"Hey, I know you! You're that dude from India! The one that ripped Lord Asoka's soul right out of his body!"
Neal shrank back into his throne. "Now, friends," he began, "let's not be too hasty..."
The crowd was aghast. How dare the entity on the throne address them as equals? Li Si, the emperor's advisor, stood and cleared his throat. "Either you are the Emperor Qin Shi Huang, in which case you should be commanding our respect rather than shrinking into your throne, or you are an Indian spirit that has overcome our august lord. If you are such a spirit, you are clearly more powerful than the emperor, in which case we owe you our awe and our respect, if not our love. Either way, we are not your friends."
Well, the cat was out of the bag now. Neal straightened his robes and adopted his most regal posture. "Very well. My name is Neal. I'm also known as the King of the World." At this, a gasp ran through the assembled courtiers. "Ah. Perhaps you've heard of me. I am not only a spirit from India, but from Greece, Persia, Egypt, and a thousand worlds beyond. I will not be long amongst you, but I hope to leave China a better place than I have found it. This is my purpose. This is my quest."
The crowd murmured amongst themselves. Yes, India had made some progress from its squalid backwater status in the past 800 years. And Persia was a monstrous power, with Egypt not too far behind. "And what of Greece?" one asked. "The far-off Hellenes remain weak and backward."
"Okay, you have a point there. Greece is tough to work with. They don't have a lot of advantages out of the gate. But China? This is a fine province that I could turn into a proper empire!" It was time to gamble. "Look, you can either bow down and let me do my job, and you'll get Emperor Qin back in a few hundred years with a much finer Civilization to show for it, or you can execute me and... I don't know what'll happen." Neal fixed Li Si with his steeliest gaze. "And something tells me you don't execute emperors around here."
Li Si tried his best to look obstinate, but, after a few seconds under that unrelenting stare, he fell to one knee. With a rustle of silken robes, the rest of the court did the same.
"Very well," Neal said. "Let's get to work." The first order of business was to confine Advisor Leary to his quarters. He was an embarassment, and Neal couldn't have him telling too many stories about the old days. Neal had had to make some tough decisions, and the less that the Chinese public knew about them, the better. Slavery is ugly business. Next, Neal sent a band of southeast Asian Settlers off to establish a border with India:
Neal had held off on settling the Malay peninsula with India, unsure of whether their meager coffers could afford such an undertaking. China, he was certain, could, and they had the manpower to cut back those choking jungles.
After a few quick concentrations of force, it was time to initiate the First Sino-Japanese War:
The purpose behind this conflict was simple. Tokugawa had encroached upon the mainland, and would need to be driven back to the sea. It was this war that would show Neal's true worth to the Chinese court and, he felt, finally immunize him from rebellion.
Osaka, defended by a lone squad of Axemen, fell easily to a single Chariot charge:
The city held no civic works, but it was valuable oceanfront property and the Worker, captured by an Archer moving in to garrison the city, would help to civilize China's remaining wild corners.
In 155 B.C., Neal traded Mathematics to France for Priesthood and Monotheism. This would open up a more lucrative Code of Laws deal with a later partner (likely Mansa Musa). He also founded Akyab, southeast of Dhaka:
Akyab would take some work, but it had potential as a monster commerce city in the far-off future.
A pair of Chinese Axemen found Fort Apache, a tempting target along the South China Sea:
The first attacker died in the assault. Neal, ever the crafty general, held the other Axeman in reserve. A Russian Chariot, hiding in the underbrush, then made its own ill-advised assault, finishing off the wounded Archer. Neal's second Axeman then mopped up the Warrior and claimed the city for China.
Back north, in Korea, Neal's Swordsmen were poised to finish off the mainland Japanese foothold:
There were casualties, and Tokyo was choked by the Home Islands' culture even after the takeover, but it was finished. Tokugawa was once again relegated to the sea.
Lacking the ability to follow him there, Neal called an armistice:
"And that," the King of the World beamed at Li Si, "is the kind of focused, goal-oriented war that Emperor Qin would never have carried out."
"Do not speak ill of my emperor," the advisor huffed.
With Calendar in hand, it was time to make a few Tech trades:
And Currency was started on. China held a massive number of cities for the age, and would need some way to pay for them. Courthouse construction had begun across the empire, but it was a slow process. The quick influx of Trade Route income from Currency, along with the ability to sell junk techs for cash would buoy the economy considerably. For instance, Neal nabbed 70 gold from Mongolia in exchange for sending crazy old Advisor Leary over to teach the basics of Mysticism.
The Swordsman from the Akyab stack, sent to fogbust in the jungles, improbably found a Barbarian city. Even more improbably, he was able to take it down by his lonesome:
It wasn't ideally placed, but it wasn't terribly placed, either. Neal decided to keep it, if only as an outpost against any further Barbarian incursions from the south. Once the city came out of revolt, it kept watch over the entire southern extremity of the peninsula.
In 35 B.C., a Chariot, sent to keep an eye on those few grey tiles between Illinois and Akyab, made an amusing discovery which triggered the Second Sin-Japanese War:
Well, that would be two more Workers to help cut away the Malaysian jungles. Beyond this quick strike, the war devolved mostly into making meany faces across the Sea of Japan. Meanwhile, Neal continued to quietly stockpile Galleys in the Yellow Sea and materiel in Osaka.
Hanoi was founded in 85 A.D. to finally bring southeast Asia fully under the King of the World's control:
By this point, almost all of China's Workers were in the south, hacking at Jungles and building Plantations.
The turtles of the Bay of Bengal proved to be a surprising boon to the people of Akyab:
As you can also see, the Nationless Ones in India were finally subdued by the Russians. I would have thought that Asoka would have had it in him to make the assault. Oh, well. Not my problem.
As the round began to draw to a close, Neal decided that he had just enough time left to put his final plan into action:
It was time for the Third, and hopefully final, Sino-Japanese War.
As the Chinese forces marched their way through the foothills of southern Japan, Neal had the opportunity to join the pan-Eurasian lovefest in the Buddhist faith:
Neal converted willingly and, indeed, looked at this as a tacit heavenly blessing upon his crusade. He urged his troops on from his palace in Beijing, gleefully pushing his little wooden soldiers about the map of Nippon.
By 370, it was time for the final assault:
Only a Lighthouse and, more distressingly, Tokugawa apparently had founded another city where Neal could not find him before moving on! Nevertheless, the Japanese home islands would prove to be an invaluable source of commerce and production for China.
Neal needed a way to end the Japanese threat quickly and efficiently. He went to Mansa Musa, everyone's favorite tech broker, and made him an offer he couldn't refuse:
"I need a technology. Something like Slavery, only for complete nations. I need a way to bond Japan to me, so that he will cease to be a threat forever. I need Feudalism."
With the deal made, it was time to let Tokugawa know what was what:
His island-nation wasn't worth hunting the four corners of the globe for, and I didn't have time to do so, anyway. So, in exchange for complete and total submission, as well as revealing the location of New Japan, the King of the World would promise China's protection in perpetuity. Hardly an ideal situation for either side, but it was a compromise.
Neal beamed over the map with Li Si.
"China stands proud. Tokugawa, once trampling Chinese grass with his foreign feet, now bows as a vassal-state to your glorious empire. You stretch from Korea to Malaysia. You are the most advanced nation in the world."
Li Si allowed himself a smile. "And you will leave as you promised? Qin Shi Huang will return unharmed?"
"Well, he might start calling himself Neal, but that's not my fault. Some sort of glitch in the system."
FWOOOMP!
"Hail, Caesar!" The King of the World smelled olives, and fresh salt air. The bombastic music in the background meant only one thing.
"Ah, Rome!" Neal beamed, looking out at his Praetorian Guard. "Do the Legions stand ready to fight?"
"The Legions stand ready to protect the Empire from any threat from without or within. At the moment, they guard the construction of the new Aqueduct."
"Aqueduct? But Rome is only a size 5 city! We need more Legions!"
Okay, so Rome isn't as bad off as India, but this is certainly no China. Rome is backwards:
And seems content to play out its two-city challenge without making a push at, say, France. I think that'll be our round. Gun for Construction, build a mess of Praets and, later, Catapults, and let's see if we can wipe the grease off of Louis' chin with the point of a spatha.
Here's the save:
.
, Has Caesar already lost a war in the past ?
