General Huang Lin Bao

There is something... calming, while watching a burning flame. Don't you agree?

*Hello general. Welcome to my fortress. As you can see, this is hell on earth. Only the brave or the bold can endure such environments. I guess we will find out which one you are, very soon...*

## Introduction

**Huang Lin Bao** (黄林豹, Huáng Lín Bào, lit. "黄" is his last name, "林豹" is his first name, means "Leopard in the Forest") is a Chinese general specialized in incendiary weapons in Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour: Contra. His super unit is the Zhu Rong. His main technologies are thermobaric mixtures, fire control systems, heat vortex generators, satellite weaponry and heat-resistant Armory.

## History

Bao was born in an isolated village near the Datong volcano site. His family was part of an ancient local cult devoted to Zhu Rong, the God of Fire, many of his ancestors were even the cult leaders. For thousands of years, the cult used to sacrifice human beings by throwing them into the volcano to "appease" their god and "get his favors", although it was believed that the Datong volcanoes were officially inactive for 100 000 years. In spite of the cult's questionable ethics, the village's isolation from the rest of China kept it safe from the imperial authorities who didn't bother to interfere. The cult lasted until the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949 when Mao Zedong took over, resulting in a political cleansing of the Chinese territory. The cult was then abandoned under the threat of a penalty of death.

Bao's great grandfather was the last cult leader and was sentenced to death for having opposed the communist government's demands, along with seven other members, thus definitely putting an end to the cult. Still, some traces of the cult remained deeply in the village inhabitants' spirit, especially in Bao's. He discovered his twisted passion for fire during early childhood when he burned ants with matches or made the sun a lethal weapon with the use of a magnifying glass at the age of 5. As he grew up, he was an utterly unruly student, dangerously experimenting with fire in chemistry classes, playing games in which his schoolmates were literally risking their skin or doing pranks involving fire to his teachers. Everyone at school was so scared of him that the headmaster expelled him when he was 16.

Bao's parents couldn't take his behavior anymore and sent him to the army in hopes that he would get more discipline. And so started his military career. After two years in the army - where he earned more self-discipline (although it hasn't been easy for him at the beginning and even harder for the drill sergeants) - He attended the PLA's National Defense University at Beijing. Leiong Leang was also part of his promotion, it was even rumored that they were secretly dating, there was no proof to these rumors however.

There he studied the art of war and the effectiveness of incendiary weapons, his favorite subject. Three years later he elaborated interesting theories about incendiary weapons and how to make them more powerful and effective - his religious knowledge from the ancestral Cult of Zhu Rong also contributed to his work - and even started giving conferences about his theories. That attracted the attention of the Chinese military leaders who immediately offered him a good place in the army in exchange of his contribution to the improvement of the Chinese military power. He became a Triple A general at the age of 21.

He grew into a little more mentally stable man and met a woman whom he married six months later. Although he had the reputation of being like a volcano (calm on the outside and boiling with rage on the inside) he lived a happy life with his beloved and beloving wife, until the GLA War started in 2013. During a military parade in Beijing, GLA terrorists began their attack with suicide explosives, killing hundreds of civilians and soldiers and injuring many more. Bao was attending the parade and his wife was among the civilians. When the first GLA waves stroke, Bao desperately looked for his wife in the confusion. He eventually succeeded in finding her and tried to take her to safety but a truck exploded near them. The explosion instantly killed Bao's wife and burned his left hand to the third degree. The loss of his wife was more painful to him than his injury, to the point where he went berserk, got in the first unoccupied Dragon Tank he could find and burned down every GLA fighter on his way, it took hours to his superiors to finally calm him down.

Since then, he swore to never find rest until the GLA is completely eradicated from the surface of the Earth. Eventually, the GLA was defeated by the American and Chinese coalition and the world knew a decade of peace. In this period of peace, Bao was entrusted the responsibility of a newly-founded Flame division thanks to his contribution to the Chinese incendiary weaponry and moved his base into the Datong's largest volcano crater, the "only place where he feels at home", where he secretly experimented new weapons. In 2023, the GLA resurfaced and declared war to the USA and China once again. But this time, Bao was prepared to obliterate them with his newest creations: the Zhu Rong, an artillery tank that can shoot magma, and the Atmospheric Lens, a gigantic magnifying glass sent into space to turn the sunlight into a lethal weapon.

## Arsenal

### Infantry

* **Flamethrower** - Basic infantry, replaces Red Guard.
* **Tank Hunter** - Anti-armor infantry.
* **ECM Trooper** - Support infantry, disables enemy vehicles.
* **Field Engineer** - Support infantry, immune to toxins and radiation, cleans environmental hazards, detects and detonates mines.
* **Hacker** - Support infantry, generates cash.
* **Black Lotus** - Hero unit, can capture enemy buildings, disable enemy vehicles and steal cash.

### Vehicles

* **Dozer** - Builds structures.
* **Supply Truck** - Gathers resources.
* **Fuel Truck** - Spills fuel on command, which can be ignited with fire weapons.
* **Battlemaster** - Main battle tank, effective against armor and buildings.
* **Vortex Tank** - Anti-air & anti-infantry.
* **Heavy Dragon Tank** - Anti-infantry & anti-structure, clears garrisons.
* **Immolator** - Overlord based tank, armed with dual flamethrowers, can be upgraded with various add-ons.
* **Howitzer** - Artillery unit.
* **ECM Tank** - Disables enemy vehicles and jams enemy missiles.
* **Propaganda** **Troop Crawler** - Transport, equipped with a speaker tower.
* **Troop Crawler** - Standard Chinese APC.
* **Listening Outpost** - Stealth detector, has long visual range.
* **A-100 MLRS** - Heavy artillery, fires volleys of napalm rockets.
* **Dong Feng 9000** - Mobile super weapon, fires an incendiary Dong Feng missile that detonates up in the sky, resulting in a devastating rain of fire.
* **Zhu Rong** - Super unit, heavy thermobaric siege mortar, can be upgraded with various add-ons.

### Aircraft

* **MiG MFI** - Strike fighter, fires napalm missiles that are effective against ground units.
* **MiG-31 Interceptor** - Interceptor.
* **Ka-29 Helix** - Heavy support helicopter, can be upgraded with various add-ons.

### Structures

* **Command Center**—Builds dozers, commands generals powers, and provides radar when upgrades.
* **Nuclear Reactor** - Generates power.
* **Barracks** - Trains infantry.
* **War Factory** - Builds and repair vehicles.
* **Supply Center** - Builds supply trucks and store resources
* **Airfield** - Builds, rearm and repair aircrafts.
* **Internet Center** - Provides shelter for four hackers, researches Satellite Hack.
* **Propaganda Center** - Technology building, researches upgrades. Unlocks many units and structures.
* **Speaker Tower** - Support structure. Gives firepower bonus to surrounding units and heals them.
* **Vortex Cannon** - Anti-infantry & anti-air defense.
* **Flamethrower Turret** - Anti-surfaces defensive structure, stealthed when not firing.
* **Bunker** - Defensive structure, allows infantry to fire from within.
* **Fuel Tube** - Defensive structure, stealthed. Spills fuel around which can be ignited by flame weapons.
* **Scientific Laboratory** - Houses the Atmospheric Lens, General Bao's super weapon.

### Upgrades

* **Capture Buildings** - Allows Flamethrowers to capture enemy and neutral structures.
* **Radar** - Activate the mini map.
* **Pneumocushion** - Dozers become amphibious.
* **Land Mines** - Individual upgrade, surrounds the structure with mines.
* **Thermite Shells** - Increases anti-tank weapon damage by 20%.
* **Nationalism** - Increases horde bonus effect by 25%.
* **Black Napalm** - Increases flame weapon damage by 25%, all flame units of General Bao have this upgrade by default.
* **Flame Combustion** - Allows Howitzers to create firestorms and unlocks Firewall ability for Dragon Tanks and Immolators.
* **Aircraft Armor** - +25% armor to planes and helicopters.
* **Improved ECM Technology** - Allows ECM devices to disable buildings and multiple units at once.
* **Subliminal Messaging** - Increases propaganda firepower bonus and heal rate.
* **Thermobaric Warheads** - Gives significant damage bonus to all incendiary shells and missiles.
* **Satellite Hack 1** - Reveals the location of the enemy's command center.
* **Satellite Hack 2** - Allows the player to periodically reveal all enemy activities across the map.
* **Turbulence** - Allow four or more Vortex cannons to create turbulence zones in the air, increasing damage to aircraft by 25%.
* **Reactive Shells** - Increases Howitzer's range.
* **Nuclear Tanks** - Increase the speed of tanks by 25%.

### General's Powers

* Rank 1
	+ **Flame Unit Training** - Flamethrowers, Dragon Tanks, Vortex Tanks, A-100s, Immolators, Howitzers and MiGs will all be trained as veterans.
	+ **Hacker School** - All hackers and Black Lotus trained as veterans.
	+ **Emergency Repair Level 1** - Heals friendly vehicles on the battlefield. (requires rank 2)
* Rank 3
	+ **Spill Fuel Level 1-3** - Saturates an area with fuel by aircraft. Fuel can be ignited by fire weapons to create a firestorm.
		- Level 1: 3 spills.
		- Level 2: 6 spills.
		- Level 3: 9 spills.
	+ **Emergency Repair Level 2-3** - Heals friendly vehicles on the battlefield.
	+ **Frenzy Level 1-3** - Causes affected units to deal increased damage over a short period of time.
		- Level 1: 25% for 30 seconds.
		- Level 2: 50% for 45 seconds.
		- Level 3: 100% for 1 minute.
	+ **Artillery Barrage** Level 1-3 - Bombard enemy positions with incendiary artillery shells.
		- Level 1: 12 shells.
		- Level 2: 24 shells.
		- Level 3: 36 shells.
* Rank 5
	+ **Fire Shaft** - Unlock the Zhu Rong's fire shaft ability.
	+ **Volume Detonation Bomb** - Sends a Hong-6 bomber to drop off a high explosive Volume detonation bomb. Can ignite fuel.
	+ **Magnetic Bomb** - Sends a Hong-6 bomber to drop off a magnetic bomb. Affects an area which disables enemy vehicles and deflect missiles. Unlocks Black Lotus's magnetic field ability.

## Strengths and Advantages

* He has three types of incendiary weapons (their conclusion can be found in the trivia section), allowing him to take on virtually every type of threat.
* Most of his weapons are capable of dealing splash damage, allowing him to quickly wreck havoc in enemy bases or troop concentrations.
* His Scientific Laboratory is a powerful super weapon and is almost guaranteed to destroy it's first target.
* His super unit is a power artillery which can be equipped with various modules.

## Weaknesses and Disadvantages

* Somewhat average in early game, as most of his damage improving upgrades are only available at Rank 3 onwards.
* He only has 4 types of combat infantry.

## Trivia

* Bao's portrait is based upon the Chinese commander featured in one of the *Command & Conquer: Generals* promotional posters.
* Prior to Patch 2 of Contra 009 FINAL, General Bao only had access to one level of the Spill Fuel power and instead had access to three levels of Tank Drop powers, where he could request airdrops of Battlemaster Tanks, Vortex Tanks and Dragon Tanks.
* One of General Bao's lines is a reference to how Icarus, the son of Daedalus, died flying too close to the sun as the wax from his wings melted, causing him to fall to his death.
* Overall, his incendiary weapons can be concluded as below:
	+ Napalm: An incendiary mixture of a gelling agent and a volatile petrochemical. (Anti-Infantry)
	+ Thermite: A pyrotechnic composition of metal powder and metal oxide. When ignited by heat, thermite undergoes an exothermic reduction-oxidation (redox) reaction. (Anti-Vehicle)
	+ Thermobaric mixtures: A type of explosive that uses oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion. (Anti-Structure)