The Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian): Wonders of the Orient

Chapter 15: Just Hanging in There


With the Indian threat now over, most of China's cities reverted to peaceful cultural development, but defense minister Zhu De insisted that the military recover to its full strength first. "The Indians attacked us because we appeared weak to them," he argued. "We must keep a permanent force on patrol at our southern border or else they will be back." He had a good point. If China's best defenders--pikemen at the moment--could be deployed along the entire border, they would serve as a powerful deterrent to any future attacks that could possibly come from that direction.

The Chinese embassy in Delhi reopened, and the returning staff noticed that work on the Hanging Gardens had already made some progress. They submitted a report back to Beijing, which showed the following:



Delhi had grown tremendously and was now more populous than Beijing. Furthermore, the city's productivity had increased significantly, though still slightly lagging behind that of Beijing and Shanghai. We must work quickly, thought Mao, or else the Hanging Gardens will belong to India.

Science advisor Deng Xiaoping was exactly who Mao wanted to see on this particular day in 1000 AD. He had finally returned with a working version of the longbow, which, although too late to be useful in the war, nevertheless impressed Mao with its speed and accuracy of firing arrows.


The city of Shanghai, which until then was pretending to build a palace, could now work on the next Great Wonder, Leonardo's Workshop.

Mao wanted to have monarchy researched next so that the Hanging Gardens could build, but Deng didn't like that idea. "Remember that we have the Great Library right here in the capital," he reminded Mao. "Why not wait for the Japanese to discover monarchy independently, so our library can acquite it for free?"

Mao was skeptical and wanted to question Deng further about the subject, but the science advisor seemed fascinated by some other idea. He was observing a New Year's celebration in the street, where small children were lighting the fuses on firecrackers which noisily exploded in the air. "So much power in such tiny little packets," he murmured as he wandered outside.

Shortly thereafter, in 1050 AD, Beijing completed the official version of Sun Tzu's Art of War. Copies were distributed to every city on the continent, and it became required reading for all new military recruits. From this point forward, every soldier trained in a Chinese city would be a veteran.


Sun Tzu's Art of War also caused quite a stir in India. The embassy submitted two reports that year, with some very interesting revelations. Delhi had completely abandoned construction of the Hanging Gardens; that task had been relocarted to Calcutta, where it was 10 turns from completion.




That 10 turns was all the time that was left for the Great Library to acquire a book on monarchy from abroad, but for many years no such item appeared. Instead, Mao found out that the Japanese had spent all this time researching feudalism, and he had waited in vain.

Left with no other choice, Mao decided he would have to trade with Gandhi or risk losing the Great Wonder. The Mahatma seemed reluctant at first, but eventually he was convinced that the republican form of government was indeed very effective and worth just as much.


Gandhi didn't know that China had been preparing for the Hanging Gardens long before this trade, and even Mao had underestimated Shanghai's production output over this period. In the end, changing projects to the Hanging Gardens actually wasted quite a lot of work that the citizens of Shanghai had done, but with Gandhi's project in Calcutta nearing completion, there was no other choice.


At last, in the year 1100 AD, the final wonder of the ancient era was built.


Not long afterward, Mao was shocked to hear of an uprising in the Indian city of Karachi. At first he thought the Indians were undergoing another violent revolution, but the governor of Nanjing reported that Indian citizens had contacted him, declaring their allegiance to the great nation of China. Simply put, they were ardent admirers of Chinese culture--so much that they would rather be Chinese than Indian.

Karachi was a rather large city, nearly half a million souls strong. The news caught Mao wholly by surprise, as he had never expected a foreign people with whom he had just fought a hundred-year-long war would feel such strong loyalty to his country. But ultimately, he felt that he could not accept them into Chinese society.


We are the Chinese people, thought Mao. We do not need to rely on the help from some foreign admirers to support our work. We are the wonder-builders, and we will prevail through our own effort.

Great update, maybe India will switch to Republic and become more peaceful.

wait did you raze the city

No, its still a Indian city.

stocktracker said:

Great update, maybe India will switch to Republic and become more peaceful.

Click to expand...

You could only hope.

Nice update.

IronMan2055 said:

wait did you raze the city

Click to expand...

If you remember, I wrote in the introduction that I am not allowed to take any rival cities, even if it's a culture flip, until all wonders are built.

If I were playing for a quick win, sure, I'd take a free city any day.

And, as a matter of fact, Gandhi switched to republic immediately after I traded it to him. Let's hope he stays that way.

you should write a story of that, how a single regiment slaughtered half a million poor souls the tragedy of Karachi

IronMan2055 said:

you should write a story of that, how a single regiment slaughtered half a million poor souls the tragedy of Karachi

Click to expand...

Uhm, I don't think I ever said anything about destroying Karachi. I simply rejected their offer. India keeps the city.

If you want me to start slaughtering massive numbers of civilians, you might want to check this thread again in a few more weeks.

Chapter 16: A Fisherman's Chance


"I have good news and bad news for you," announced Deng Xiaoping one day. "Which would you like to hear first?"

"The good news," said Mao. He was in a cheerful mood at the time, relaxing and enjoying the fair weather in the Hanging Gardens of Shanghai. There was some noise from the ongoing construction of Leonardo's Workshop, but that did not seem to bother him the slightest bit.

"The good news is that we have finally arrived at the perfect formula for gunpowder," said Deng. "And as a result of this work, our scientists have discovered that the world is far more complex than just a matter of fire, water, earth, and air. I believe we are on the verge of making a new breakthrough in a formal science called chemistry."


With that, the science advisor produced a long metal tube, inserted a small white pellet into it, and pointed it at a small rat that had been crawling in the bushes. Mao heard a sudden BAM! and the next instant, the animal was frozen in time, motionless.

"A perfect shot," he congratulated Deng. "How did you do it?"

"I just aimed and fired," shrugged Deng. "It wasn't a very difficult shot, at such a short distance. All I needed was a a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter. Which brings me to the bad news. I have looked around all of China, and not a single respectable deposit of saltpeter is to be found anywhere."

"Where did you get that, the little bit you just used?" asked Mao.

"It was smuggled in from India. One of our staff at the embassy in Delhi noticed a few deposits in the southern regions. Here, it's marked on this map."


Mao snapped his fingers. "Just out of our reach," he grumbled. "Well, we'll have to see what price Gandhi expects to sell this saltpeter to us."

"No, no!" Deng panicked. "The Indians don't even recognize what saltpeter is. The only way they will ever be able to identify it is if you teach them the secret of gunpowder, and that is clearly not in our best interest."

"Ahh yes... why did I not think of that." Mao looked at the map for a moment, then asked, "Do you know if the Japanese have saltpeter as well?"

Deng nodded. "Our seamen have reported seeing saltpeter deposits in the desert by Osaka. If we let this war drag on for too long, the Japanese may one day use this new weapon against us."


"Interesting," said Mao. "It seems like it would be a good time to bring this war to a close then." With that, he summoned Commander Zhu and gave him some new orders to carry out.

By 1220 AD, Japanese fishermen from the island city of Sapporo noticed Chinese galleys prowling the waters around their harbor. Unwilling to risk their lives in their daily activities, they refused to go out to sea, causing a food crisis in the city. Tokugawa cursed and swore, but Japan's navy had no ships fit for the cause of driving out the Chinese.

Then one day, the unthinkable happened. Chinese pikemen landed on the mountains outside Sapporo and camped there, taunting the city defenders day and night to come out and fight. Tokugawa ignored them at first, mainly because he lacked the manpower for an effective attack, but over time the citizens began to complain, and many began to wonder why the war was still going on. He ordered one last desperate attempt to break through the Chinese blockade in the Taiwan Strait, but was easily defeated.


Finally Shogun Tokugawa gave up. With further attacks on Kaohsiung impossible, and with all his attempts to break the Chinese blockade ending in miserable failure, he had lost all hope of victory. The garrison of Sapporo raised a white flag.


The Treaty of Sapporo, signed in 1230 AD, put an end to the second Sino-Japanese war. Chinese troops withdrew from Japanese territory, and trade relations were reestablished at last. Japan in particular had made very little progress during this time. On the other hand, Chinese citizens who had gotten used to the luxury silks and incense imported from Japan were now clamoring for them to return to the markets, and a few basic technologies would not be a high price to pay for them.

Chinese casualties: 1 galley, 2 spearmen, 1 swordsman
Japanese casualties: 5 galleys, 2 spearmen, 4 archers, 3 swordsmen


Mao was originally wary of another deal with the Japanese, but economic advisor Liu Shaoqi had suggested offering a commodity as part of the trade to deter them from breaking another agreement. "If they decide to stop sending us incense and silks, we will immediately cut them off from our horses," he explained.

Mao agreed, and as the leader of the Republic, he felt that it was his duty to do anything that improved the lives of the Chinese people would be. With Liu's help, he arranged another trade for a third luxury good to be delivered to Chinese marketplaces. In time, exotic spices brought Chinese cuisine to the global spotlight. Even Mahatma Gandhi's amazing vegetarian curry was put to shame.


Chairman Mao's approval rating surged from a mediocre 65% to an incredible figure of 98%. Many cities were in open celebration. Corruption and waste fell sharply, and China entered a new age of prosperity and advancement.

Chinese scientists who had been researching the uses of saltpeter in gunpowder soon found other uses for it as well, and soon they developed a formal practice of experimentation with different substances and how they reacted. Advisor Deng pointed out that there were new technologies unlocked by advances in chemistry, and Mao granted him generous funding for his work.


As if commemorating the many inventions Chinese scientists were making at this time, another Great Wonder was finally completed. The Leonardo's Workshop, built in Shanghai in 1295 AD, would ensure that the Chinese people would have little difficulty keeping all their tools and equipment up to date for ages to come.

Good story and looking for more.

Giving India and Japan things that they can't live without of is a good way to keep them on your side. At this time, the only thing you need to worry about is the Indians declaring war against you.

Chapter 17: The Scripture Collection of the Great Library


Mao was surprised to see science advisor Deng enter his office one day, accompanied by two attendants who carried in a huge crate of books. Deng had just recently begun supervising the new research on metallurgy; surely he could not have finished so quickly. And judging by the titles and pictures he noticed on their covers, they obviously had nothing to do with metals.

"What are these books that you have brought me?" he asked.

Deng smiled. Picking up a book from the crate, he read aloud:


Mao pondered the meaning of this for a moment, while Deng went on. "I got these from the Great Library," he said. "The librarian told me that they were just donated by a monk named Xuanzang, who has returned from seventeen years of traveling the world. This crate contains the Tipitaka, a collection of all of the sacred Buddhist texts he has acquired during his journey."


"I was told that Master Xuanzang had a curious request," continued Deng. "He suggests that we build cathedrals, great houses of worship where monks and priests can listen to the pain and anguish of our citizens and lift them out of their suffering."

"An excellent idea," said Mao. With that, construction of cathedrals began in most cities.

Mahatma Gandhi heard news of the spread of monotheism to China and was surprised to learn that the Chinese neither had time to research the idea nor bothered to buy or trade it with the Indians. It must be the other civilization that Mao knows of, he thought to himself. The Japanese. The very thought of this greatly annoyed the Mahatma, and one day he decided he would have it no other way. He would demand contact with Japan from China, and perhaps apply some "pressure" if necessary.


It was the first time India had presented such an ultimatum to the Chinese, and although Mao had already experienced the result of rejecting the Japanese twice, he was still curious as to how Gandhi would behave.

"An interesting request," he said at last, "but why didn't you bring anything to trade? I have been waiting for that bowl of vegetarian curry you had promised just before declaring war on us."

Gandhi glared at him, but made no sound.

Hearing no response, Mao politely asked the Indian leader to leave. "Come back with a fair trade, and I will consider it," he said, motioning toward the door.

Gandhi was escorted all the way back to the Indian border, whereupon he immediately turned around and shook his fist in a threatening manner. "I would grind your civilization to dust--"

But he suddenly broke off at this point. Something caught his eye. He looked around and saw a long line of disciplined, battle-ready Chinese pikemen standing alert for any possible assault. It was the Chinese border guard, deployed in the years since the Hundred Years' War. They are much too strong for us to handle now, he moaned to himself. Embarrassed, he quickly hurried off back to the Indian capital.


In Delhi he was greeted by the surprising news that Indian priests had made tremendous advances in their study of religion. Questions of faith were answered in a manner that was scholarly and academic, in a new formalism they called theology. With this new discovery, he swore he would beat the Chinese to the next Great Wonder, the Sistine Chapel.


Hearing of this, the Chinese embassy in Delhi took stock of the situation, and reported it to Mao:



Minister Liu was somewhat amused by the description. "Gandhi is quite inept with his planning," he remarked. "Just look at Delhi. The granaries are completely packed full of surplus food, but he still keeps his citizens working in the fields to harvest more. Why doesn't he move some workers to the mines?"

"Don't give him any ideas," said Mao. "The governor of Beijing told me that it would take us about 29 turns to do the same kind of work. We have to acquire theological books soon, or else this may be our downfall." He looked out the window, just in time to see minister Deng coming up the walkway, with several men pushing a mysterious wheeled device behind him.

"It is a cannon," he said. "You put gunpowder inside, light the fuse, and it will explode and launch deadly fire at the enemy."


"Care to demonstrate?" asked Mao.

"Certainly." Deng got a match from his pocket, lit the fuse, and watched as the device heated up and made some crackling noises. Then, with a sudden BOOM! it rolled back on its wheels spewed out a terrifying mixture of powder, fire, and shrapnel. Mao watched in horror as the cannon fire blew a gaping hole in the Great Wall of China.

"You idiot! Look what you have just done!" Mao shouted at Deng. "Now the barbarians will overrun us!"

"Uhm," stuttered Deng. "I think we wiped out the last barbarians more than a thousand years ago."

"I don't care, you've just ruined one of our Great Wonders! Take that stupid thing away!" But then Mao realized that Deng had a good point, so he mellowed down a little, and gave his science advisor a new task.

"Check the Great Library again," he ordered Deng. "I believe there is something new that we can learn."

"Yes, sir." Deng saluted him and left.

He was not gone for long. Mao had scarcely begun to plan out the next five years of work when Deng returned, with the Great Library's most well written texts on religion, philosophy, and theology.


The new knowledge of theology made the people unwilling to trust the unreliable divinations of the priests at the Oracle, preferring to listened to reasoned arguments based on sound logic rather than some strange marks on a stone tablet.

Mao didn't care much about that, though. Most cities already had cathedrals built in them, and few people visited the ancient temples anymore. "Excellent," said Mao. "We will begin working on the Sistine Chapel immediately."

Deng had something else to say, however. "Some of the books I found at the Library were written in Japanese," he said. "I think this means that it will not be just India in this wonder race with us from now on."

He was right. News soon spread to Mao that the Japanese were working on the Sistine Chapel as well.


This time Mao was interested in what was going on, and he dispatched a diplomatic mission to Kyoto to open an embassy. They reported the situation in the Japanese capital:



"Fools," said Minister Liu. "These foreigners never learn the most basic management and economics principles. The Sistine Chapel will be ours for sure."

I guess you are lucky that the Indians are with you on your continent instead of the Japanese!

You're gonna have to fight for that saltpeter, though...

stocktracker said:

I guess you are lucky that the Indians are with you on your continent instead of the Japanese!

Click to expand...

That's a tough call. The Japanese have four luxuries and more territory than me solely because they have a whole continent to themselves. If India were on that continent instead, I think they'd become quite a lot more powerful as well. Arguably, Tokugawa is somewhat more aggressive than Gandhi, but I would be dealing with a somewhat weaker Tokugawa if he were on the same continent as me.

conquer_dude said:

You're gonna have to fight for that saltpeter, though...

Click to expand...

Highly doubtful. Remember, no attacking foreign cities until all wonders are built. By then saltpeter-based units would be rather obsolete.

The only possibility of "fighting" for saltpeter is after Japan and India both discover gunpowder, and either one happens to lose the resource, forcing me to "fight" with another civ over possibly trading it. But if that were the case, maybe saltpeter would pop up somewhere in my territory

Chapter 18: Nobunaga's Successor


It was not until 1370 AD that Shogun Tokugawa dared send another diplomatic mission to Beijing. Oda Nobunaga had been so thoroughly shamed by the Chinese that nobody was willing to take over his position for many years. Tokugawa had grumbled and cursed all this time, rejecting an inept courtier every now and then, until he finally found someone that satisfied him.

This man, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, was not nearly as commanding a figure as Nobunaga, but nevertheless displayed nothing short of Nobunaga's attitude. He was fierce and combative but also demonstrated a certain amount of tact in his communications. And thus, his first task in Tokugawa's service was to continue Nobunaga's previous efforts:


Chairman Mao could only snicker when hearing of this foolish demand for the third time. He had long been prepared for this possibility, and at once asked the Indian worker, Ganesh Gupta, to report to service.

Hideyoshi had, however, learned something from Nobunaga's failures. As soon as Mao asked for Ganesh to be brought in, he knew that there was no hope of forcing the Chinese to comply. Frustrated, he made one final taunting remark before departing:


Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai burst into laughter as soon as Hideyoshi left. "That Hideyoshi is not much more than a monkey-man himself," he remarked. "What does he think he is, calling us barbarians?"

Mao laughed as well, but he regained his composure quickly. "One day we will have him eat his own words," said the Chairman. "But let's not bother with the Japanese for now. They are not worth our time, when we still have Great Wonders to work on."

Science advisor Deng Xiaoping joined in the conversation at this point. "I agree, Hideyoshi thinks far too highly of himself," he commented. "But you have to give the man some credit. Look what I found in the Great Library today."

Mao turned to him, and Deng held out a scroll with some Japanese writing on them. "These are the Precepts of Kato Kiyomasa," said Deng. "They were written by a lord in the service of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and they describe the rigorous bushido code to which his samurai warriors adhere."


Mao glanced at the scroll a few times, mostly looking at the drawings that accompanied the text. "Impressive," he concluded. "We shall train our horse riders in that same manner."

Minister Deng, however, had an even greater surprise for Mao. "Actually, I think we are a bit more advanced than that," he announced, beaming. "I've been exploring a concept even more powerful than chivalry, and it is called military tradition."


Mao's eyes lit up, but Deng suddenly shook his head and sighed. "There is one restriction, though," said the science advisor. "We cannot recruit cavalry if we cannot equip them with their guns, and we cannot give them guns until we have saltpeter."

"Drat," said Mao. "Oh well, at least I don't need to cancel my orders for training riders then."

While Deng had been busy with research on military tradition, Mahatma Gandhi had gone in the other direction. Mao soon learned that the Indians had developed a formal, compulsory education system, and their scholars and scientists had become far more influential.

Mao decided there was no way to let the Indians gain any advantage in the scientific realm, and thus he arranged for a trade. He was surprised to hear that the Indian iron mines near Chittagong had been exhausted, and now Gandhi wanted some Chinese iron to replenish his supply, as well as some knowledge of the practice of engineering.


It was a difficult choice for Mao, as the new education system made the Great Library obsolete, but he was afraid that Gandhi may have gotten a head start in researching astronomy. But now he was free to dedicate a great deal of new funds to astronomy research, as well as begin the construction of universities around the country.

The city of Shanghai, however, was given a special task. Minister Deng had noticed that the discovery of astronomy would allow for a new Great Wonder, Copernicus's Observatory. And so, like the previous case with preparing to build the Hanging Gardens before knowing of monarchy, Mao had Shanghai begin gathering resources to build a palace, even though the ultimate goal would in fact be the Observatory.

When Deng Xiaoping finally returned with research on astronomy complete, he brought back two pieces of news. The first was that he intended to research navigation next, as Chinese astronomers were studying ways that the positions of the stars could guide ships sailing the open seas. This could open up a new possible Great Wonder, Magellan's Voyage.


But the second one, though somewhat startling, was not much of a surprise to Mao, who had long expected the Indians to be following the same path. Shanghai's project was immediately converted to Copernicus's Observatory, expecting a comfortable lead in production over their Indian rivals.


A new contest, thought Mao. This could become very interesting.

It seems like you have a good technology advantage over the other two civs if you have Military Tradition and they don't have Engineering.

I guess India and Japan took forever to get some of the techs to get the Great Library to expire.

stocktracker said:

It seems like you have a good technology advantage over the other two civs if you have Military Tradition and they don't have Engineering.

Click to expand...

That's probably going to end pretty soon. India has astronomy now and will probably make contact with Japan in a few turns, once they upgrade galleys to caravels. As soon as they start trading techs, this game is going to get a lot more difficult.

At least you can get the wonders such as Theory of Evolution, and Copernicus' Observatory to help you out with science.

If you can stop the Indians from getting it first.