Zengravian Democratic Front
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Geography and people: A former agricultural city, Haidan is based around farmland. Though in recent years, the city has been transformed into an industrial hub. The surrounding region continues to house farming towns and villages that support the big city with much needed food supplies. The local people are primarily Quin, though it is home to large migrant peoples like the Ushra that came to work the mines. Zeh merchant families and traders have also called Haidan home.
|Geographical Location of CLIQUE:| Northwest of Zang Quin (city on the railway line)
|Cities:|
Haidan: The City of Hainan was once a simple agricultural district. Yet it's location on the railway and close proximity to the coast soon meant that for investors it was a prime area for industrialization. Under the leadership of Huan Shao, Hainan become an industrial center. It's mineral deposits of coal and iron made Hainan one of the few Zengravian cities to become a center of steel production. Soon, with additional Commonwealth investment, Hainan developed a budding domestic arms industry which produces everything from artillery shells, small arms, and mechs for the Republican armies.
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Your Warlord:
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|Name:| Liu Shao
|Title:| Governor General
|Age:| 32
|Ethnicity:| Quin
|Personal Ideology: | Zengrav Republican Party- Market Liberalism: Nominally, Liu Shao belongs to the Zengrav Republican Party but has been a vocal opponent against Chancellor Heegon Wu, in addition to the Republic’s allowance of the Commonwealth’s occupation of sacred Zengravian land. There have been long standing rumors that Liu Shao has quiet links with nationalist factions but this has never been proven.
(|Influence in the faction: | 20 %
|Personality: | (What kind of person is your warlord?) A gifted orator and organizer, Liu Shao has developed a reputation as a charismatic figure in public. In private however, Shao remains much more reserved to the point where one might call him aloof. Early in his career, Shao was known for his flashes of anger that made him conduct rash and hotheaded decisions. Yet early setbacks and heavy losses during the early part of the rebellion has caused him to mature and take a more measured approach, often lead the tactical decisions to his subordinates on the ground then intervening personally -- as a good manager should.
|His/Her Virtue: |
Information Specialist: While some may wish to claim victory on the battlefield through brute force, Liu Shao with his business connections has built a vast information network of spies and informants to feed him information. The result has left the businessman with an ability to create a wide ranging picture of the war effort, domestic tensions, and political dirt on his rivals.
|His/Her Virtue:|
Master of Logistics: For ten years, Liu Shao has kept a hodgepodge of communists, democrats, and nationalists together in a united front. Shao's charisma and skill as an orator, in addition to his skill as a labor organizer has meant that Shao's factories are always running at peak efficiency, 24 hours a day. While Shao's troops may not be the best trained, they are always well equipped and fed.
|His/Her Sin:|
Battlefield Novice: Liu Shao was educated as a businessman and engineer, not a General. As a result, he has been forced to rely heavily on his subordinate commanders for conducting offensives. In the early years of the Zengravan Democratic Front, this lead to heavy casualties and attrition.
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|History and Background:|
The Unjust Treaties brought humiliation and destruction to Zengrav but that didn’t mean it wasn’t profitable for all. Huang Li Shao built his fortune first as a merchant with murky connections to the underworld as a smuggler and then with the backing of Commonwealth investment as a ruthless industrialist in Yandar. Soon, the Shao Conglomerate not only had interests in industry but arms manufacturing, with export licenses purchased and bought from the Commonwealth. Huang Li Shao ascended to the office of Governor and granted vast mining and preferential trade concessions to Commonwealth trades. Together, both the Shao Conglomerate and their Commonwealth partners grew incredibly profitable.
Liu Shao was born into this world of wealth and privilege, spending the first two decades of his life being educated in Commonwealth boarding schools until he returned home to the Imperial University in Nonsou. His involvement in the Yizhi Taiyang Movement (Harmonious Sunrise), lead to him nearly being expelled for involvement in underground political activities. His fathers influence and bribes prevented further scandal but it was the beginning of Shao's political activities. At 22, with the sudden (some would say suspicious) death of his father, Liu Shao returned home to assume control of the company as Chairman. He became a vocal critical of the Zengravian monarchy and the entitled Minga nobility and an advocate for reform, not only political reform, but a labor advocate. For decades, the Shao Conglomerate factory floor had been a cesspool for abuse, corruption, and work place accidents. Liu Shao pushed through a number of controversial reforms, first as Chairman of the Shao Conglomerate and then as Mayor of Haidan.
Yet while Liu Shao was a philanthropist publicly, Shao had continued to aggressively expand the family business. Rivals mysteriously died, rival businesses were torched, and lucrative deals with the Commonwealth continued to be struck. The city of Haidan had been transformed into a massive industrial center for raw materials and weapons for the Zengravian Army.
It did not stop Shao from continuing his populist message. The young Chairman was placed in an incredibly difficult situation however when Zengravian Royalist troops were dispatched to Haidan to quell civil unrest. The death toll was horrific as Royalist troops opened fire on crowds of the so called ‘’ Blue Vest ‘’. The Haidan University Massacre where dozens of protesting students were gunned down forced Shao into action.
He mobilized his thousands of factory workers off the floor, arming them with weapons that were destined for the Zengravian regular army. The result was a blood bath but one that forced the Royalist into a wide scale withdrawal from the city. Shao was swept up in a popular movement, declaring that the Imperial government actions against its own citizens made it ‘’ illegitimate ‘’. The Haidan region would join the United Peoples-State of Zengrav, with Shao continuing in his role as a self declared ‘ Governor General ‘ of the area.
With the regions industrial output now under his total control, Shao turned to forming his own private army and hiring foreign mercenaries strictly loyal to him. The ‘ Volunteer Brigades ‘, a mix of idealists and other just seeking cold hard cash have been Shao’s greatest asset in fighting against the Royalists and his fellow rebels.
However, the emergence of the Commonwealth has become more and more of a concern. The seizing of Zengrav’s cities and later (perhaps more alarming), seizing control of Shao’s shipping interests on the coast has begun to turn Shao against his former benefactor. There have been long standing rumors that Shao has been secretly communicating with not only the Communists but also the Nationalists to end the Commonwealth’s occupation. Nothing substantial has ever been proven and for the moment, Shao remains loyal to the Republic…for now.
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|Armed Forces:|
Total Size: 21,000 men
Zengravan Democratic Forces:
Haidan Militia: 14,000 troops Otherwise known as the '' Blue Helmets '' for their unique blue helmets, the Haidan Militia emerged from the ashes of the Haidan massacre. During the early stages of the rebellion, the militia was poorly equipped and trained but years of fighting the Royalists and access to the Shao Conglomerate's weapons factories means that the militia are well equipped and battle hardened. The militia uses a variety of equipment, from captured Royalist weapons to Commonwealth manufactured firearms. The Haidan Militia primarily is involved in everything from front line duties to policing actions.
Blue Guards: 3,000 The elite shocktroops of the Zengravan Democratic Front, the core of the Blue Guards are composed of foreign volunteers hailing from the Commonwealth and her surrounding states. Yet losses throughout the years of fighting has meant that the Blue Guard has had to recruit specifically from among the militia. Only the best from the militia are selected and undergo rigorous combat training.
Republican Guard: 120 light and heavy tanks Composed of 120 light and heavy tanks of Commonwealth and Zengravan local manufacture, the Republican Guard otherwise called the Grand Company is lead by a Commonwealth officer corp with Zengravan crews. Paid handsomely by the Shao Conglomerate, the Grand Company provides much of the heavy firepower that has enabled the Republican's to stave off repeated Royalist counteroffensives.
Zengravan Volunteer Wing: 70 aircraft The 'Zengravan' Volunteer Wing is almost exclusively composed of foreigners from throughout Zengrav. Whether attracted for ideological reasons or the pay that Shao offers, the Volunteer wings composed of fighters and fighter bombers grants the Republic air cover and protects Shao's factories from Royalist bombing raids.
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|Their finest hour:|
The thunder of machine gun fire had been incessant throughout the afternoon. Chairman Shao had not believed the first reports that had come over the radio, then from his own informants in the city, and finally from the casualties that were streaming onto his factory floor. The ammunition factory at this point today was usually humming with the sounds of production, the crash of hammers, and hiss of steam vats.
Instead, a scene of carnage had taken over his floor. Dozens of wounded and dying lay strewn across his floor. The factory had been one of the places that had been safe from the soldiers roaming the streets, Shao’s private security keeping the military at bay. His security chief had warned him that the Imperial Army was only getting closer. Production had ceased for the day and hundreds of angry worker had swarmed into the courtyard, armed with hammers, wrenches, and whatever tools that they could scavenge off the factory floor.
Shao had been careful to keep the arms locker under heavy guard until now.
He had not endorsed the protests, he had ignored the requests of the Union organizers to halt work for the day to keep the streets calm with tensions running high.
Instead he had seen the Imperial army gun down his workers, ransack their homes, and torch the University that his father had founded.
‘’ Are we ready? ‘’ He said, turning towards Yuan Liang, his chief of security and operations. The man dutifully pointed towards the trucks that were lining up. Trucks filled with arms and additional ammunition that Shao had requisitioned from his own storage depots.
‘’ I’ve taken the liberty of taking the foremen aside. They know of our plans. ‘’ Liang said.
‘’ Good, I want the disposition of arms done in an orderly fashion. The Imperial Army is expected to be here within the hour. Instead of factory workers armed with clubs, I’d rather have them facing an army armed with rifles. ‘’ Ever the careful pragmatist, Shao knew that his position in the city was not secure, no matter who won. The Imperial Government had barely tolerated his father’s business dealings before and now were shooting his own workers down in their homes.
An attack on his businesses and factories was the next logical step and to use them as a rallying point for his workers to defend them would be his response. The Chairman stepped into the radio room where his communications were going out across the city and from where he could address his own workers directly.
‘’ Sir, we are live. ‘’ A young man with spectacles reported dutifully, handing him the microphone to which he would give his address.
‘’ People of Hainan, the Imperial Government in a bid to suppress our right to peacefully protest, has chosen to murder our own folk on the street instead. This is not a matter of Quin, or Minga, Zeh, or any other minority that makes up our great nation. All the people of Hainan are one and we are being threatened by a corrupt and illegal government. By shedding the blood of its own people, this government has lost its right to rule. We must take back our country from the nobility, we must take it back from the foreigners, we must take it back for all of Zengrav! Arm yourselves, defend your homes! ‘’ By the time Shao reached his trucks, the rifles and ammunition were being handed out. The Chairman joined them in dispersing the arms, placing the heavy rifles into the dirty and bloodied hands of men and women that had survived being bombed and shot.
It was here in Hainan where they would make their stand against the Royalists.
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|Their darkest hour:|
It had been the third attack and one that Shao had ordered personally.
He had decided to lead it personally.
Once more the men of Hainan went over the top, charging towards the final redoubt that the Royalists occupied in the city. It was a concrete block of buildings that the enemy had entrenched themselves in.
Without artillery or air support, the Republican’s had a simple choice. Leave the enemy in place on the sacred soil of their city or charge through the narrow streets towards the entrenchments.
The Chairman could not allow this assault to fail.
Machine gun rounds cracked over his head, the rebels in front of Shao collapsed, bleeding, dying, and screaming.
Shao kept moving, a round kissing over his head to bounce into concrete. Bits of shrapnel and rock covered him in a fine mist.
He could see the Royalists now.
Men who looked just like him that peered at him from windows, scared and desperate faces.
He kept moving, his saber in his hand.
Another man in front of him crumpled, they were almost there.
He didn’t hear the grenade blast that knocked him from his feet.
His world was momentarily made up only of inky black darkness, blood pumping from an open wound on his scalp. Shao thought that he was almost certainly dead.
Was he floating?
No, no, he was being carried back to his own line.
Men were still screaming and dying, men that had come charging out in another foray to save him from the assault that he had ordered.
The building would at last be captured after two long weeks.
The cut off company of Imperial soldiers had inflicted four hundred casualties on the militia that had charged and charged again, only failing when they had run out of ammunition.
There was no quarter on either side.
The sting of defeat and loss was not one that Shao would easily forget.
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|Other Important People inside the Clique:|
(Your Warlord is the heart and soul of the Clique, and seldom can anyone hope to replace him! BUT no Clique can work without some people in the second rank! Who are these people?)
Yuan Liang, 56: An old associate of Liu Shao's father, Yuan Liang is the chief of Shao's security apparatus. He is in charge of keeping order inside of Hainan and is rumored to be the head of Shao's secret security service that feeds Shao information and arrests dissenters.
Heinrich Altman, 38: Hailing from the Geisel Republic in the Commonwealth, Heinrich Altman has been a mercenary in Zengrav for the past decade. He entered Shao's service more than five years ago and became a key component of forming the Democratic Front's Air Corp. He holds the the title of Air Marshal and commands all Republican aircraft that fly under the Democratic Front's banner.
Cai Xi, 42: A former factory foreman, Cai Xi participated in the initial uprising against the Imperial forces. Rumored to have Communist sympathies, he has nonetheless become a close confidant of Liu Shao and is a commander in the militia.
Yu Zhong, 34: A member of the Taiyang Movement originating in the Imperial University in Nonsou, Zhong is a leading intellectual and a close associate of Shao since his University days. Zhong has taken the position of Vice Chairman in the Shao Conglomerate and run's its day to day operations. He is a prominent Republican Party member though has been accused like Shao in the past of harboring nationalist sympathies.
