Update 10: July 1, 1896 - June 30, 1897
Canton-Yunnan
Spoiler :
Booming, but ethnically complex region with huge labor market and giant rural production and craftsmanship.
Q3 1896-Q2 1897: With the south of China increasingly opening itself for foreign trade and investments, Confederate corporations couldn’t resist expanding into that promising, vast market - albeit, very slowly. (Region Canton-Yunnan gains +0.31% Regional Growth Fluctuation, Confederate States of America gains +0.52% Regional Influence, Tokugawa Shogunate loses -0.52% Regional Influence, Confederate States of America losses: -0.62 HC, -0.11 IC, -1.31 EC, -1.14 MC)
The Fleet of the Four Oceans
Q3 1896-Q2 1897: Elated by the success of his maritime-based geopolitical agenda inside the Heavenly Chancellery and among fellow Kings-Under-Havens, Shi Dakai proceeded to bring his grandiose plans for oceanic merchant marine expansion to fruition. This required success in a few fields. First, came the need for modern shipyards capable of constructing ocean-going vessels, as by 1896 China had only the newly purchased Hong-Kong wharfs matching such parameters. That slot was taken by a colossal facility in Shenzhen, named in a Western fashion the Alpha Shipyard. The primary construction shed measured 550 feet in length and 450 in width, being thus able to accommodate four of the massive Hamburg cruise liners, then the largest ships in the world, side-by-side. The second part of the construction drive dependent on knowledge and possession of blueprints not just for the vessels to build, but also for the construction equipment itself. True, quite a few machine tools were already available in China, but the industry of shipbuilding had long been considered one of the least developed aspects of the Heavenly Kingdom’s industrial complex. In that field, Shi Dakai’s agents (and, at times, the excited Southern King himself) engaged in an eager pursuit of any and all pieces of knowledge or advanced equipment they could get a hold of. Belgian, North-German, British, Dutch, and Tokugawa blueprints, as well as ships, cranes, and other pieces of machinery, were bought out, no matter the price. Rumors have it that many of the equipment pieces ended up being disassembled and turned into blueprints for identical twin pieces of machinery that the Chinese industry could then mass-produce, although no proof of that has surfaced. In addition, many trained workers and engineers from Japanese, Scottish, Tsingtao, Dutch, and Belgian shipyards were hired en masse to work in Shenzhen for wages and bonuses that would see many of them set for life in just a few years of employment. By June 1897, it became clear that Shi Dakai’s plan was an utter and absolute success. It did come at a price of higher foreign involvement in the Cantonese market and, of course, cost the Heavenly Treasury quite a lot of money, but the it established the Pearl River delta as the biggest shipbuilding hub in China and, possibly, one of the biggest ones in the world. (Regional quest completed with full success, region Canton-Yunnan gains +15 IC, +10 EC, +25 MC, Belgium gains +0.5% Regional Influence, North German Federation gains +0.5% Regional Influence, British Royal Commonwealth gains +0.5% Regional Influence, Tokugawa Shogunate gains +0.5% Regional Influence, Netherlands gains +0.5% Regional Influence, Taiping Mandate loses -2.5% Regional Influence, Taiping Mandate: -100 EC, Taiping Mandate losses: -4.48 HC, -2.99 IC, -8.54 EC, -3.99 MC)
Hongism and electrification (Canton-Yunnan)
Q3 1896-Q2 1897: Among all nations engaged in the highly ambitious programs of electrification of their home regions beyond merely the field of industrial manufacture, the Heavenly Kingdom was the first to accomplish that feat at least regionally. For years, the access to electrical lighting or various, often primitive electrical appliances was considered a matter of either luxury or major business necessity. However, with the establishment of a vast power grid system across Canton, it became obvious just how much the productivity of a society could change with even something as simple as four extra hours of affordable electrical lighting per day. From educational facilities to hospitals to regular homes, lives of millions of Chinese people became slightly better - a small difference for an individual, but a giant improvement in productivity on a mass scale. Even in remote regions of Yunnan and Dali, the electrification of the public sector proved to be an expensive, but transformative change. The Heavenly Chancellery’s advisors, however, warned that the Celestial Engine’s calculations suggest that productivity of electrification might vary greatly based on the demographic, geographic, and even cultural outlook of each particular region, and they recommended to consider these factors in the future. (Regional quest completed with full success, region Canton-Yunnan gains +10 HC, +10 IC, +10 EC, +10 MC, Regional Growth Fluctuation +2%, Taiping Mandate losses: -3.81 HC, -2.86 IC, -7.01 EC, -3.01 MC)
Metal thieves
Q3 1896-Q2 1897: “Because all nice things are in Heaven” is a typical Chinese answer to the question, “Why do we not get nice things?” Now, a new answer was given to this question: “Because of metal theft!” Indeed, the introduction of electrical power to the public sector via a massive government investment into the power grid infrastructure was one of the nicest “nice things” that regular Taiping subjects recently got an access to. However, just like some lost souls tend to reject the teachings of Brother Hong, the same way they reject the benefits of electrification. To be more specific, theft of metal cords that enable the functioning of electrical grids has become an epidemic crime across many parts of Southern China. The metal thieves simply stop local transmitters, cut the cords, and then sell the wire to scrap metal junkyards. Needless to say, the cost of this crime to the Heavenly Treasury is rather high.
Special economic zones
Q3 1896-Q2 1897: Electrification of the Pearl River delta naturally resolved the problem faced by shift work organizers of the special economic zones, soon enabling the full vision of the shortened distribution chain to come online in these hubs of export-oriented sweatshop manufacturing. Meanwhile, the creation of the trade Fleet of the Four Oceans opened more avenues for export of these cheap, quickly made basic and everyday-needs products. The only aspect of the project that couldn’t be resolved, regardless of how much Shi Dakai, the project’s mastermind, tried was the alignment of the zones’ “simplified” legal codes with the nation’s uniform codex. This may prove to be a slowing factor in the region’s future development, as it could isolate the special economic zones from the rest of the microeconomic actors, but for now, the result is rather positive. (Regional quest completed with mixed results, region Canton-Yunnan gains +15 EC, +5 MC, Regional Growth Fluctuation +0.5%, Regional Growth Trend -0.25%, Taiping Mandate losses: -2.85 HC, -0.55 IC, -6.49 EC, -4.14 MC)
Between the Heaven and the sea
Q3 1896-Q2 1897: The Southern King was warned many times against experimenting with alternate legal codes for his beloved “special economic zones” in a country, which bureaucracy doesn’t have experience of working around legal pluralism. Now, some groups of businessmen (of various degree of illegality of their business) use this to evade taxation or to buy and sell illegal goods (especially of amoral nature). Even more so, some groups of misfits, runaways, criminals, and even regular people who wish to disappear from the view of the House of Merciful Vigilance or the National Security agency flock to these zone that exist in a legal limbo. This has led to entire “human hives” to grow virtually over the course of a few mounts in tiny patches of land occupied by the special economic zones, with local businessmen (best case scenario) or criminals (worst case scenario) being in charge of the order of things there.
Tobacco and rice
Q3 1896-Q2 1897: The Guizhou province of China was traditionally poor and underdeveloped, populated by the non-conforming and rebellion-prone Miao and Bouyei ethnicities. However, thanks to its mild subtropical climate, it became at some point the center of Chinese-based opium production. Yet, after the Taiping Revolution put an end to the European opium trade and outlawed opium in the country, the same fields were converted into tobacco plantations, turning Guizhou into the center of cigarette and tobacco production in Eastern Asia. Unfortunately, mass-use of such export-oriented monocultures became possible only thanks to the redistribution of already limited arable land from the poor to the rich, often done as a payment for predatory loans. Now, the discontent over that measure is growing and might explode at any minute.
Pre-calculated firing tables
Xīn yǔ, newspeak, and totalitarian linguistics
Q3 1896-Q2 1897: With the south of China increasingly opening itself for foreign trade and investments, Confederate corporations couldn’t resist expanding into that promising, vast market - albeit, very slowly. (Region Canton-Yunnan gains +0.31% Regional Growth Fluctuation, Confederate States of America gains +0.52% Regional Influence, Tokugawa Shogunate loses -0.52% Regional Influence, Confederate States of America losses: -0.62 HC, -0.11 IC, -1.31 EC, -1.14 MC)
The Fleet of the Four Oceans
Spoiler :
Q3 1895-Q2 1896: The massive expansion of Chinese merchant marine at the height of the Indonesian trade wars was a big economic victory that largely kept the Southern King afloat despite some of his reformist blunders. Now, with the Chinese colonial reach expanded as far away as Ghana and the Aegean islands, the Southern King couldn’t waste an opportunity to secure some more of the Celestial Treasury’s funding for yet another trade fleet expansion, this one consisting of more durable ocean-going vessels (both passenger liners and cargo ships) necessary for keeping the extended colonial empire connected together. However, besides merely expanding the the size of the merchant marine, the sly Shi Dakai made sure to also heavily invest into the shipbuilding and crew training capabilities of the South (and particularly newly purchased Hong Kong, with its modern, British-built docks), thus securing the status of the maritime center of China after his domain. Still, not everything was a cakewalk for Shi Dakai’s industrial planners. In what’s become an unfortunate tradition of Chinese economic planning, some of the industrial collectives were erroneously assigned to more tasks than they could accomplish, leading to serious stalling of some milestone constructions. Despite this, the project looks generally promising, with thousands of skilled (or, at least, competent) shipyard workers arriving to Canton every month from as far as Xīnjiāpō (Singapore) and Jung-ya-lu (Surabaya). (Regional quest progress: 57.76%, Taiping Mandate losses: -3.3 HC, -1.71 IC, -6.56 EC, -3.57 MC)
Q3 1896-Q2 1897: Elated by the success of his maritime-based geopolitical agenda inside the Heavenly Chancellery and among fellow Kings-Under-Havens, Shi Dakai proceeded to bring his grandiose plans for oceanic merchant marine expansion to fruition. This required success in a few fields. First, came the need for modern shipyards capable of constructing ocean-going vessels, as by 1896 China had only the newly purchased Hong-Kong wharfs matching such parameters. That slot was taken by a colossal facility in Shenzhen, named in a Western fashion the Alpha Shipyard. The primary construction shed measured 550 feet in length and 450 in width, being thus able to accommodate four of the massive Hamburg cruise liners, then the largest ships in the world, side-by-side. The second part of the construction drive dependent on knowledge and possession of blueprints not just for the vessels to build, but also for the construction equipment itself. True, quite a few machine tools were already available in China, but the industry of shipbuilding had long been considered one of the least developed aspects of the Heavenly Kingdom’s industrial complex. In that field, Shi Dakai’s agents (and, at times, the excited Southern King himself) engaged in an eager pursuit of any and all pieces of knowledge or advanced equipment they could get a hold of. Belgian, North-German, British, Dutch, and Tokugawa blueprints, as well as ships, cranes, and other pieces of machinery, were bought out, no matter the price. Rumors have it that many of the equipment pieces ended up being disassembled and turned into blueprints for identical twin pieces of machinery that the Chinese industry could then mass-produce, although no proof of that has surfaced. In addition, many trained workers and engineers from Japanese, Scottish, Tsingtao, Dutch, and Belgian shipyards were hired en masse to work in Shenzhen for wages and bonuses that would see many of them set for life in just a few years of employment. By June 1897, it became clear that Shi Dakai’s plan was an utter and absolute success. It did come at a price of higher foreign involvement in the Cantonese market and, of course, cost the Heavenly Treasury quite a lot of money, but the it established the Pearl River delta as the biggest shipbuilding hub in China and, possibly, one of the biggest ones in the world. (Regional quest completed with full success, region Canton-Yunnan gains +15 IC, +10 EC, +25 MC, Belgium gains +0.5% Regional Influence, North German Federation gains +0.5% Regional Influence, British Royal Commonwealth gains +0.5% Regional Influence, Tokugawa Shogunate gains +0.5% Regional Influence, Netherlands gains +0.5% Regional Influence, Taiping Mandate loses -2.5% Regional Influence, Taiping Mandate: -100 EC, Taiping Mandate losses: -4.48 HC, -2.99 IC, -8.54 EC, -3.99 MC)
Hongism and electrification (Canton-Yunnan)
Spoiler :
Q3 1895-Q2 1896: Perhaps, as a sign of changing times, the leadership of the Taiping Mandate has declared that a true goal of establishing a Heavenly Kingdom on Earth would require electrification of China, or, as their chief propagandists have put it memorably, “The Heavenly Kingdom is Hongism plus electrification of the entire country!” However, in a practical divergence from the massive electrification efforts undertaken in the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Confederate States of America, the first stage of the Chinese electrification project was limited (at least, at this stage) only to the heavy industries of Guanxi, one of the most industrially developed regions of the country. Despite also suffering from mismanagement of some construction teams, the project progressed at a very steady pace, with its end goals and metrics staying always in focus of the project managers. Besides, the south proved a great location for establishing a strong hydropower industry, thanks to a variety of strong-current, but predictable water sources, with the slacks being picked up by easily built coal power plants fueled by the abundant coal from the north of the country. At this rate, this first firm step toward “electrification of the entire country” may be completed before the end of 1896, giving the heavy industry of the Pearl River valley the boost it requires. (Regional quest progress: 67.31%, Taiping Mandate losses: -3.36 HC, -1.94 IC, -6.49 EC, -3.38 MC)
Q3 1896-Q2 1897: Among all nations engaged in the highly ambitious programs of electrification of their home regions beyond merely the field of industrial manufacture, the Heavenly Kingdom was the first to accomplish that feat at least regionally. For years, the access to electrical lighting or various, often primitive electrical appliances was considered a matter of either luxury or major business necessity. However, with the establishment of a vast power grid system across Canton, it became obvious just how much the productivity of a society could change with even something as simple as four extra hours of affordable electrical lighting per day. From educational facilities to hospitals to regular homes, lives of millions of Chinese people became slightly better - a small difference for an individual, but a giant improvement in productivity on a mass scale. Even in remote regions of Yunnan and Dali, the electrification of the public sector proved to be an expensive, but transformative change. The Heavenly Chancellery’s advisors, however, warned that the Celestial Engine’s calculations suggest that productivity of electrification might vary greatly based on the demographic, geographic, and even cultural outlook of each particular region, and they recommended to consider these factors in the future. (Regional quest completed with full success, region Canton-Yunnan gains +10 HC, +10 IC, +10 EC, +10 MC, Regional Growth Fluctuation +2%, Taiping Mandate losses: -3.81 HC, -2.86 IC, -7.01 EC, -3.01 MC)
Metal thieves
Q3 1896-Q2 1897: “Because all nice things are in Heaven” is a typical Chinese answer to the question, “Why do we not get nice things?” Now, a new answer was given to this question: “Because of metal theft!” Indeed, the introduction of electrical power to the public sector via a massive government investment into the power grid infrastructure was one of the nicest “nice things” that regular Taiping subjects recently got an access to. However, just like some lost souls tend to reject the teachings of Brother Hong, the same way they reject the benefits of electrification. To be more specific, theft of metal cords that enable the functioning of electrical grids has become an epidemic crime across many parts of Southern China. The metal thieves simply stop local transmitters, cut the cords, and then sell the wire to scrap metal junkyards. Needless to say, the cost of this crime to the Heavenly Treasury is rather high.
Special economic zones
Spoiler :
Q1-Q2 1895: The expansion of the Cantonese merchant marine would’ve been useless without proper port facilities to accommodate the cargo throughput resulting from it. But, unwilling to settle on something mediocre, the ambitious Southern King went on to align the modification of harbors and their warehousing districts with local experiments named planly the “special economic zones.” The idea was to give tax breaks, financial incentives, and loosened labor regulation codes to manufacturing sites established near or directly in the ports with significant flow of foreign and internal cargo. Unfortunately, the challenges faced by the Southern Thaw and lack of legal pluralism in China meant that the experimentation with alternated tax codes and labor laws couldn’t be pushed through the Heavenly Chancellery audit. However, even without low-tax customs houses and other free-market attractors, this project proceeded to bring most competitive businesses to the Taiping Mandate’s most bustling ports through other means, including re-organization of labor and, in typical Taiping fashion, heavy-handed propaganda. In the end, it’s expected to improve the Heavenly Kingdom’s exports both in terms of their amount and competitiveness on the world market (due to an incredibly low manufacturing cost). One specific measure undertaken to that end was an attempted organization of shift work in port workshops (often done by women as a part-time, side job, taken for a quick earning outside of household chores), with experienced Single Daughters leading the way in organization and administration of the new facilities. However, gas lighting remains extremely scarce across China, while other improvised forms of lighting are rather primitive, ineffective, and accident-prone, so the evening, night, and early morning shifts quickly proved rather problematic due to a low productivity rate, overabundance of defects, and regular accidents. Still, despite the problems with tax incentives and shift work, the special economic zones look rather promising thanks to a shortened distribution chain they use and the synergy they enjoy with the massive expansion of the merchant marine. (Regional quest progress: 71.48%, Taiping Mandate losses: -3.67 HC, -1.5 IC, -7.1 EC, -3.7 MC)
Q3 1895-Q2 1896: Despite a series of setbacks with alternative tax codes and shift work organization, the formation of the special economic zones was still considered to be a sound idea by the Southern King. With promises of high economic gains, he managed to persuade the Heavenly Chancellery and his fellow Kings-Under Heavens that the project should continue, gradually turning the coastal cities of Southern China into places simultaneously similar to and completely alien from the ports of the rest of the country. With only a few organizational changes and merchant marine contracts still pending, the dedicated for-export industrial districts are only a couple of steps away from being fully functional. (Regional quest progress: 98.21%, Taiping Mandate losses: -2.98 HC, -0.58 IC, -6.91 EC, -4.52 MC)
Q3 1895-Q2 1896: Despite a series of setbacks with alternative tax codes and shift work organization, the formation of the special economic zones was still considered to be a sound idea by the Southern King. With promises of high economic gains, he managed to persuade the Heavenly Chancellery and his fellow Kings-Under Heavens that the project should continue, gradually turning the coastal cities of Southern China into places simultaneously similar to and completely alien from the ports of the rest of the country. With only a few organizational changes and merchant marine contracts still pending, the dedicated for-export industrial districts are only a couple of steps away from being fully functional. (Regional quest progress: 98.21%, Taiping Mandate losses: -2.98 HC, -0.58 IC, -6.91 EC, -4.52 MC)
Q3 1896-Q2 1897: Electrification of the Pearl River delta naturally resolved the problem faced by shift work organizers of the special economic zones, soon enabling the full vision of the shortened distribution chain to come online in these hubs of export-oriented sweatshop manufacturing. Meanwhile, the creation of the trade Fleet of the Four Oceans opened more avenues for export of these cheap, quickly made basic and everyday-needs products. The only aspect of the project that couldn’t be resolved, regardless of how much Shi Dakai, the project’s mastermind, tried was the alignment of the zones’ “simplified” legal codes with the nation’s uniform codex. This may prove to be a slowing factor in the region’s future development, as it could isolate the special economic zones from the rest of the microeconomic actors, but for now, the result is rather positive. (Regional quest completed with mixed results, region Canton-Yunnan gains +15 EC, +5 MC, Regional Growth Fluctuation +0.5%, Regional Growth Trend -0.25%, Taiping Mandate losses: -2.85 HC, -0.55 IC, -6.49 EC, -4.14 MC)
Between the Heaven and the sea
Q3 1896-Q2 1897: The Southern King was warned many times against experimenting with alternate legal codes for his beloved “special economic zones” in a country, which bureaucracy doesn’t have experience of working around legal pluralism. Now, some groups of businessmen (of various degree of illegality of their business) use this to evade taxation or to buy and sell illegal goods (especially of amoral nature). Even more so, some groups of misfits, runaways, criminals, and even regular people who wish to disappear from the view of the House of Merciful Vigilance or the National Security agency flock to these zone that exist in a legal limbo. This has led to entire “human hives” to grow virtually over the course of a few mounts in tiny patches of land occupied by the special economic zones, with local businessmen (best case scenario) or criminals (worst case scenario) being in charge of the order of things there.
Tobacco and rice
Q3 1896-Q2 1897: The Guizhou province of China was traditionally poor and underdeveloped, populated by the non-conforming and rebellion-prone Miao and Bouyei ethnicities. However, thanks to its mild subtropical climate, it became at some point the center of Chinese-based opium production. Yet, after the Taiping Revolution put an end to the European opium trade and outlawed opium in the country, the same fields were converted into tobacco plantations, turning Guizhou into the center of cigarette and tobacco production in Eastern Asia. Unfortunately, mass-use of such export-oriented monocultures became possible only thanks to the redistribution of already limited arable land from the poor to the rich, often done as a payment for predatory loans. Now, the discontent over that measure is growing and might explode at any minute.
Pre-calculated firing tables
Spoiler :
1892: An ambitious new project has been announced by the Heavenly Kingdom’s high command. They plan to use Chinese analytical and difference engines to create a complete array of firing artillery tables for all locations across entire theaters of future operations, containing lists of angles of elevation a particular artillery gun barrel would need to be set to, to strike a target at a particular distance with a projectile of a particular weight using a propellant cartridge of a particular weight. Dozens of geological expeditions have been sent to different regions of China and its immediate borders, collecting vast arrays of data for the Heavenly Engine. The data-gathering effort may take quite a while, according to the experts familiar with the project, but in the end it could greatly improve the speed of target engagement by Taiping artillerymen.(Technology quest progress: 11.9%, Taiping Mandate losses: -3.46 HC, -0.75 IC, -7.55 EC, -5.1 MC)
Q1-Q2 1893: With the world slowly turning toward another series of ground-shaking conflicts, Chinese geologists continued busily mapping China and its border regions, only to feed that data arrays into the Heavenly Engine. (Technology quest progress: 19.95%, Taiping Mandate losses: -2.63 HC, -0.59 IC, -5.83 EC, -3.85 MC)
Q3 1893: The Heavenly Engine continues grinding through huge arrays of data for pre-calculated firing tables of Taiping artillery corps, but the progress is underwhelmingly slow. Experts point out that more resources should be allocated to the project, if the leadership wishes to see new tables distributed among artillery officers anytime soon. (Technology quest progress: 25.14%, Taiping Mandate losses: -3.16 HC, -0.71 IC, -7 EC, -4.62 MC)
Q4 1893: As a war on its north-western borders has been averted, the Heavenly Kingdom was happy to keep the pre-calculated artillery tables project financed at its minimum. However, its slow progress seems to be becoming a problem of its own. Due to China’s economic boom, hill levelling, canal digging, and railroad construction are starting to change the landscape so significantly that Chinese topographers had to recompile data arrays for previously inspected territories and feed them to the Divine and Heavenly Engines once again. People at the head of the project now urge the Heavenly Chancellery to assign more people and assets to this project, least it becomes an exercise in futility. (Technology quest progress: 18.24%, Taiping Mandate losses: -4.21 HC, -0.95 IC, -9.45 EC, -6.13 MC)
Q1-Q2 1893: With the world slowly turning toward another series of ground-shaking conflicts, Chinese geologists continued busily mapping China and its border regions, only to feed that data arrays into the Heavenly Engine. (Technology quest progress: 19.95%, Taiping Mandate losses: -2.63 HC, -0.59 IC, -5.83 EC, -3.85 MC)
Q3 1893: The Heavenly Engine continues grinding through huge arrays of data for pre-calculated firing tables of Taiping artillery corps, but the progress is underwhelmingly slow. Experts point out that more resources should be allocated to the project, if the leadership wishes to see new tables distributed among artillery officers anytime soon. (Technology quest progress: 25.14%, Taiping Mandate losses: -3.16 HC, -0.71 IC, -7 EC, -4.62 MC)
Q4 1893: As a war on its north-western borders has been averted, the Heavenly Kingdom was happy to keep the pre-calculated artillery tables project financed at its minimum. However, its slow progress seems to be becoming a problem of its own. Due to China’s economic boom, hill levelling, canal digging, and railroad construction are starting to change the landscape so significantly that Chinese topographers had to recompile data arrays for previously inspected territories and feed them to the Divine and Heavenly Engines once again. People at the head of the project now urge the Heavenly Chancellery to assign more people and assets to this project, least it becomes an exercise in futility. (Technology quest progress: 18.24%, Taiping Mandate losses: -4.21 HC, -0.95 IC, -9.45 EC, -6.13 MC)
Xīn yǔ, newspeak, and totalitarian linguistics
Spoiler :
Q4 1893: Ideologues of Hongite Christianity have recently become known for their willingness to change not only the way their flock acts, but also the way it thinks and perceives the world. But in the late 1893, a first clumsy step was taken toward complete eradication of “impure” thought through changing the way people talk. The Changsha Scholastic School of Popular Linguistics was tasked by the Kings-Under-Heaven to start developing a radically new, synthetic linguistic system, designed to reinforce and promote ideological purity of its speakers. Dubbed xīn yǔ (or “newspeak”), this variation of Mandarine is expected to be censoring speech of its users on the most basic level, defining their world perception via word use and grammar. As witty (albeit, rather dark) as that idea is, it still stands very far away from any sort of practical implementation, as all attempts to introduce the newspeak even to the students of the Changsha Scholastic School of Popular Linguistics has led to nothing but a quiet disobedience and mockery. (Technology quest progress: -1.07%, Taiping Mandate losses: -6.32 HC, -5.67 IC, -7.91 EC, -1.37 MC)
Q1-Q2 1894: If there were any beneficiaries of the central planning mishap that so embarrassed the Heavenly and Divine engines’ analysts, it was the Changsha Scholastic School of Popular Linguistics. Originally rather humbly financed for the titanic task at hand, it received all extra resources freed up by the clearing of the state research confusion by the Defect Resolution Committee. This helped to start an entire series of rural and urban xīn yǔ (lit. “newspeak”) literacy programs that are starting to shift mentality of their practitioners in the direction of reverence, loyalty, and energetic obedience. Of course, some parts of the early “newspeak” were rejected by the learners, providing the Taiping linguists with important insights into their work. (Technology quest progress: 58.93%, Taiping Mandate losses: -5.4 HC, -5.9 IC, -8.34 EC, -1.41 MC)
Q1-Q2 1894: If there were any beneficiaries of the central planning mishap that so embarrassed the Heavenly and Divine engines’ analysts, it was the Changsha Scholastic School of Popular Linguistics. Originally rather humbly financed for the titanic task at hand, it received all extra resources freed up by the clearing of the state research confusion by the Defect Resolution Committee. This helped to start an entire series of rural and urban xīn yǔ (lit. “newspeak”) literacy programs that are starting to shift mentality of their practitioners in the direction of reverence, loyalty, and energetic obedience. Of course, some parts of the early “newspeak” were rejected by the learners, providing the Taiping linguists with important insights into their work. (Technology quest progress: 58.93%, Taiping Mandate losses: -5.4 HC, -5.9 IC, -8.34 EC, -1.41 MC)
Yangtze Region
Spoiler :
Booming heart of China, with powerful agriculture and demographics and strong riverine trade.
Railroad strugglers
Venice of the Orient
The tender speech of Wu
University of the Toilers
Q3 1896-Q3 1897: As the National Security agency slowly beats the venerable House of Merciful Vigilance out of its leading positions in foreign espionage and counterintelligence, the tone of Taiping Mandate’s international propaganda also changes. No longer attempting to sound as preachers of a bizarre religion, the mouthpieces of the Heavenly Kingdom speak more about the freedom of the oppressed, the voice of the voiceless, and, above all, the plight of the toilers. Unsurprisingly, an international educational facility named the University of the Toilers opened its gates in the early 1897 in a rapidly growing port town of Shanghai. Its student body mostly consists of foreign nationals of proletarian origin from all over the world, including even some colonial subjects of a few European and Asian empires. The curriculum of the university is mostly hidden from outside observers and is rumored to be highly politicized. Besides all forms of ideological indoctrination, the “toiler-students” are rumored to be thought a surprisingly motley variety of subjects, which includes some rather specific subjects of financing, chemistry, oratorical art, and applied mechanics. So far, the first class of the “toiler-students” is still in training, but many people wonder what exactly will the bachelors of this university do after their graduation. Who knows? (Regional quest completed with success, region Yangtze Region gains +5 IC, Taiping Mandate losses: -1.61 HC, -1.58 IC, -2.68 EC, -0.83 MC)
Railroad strugglers
Spoiler :
Q3-Q4 1894: The Great North-South Railroad Struggle has started providing first reasons to celebrate actual achievements, and enthusiasm is high across all China. However, as different sections of this great public works project start moving to completion, they leave thousands of laid off workers behind. Facing a shortages of industrial production, Taiping authorities were eager to compensate for the lack of construction machines with a surplus of good old human labor, and now thousands of these manual laborers are leaving government employment with only humble savings in their pockets and state-issued medals celebrating their “heroic labor.” Many thousands of these single men disconnected from the rest of the society end up settling down in shantytown that started to grow along the length of the Great North-South Railroad. Such so-called “struggle towns,” in their majority, are infamous for their poverty and high levels of alcoholism and crime among their predominantly male population. On the other hand, a few such settlements located near train stations halfway between large travel destinations have grown rather rich off of gambling, alcohol and opium sales provided to bored passengers during their brief stay there. To make matters worse, pro-Taiping Triad clans are starting to notice that a few “railroad strugglers” do the opposite of struggling, and if the Heavenly authority were not to act soon, the situation might only grow more complicated.
Venice of the Orient
Spoiler :
Q1-Q2 1895: The city of Suzhou (also often known to the Europeans as Soochow), located in the Yangtze River delta not far from the Thai lake, once was the biggest non-capital city in the world, nicknamed by the Westerners “the Venice of the Orient” for its prosperous culture and beautiful canals. However, the Taiping Revolution took a great toll on Suzhou, and by the time the Ever-Victorious Army liberated it from the Qing forces at the height of the war, the city was described as a “heap of ruins.” Since then, it had lost its economic prominence to Shanghai - a status that was cemented further by the development of the Shanghai-Nanjing branch of the Great North-South Railroad. Still, the city has recovered to a reasonable size, and it currently hosts a prominent silk-weaving industry, as well as the biggest conglomerate of Chinese-language publishing centers, being responsible for a huge part of the Heavenly Kingdom’s book- and newspaper printing. Many advisers voice proposals for the King of the Long River to show his Southern brother how a true path to prosperity should be built - through dedicated, well-scoped improvements of valuable locales. The only question, on which these advisers disagree is what in particular should be done with the Venice of the Orient. Should it be a cultural capital of Central China? Should be rival Shanghai in port commerce and shipbuilding? Or should the city be reinvented altogether in some way?
The tender speech of Wu
Spoiler :
Q3 1895-Q3 1896: The Yangtze River Delta is not only one of the most densely populated, agriculturally productive areas on the planet, but also a home to an ancient Wu dialect of Chinese language. Known for its smooth flow, the language even gave rise to a Mandarin idiom “Ngu nung nioe ngiu” (“tender speech of Wu”). With its origin dating as far back as 2,500 B.C., Wu Chinese is rather unique in being almost unintelligible to a regular Mandarin speaker, with some of its regional sub-dialects (such as Wenzhounese) being undecipherable even to fellow Wu speakers. This is posing a challenge for the Taiping Mandate. While historically the Taiping movement tended to have a respect for regional minorities, the current government of the Heavenly Kingdom favors a more assimilationist approach to the ethnic question. The Wu speakers, they say, may be culturally integrated into the larger Han identity, but their unique speaking habits make it hard to administer them by non-Wu cadres, and entire battalions of the Ever-Victorious Army have to be formed selectively from Wu soldiers, commanded by Wu officers. Many members of the Heavenly Chancellery are afraid that some unpopular measures may be required to force the people of the Yangtze River Delta learn one of the more widely-accepted dialects of Mandarin. One of such suggestions goes as far as banning such popular entertainment events as Shaoxing and Shanghai operas, which are traditionally performed in Wu.
University of the Toilers
Q3 1896-Q3 1897: As the National Security agency slowly beats the venerable House of Merciful Vigilance out of its leading positions in foreign espionage and counterintelligence, the tone of Taiping Mandate’s international propaganda also changes. No longer attempting to sound as preachers of a bizarre religion, the mouthpieces of the Heavenly Kingdom speak more about the freedom of the oppressed, the voice of the voiceless, and, above all, the plight of the toilers. Unsurprisingly, an international educational facility named the University of the Toilers opened its gates in the early 1897 in a rapidly growing port town of Shanghai. Its student body mostly consists of foreign nationals of proletarian origin from all over the world, including even some colonial subjects of a few European and Asian empires. The curriculum of the university is mostly hidden from outside observers and is rumored to be highly politicized. Besides all forms of ideological indoctrination, the “toiler-students” are rumored to be thought a surprisingly motley variety of subjects, which includes some rather specific subjects of financing, chemistry, oratorical art, and applied mechanics. So far, the first class of the “toiler-students” is still in training, but many people wonder what exactly will the bachelors of this university do after their graduation. Who knows? (Regional quest completed with success, region Yangtze Region gains +5 IC, Taiping Mandate losses: -1.61 HC, -1.58 IC, -2.68 EC, -0.83 MC)
Huanhe Region
Spoiler :
Booming core Chinese region with a huge demographic and agricultural capacity.
Hong’s guardian angels
Big Swords Society
Draft banks of the Dragon City
Q3 1896-Q2 1897: The Taiping Mandate was torn between the need for a functional, country-wide banking system and a self-accepted moral obligation to act against abusing one’s fellow neighbor in pursuit of material wealth. Eventually, it attempted to perform several show trials, in which some arbitrarily chosen bankers (arguably, the greediest and least principled ones) were punished for giving out predatory loans and then enforcing their terms. This, of course, did nothing to establish confidence in the banking community, and soon the activity of piaohao banks greatly diminished, to a degree when even the Portobrazilian Banco do Orientes had to voice its concerns. Experts point out that without adopting a state-wide, institutionalized policy on ethical economy the Taiping authorities may never find the golden middle between social justice and financial productivity. (Regional quest progress: 92.29%, Taiping Mandate losses: -11.18 HC, -6.62 IC, -21.98 EC, -10.96 MC)
Insecticide and pest control
Prefabrication and on-site assembly
Q3 1896-Q2 1897: Massive expansion of earth housing in China has raised some concerns over handling massive disasters like the earthquake of 1556. Yet, with no cheap ways to mass-produce less of a “death-trap” construction for permanent habitation, the concerns were mostly buried. Yet, now a group of civic engineers has emerged proposing to introduce a practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located. That “prefabrication” approach could allow the nation to revolutionize both housing and industrial construction - if only it could receive the government’s funds first.
Hong’s guardian angels
Spoiler :
Q3-Q4 1894: Partially due to extreme density of population and partially because of high wealth disparity, China was long known for being the stage of worst natural disasters in recorded human history, including the Northern Chinese Famine of 1876-1879, the 1556 Shaanxi Earthquake, and the 1887 Yellow River Flood. With the “new housing” program making earth dwellings the most popular type of housing in China, experts are starting to believe that even the best solutions used in their construction may not be enough to make such cheap homes fully safe in case of natural disasters. In order to lower the human toll of forces of nature on the Chinese people, some visionaries in the Heavenly Chancellery propose creation of an All-China disaster relief force, possibly integrated with local fire departments and healthcare facilities. That, of course, would require plenty of funding on municipal and regional levels, barring the Mandate from a lot of tax revenue. In return, it’s believed that such system (loosely based on the solution already developed by ever-enterprising Transpacificans) could increase regional growth and development, being essentially a great long-term investment into the future.
Big Swords Society
Spoiler :
Q3-Q4 1894: Secret radical sects of Chinese origin are not limited to the territory of the Taiping Mandate or the Ma Realm. A group calling themselves Dàdāo Huì (the Big Swords Society or Great Knife Society) has started terrorizing European Christian missionaries across the territory of North-German Tsingtao protectorate. A self-styled militia of small-holders and tenant farmers, the Big Swords believe that their initiation ceremony grants them a magical ability to be invulnerable to bullets - a claim that is yet to be tested, as their illegal, often violent acts of protest against North-German colonists have barely started and claimed lives of only two Catholic preachers. However, the size of that secret society is growing, threatening to spread across the entire Shandong peninsula. Taiping authorities across the border are also not very enthusiastic about the potential spread of the Dàdāo Huì violence to their territory, as the group remains rabidly anti-Christian and anti-Taiping, viewing their leader, Liu Shiduan, as the ruler akin to the “true Chinese” emperors of old, one who deserves the Mandate of Heaven in its ancient, true form.
Draft banks of the Dragon City
Spoiler :
Q1-Q2 1895: The capital of Shanxi province, the city of Taiyuan, has been historically one of the key manufacturing centers of the north and a seat of imperial prefects, thus giving it its nickname Lóngchéng, or “Dragon City.” In decades immediately predating the Taiping Revolution and during the country’s recovery after its end, provincial towns surrounding Taiyuan started to become centers of energetic banking development, with draft banks of the Dragon City itself eventually absorbing much of the region’s commercial reputation. Today, Taiyuan is indeed becoming a banking capital of all Taiping China, but that doesn’t sit well with some of the more ideologically “pure” citizens, who consider only spiritual development and mutualistic labor (ideally, of agricultural kind) being truly worthy of loyal subjects of the Heavens. Recently, thousands of these busy-buddies (often, failed peasants or displaced railroad laborers) have been flocking to Taiyuan to protest in front of draft banks, often preventing their staff and clients from entering the “houses of the devil.” Meanwhile, some of the more miserable bank debtors (often, failed small businessmen and “new model” farmers) are joining the protestors’ ranks as “repentant sinners,” thus immediately turned by the religious mob into living martyrs, who had the courage to speak up against the “sinful money-lenders.” The benefit for the insolvent debtors is obvious, but the commercial sector of the city is suffering from this display of emotions and wonders if the Heavenly Kingdom’s pragmatic magistrates are truly on their side.
Q3 1895-Q2 1896: The woes of Taiyuan draft banks were relatively insignificant on the grand scheme of reforms and infrastructure changes sweeping through China, but they did attract the Heavenly Chancellery’s attention to a very real problem of a very infantile banking system across the Heavenly Kingdom. While the full variety of financial business practices (with notable exceptions of information-based economy and punchcard cryptocurencies) was already present across China, a major stigma related to money-lending still existed in the popular perception. Besides, banks from domains belonging to different Kings-Under-Heaven were badly connected, which limited the access to the banking system not only vertically, but also horizontally. Eventually, all these factors compelled the Heavenly Chancellery to step over all notions of ideological purity and embrace a more ambiguous, but pragmatic approach to All-Chinese banking regulations. Firstly, an intention was declared for the piaohao draft banks to be regulated along the lines of ethical economy, not unlike the Islamic banking that forbids riba (or usury). That idea, popular as it was, didn’t move beyond a mere declaration, as the Taiping Mandate’s economy hasn’t yet adopted the ethical model, so the state regulators lack the legal vocabulary to implement what’s been nominally declared. Where the reform has been quite successful, however, was making agricultural futures trade available to successful farming, woodcutting, and mining communities, increasing the stability and activity of the home market. Additionally, the wide scope of the reform that established an interconnected banking network across China helped to tie the common goods producers to the foreign market, all thanks to the active involvement of the Portobrazilian Banco do Orientes headquartered in Macau. Originally positioning themselves as merely advisers on the Taiping banking reform, the BdO executives quickly found their venture transformed into a conduit, through which a mass of international manufacturing, mining, and agricultural contracts for China could be processed, opening a possibility for a great deal of commercial enrichment of the Twin Crown’s banking system. Behind this major wave of promising changes, one issue so far has remained unsolved. With the principles of ethical economy being addressed only on paper, the piaohao banks failed to truly tame the anger of the proletarians and “true believers” who either blame the banks for their woes or simply refuse to accept them as an ethical compromise. The government's encouragement for the piaohao branches to greater involve with the communities and develop closer ties and trust with them did indeed produce some positive examples of cooperation… but it also made some unfortunate clerks more exposed to eruptions of violence by the angry have-not’s. Perhaps, the state’s transition away from the idealistic Nongjia agriculturalism at that same period didn’t help, as it effectively favored the most successful and entrepreneurial members of the society and left a sense of worry and uncertainty in those who failed to adapt to the change. Still, despite some social implications of the banking reform still presenting a challenge, the reform itself is extremely promising. The scope of the changes it requires may take a while for it be fully accomplished, but there’s little doubt that it will do the Heavenly Kingdom (and its partners) more good than evil. (Regional quest progress: 26.85%, Taiping Mandate losses: -6.64 HC, -7.5 IC, -9.12 EC, -1.74 MC, Portugal-Brazil losses: -4.75 HC, -6.3 IC, -9.73 EC, -2.17 MC)
Q3 1895-Q2 1896: The woes of Taiyuan draft banks were relatively insignificant on the grand scheme of reforms and infrastructure changes sweeping through China, but they did attract the Heavenly Chancellery’s attention to a very real problem of a very infantile banking system across the Heavenly Kingdom. While the full variety of financial business practices (with notable exceptions of information-based economy and punchcard cryptocurencies) was already present across China, a major stigma related to money-lending still existed in the popular perception. Besides, banks from domains belonging to different Kings-Under-Heaven were badly connected, which limited the access to the banking system not only vertically, but also horizontally. Eventually, all these factors compelled the Heavenly Chancellery to step over all notions of ideological purity and embrace a more ambiguous, but pragmatic approach to All-Chinese banking regulations. Firstly, an intention was declared for the piaohao draft banks to be regulated along the lines of ethical economy, not unlike the Islamic banking that forbids riba (or usury). That idea, popular as it was, didn’t move beyond a mere declaration, as the Taiping Mandate’s economy hasn’t yet adopted the ethical model, so the state regulators lack the legal vocabulary to implement what’s been nominally declared. Where the reform has been quite successful, however, was making agricultural futures trade available to successful farming, woodcutting, and mining communities, increasing the stability and activity of the home market. Additionally, the wide scope of the reform that established an interconnected banking network across China helped to tie the common goods producers to the foreign market, all thanks to the active involvement of the Portobrazilian Banco do Orientes headquartered in Macau. Originally positioning themselves as merely advisers on the Taiping banking reform, the BdO executives quickly found their venture transformed into a conduit, through which a mass of international manufacturing, mining, and agricultural contracts for China could be processed, opening a possibility for a great deal of commercial enrichment of the Twin Crown’s banking system. Behind this major wave of promising changes, one issue so far has remained unsolved. With the principles of ethical economy being addressed only on paper, the piaohao banks failed to truly tame the anger of the proletarians and “true believers” who either blame the banks for their woes or simply refuse to accept them as an ethical compromise. The government's encouragement for the piaohao branches to greater involve with the communities and develop closer ties and trust with them did indeed produce some positive examples of cooperation… but it also made some unfortunate clerks more exposed to eruptions of violence by the angry have-not’s. Perhaps, the state’s transition away from the idealistic Nongjia agriculturalism at that same period didn’t help, as it effectively favored the most successful and entrepreneurial members of the society and left a sense of worry and uncertainty in those who failed to adapt to the change. Still, despite some social implications of the banking reform still presenting a challenge, the reform itself is extremely promising. The scope of the changes it requires may take a while for it be fully accomplished, but there’s little doubt that it will do the Heavenly Kingdom (and its partners) more good than evil. (Regional quest progress: 26.85%, Taiping Mandate losses: -6.64 HC, -7.5 IC, -9.12 EC, -1.74 MC, Portugal-Brazil losses: -4.75 HC, -6.3 IC, -9.73 EC, -2.17 MC)
Q3 1896-Q2 1897: The Taiping Mandate was torn between the need for a functional, country-wide banking system and a self-accepted moral obligation to act against abusing one’s fellow neighbor in pursuit of material wealth. Eventually, it attempted to perform several show trials, in which some arbitrarily chosen bankers (arguably, the greediest and least principled ones) were punished for giving out predatory loans and then enforcing their terms. This, of course, did nothing to establish confidence in the banking community, and soon the activity of piaohao banks greatly diminished, to a degree when even the Portobrazilian Banco do Orientes had to voice its concerns. Experts point out that without adopting a state-wide, institutionalized policy on ethical economy the Taiping authorities may never find the golden middle between social justice and financial productivity. (Regional quest progress: 92.29%, Taiping Mandate losses: -11.18 HC, -6.62 IC, -21.98 EC, -10.96 MC)
Insecticide and pest control
Spoiler :
Q3 1895-Q2 1896: Throughout the entire history of civilization, public sanitation was the main scourge of urban living. It is particularly so in China, one of the most densely populated regions on the planet. So, it come as no surprise that a conglomerate of chemical plants producing fertilizers in the Huanhe River valley introduced a new experimental production line. It output, for now not openly available on the market, is a combination of natural and artificial substances used for extermination of vermins and pests, for the benefits of agriculture or urban hygiene. While some primitive poisons (such as white vinegar) had been used against vermin insects for centuries, this new line of products attempts to make pest-killing (or pesticide) even easier, available on a more massive, industrial scale, and, notably, with little impact on human beings. The project proved so promising that a group of Portobrazilian fidalgo investors, visiting China for a different business, chose to become part of the perspective enterprise, Through them, the word spread to a Tsingtao-based chemical factory concern, which also soon became a part of the development of modern pest control substances. (Technology quest progress: 72.64%, Taiping Mandate losses: -0.5 HC, -0.1 IC, -1.15 EC, -0.75 MC, North German Federation losses: -0.47 HC, -0.14 IC, -1.23 EC. -0.99 MC, Portugal-Brazil losses: -0.66 HC, -0.18 IC, -2.01 EC, -1.43 MC)
Prefabrication and on-site assembly
Q3 1896-Q2 1897: Massive expansion of earth housing in China has raised some concerns over handling massive disasters like the earthquake of 1556. Yet, with no cheap ways to mass-produce less of a “death-trap” construction for permanent habitation, the concerns were mostly buried. Yet, now a group of civic engineers has emerged proposing to introduce a practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located. That “prefabrication” approach could allow the nation to revolutionize both housing and industrial construction - if only it could receive the government’s funds first.
Tibet-Tarim Basin
Spoiler :
Stagnant backwaters of Asia with largely unexplored resource potential and a possibility to connect Eastern Asia to the Middle East via a land route.
Q3 1896-Q2 1897: Dzungarian and Uyghurian tribes and communities are starting to coalesce once again around the Ma Dynasty, which prefectural rule has improved since its early days. (Region Tibet-Tarim Basin: Ma Dynasty gains +0.68% Regional Influence, North German Federation lloses -0.25% Regional Influence, Egypt loses -0.43% Regional Influence, Ma Dynasty losses: -1.66 HC, -1.43 IC, -2.28 EC, -0.01 MC)
Thunder Dragon’s regent
Country of Seven Cities
Justice for Tashkurgan
Q3 1896-Q2 1897: Dzungarian and Uyghurian tribes and communities are starting to coalesce once again around the Ma Dynasty, which prefectural rule has improved since its early days. (Region Tibet-Tarim Basin: Ma Dynasty gains +0.68% Regional Influence, North German Federation lloses -0.25% Regional Influence, Egypt loses -0.43% Regional Influence, Ma Dynasty losses: -1.66 HC, -1.43 IC, -2.28 EC, -0.01 MC)
Thunder Dragon’s regent
Spoiler :
Q1-Q2 1894: The nation of Bhutan has been under the Nepali vassalage ever since the Rama dynasty “prime-ministers” subjugated it to their will. Symbolized by the Thunder Dragon displayed on its banner, that small Himalayan nation has been for centuries split between administrative and ecclesiastical rule of penlops (governors) and dzongpens (lords of monastery-fortresses). This system, once manageable in a divided and backward country like Bhutan, gave rise to a series of civil wars that’d lasted throughout most of the 19th century. However, now this seems to be changing. A farsighted Buddhist statesmen, one Ugyen Wangchuck, has used the weakness of the Nepali Rama dynasty to start solidifying the rag-tag realm of Bhutan under one royal rule - his rule. Ugyen Wangchuck’s war to eliminate Bhutan’s traditional dual system of government is still ongoing, but it already presents a question to Bhutan’s Indostani protectors: how should they react?
Country of Seven Cities
Spoiler :
1890: In the early days of the Dungan Rebellion that freed the peoples of the Tarim Basin from the power of the Qing, seven cities formed an urban confederation known as Yettishar. Now that the Tarim Basin up to Kashgaria has bowed to the resurgent Ma Dynasty, the Seven Cities remain a proud autonomy within the otherwise traditionally Chinese (albeit, Islamic) Ma kingdom. So far, no significant conflicts have taken places between Yettishar and Ma Dynasty’s ambahns (supervisors), but the peoples of the Seven Cities remain a proudly distinct entity in the body of the new kingdom.
Justice for Tashkurgan
Spoiler :
Q3-Q4 1894: The town of Tashkurgan is a capital of a feudal petty kingdom of Sarikol located in the Pamir mountains and formally recognizing the Ma Dynasty’s authority. Populated with Sarikoli and Wakhi people (Sinicized Mountain Tajiks), this small realm has historically been an alcove of the Aga Khani Nizari Ismaili sect of Shia Islam, known for its egalitarian, pragmatic, and positivist views on faith and social justice. This naturally made Sarikol a hotbed of Basmachi agitation, as various Islamic socialist scholars easily enter the mountain region from neighboring Bukhara, proselytising a utopian view of world without borders and wealth inequality. The remaining question is, will the Ma Emperor wish to take a risk and suppress this new movement, when hard-won peace has just been recently achieved in his lands.
Greater Mongolia
Spoiler :
Stagnant, vast region on the edge of the larger Chinese civilization, with inconsistent economic and demographic development.
Q3 1896-Q2 1897: The Ma Dynasty seems to be turning around the trend of its gradual decline, starting to regain its authority among the Mongolian clans and Hui Muslims. (Region Greater Mongolia: Ma Dynasty gains +1.73% Regional Influence, Egypt loses -1.64% Regional Influence, Taiping Mandate loses -0.11% Regional Influence, Ma Dynasty losses: -5.4 HC, -4.64 IC, -7.41 EC, -0.03 MC)
Congress of clans
Seekers of White Waters
Kansu Braves
Q3 1896-Q2 1897: The Ma Dynasty seems to be turning around the trend of its gradual decline, starting to regain its authority among the Mongolian clans and Hui Muslims. (Region Greater Mongolia: Ma Dynasty gains +1.73% Regional Influence, Egypt loses -1.64% Regional Influence, Taiping Mandate loses -0.11% Regional Influence, Ma Dynasty losses: -5.4 HC, -4.64 IC, -7.41 EC, -0.03 MC)
Congress of clans
Spoiler :
1890: Ever since the Ma Dynasty incorporated Mongolian steppes into its fold, the Emperor has had to maneuver between traditional Chinese authoritarianism and the Mongolian tradition of feudal parliamentarism. Known as chigulgan, that assembly of steppe clan leaders seems to be deeply suspicious of Western technologies and what they can do to the Mongolian nomadic way of life. Dependent on the chigulgan’s support to control the vast steppe in the north of his kingdom, the Ma Emperor now has to constantly trade favors with Mongolian clan leaders in order to gain their support for his agenda.
Seekers of White Waters
Spoiler :
1890: The Tuvan sub-state of Tannu Uriankhai has been formally independent for five hundred years, ever since they Sino-Mongolian Yuan dynasty fell apart. In truth, however, it’s been a protectorate of the Siberian Popular Assembly for the past twenty years, with its rulers being puppets of Siberian artels (or guilds). However, outside of Russian trading posts, Tannu Uriankhai had no foreign population in its lands. Recently this changed, as columns of religious exodites started settling in this wild, mountain region. Known as the Seekers of White Waters, these Russian settlers are followers of a local branch of Old Believers (who, in turn, are a splinter, heretical faction of the Russian Orthodox church). Inter-racial clashes have so far been rare, but the ruler of Tannu Uriankhai is not happy, as the newcomers appear to be very hard to negotiate with in terms of choosing the lands for them to settle. After all, the Seekers believe that they’re searching for a hidden bliss-giving creek, a mixture between a Siberian Eldorado and the Biblical Holy Land.
Kansu Braves
Spoiler :
Q3-Q4 1894: At the height of the Jindandao rebellion, the Chinese Muslim population of Inner Mongolia couldn’t always rely on Ma soldiers to protect them. While in some provinces the local Muslim population was expelled from its lands en masse, in the land of Kansu local Hui, Salar, Dongxiang, and Bonan peoples united and formed a potent paramilitary organization, known as the Kansu Braves. Now that the fighting is over, many of the experienced Braves struggle to return to normal life and seek some sort of military employment. However, the Ma Dynasty’s advisers are afraid that incorporating the Kansu Braves can reignite anti-Muslim sentiments among local Han settlers. Foreign employment may also be an option, if one were to forget that the Braves despise the Taiping regime. Meanwhile, some of the more farsighted observers suggest that the province of Kansu is a perfect location for building up a proper industrial center for the Ma Realm, as cheap human labor is plentiful here.
Korea-Manchuria
Spoiler :
Slowly-developing, recently devastated region with a wide, but stagnant labor market, and big, but not fully utilized resource potential.
Udege woes
Little Korea
Q3 1896-Q2 1897: The administration of Nippon Tōchi no Chōsen (“Korea under Japanese government”) was acutely aware of the danger of letting the Kando region to become a haven for Nokrimdang remnants and a hotbed of Jopok criminal organizations. Yet, Resident-General Itō Hirobumi correctly judged the risks of Tokugawa forces openly operating in that already disputed region that existed in diplomatic and legal limbo. So, in order to not provoke the Taiping Mandate, he went for a softer and rather well-planned out approach of establishing a network of pro-Tokugawa spies (most of them Korean collaborators) in “Little Korea,” acting as an early warning and prophylactics system for any sort of anti-Japanese conspiracies or criminal gatherings (in fact, the sheer size of this network made it very hard to keep the entire operation under the cover). Simultaneously, Tokugawa border guard units were deployed safely to the east of the Tumen river, far enough to indicate no interest of disputing the already blurry border by the Shogunate. Within a few months, a number of suspected conspirators and petty criminal bosses were caught and smuggled out of Kamdo/Jiandao into Korea, where the most of them cracked under the Kempeitai interrogation. The only true stain on this otherwise fully successful counterintelligence operation was the harm done to quite a few Korean families that were either falsely accused of Donghak sympathies or that were not allowed to perform shuttle trading trips to and from Little Korea, diminishing that region’s ability to sustain its population. (Regional quest completed with mixed success, region Korea-Manchuria gains -5 HC, +5 IC, Tokugawa Shogunate gains +2% Regional Influence, Taiping Mandate loses -2% Regional Influence, Tokugawa Shogunate losses: -2.97 HC, -2.64 IC, -4.52 EC, -1.07 MC)
Butchers and basket weavers
Infrastructure of Chōsen
Udege woes
Spoiler :
Q3 1895-Q2 1896: The Wisuli region of the Tokugawa Shogunate has been historically populated by hunting and fishing tribes of Udege, Nanai, and Taz people. Before the arrival of the Japanese colonial administration, they, when possible, lived in isolation from the greater Chinese world (being a formal part of the Qing Empire), but gradually these communities of trappers fell into the nets of Manchu creditors and influential fur traders. Illiterate and financially naive, many Udege and Taz trappers didn’t understand the value of paper money and mostly counted them by the number of bills and not their value. In addition, they had little knowledge of real dangers of Chinese opium or Russian hard liquor, and many had succumbed to such “gifts” over the last three decades of growing contact with the “civilized world.” Unfortunately, the arrival of the Japanese upon the purchase of the region from the Taiping Mandate change little in that attitude. Chinese creditors are still powerful in the Wisuli region, and their Japanese (and often Korean kkangpae) counterparts are no better. This gradual collapse of the Udege and Taz clan society is given a rise to all sorts of spiteful tales among the bitter Japanese settlers, who are happy that the better adopted natives fail at everything else. Meanwhile, the natives themselves are starting to seek answers to their misery. Only a few choose to accept Nipponization and adapt to living in a greater Japanese society. Instead, some form poacher gangs, often working for North-Chinese criminal syndicates. Meanwhile, others start a gradual trek nortward, to find a promised land in Pacific Siberia - that is, if the way of their forefathers can be preserved at all.
Little Korea
Spoiler :
Q2 1895-Q3 1896: The Jiandao region (also known to the Koreans as Kando) is an area of Manchuria densely populated by ethnic Koreans since the Qing-Joseon border was agreed to run along the Tumen river in the early 18th century. Since then, however, many changes have occurred. Firstly, the Tumen river briefly went underground before emerging in a different watercourse, deeper in the Qing (and now Taiping) territory. Secondly, thousands of Korean refugees had moved to Jiandao in the second part of the 19th century, following first the quakes of the Donghak Revolution and then the Japanese invasion of Korea. The recent cracking down on the post-Donghak banditry only increased this stream of refugees, and now Jiandao is dominantly Korean and quickly growing in population density. Some people speculate that many of the anti-Tokugawa troublemakers even use Kando as their haven, preparing anti-Shogunate operations from an ambiguous safety of this enclave.
Q3 1896-Q2 1897: The administration of Nippon Tōchi no Chōsen (“Korea under Japanese government”) was acutely aware of the danger of letting the Kando region to become a haven for Nokrimdang remnants and a hotbed of Jopok criminal organizations. Yet, Resident-General Itō Hirobumi correctly judged the risks of Tokugawa forces openly operating in that already disputed region that existed in diplomatic and legal limbo. So, in order to not provoke the Taiping Mandate, he went for a softer and rather well-planned out approach of establishing a network of pro-Tokugawa spies (most of them Korean collaborators) in “Little Korea,” acting as an early warning and prophylactics system for any sort of anti-Japanese conspiracies or criminal gatherings (in fact, the sheer size of this network made it very hard to keep the entire operation under the cover). Simultaneously, Tokugawa border guard units were deployed safely to the east of the Tumen river, far enough to indicate no interest of disputing the already blurry border by the Shogunate. Within a few months, a number of suspected conspirators and petty criminal bosses were caught and smuggled out of Kamdo/Jiandao into Korea, where the most of them cracked under the Kempeitai interrogation. The only true stain on this otherwise fully successful counterintelligence operation was the harm done to quite a few Korean families that were either falsely accused of Donghak sympathies or that were not allowed to perform shuttle trading trips to and from Little Korea, diminishing that region’s ability to sustain its population. (Regional quest completed with mixed success, region Korea-Manchuria gains -5 HC, +5 IC, Tokugawa Shogunate gains +2% Regional Influence, Taiping Mandate loses -2% Regional Influence, Tokugawa Shogunate losses: -2.97 HC, -2.64 IC, -4.52 EC, -1.07 MC)
Butchers and basket weavers
Spoiler :
Q1-Q2 1895: Traditionally, a social stratus of Baekjeong was a group of “untouchables” of the Korean society, having originated from communities of Tatar people that migrated to the peninsula in the Middle Ages. Mistrusted by the Joson dynasty, they were subjects of an absurd number of humiliating regulations and were almost entirely excluded from the kingdom’s commerce and economy, with only two industries - butchery and basket weaving - being reserved to the Baekjeong. The Donghak Revolution, however, energized this group of people, who were perceived by Korean commoners (the yangmins) as being not too different from themselves. When the Donghak state got crushed by the Tokugawa Shogunate, the Baekjeong returned to their isolated life of social pariahs, but suddenly found themselves much more trusted by the majority of the Koreans (who finally had somebody else to blame for their problems). In fact, the few remaining Kkangpae gangs are controlled primarily by the Baekjeong, and it turns this group of people into new Korean patriots in the eyes of many liberty-seekers. Whoever hasn’t joined the Donghak remnants seems to be playing with another dangerous idea: Taiping Christianity. After all, the idea of spiritual egalitarianism and social messianism spread by the Hong-worshippers is extremely attractive for the people whose entire ancestry was treated as outcasts and unworthy untouchables.
Q2 1895-Q3 1896: To a big surprise for many Japanese and foreign experts, the Tokugawa administration of Korean territories was instructed to push for enfranchisement and often even elevation of the Baekjeong “untouchables” within the Korean society. By doing so, the Bakufu apparatus hoped to remove social support from the Jopok/Kkangpae criminal organizations, essentially using the centuries-old “the whip or the carrot” trick. Unfortunately, the pen-and-sword bureaucracy failed to take into account that an almost identical cast segregation existed in the Japanese society as well, with outcast Burakumin (“hamlet people”) often merging with Korean migrants of the same social origin. This unleashed an entire slew of problems, with mutually exclusive attitudes existing in two quickly coalescing societies. In many cases, it meant that Japanese Burakumin communities started to use their inclusion of Baekjeong members (sometimes even paid grooms or wives) as a way to justify stepping out of the centuries-old social taboos in the Home Islands. Meanwhile, in Korea many Baekjeong continued being treated the same was as before by Tokugawa magistrates and regular citizens of Japanese origin - if not worse, since their suspected Donghak and kkangpae affiliations quickly became a source of bitter rumors. All in all, the damage has already been done, but something good might come out of it nonetheless, if only the Bakufu regime could finally resolve this Gordian knot of contradictions by either reversing this controversial policy or reforming itself to recognize legal pluralism within its sprawling colonial empire. (Regional quest progress: 54.26%, Tokugawa Shogunate losses: -7.64 HC, -4.71 IC, -9.26 EC, -2.19 MC)
Q2 1895-Q3 1896: To a big surprise for many Japanese and foreign experts, the Tokugawa administration of Korean territories was instructed to push for enfranchisement and often even elevation of the Baekjeong “untouchables” within the Korean society. By doing so, the Bakufu apparatus hoped to remove social support from the Jopok/Kkangpae criminal organizations, essentially using the centuries-old “the whip or the carrot” trick. Unfortunately, the pen-and-sword bureaucracy failed to take into account that an almost identical cast segregation existed in the Japanese society as well, with outcast Burakumin (“hamlet people”) often merging with Korean migrants of the same social origin. This unleashed an entire slew of problems, with mutually exclusive attitudes existing in two quickly coalescing societies. In many cases, it meant that Japanese Burakumin communities started to use their inclusion of Baekjeong members (sometimes even paid grooms or wives) as a way to justify stepping out of the centuries-old social taboos in the Home Islands. Meanwhile, in Korea many Baekjeong continued being treated the same was as before by Tokugawa magistrates and regular citizens of Japanese origin - if not worse, since their suspected Donghak and kkangpae affiliations quickly became a source of bitter rumors. All in all, the damage has already been done, but something good might come out of it nonetheless, if only the Bakufu regime could finally resolve this Gordian knot of contradictions by either reversing this controversial policy or reforming itself to recognize legal pluralism within its sprawling colonial empire. (Regional quest progress: 54.26%, Tokugawa Shogunate losses: -7.64 HC, -4.71 IC, -9.26 EC, -2.19 MC)
Infrastructure of Chōsen
Spoiler :
Q2 1895-Q3 1896: Hoping to properly integrate Korea into the greater Tokugawa domain, the authorities of Nippon Tōchi-jidai no Chōsen (Japanese possession of Korea) invested heavily into expansion of port infrastructure in Pusan (Busan), Jinsen (Incheon), and Pokan (Pohang). From these harbors, a series of railway lines were built, extending to to the main population centers and resource mines, sometimes using the high-speed, air-line infrastructure used in the Home Islands, and sometimes (mostly in the mountains) sticking to good old, slope-hugging railway routes. Army and naval units assigned to protecting the project’s assets and providing limited labor mostly found nothing to do, given the high complexity of the infrastructure being build, and the administrative assets dedicated to this infrastructure improvement also had only a limited impact, providing security to the construction sites and, where possible, raising private funds for the effort. The latter action provided only limited results, as the public remained critical of the investment return on this project, given the poor state of Korean industry and even mining infrastructure. (Regional quest progress: 63.73%, Tokugawa Shogunate losses: -2.94 HC, -1.72 IC, -6.86 EC, -4.54 MC)
