They Could've Been Great Whores

[Lestari]

General Cheng Nangjia was not satisfied with the current situation at all. When the Xinyan Republic had taken power, the military had been the most powerful institute in the nation--and therefore the General had been among the most powerful people in the Republic, perhaps on par even with the authoritarian President Wu Zen Jiang. Nangjia had navigated his way into becoming perhaps the most influential force in Xinyan politics outside the president herself, and under his command the military had grown to control nearly every aspect of Xinyan--from the economy to the media to the health sector.

All would have been well had President Jiang maintained her presidency, but the President gave into public demands that civil elections be held at last. The candidates included the last person Nangjia wanted to see in power--Liu Wang, the Democrat--or, as Nangjia considered him, the most irritating insect in the Republic. Wang had repeatedly whined about 'authoritarianism' and 'lack of democracy' until Nangjia wanted nothing more than to throw the man personally from the top of a skyscraper. Thankfully, Liu Wang had placed dead last--and Yung Xunshi, who would turn the nation into the UFE's lapdog, had also been crushed.

Unfortunately, the situation did not become much better--for President Jiang's Xinyan Party was narrowly beaten out by Wu De Ling's Patriots of Xinyan. And the newly elected President De Ling had decided that the military's huge role in Xinyan politics was becoming a threat.

Nangjia's primary opponent in the military, Colonel Feng Chao, was quick to become De Ling's ally. As the President began introducing reforms that limited the military's power, Nangjia knew something would have to be done. De Ling intended to reconstruct the military not as an independent organisation but as an arm of the government, and then to maintain the power of the government over the nation. That did not sit well with Nangjia, not at all. And with Feng Chao declaring his support for De Ling's moves, Nangjia found himself losing the power he had formerly held very quickly.