't know that a head shot was required to kill them so we wasted our bullets with shots to the other parts of the body. Eventually, we realized this but by that point we'd wasted a lot of bullets. Nonetheless, we still managed to slaughter many zombies. But after another week, we were out of bullets and had to resort to arrows.
We knew that we couldn't spend the whole time fighting them so we just decided endure the undead siege and strike at them occasionally.
(*Jakvn Gvsa (ᠵᠠᠬᡡᠨ ᡤᡡᠰᠠ), known as the "Eight Banners" in English, refers to the elite units of Manchu soldiers established by Nurhaci that were instrumental in the Manchu conquest of China)
How long did you endure this siege?
For about four or five years. I lost track of time. Or perhaps I'm just getting old. We weren't able to get news about what was happening outside because our phones eventually ran out of power and what little electricity we had was needed for other things. Despite this we were actually able to survive quite comfortably. A well was dug in one of the courtyards and we also had vegetable gardens to feed ourselves and trees to make arrows from. When the harsh Manchurian Winter came, the zombies froze and we were able to leave our fortress and smash hundreds of them while raiding our surroundings for supplies. We even managed to raise children and some of the women who were with us were able to give birth to some new children. Because we were cut off from the outside and because we could all speak Manchu, these newborns became the first native Manchu speakers in nearly a century.
Despite how idyllic our life seemed to be, there was one major problem we had to deal with. Since there were so many undead outside of the palace and new ones coming every spring to replace the ones we smashed in the winter, we could hear their loud incessant moans every day. Consequently, the mental health of many of us started to deteriorate. After the first year, many of us were acting paranoid and some of our members even attempted suicide. There was the real fear of our fortress and our safety being torn apart from the inside. We had to find a way to get away from the incessant moaning. One of our members suddenly had the idea to put extra padding on some of the rooms inside to make them sound proof and that we should take turns sleeping in them. It was an ingenious plan. We first had our most mentally unstable members sleep there until they got their sanity back. We then all took turns sleeping in those rooms and as a result, everyone's mental health became stable once more.
One day, we heard gunshots outside and we looked over the walls to see what it was. We were surprised to see Chinese soldiers exterminating the undead. One of the soldiers entered our palace and he seemed shocked that everyone inside spoke Manchu instead of Chinese. He told us that the former government was overthrown after a civil war triggered by the collapse of the Three Gorges Dam. We were all shocked to hear this. I asked the soldier if we could take back our homeland. He said that he'd send word to his superiors and then asked that they be allowed to stop here for the night. We agreed and they told us that the new government's policy was to establish safe zones in various parts of China and to slowly attack the undead from those safe zones. The soldiers that came wanted to make the area around the palace their safe zone. The next day, we were offered the chance to join them as a small "Manchu National Army" to liberate Manchuria from the undead. We were told that if we helped, Manchuria would be recognized as an autonomous region and Manchu would be an official language.
We agreed to help, and this choice proved critical. I led about a few hundred of us to follow the soldiers and managed to help them liberate the rest of Shenyang from the undead. When the city was free of their stench, I raised the flag of the Qing Dynasty. The soldiers allowed us to rename the city "Mukden" as it was called in the past when the area was ruled by the Qing. It was an important symbolic gesture too as the name Mukden comes from the Manchu word "Mukdembi" which means "to rise" and our victory was the start of the Manchus rising again to their former glory. I turned to the Manchus who came with me and said to them.
"Today marks the beginning of a journey. At the end of our journey, we'll have liberated our homeland. Our Manchuria will be great and free once more!"
The last words I said, to rally my comrades.
Musei amba sulfan Manju Gurun oci Mukdembi!