Chapter 217: ETO's Final Counterattack_1

Kong Xiang looked at Jiang Yu with a complex expression in his eyes, "When I heard you teaching my son not to regret and asking me if I have any regrets, I didn't pay too much attention."

"It wasn't until I experienced the disintegration of the ETO that I really felt I had wasted my life."

Jiang Yu listened even more earnestly.

Kong Xiang glanced around at the atmosphere, "There are probably Sophons listening in around us too, right?"

He laughed, "The Trisolarans think that by silently watching, they can put enough pressure on humanity.

"Humans often overestimate themselves, and Trisolarans are not gods, they too can grow numb and careless.

"For example, they think that two Wallfacers have been broken through, one Wallfacer was forced into hibernation, and another Wallfacer came up with something like the Thoughtcontrol.

"And then there's you, who seems to have started using the Wallfacer plan's gimmick to seek power a long time ago.

"It appears as though the Wallfacer plan has failed, or at least it doesn't need to be watched anymore, but they're totally wrong.

"The Trisolarans greatly underestimate humanity, their surveillance can only pressure the weak, the strong will not be bothered by them!

"At the same time, they also overlook human resolve and those noble qualities!"

Kong Xiang drank a sip of liquor, seemingly lost in memory, and after five or six seconds, he continued, "When the Trisolarans cut off all contact with the ETO, the ETO split into two extremes.

"Some people were extremely desperate, most of them were arrested by the PDC and died from the death penalty.

"Others felt they had not done well enough, hence they were abandoned by their lord.

"Their thoughts became increasingly extreme, believing that if all of humanity could be annihilated, their lord would favor them again.

"Almost no one knew that ETO's last mad counterattack was designed to drag the whole world down with them.

"To my knowledge, they had two plans, the first one called the Greenhouse scheme, aimed at raising Earth's average temperature by another two to three degrees.

"This would not only significantly melt the ice at the poles and cause sea levels to surge but also release methane from the permafrost in Siberia.

"That is a devil in chains, a large amount of methane would exacerbate the global greenhouse effect, causing the average global temperature to rise again and again, and eventually it could reach a terrifying fifty-plus degrees!

"At that time, even if humanity on Earth doesn't go extinct, the majority would perish, and the rest would have to hide underground, hardly a concern anymore."

Jiang Yu said, "That goal must be hard to achieve, right?"

He had heard about the terror of the methane beneath Siberia, but how could the global average temperature rise so easily?

Kong Xiang smiled, "Thanks to the PDC, a large amount of aerospace industry has produced a large amount of greenhouse gases.

"As the environment deteriorates and vegetation decreases, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases, all these put together, are already not far from the ETO's goal.

"At the same time, they have invested almost all of ETO's remaining funds into factories that emit greenhouse gases."

Plants are actually very important in Earth's environment, their photosynthesis is like storing the energy that the sun emits to Earth.

Coal and oil are the solar energy stored by plants a long time ago, in this respect, both steam engines and internal combustion engines are a further utilization of solar energy.

Before the steam engine was transformed, people survived by farming, which means they could only use the solar energy of the present.

After inventing and improving steam engines that use coal as the main raw material and internal combustion engines that use oil, it's like using the solar energy stored from the past.

Although the efficiency wasn't very high, it was enough to make humanity's productivity soar.

The combustion of these fuels caused Earth's average temperature to increase dramatically, and with desertification, the significant decrease in vegetation meant that there was nowhere to store the excess carbon dioxide, naturally raising the global temperature.

Kong Xiang didn't mention the results of the plan but continued, "The second plan is called the Sun-Blocking Project, the main idea being to increase the activity of the major tectonic plates, causing large-scale earthquakes and volcanic eruptions!"

As he said this, he suddenly laughed, "Humanity has always been so arrogant, considering themselves the rulers of Earth.

"But this ruler can't withstand a 'sneeze' from Earth.

"There is a delicate balance between Earth's major plates right now, and most volcanic and crustal activities aren't very active, with only occasional earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

"ETO had been doing related research a long time ago; with the right location, a hydrogen bomb of not a great yield could disrupt the balance between the plates.

"This would cause frequent earthquakes over a period of time and the emergence of many new, active volcanoes.

"Modern civilization would collapse in the earthquakes, and the massive amounts of volcanic ash entering the atmosphere would block out most of the sunlight, plunging Earth into another Ice Age!

"Such a great disaster would be enough to throw humanity's civilization back a century or two; without Moon City or Mars City, humanity might even regress to the feudal era."

Jiang Yu took a sip of his drink, "Who stopped all this?"

Kong Xiang paused for a few seconds before replying, "Three senior ETO officers!

"After ETO was reorganized, they never showed their faces, always hiding behind the character of the First Emperor of Qin."

Jiang Yu had guessed that these three people were naturally from within the ETO leadership.

Jiang Yu was silent for a few seconds before asking, "What was their ultimate fate?"

Kong Xiang let out a long sigh, "One detonated the hydrogen bomb obtained by ETO, perishing along with the core members of the Sun-Blocking Project.

"This also led to the abortion of the Sun-Blocking Project, after all, it's not that easy to obtain a hydrogen bomb.

"And with the core personnel of the plan dead and critical data lost, even if another hydrogen bomb were secured, there would be no knowledge of where to detonate it.

"One accidentally exposed himself while sabotaging the Greenhouse Project and was killed by ETO.

"Another high-level member named Bai Xiao, deliberately captured by PDC with a large amount of ETO's funds, left ETO without significant capital, halting many of the investments that exacerbated the greenhouse effect.

"This included a collaboration with Russia to develop the methane project in Siberia.

"This was key to the plan, and without these investments, the Greenhouse Project also came to naught.

"Thankfully, PDC's suicidal industrial development didn't push the global average temperature to the tipping point, nor did it release the demon lurking beneath Siberia!

"However, Bai Xiao had been shot by PDC over thirty years ago!"

The living room fell into silence once again. After a long while, Jiang Yu sighed, "With so many people silently dedicating themselves to the survival of humanity, humanity won't perish, and the Trisolarans won't win."

Kong Xiang's complexion turned a bit pale, "They were hidden within ETO; even after doing so much, no one thanked them.

"I struggled to live until now because I wanted to tell you about their deeds. Humanity mustn't forget their contributions!

"At the same time, Bai Xiao also wanted me to relay three important pieces of intelligence to you."