An English translation of the Chinese military novel by 野狼獾 (Wild Wolverine).
国家意志 (National Will), also published under the title 雷霆反击 (Thunder Counterattack), is a military fiction novel first serialised on the Tiexue reading platform in 2011. It spans 821 chapters and roughly three million characters. The novel simulates a conflict between India and Pakistan that escalates into a full-scale Sino-Indian war across land, sea, and air, drawing on approximately 300 types of real military equipment. It has been called "the Everest of military fiction" (军文中的珠穆朗玛) in Chinese online circles, and its opening scenario bore a striking resemblance to the real 2019 India-Pakistan clash over Kashmir, despite having been written years earlier.
As far as I am aware, no English translation of this novel has previously existed.
Chinese military novels are very terse, straightforward, and technical. National Will is even more so. My approach to translation was to try and approximate the terseness as best as I could in an English context, keeping as much of the technical detail as possible; it was a major draw for the novel amongst the Chinese web novel sphere. At the same time, while I don't wish to take many liberties, I did take some to make sure that the novel doesn't fall apart in English.
Footnotes are provided for military terminology, unit designations, geographical references, and other context that an Anglophone reader would not be expected to know.
• Chapter 4: Thunder and Lightning
• Chapter 8: The Ministry of Defence
• Chapter 14: Low-Altitude Escape
• Chapter 16: The Prime Minister's Basement
• Chapter 22: In the Name of Counter-Terrorism
• Chapter 23: Precision Strike
• Chapter 26: A Difficult Moment
• Chapter 29: The Chaotic Battlefield
• Chapter 30: A Desperate Escape
• Chapter 33: Electronic Countermeasures
• Chapter 35: Eagles Against Falcons
• Chapter 36: The Siachen Glacier
• Chapter 40: The Second Seminar
• Chapter 42: Trident Squadron
• Chapter 44: The MiG-29 Threat
• Chapter 45: An Overwhelming Advantage
• Chapter 48: The Prime Minister's Office
• Chapter 51: A Special Bombing
• Chapter 52: Diplomatic Blackmail
• Chapter 54: Television-Guided Bomb
• Chapter 56: The Prime Minister's Reprisal
• Chapter 60: The Electronic Jammer
• Chapter 61: A Tangled Picture
• Chapter 65: The Accumulation of Errors
• Chapter 66: A Regrettable Outcome
• Chapter 67: Another Operation
• Chapter 68: The War God's Plan
• Chapter 69: Plan Before You Move
• Chapter 71: Repeated Attacks
• Chapter 72: The Silent Front
• Chapter 73: The Hidden Threat
• Chapter 77: Foes on a Narrow Road
• Chapter 78: In the Blink of an Eye
• Chapter 79: The Akash Missile Site
• Chapter 80: An Uncanny Attack
• Chapter 81: The Mountain Chase
• Chapter 83: Military Adventurism
• Chapter 85: The Irreversible Course of War
• Chapter 87: The Lurking Submarine
• Chapter 88: The Powers in Play