You all laughed at Ming.
At the founding of our dynasty in 1368, Ming was a powerful nation, feared by all other meek and poor "nations" as they so styled themselves. Indeed, this was true. Economically - no power on earth could match us. Militarily - no power on earth could match us. Culturally - we were the most artistic and linguistic power on earth. The three factions that vied for power in the court of the Emperor were locked in constant struggle, with bureaucrats, monks and traders playing the dangerous political games that infested the Emperor's life. Despite the petty strugglings of these three factions, the Ming emperors continued to spread our vast influence to nearby nations. One nation ruled the islands to our south and was singled out to be given chests and wagons laden with arms, armour and gold. These were the main focus of the Ming economy for many decades, when in 1470, they underwent dramatic structural changes to their nation and formed the great nation of Malaya. Finally, a worthy ally to the Chinese people.
Malaya proved strategically useful for the Emperor. To circumvent the restrictiveness of his court, he requested Malaya to declare war on both Korea and the Manchu, two rival dynasties, allowing Ming to step in to save their allies from the
terrible onslaught of Manchurians. Their navies were sunk, the Korean people annexed and the Manchurian nobles stripped of over half of their land. Any rivals to the great Ming dynasty had been crushed by overwhelming numbers and supreme strategy. Truly, Ming was the most glorious on Earth.
As the years went by, and the 15th century slid into the 16th, Ming continued the conquest of Manchuria and the remainder of the Korean peninsula. The Pacific was the playground of the Chinese people, who now enjoyed unrestricted access to the Japanese trade, after Ming marines and sailors defeated and looted the Wokou pirates' lairs. Temples were built, great centres of learning and culture were built and traders flooded the capital of Nanjing, selling their wares for the money of the wealthy. Ming grew fat off of the trade in chinaware, bolts of cloth and caravans of wheat. Disaster was just around the corner, however. First Malaya, a people priding themselves on their naval prowess, were driven from the island of the Andamans by a people that they said used "boom boom sticks". These reports were dismissed as scaremongering and were promptly ignored. Then a new nation, that of Hindustan, also gave the Emperor reports of a tall race of metal men with boom boom sticks. They claimed to have been robbed of their islands and had fortunately managed to defend themselves, but at a great price. The Emperor began to worry about these island stealers and began construction of naval vessels and large siege weapons to beat back the enemy fleets and their cargoes of metal men.
A strange people of fair skin and brown hair landed in the port of Macau in 1516. They came with what appeared to be magical weaponry that made huge noises and decimated every army and sunk every fleet that we could throw at them. We had no option but to give in to their gunboat diplomacy and the island of Macau was handed over to the so-called Portchugees. This must have been the same people that attacked Hindustan and Malaya. A pact was drawn up between these three countries, who vowed to drive the infidel from Asia.
A stroke of luck befell the Ming dynasty in the months following. An ambitious trader with access to the secrets of these supposedly magical weapons and incredibly well built boats approached the court of the Emperor, offering the Empire these weapons in return for 500 ducats. In a flurry of desperation, the Emperor graciously accepted this deal, marking the Ming coffers without profit for that year.
The current Emperor was old and decrepit, yet he now knew the secret of these Westerners. Plans were discussed back and forth in court. Statesmen and bureaucrats argued for many weeks, until finally the orders were given. Messengers ran to the furthest corners of the Empire, from the trading companies in Kyoto, to the Buddhist temples of Guangzhou and to Pyongyang and Ningxia. Temples were torn down in a wave of unrest as the people were enlightened by new education policies, but it was all in the drive for innovation. Provincial governors were stolen from their beds as they slept, and their families dumped in the Yellow River with their throats and bellies filled with lead. Such was the cost of centralisation.
As the 16th century reached the mid-way mark, Ming finally took the leap that would lead into the modern age. Technology raced ahead of its neighbours as universities were built and the great minds of the West immigrated to Nanjing and Beijing to continue their research for the benefit of the State. It took 10 years for Ming to declare their willingness to fight for Asia publicly. Scandinavia offered military access to the Chinese and 66,000 Chinese musketeers stood poised to attack the British Isles, to demand the handing over of Aceh, the Maldives and the Andamans.
The Ming generals and indeed the Ming emperor himself grew cocky with the new technology. He truly believed himself to be the rival of the Western nations and styled himself the Bane of the West. The invasion of the British Isles began in earnest, with 33,000 men landing in the Highlands and a further 33,000 waiting in Oslo and Trøndelag, to disembark two months later in Yorkshire. The invasion failed due to intervention by the "Frensh" and a full two thirds of the entire invading force was wiped out. The lucky few who remained were given orders to never return home after the Emperor denounced them as cowards and fools, to be killed on sight should they return to the Motherland. The majority took their own lives, the rest set upon by the foul British people, never to be seen again.
It took a mere 15 years for an entirely new invasion force to be readied for the crushing of the British. The troops landed in the Azores and from there a diplomat spoke to the King of the French, who declared his support for the crushing of the British heretics. The two-faced craven then sent a loan of 300 ducats to help the British war effort, but they were defeated all the same. All Asian lands, including Macau, were handed back to their rightful owners and the British were forced to release the fearsome Scottish as an independent nation. It is said that the Scots yelled "FREEEEEDOOOOM" in celebration so loud that even the Holy Roman Emperor heard the shout from his palace in Austria.
The Russian menace was stopped from advancing too close to the important parts of the Motherland by the aggressive colonisation efforts of the Manchurian explorers. We believed at first that they were Westerners but as time went on it seemed that their culture was remarkably different. It would seem that the world would be divided by the three power blocs of the Northerners, Westerners and Easterners, headed by Russia, France and China respectively.
Back in China, a policy of isolation was adopted. Weapons factories, ship factories, conscription centres and textile factories were built at huge cost across the land, the fires of industry heating the cities and bringing new life to the people. Farms, mines and trading practices were overhauled and built from the ground up, in order to increase efficiency, and many bureaucrats were needed to draft the new legislation that increased the productive output of the Chinese economy. Would be colonists from the wealthy southern lands of Guangzhou and the opportunistic sailors of Hainan and Macau headed to the islands that the Portchugees had called the "Philippinesh", and the natives were exterminated to make way for a peaceful Chinese population that could trade the spice from the islands back to Nanjing.
The final decree of the late Ming Emperor was the invasion of Japan. Over the past 50 years the islands to the North of Japan had been colonised in order to take advantage of the large fish stocks to feed the masses of the mainland, as they grew tired of the wheat and rice based diet that they had been fed for the past 200 years. They were now used as a staging ground to invade the Japanese island chain and a massive invasion of 40,000 musketeers leapt into the fray, conquering Kyoto and making their way towards the most Easterly nation. The Shogun was executed and thrown to the pigs. The Shogunate was disbanded and the two of the four Daimyos were annexed outright by Ming.
Ming at the height of its Empire, in the year of our Lord 1618.
China will be victorious
Protector Domesticus
Re: European game IV
Primicerius
Vicarius
Campidoctor
Originally Posted by Ynen
Campidoctor
lol
The Screen Door Slams
Bloodthirsty Lunatic
out of everything in the pacific and now moving to southern Africa.
Civitate
Northman™
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
