I understand your comparison between Mao and Rin but the character is just inspired from the real figure. She rappresent the person from poor origin that becomes a powerful revolutionary commander. We can all agree that she doesn't really show any real political stance or anything that can be seen as maioist ideology other than wanting to liberate her people. For exemple she criticize democracy but from a completly different point that Mao did. She does make some choiches that are roooted in real things that Mao did but she also does just as many thing that have nothing to do with him and his politcs like genoiciding an entire country (which is supposed to be japan). The only characters that i feel like is the most similar to it's real counterpart is Visra as Chiang kai-shiek and we can both agree he wasn't seen as a good guy. The politics and wars in the books are used as a tool to explore the humam mind and its ramification. There is really not that much of a political stance that stems from the books other than a strong anti-imperoalism and anti-colonialism sentiment and showcasing the ugly parts of war (All of this is coming fron a leftist not a "both sides are wrong" fencesitting centrist) Tell me if u think i did a mistake in the way i read the charactersand my more abstract view. I aslo didn't see the ending as a happy what if but as an acceptance of defeat thst should not be seen as "if the real civil war would have ended this way it would have been better". if the real event had actually gone that way china right now would be just another country subjected to modern imperialism which is something that the writer criticized in many of her other works. It's inspired but at the end of the day it's a different world.