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

Chapter 26: Gandhi's Smoky Factories and Tokugawa's Stinky Toilet


"He just won't give up," said foreign minister Zhou Enlai. "For some reason he keeps thinking he can stay ahead of us, even if he has absolutely no chance of success." Zhou was talking about the latest news dispatch from Delhi, where Mahatma Gandhi had just started yet another project that was doomed to failure.


"Very persevering," said Mao. "I would really admire him if he got anything done."

"Oh, but he has," interrupted science advisor Deng Xiaoping. "In fact, it seems like they're another step ahead of us in technology. Gandhi has discovered industrialization."

"Wait a second," said Mao, surprised. "Weren't we the ones that taught steam power to the Indians?"

"That was ages ago," answered Deng. "They've simply gone a different direction from us. It won't be a problem, I'm sure we can arrange for a trade with our new study of medicine."

But Gandhi didn't think very highly of Chinese medicine, and asked for some extra gold to make up for the difference.


"Gandhi has been making some money lately," said Minister Zhou. "I think he's been selling a lot of these technologies to Japan. We'll have to do that before he has a chance."

"Indeed," said Mao. As hospitals were built across China, the cities grew larger and the citizens had began demanding more luxury and entertainment. It was time to make another deal with the Japanese.


The Shogun was rather stingy, he only offered three of the four Japanese luxury goods in exchange for the new technology. And as Zhou was leaving Tokugawa's palace he thought he heard a faint snicker behind him. Turning, he looked for some kind of expression on Tokugawa's face, but by the Shogun had covered his mouth with his black top hat and pretended nothing had happened.

Japanese workmen had already gathered in the center of Kyoto awaiting orders as Zhou passed through the city toward the harbor. Clearly Tokugawa wanted a shot at this Great Wonder as well.


Mao wondered if Japan and India were actually serious about Universal Suffrage, so he asked his embassies about the possibility that they complete the wonder before China. He was still waiting for the Beijing Hospital to open, preferring to have a larger workforce available in the city when time to build the wonder came.


"Not a chance," said the ambassador in India.



"None here either," reported the ambassador in Kyoto.



And so the Beijing Hospital was completed, leaving the city free to grow and work on the new wonder.

It was in 1798 AD, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi showed up in Guangzhou, that Zhou Enlai realized what had made him feel uneasy about the trade with Japan. It was a strange sense of deja-vu, that a similar agreement like this had been made before... and broken.

Mao greeted the Japanese envoy. "Why hello," he said to Hideyoshi. "What brings you here today so suddenly?"

Hideyoshi coughed and spat on the ground. "The Shogun requests your assistance," he said. "His toilet has gotten clogged, and now the entire presedential palace totally reeks."

"Ahh," said Mao. "So you want to hire a Chinese plumber?" He then turned to Zhou and whispered, "Did Ganesh Gupta ever learn any plumbing skills?"

Zhou shook his head. "Don't send him on this one. I don't think it would be safe."

Hideyoshi noticed this but could not hear their conversation. But he did not hesistate to make his own point clear.

"Mao, the correct term would not be 'hire.' The Shogun demands that you hand over the secret of sanitation, or else feel his wrath."

"Wrath. Hahahahaha." Mao remembered the one time when Tokugawa had gone mad and could no longer make sense in his speech. "I believe your esteemed President Tokugawa will soon be feeling his citizens' wrath, as they will soon have to deal with the putrid smell all over Kyoto. They'll regret electing him to office!"

Toyotomi Hideyoshi had known that Mao was no friend of the Shogun, but this was the first time he had heard the Chairman insult the Japanese people. Furious, he stormed out and told Tokugawa of what happened.

"A thousand curses upon the house of Mao!" screamed Tokugawa. "Hideyoshi, ready the fleet. Show the Chinese that I am serious!"


"Well, so much for the luxury goods," mourned Mao. "What should we do now?"

"Mahatma Gandhi helped us a great deal the last time," suggested Zhou. "We might be able to seek him again."

Gandhi wasn't interested in an alliance this time, but when Mao put sanitation on the negotiation table, he was willing to offer something else. Mao listened carefully as the Indian leader explained that he would help only if Japan ever attacked China in any way, and if China would offer the same kind of assistance if India ever came under attack.

"This is called a mutual protection pact," said Gandhi. "I'm sure it is a fair deal for you."


Mao walked away from the meeting knowing that although there was no formal cooperation against a common enemy, India was still a firm ally of the Chinese.

It did not take long to check if India would honor the agreement. A Japanese frigate entered Chinese waters and bombarded the coast around Shanghai, with no visible results. But it was sufficient to be considered an aggressive action against China, and sure enough, Gandhi kept his promise and declared war.


Thus began the Stinky Toilet War, which brought the entire world into chaos once again.

Time to start upgrading them musketmen into riflemen (much better defense). Also hope you get Universal Sufferage before WW sets in.....

Hikaro Takayama said:

Time to start upgrading them musketmen into riflemen (much better defense).

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Yep, that'll be coming up next update. (Should be sometime this weekend.)

Hikaro Takayama said:

Also hope you get Universal Sufferage before WW sets in.....

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Universal Suffrage is due in 25 turns. I think that should be okay, since Japan declared on me, and not the other way around. And I'll be rather non-combative for most of the time.

India already had a GA, so shouldn't see another one this war. I don't know about Japan, but I could care less since Kyoto is so unproductive anyway. The only thing to worry about is if either one gets a great leader and moves it all the way back to the capital to rush the wonder, so I'll still have my fingers crossed.

Just dont do as much fighting and I think you get less WW right? Or am I wrong?

Well, at least in Conquests, under Democracy, even if you're fighting a defensive war, you can only hold off WW for maybe 30 turns (unless you have Universal Sufferage or Police Stations in every city) at most.... That's just one of the reasons that I alwasy pick communism in un-modded games; Democracy has NO unit support, and if you have more than 20 cities on a normal sized map, all of those (above 20) will be completely corrupt, thereby rendering your trade bounus useless (trade lost through corruption and unit support = less income than if you had Communism, with low corruption in all cities and massive unit support), and if you get into any kind of war (which on Regent and higher difficulty levels is inevitable), you're screwed, since it doesn't take much time at all before your entire civilization is rioting, or you're scientific research grinds to a halt because you have to use all of your income for supporting units and luxury spending... Whereas with Communism, all you have to do is keep chugging along as if everything was hunky-dory (high unit support + no WW + Ultra-low communal corruption + lotsa MP = Complete Pwnage)... Not to mention that Communism gets TWO FP.

Of course in my mods, I've modded them so that Democracy has Communal Corruption and some unit support as well as reduced WW, and I've given Fascism and Democracy their own FP type SW, as well, so that you actually have a real choice for which govt you want....

OK, I lied. I'll probably post my next update a bit earlier than expected.

And FYI, I'm still in republic. I seldom find democracy worthwhile to switch to, and I'm satisfied with the trade bonus from republic.

And remember, this is Vanilla. ONE Forbidden Palace no matter what government. Though I've been hoping to get C3C for a long time, maybe I'll have a chance soon.

Chapter 27: Shocking Discoveries


With the Stinky Toilet War raging around the world, Mao decided it was finally time to modernize the Chinese military. The Chinese navy was suffering crippling defeats on both coasts, as Japan was attacking with superior numbers of not only frigates, but also the newest in naval vessels, ironclads. It would only be a matter of time before Japanese troops would land on the mainland.

Fortunately, all cities in northern China were now linked by railroads, and it was very easy to bring the musketmen on border patrol back to their barracks for upgrades. Riflemen were much stronger defenders and were deployed in every city.


Meanwhile, an experiment at Newton's University in Shanghai reported some truly "shocking" results. Mao did not hear about this at first, because it was still unstable and difficult to control, but one night Minister Deng walked into his study and blew out the candle. Before the alarmed Chairman could respond, the science advisor pulled a metal switch on the apparatus he had brought, and instantly the room lit up ten times brighter than before.

"Whoa!" said Mao. "What is this curious device?"

"It is called a light bulb," replied Deng. "The latest invention by engineers at Newton's University."

Mao examined the glass tube that was emitting the light. "It is as if there is a fire burning inside that glass," he remarked. "Except I don't see any flames. All that's in there is a glowing metal coil."

"Exactly," said Deng. "We are moving an incredible form of energy through that coil, causing it to shine brightly. We call it electricity." Electricity. Mao didn't quite understand exactly what it meant, but he could tell this was the beginning of a new scientific revolution.


"There's a lot of information that I've not reported to you," continued Deng. "In particular, we've been using some Japanese prisoners-of-war, captured from our victories in the vicinity of Nanjing, as experimental subjects in our research. A number of them were asked to hold wires in their hands, or touch some metal surfaces, and often what we would observe was a zapping sound sudden scream of anguish, and they would immediately drop anything they were holding. Among those, a few dropped to the ground motionless, and by the time we checked, their hearts had stopped beating as well."

Mao's eyes lit up. "Incredible! Just as if they've been struck with lightning! Tell me, will we be able to use this on the battlefield?"

"Unfortunately, we are still working on ways to do that. It still seems too dangerous as of now."

"Well, keep up the good work," urged Mao.

But if electricity was powerful enough to kill a few prisoners of war, it was still not enough to shock and awe the enemy into submission. In fact, the Japanese continued to fight ferociously, and by 1810 AD Japanese troops had landed on Bangladesh and taken Chittagong once more.


This time Gandhi swore that he would not be outdone. Reinforcements were sent to Bengal, and by 1814 AD the city had reverted to Indian control.


In the meantime, citizens of Hangzhou and Shanghai found tremendous amounts of pollution and waste in the surrounding terrain, making work impossible and hampering the harvesting of food and resources. Hazardous chemicals spilled out from leaky pipes, acidic rain fell from the skies, and litter and trash were everywhere. Desperate, Mao dispatched several teams of engineers to clean up the mess.

He soon learned that this mess was nothing like the sanitation problems faced in the cities. Frustrated, he could only sigh as the workers estimated it would take several years to remove the pollution.


"It is the flip-side of industrialization," explained Deng. "There's always those accidents we can't control."

Mao sulked, eventually admitting that there was, after all, a price to pay for progress. But there were other things to worry about, and in particular, there was a war to be fought.

News from abroad indicated that the Indians had scored some decisive victories against Japan, in particular in the southern island regions. The Japanese city of Ise, which had fended off an Indian attack in the previous war, could not repeat that victory this time.


Gandhi seemed to have a particular grudge against the city of Toyama, which had revolted against the Indians many years ago, sending a horde of Indian war elephants plunging into the sea. This time, India would not take any chances, and Indian troops torched the buildings, destroying the city.


Mao was shocked to hear of this. "During all the years I've known Gandhi, I have never seen him do anything like this. And I thought he was a peaceful person."

"Clearly we have underestimated him," said foreign minister Zhou Enlai. "Be careful when dealing with him in the future."

Whether Gandhi had exposed a more sinister side of himself or not, it was not time to doubt China's only ally. A Japanese force had landed around Karachi and the Indians were unable to wipe them out immediately. One group samurai managed to defeat some Chinese riflemen guarding the border at Nanjing, but the next few Japanese units could not make it past the cavalry in the same location, and a Chinese counterattack soon cleared the region of enemy troops.


Despite all these developments in the war, the most important discovery of this time had absolutely nothing to do with military. In fact, it was made by a citizen of Beijing, who, after a long day of work in the mines, found his hands covered by a black, powdery substance. Curious, he dug a bit deeper, only to find more and more of it. He called for his supervisor, and together they reached the only possible conclusion: that this was a hidden deposit of coal, right outside of Beijing.


"Perfect!" said Mao triumphantly when the workers told him about the discovery. "We shall rely on Indian imports no more!"

Player's note: I think the RNG has just won the game for me. Iron works, here I come!

Sweet! In all the times I've played Civ III since it first came out in Dec, 2001, I've only gotten a city with both coal and iron in its radius twice, and neiter times was it my capitol.... (The RNG hates my guts... In the same time period, I've only gotten 4 MGL, none of which were in un-modded games).

Awesome, man! You seriously need to make this into a book. Put it in some kind of archive.

You also need to maybe launch a small attack large enough to capture on Japanese city on their mainland, and stack up with units there. That would also help you see more of whats going on over htere. Whenver they launch a big attack and units leave a city, bring a force over and attack that city.

Getting the coal and Japan losing a few cities really did help you out. You can't deny that luck has played a part in this game.

Iron Works in capital??? With Hoover's and full pop, that's a LOT of shields, with no corruption too!

Again, awesome storytelling

stocktracker said:

You can't deny that luck has played a part in this game.

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Definitely. Although I wouldn't be surprised at all if, having gotten this far, I could get the rest of the wonders without the iron works. The real problem is going to be getting the domination limit before time runs out.

Chapter 28: Half the Sky


Even though coal had already been found in the hills around Beijing, the city was still working on the next wonder, Universal Suffrage. But in the meantime, Shanghai had surpassed the capital in being the single most productive city in all of China. A factory had been built there, processing huge loads of raw materials and churning out the latest and greatest military equipment.

One day Mao decided to go around Shanghai for an inspection of its industrial facilities. He was greeted with cheers by the factory workers, some of whom had never before seen the Chairman in person. Mao shook their hands and praised them for their hard work.

But in the corner of one factory, he saw a familiar face. It was his science advisor, Deng Xiaoping, with a team of engineers from Newton's University. He seemed to be demonstrating a new device, but all that he referred to in his presentation was a drawing on a large poster board, only occasionally reaching into one of many boxes he had lying on the floor to get a small part of the device, which he would then show around.

"And so this piece is the muzzle," said Deng as he pointed out a large cylindrical part to the factory manager. "The artillery charge will be ejected from this end and with the proper orientation it can travel up to--oh hi Chairman, good to see you here today."

Mao greeted him. "What's with all these boxes here? Don't you have a working model of something to show me?"

"Oh, we have a few back at the university," replied Deng. "There's no point in bringing one in to demonstrate, it would probably blow a nice big hole in the factory roof. I'm only here to introduce a new method of manufacturing these artillery, using replaceable parts."


"You should've been here yesterday when I was showing these guys the new assault rifles we've developed," continued Deng as Mao examined the presentation board. "With your approval, we can get those mass produced outfit our military forces with them."

"Yes, do so immediately. And please bring our cannon batteries up to date with these new artillery devices too," added Mao.


The riflemen guarding the border with India were temporarily recalled to be given their new weapons, along with other equipment such as helmets and basic medical supplies.


"Oh, and before you leave," said Deng, "be sure to visit the new financial district in downtown Shanghai, along Wall Street. I heard from Minister Liu that the merchants of Smith's Trading Company and the heads of the five biggest national banks have collaborated to make it the single greatest marketplace in the world."

Sure enough, when Mao arrived, he heard the crackling noises of firecrackers and loud cheers from the crowd as a new building opened up to house the everyday business activities in the city.


The Stinky Toilet War was still raging at this time, and Japanese ironclads would still appear off Shanghai's coast from time to time, launching torpedoes that would sometimes disrupt shoreline travel. The Chinese navy had a hard time keeping them under control, as Tokugawa had learned from his previous defeats and put a new emphasis on sea power.

By 1824, Ise had been recaptured by the Japanese, and Indian troops had been expelled from that island. The tide had begun to turn against Gandhi.


Ten years later, a Chinese ironclad noticed Japanese vessels traveling southward on the west coast of Japan. The crew soon learned that Indian troops had been cleared out in the southwest as well, and the Japanese citizens could now safely rebuild their settlement at Toyama. All of the territory that had originally belonged to Japan was now recovered, and with exception of Kaohsiung, Shogun Tokugawa had reasserted his authority over the western half of the world.


But one day, Minister Deng walked into Mao's office with a copy of the Shanghai Evening News, dated October 2, 1836. The entire front page was covered by a story, complete with a picture of a sailing ship named the Beagle which had just docked at Shanghai. Clearly this had to be an incredible event, as no mention of the Stinky Toilet War was anywhere to be found.

Deng summarized the article for Mao. "Naturalist Charles Darwin has just returned from a journey of five years around the world," he said. "And he has some startling results to offer: samples of thousands of marine species, drawings of hundreds of different birds that have flourished on the islands, and most of all, a remarkably bright and inquisitive mind. He has also expressed an interest in joining the faculty of Newton's University, and I think it is in our best interest to invite him there. He says he also wants to write a book describing his findings, but first he wants to know if people are willing to believe his ideas."

Player's note: October 2, 1836 is the exact date in history that the HMS Beagle returned to Falmouth, England, with Darwin aboard. What a strange coincidence that scientific method was researched in 1836 AD in this game.

"What ideas?" asked Mao, curious.

"He has a theory he calls 'evolution' which he says should explain the great diversity of life in this world," answered Deng. "A lot of people, mostly religious leaders, have rejected this idea, but he has the backing of hard evidence and logical reasoning. Personally I think it makes perfect sense to me, and even if it all turns out to be false, it would still be worthwhile to have a talented scientist like him around."


"Excellent," said Mao. "Tell him that Newton's University will provide him with state-of-the art facilities, and that the entire city of Shanghai will be available to support his work."

By this time it was already more than 40 years into the Stinky Toilet War, with no sign of an end in sight. Mao was concerned that the Chinese people would soon grow unhappy as a result, but in 1840 AD he finally got some reassurance.


"Women hold up half the sky," declared Mao on that fateful day. "And they shall hold up half of this great nation as well."

He had been most concerned that women were opposed to the war, as some of them had lost husbands who were crewmen in the Chinese navy. But a popular referendum that year, with a majority of women voting at the polls, showed an overwhelming approval of the way the Chairman was handling the war, far exceeding Mao's own expectations. With this support, he was sure he could continue fighting toward ultimate victory.

And what did Mahatma Gandhi get out of this in a meantime? "A factory," said the ambassador in Delhi.

That's where you seriously need to start conquering, I would actually take down the Indians because they're on your continent, and then take down about as many Japanese cities as you can intil you get the domination limit.
Edit: Haha you posted the update same time I posted this. Nice update.

His rules were specifically to not attack an AI city until all wonders were built.

Also, that Darwin voyage coincidence is shockingly eerie...

If he could conquer the AI before all of the wonders were built, the game would be practically over by now.

Yah I know. And why was he trying to get all the wonders again?

It's just a variant to make the game more interesting and possibly difficult

Since you have to wait anyway what is going to be your srategy to reach the domination limit? Will you build bulk tanks so that the second you finish the last wonder you can simply roll over india and ship your troops straight to Japan to do likewise? Or do you have something else in mind?

tupaclives said:

Since you have to wait anyway what is going to be your srategy to reach the domination limit? Will you build bulk tanks so that the second you finish the last wonder you can simply roll over india and ship your troops straight to Japan to do likewise? Or do you have something else in mind?

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Not quite ready to answer that question yet. I have rubber in a forest by Changchun (east of Beijing) but I wonder if there's any oil for me. India and Japan have more desert tiles inside their territory, although we all have some tundra.

But the slow research rate is really getting me into some trouble. It's 1840 AD now and I'm only up to replaceable parts and scientific method on the Industrial Age tech tree. I'll probably not reach Modern Age for at least another 100 years.

Oh, and if you noticed the spoiler in my last update, India is now in monarchy. Japan has also gone into communism. That's going to kill their research for a while. So while I'm going to have no trouble holding a tech lead, it'll be highly doubtful that I'll be able to trade for any required tech for advancing an era. (Naturally, I skipped all the optional techs in Industrial Age, except sanitation.)

One thing I'd like to avoid though: I don't want to build my last wonder in like 2045 AD and then RoP-rape both of them. That'll be way too much of exploiting the game mechanics for my liking.