It is Kokang and Changchun

　Changchun stopped typing on the keyboard

　Zuo thought for a moment and continued typing, "I know some people will say things like, 'Don't criticize the changing tastes of Kancolle readers. Criticize the social reasons that have caused these changes. Don't bully us.'"

　"First, I am also criticizing the causes of this cultural phenomenon, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be criticized. The economic and social environment determines ideology and culture, but ideology and culture also have a dynamic reactionary effect on the economy and society. Therefore, criticism of cultural phenomena is necessary, as the saying goes, treating both the symptoms and the root causes."

　"Now let's get back to the outrageous comments of those mindless peach-eating fans. I saw someone say before that the ship girls in the game are the player's wives first, and the battleships second.

　This logic is hilarious. Are some people's girlfriends or wives first and foremost your girlfriends or wives, or are they first and foremost human beings? Don't some people even think about it in a logical way, to see if their logic is clear?

　If you say that character design in games is to satisfy players, that's understandable. However, when designing KanColle, the first thing I consider is which ship I should choose as the prototype, and only then do I consider what players want the character to be like.

　This actually disproves the upside-down proposition that "KanColle is first and foremost the player's wife, which is actually the meaning given to warships in history."

　And then there's the point about the shipgirls being unconditionally loyal to their commanders. Trust between people is built through mutual giving, understanding, respect, and support. Isn't unconditional loyalty like building castles in the air? Isn't it just getting something for nothing?

　Nowadays, the values ​​of some people have become so distorted that they dislike the favorability system and disappointed voice messages, and even think that such settings are not otaku-friendly enough.

　Oh my god, look at what these are, my comrade Lenin. I swear, if there is such a person around Changchun, I will kick his ass hard and send him to see the Virgin Mary.

　Even putting aside these ethical issues, there's also the issue of political and historical KanColle stories being dismissed as "slipstreaming" because they conflict significantly with the official canon. I suddenly remembered a KanColle fanfiction about port logistics personnel, and the comments section was filled with criticism of it as a slipstream.

　Why is it being criticized so harshly? Is it just because in the official setting of KanB, the logistics are all robots, without any humans?

　No, it's obviously because the presence of support personnel could lead to interactions between the shipgirls and the support personnel, affecting the commander's exclusive control over each shipgirl, and thus leading to the destruction of the harem, which is what those "local tyrants" least want to see. It's no wonder why the book was criticized so fiercely.

　However, in order to please these "local tyrants", game manufacturers try to weaken all humans except the commanders as much as possible. This is in great conflict with political and historical KanColle literature, because history is created by the people, not just KanColle and commanders.

　Peach-themed stories can only write about the love affairs between commanders and ship girls, but can the grand war scenes, complex political struggles, and international games in political and historical ship girl stories be expressed by only rewriting the activities between commanders and ship girls?

　The organizational structure of the real military is fundamentally in conflict with the relationship between commanders and shipgirls in the game. At this time, in order to fit the political and historical theme, you only abandon the setting in the game that is designed to satisfy the harem psychology of players and readers.

　Otherwise, based on the relationship between commanders and shipgirls in the game, what's the point of fostering warlords? This is especially true if you're writing shipgirls from socialist countries like the Soviet Union. Always ensuring the Party's absolute leadership over the military is a lesson learned through the blood and tears of a century of international communism!

　Also, can settings like 'shipgirls' unconditional loyalty to their commanders' be retained? This seriously violates the spirit of women in the new era of socialism..."

　Changchun thought a lot and wrote a lot based on what he had learned. After a while, Changchun pressed the send button and sent this information to his official B station account in his private name.

　As expected, after a while, the message notifications reached over 99 people, some of whom supported Changchun, while others criticized or even insulted Changchun, saying things like Changchun was out of touch with the masses and had a hipster syndrome.

　After a while, his official account was losing followers at a noticeable rate. Changchun thought it didn't matter. "Lenin said it's better to have fewer but better followers. Changchun doesn't want his followers to be superficial."

　When Changchun was flipping through the message notifications, he suddenly found that among the messages supporting him, there was an earliest comment, and the commenter's ID was called "Light Cruiser Pinghai".

　This ID is not the ID of the Kancolle Pinghai family, but the ID of a Kancolle fan. Who is the person in this ID? In fact, it is Comrade Lao Zhan, who Changchun has known for a long time on the Internet.

　Seeing Lao Zhan's brief but insightful comments, Changchun's mood turned from gloomy to bright, and he said with relief: "Hehe~ I really didn't misjudge him. Comrade Zhan is indeed a comrade worth making close friends with."

　Then, Changchun started to click on Lao Zhan's homepage, and then shared and exchanged ideas with him on the issues mentioned in the recent new developments.

　Chapter 363 Cultural Life in the Newly Liberated Areas

　Blue House in Seoul, North Korea

　After Kim Jong-un moved the capital to Seoul against all odds, the first thing he did was to strengthen local security, and then to carry out propaganda and large-scale social

　Investigation and economic and social transformation.

　During this process, the Workers' Party of Korea first banned everything related to the People's Power Party. For example, depending on the specific circumstances, it unconditionally deprived members of their political rights, confiscated all their property, and sent them to prison, forced labor, or even executed them.

　Next, all the property of the chaebols and large private enterprises in the liberated areas will be confiscated and used as state property. After accounting, these properties will be reorganized to establish new state-owned enterprises.

　Then we negotiated with the Democratic Party of Korea, inviting them to join the Democratic Front for the Unification of the Fatherland under certain conditions, participate in politics and discuss national affairs.

　The prerequisite for joining is that the Democratic Party of Korea must recognize the Workers' Party of Korea as the only legitimate ruling party in North Korea, accept the leadership of the Workers' Party of Korea, and recognize the Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

　The nature of the Workers' Party of Korea is fundamentally different from that of the Democratic Party of Korea. Although some members of the Democratic Party of Korea are relatively friendly to North Korea, the contradiction in the fundamental attributes of the two parties determines that it is unlikely that this negotiation will achieve constructive results.

　After a period of intense negotiations, the final result was that the negotiations broke down and the Workers' Party of Korea had no choice but to ban the Democratic Party of Korea through the state machinery.

　Afterward, some former members of the Democratic Party of Korea, still resentful and harboring resentment towards North Korea, began to band together and conduct espionage activities to overthrow the Workers' Party of Korea. However, within a month of their operation, they were all busted by the North Korean Ministry of State Security.

　After this incident, the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, with Kim Jong-un as its core, attached great importance to it. All the main culprits who were caught were sentenced to death and executed immediately.

　After the incident was exposed, those members of the Democratic Party of Korea who had been living the lives of ordinary people due to the dissolution of the party organization were basically implicated to varying degrees.

　All of them were arrested by the North Korean Ministry of State Security and placed under isolation and investigation. What awaits them is either to be proven innocent and return to society, or to face imprisonment and forced labor.

　Fortunately, Kim Jong-un's political struggle methods are relatively reasonable. Unlike Zhu Yuanzhang, he did not take advantage of the situation to kill people. Most of the former party members who were arrested were cleared of all charges, and only a small number of them were sent to prison.

　After the "Democratic Party of Korea Case", the Workers' Party of Korea stepped up its propaganda of socialism and Juche ideology in public opinion. First, it removed many colorful commercial advertisements on the streets of Seoul, and then posted various political propaganda full of red atmosphere.

　However, North Korea did not remove all commercial advertisements. They removed those that were full of commercial decadence, consumerism, and capitalism, such as financial credit advertisements and entertainment advertisements.

　Small, down-to-earth advertisements, such as those from pancake shops that say "Delicious and tasty" and cold drink shops that say "Ice-filled", as well as public service advertisements whose values ​​are somewhat consistent with collectivism and socialism, have been retained.

　In terms of propaganda, loudspeakers are set up in squares and parks, and mobile propaganda vehicles are driven to the streets to broadcast propaganda about socialism and Juche ideology, clarifying what the North Korean authorities believe is "the smear campaign against North Korea by the capitalist world."

　From then on, every few days in Seoul, and starting at 10 a.m. on weekends, people could hear the opening lyrics of the Korean People's Army song: "Inheriting the glorious tradition of resisting Japan, the glorious team has been tempered into steel~" followed by two hours of political propaganda on loudspeakers.

　In terms of the entertainment industry, North Korea has banned the entire sex industry. Sex workers are organized by the government for re-education and transformation, and then return to society after the transformation.

　Unlike the Japanese Communist Party, the Workers' Party of Korea has also completely banned things like two-dimensional anime.

　But Kim Jong-un has seen some of the world, so he's made a small exception. While it's true that the industry should be completely shut down, the government won't be taking care of privately owned goods. Unless the owner openly promotes these things, the government will crack down on those who promote them.

　Next is the censorship of games and movies before they are broadcast. North Korea has reviewed all South Korean TV dramas and animations, and only a small number of TV dramas with depth and positive educational significance have passed the review.

　"Train to Busan" was fortunate enough to be on the approved list. North Korean authorities believed the film satirized the selfishness of humanity under the capitalist system, so they gave it the green light. Unfortunately, "Peninsula: Train to Busan 2" was blocked.

　The approval rate for animation is lower than that for film and television dramas. It is not that the North Korean authorities cannot accept this art form. The main reason for its failure to pass the review is the subject matter of the work and the ideas it embodies.

　Another reason is that North Korean officials believe that they have internationally recognized animation production companies and can succeed even without these South Korean puppets.

　Some may find it incredible that North Korea has an animation company, but this is the reality. Contrary to many people's stereotypes about North Korea, North Korea actually has a say in the animation field.

　North Korea’s first and only animation company is called “SEK Studio”. SEK (Success Engage Korea Studio) is just their external name. Within North Korea, SEK’s official name is 426 Animation Film Studio.

　In 1957, Kim Il-sung, the supreme leader of North Korea, suggested during an inspection of the North Korean National Film Studio that a special animation production unit should be established.

　The "North Korean Children's Film Studio" was established.

　In 1962, Factory 426 produced North Korea’s first animated film, “The Vitality of the Fields,” marking the official start of North Korea’s animation industry.

　The first animations produced by Studio 426 were simple children's stories. In the 1970s, the content of the animations began to shift to enlightenment content such as scientific principles, moral education, and common sense of life. Many animations were broadcast in South Korea.

　During this period, the animation technology of Factory 426 was also improving rapidly. In the 1980s, Kim Jong Il visited the studio and it was renamed "April 26 North Korean Children's Film Studio" after the date of Kim Jong Il's first visit.

　At this time, Kim Jong Il believed that North Korea's animation production level had become relatively mature, and if the cartoons could be exported, it would bring in considerable foreign exchange earnings, so Factory 426 began to try to enter the international market.

　Just a few years after entering the international market, Film 426 first attracted the attention of France. In 1985, the French were the first to extend an olive branch to North Korea, allowing them to participate in the production of the hugely popular "Ganda Star".

　After this collaboration, France outsourced the production of several animations to SEK Studio, including the equally well-received Corto Maltez.

　France's series of actions have also attracted the attention of animation industries in other countries, bringing orders to North Korea from European and American countries such as Italy and Spain.

　As a result, the shadow of North Korea's SEK Studio began to appear in many famous animation works, such as "Arabian Nights", "Simba the Lion King", "Transformers", "Pinocchio", and even Disney's "Pocahontas" - of course, the United States will definitely not admit that North Korean animators were involved.

　However, orders from the United States are often more complicated. These orders are first sent to European countries, then subcontracted to Switzerland through these countries, and finally subcontracted to North Korea through complex indirect orders.

　When other countries commission animations from North Korea, they typically provide the scripts and software, and then have North Korean technicians create the animations to their specifications. However, dubbing, sound effects, and post-production are handled by the US and Europe themselves.

　Since Studio 426 entered the international animation market, the various overseas animation orders it has completed have brought North Korea hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign exchange revenue, which is invaluable to a small country like North Korea.

　5% of these profits are given to Studio 426, the remaining profits are turned over to the state, and then deducted from various expenses for maintaining the studio's reproduction, the last part is the remuneration for more than 1,500 members of Studio 426.

　In addition, Studio 426 has established representative offices in other countries such as China and France, and has related cooperative enterprises in the same industry.

　In November 2014, North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un visited the place for the first time and renamed it "North Korea April 26 Animation Film Studio."

　After North Korea liberated Seoul, Studio 426 established its tenth department, the "Game Creation Group," in response to instructions from higher authorities. This department is dedicated to developing, maintaining, and operating games.

　Some Korean games that have been temporarily suspended will be rectified in this department before being reopened.

　Since all mainstream Korean games were concentrated in this department for rectification, the department needed a lot of relevant manpower to support normal work, so that this department became the largest department in 426 Studio shortly after its establishment.

　The management of this department consisted entirely of veterans of Studio 426 and new hires from North Korea. The lower ranks consisted primarily of programmers, artists, and painters from the game industry who had been recruited from the liberated areas of South Korea.

　What about the planning? Of course, planning is something that should be caught on the North Korean side, as North Korea is not stupid. For North Korea, if it were South Korea, who knows if it would mess around with Mao's reactionary and evil politics.

　Against this backdrop, the well-known Korean 2D mobile game "Azur Files" was overhauled by the 426 Studio game creation team in terms of art, main storyline, and programming.

　There are many changes, mainly the character portraits and clothing becoming more formal, the plot becoming more red, and some voice lines with obvious sexual connotations being removed. The character with the biggest change is Lianhe Celino (nicknamed Stalo), and the plot with the biggest change is the Red East plot.

　The North Korean cultural department believes that the setting of this part is full of stereotypes about the Soviet Union, especially many of the dialogues in the plot are taken from Soviet jokes compiled by the West.

　Including Cellino, the leader of the Red East Bloc, it is also a collection of the stereotypes that Western countries have long had about successive Soviet leaders.

　"I have read the game content summary, and it is nonsense. I hope that Factory 426 will make rectifications in accordance with relevant regulations. Our department will use diplomatic means to inform the Soviet Union of the smear and slander against it by this game" - the reply from the North Korean Ministry of Culture to Studio 426.

　After nearly three months of rectification, Azure Archives has been revived. Gamers in the liberated areas of South Korea thought North Korean officials were playing a prank, believing the previous rectification notice was just a pretext to completely ban the game.

　Similarly, it wasn't just South Korean players who held this view, but also some international players. Players in the South Korean liberated areas and overseas servers logged into their BA accounts with a mixture of joy and anxiety.

　As a result, most of these people were boiling with excitement. They were not

　They were not boiling with joy because the game was reopened, but they were boiling with anger because the game was changed "beyond recognition".

　"Holy crap! What the hell is this? First there's a national server version, now there's a main server version, and harmony has been moved to the home server. What's the point of this?!

　Not only have the illustrations been tightened up, the plot and dialogue changed, but the voiceovers for the changed lines have also been lost. A bank robbery plot is being portrayed as raising revolutionary funds for the Red East? I...cnm quit the game! "—A Chinese player on the Korean server angrily shouted after opening the game to check it out.

　As a result, the number of active players in Azure Archive plummeted. Normally, a commercial game company would have immediately collapsed in panic. However, Studio 426 and the North Korean Ministry of Culture seemed unconcerned with these player turnover statistics.

　Upon receiving the news, Kim Jong-un snorted coldly and scoffed, "You're a bunch of guys spoiled by the decadent culture of capitalism. You can play wherever you want. Anyway, you're not worthy of playing games with the spirit of socialism."

　Kim Jong-un believes that when artists produce cultural products, they should listen to the audience's opinions appropriately, but at the same time they must adhere to the bottom line and not accommodate the audience without principles. This is the same as populism of "being led by the nose by the masses."

　Chapter 364: Eye of the Middle East: Golan Heights

　Northern Gaza border with Israel

　At a troop assembly point behind the front lines, a group of Hamas soldiers were resting. They had been fighting for a week straight and had just been relieved from the fierce front yesterday, so they needed some time to regroup.

　Hamas soldier A ponders a captured Tar-21 rifle in his hand. Due to its appearance and design, the rifle looks rather sci-fi when compared with a group of fellow villagers.

　He fiddled with his gun while complaining about the Israeli army. "The Israeli devils are no good, much worse than I expected. I overestimated them before the war and trained hard every day for them, and now this is it?"

　"That's right. The Israeli devils are even more shameful than the Russian army at the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War. They made so many low-level mistakes that it's hard to complain about them." Hamas soldier B next to him strongly agreed.

　Hamas soldier C followed suit, saying, "Humph, if we didn't lack large-scale mechanized equipment and heavy artillery, it's hard to say whether these Israeli troops could have entered the city.

　Isn’t it? Now that the goddess’s personal guards sent by Allah (referring to the deep sea) have been deployed, in less than three days, all the Israeli devils have been driven out of northern Gaza. The 8-strong Israeli army besieging Gaza is like a piece of paper.

　It's said that there are still over 20 reserve players, but if even the forwards are this bad, the level of the reserve team is probably even worse."

　"Don't worry, we'll have armored vehicles, tanks, and heavy artillery," Hamas soldier D said, full of hope for the future. "Hasn't the Janissaries of Allah and other neighboring countries recently started providing us with equipment? According to the news, it should arrive within the next two days."

　Especially the weapons of the Janissaries. Didn't they liberate half of the East Coast of the United States? They said they would give us a batch of American heavy equipment. Brothers, that's all American! In the past, we never dared to dream of using these things!

　Hamas soldier A was very excited and said, "Yes, I can finally feel what it's like for my Afghan brothers to use American products. If there were no effective anti-tank methods, who would be willing to resort to suicide attacks?"

　As he spoke, he wiped the tears from his eyes and said, "I hope that in the future our soldiers will no longer need to use their bodies to resist tanks. What the Israeli army has, we will eventually have too."

　"When we are equipped with relatively unified foreign aid equipment in the future, our brothers in logistics will definitely be very happy. Finally, we won't have to deal with a variety of weapons." Hamas soldier B used to work in logistics. He knows the significance of standardized weapons in reducing the pressure on logistics work.

　Soldier C's focus was slightly different. "American products are good, but what about those homemade rocket launchers we previously developed? Will we continue to develop them?"

　Although Hamas does not have tanks, planes or heavy artillery, it has its own set of homemade rocket launchers.

　Of this type of earthen rocket launcher, the Qassam rocket launcher is the most numerous in Hamas's inventory. This type of rocket launcher is actually made by hand using common everyday materials after simple processing. There are even infuriating tutorials online on how to make it.

　The earliest Qassam 1 had a range of 5 kilometers. When it was improved to type 3, the range had reached 15 kilometers. Although its power was not as strong, at least its range was far superior to the Katyusha rocket launcher of World War II.

　These rockets are often used by Hamas to decoy Israel's Iron Dome air defense system due to their low cost, high volume, ease of firing, and maneuverability. Trading a few hundred dollars worth of steel tubes for an Iron Dome missile costing tens of thousands of dollars per round is a surefire win.

　Hamas soldier A responded to C's question: "Since others have their own, we must not leave our own behind. Our 114mm rocket launchers are already somewhat like standard equipment. After liberation, we will definitely be able to take it to a higher level."

　The 114mm rocket launcher mentioned here is the Rajum rocket launcher developed by Hamas for fire strikes. Its appearance is very similar to China's 107 rocket launcher, but its caliber is larger than that of China's 107 rocket launcher.

　In addition to medium- and short-range rocket launchers, Hamas also has a number of medium- and long-range rocket launchers. The model with the longest range can cover most of Israel.

　But other parameters are not up to par, such as accuracy.

　Some might ask, "Gaza is just a small city, so where does Hamas get such strong scientific and technological capabilities?" Another curiosity is that even if the factory is buried underground, it can't hide much. How did they do it?

　First, these items aren't entirely self-produced. Gaza is too small for that to be possible. By "homemade," they mean using common, inexpensive materials purchased on the market or the black market, then designing and assembling them using Hamas technicians.

　There are only a handful of countries in the world today that can produce their own weapons and equipment throughout the entire industrial chain, from every raw material to the final product.

　Secondly, Hamas is not alone in its fight; its technology and funding are primarily funded by Arab countries including, but not limited to, Iran, Turkey, and Qatar. Incidentally, the proportion of educated people in the Gaza Strip is the highest in the Arab world.

　Furthermore, rocket launchers are relatively inexpensive to develop and manufacture compared to other offensive weapons, making them not considered high-tech. Detailed information on rocket launchers from World War II and the early Cold War can be found online.

　The manufacturing of ordinary artillery, from the gun carriage to the barrel and rifling, requires a lot of technology and is certainly not cheap. However, the launcher for a rocket can be welded together with a few scrap steel bars, which is a clear difference.