Ayutthaya - The March of the Elephant

Chapter 24b - Rama I (fl 1787 - fl 1790)

An Inauspicious Beginning

The war in the west did not begin well. The Sultan of Delhi had shrewdly used the period of peace to construct a large warfleet in Gujarat, and he ordered it south even before war was declared. The Indian squadron of the Ayutthayan Navy, patrolling off Bombay, found itself engaged by superior numbers and was defeated with losses (1). Shortly afterward, the Bombay field force, attempting to raid the Sultan's lands, was ambushed in the Malwa hills and driven back to Ayutthayan territory, where it could not stand against further enemy forces coming down from the north. The Sultan poured in troops, more than fifty thousand of them, and overran the province. The citadel of Bombay - new defences and all - was stormed in June, and the remnants of the Bombay field force had to be evacuated by sea from Goa. Ayutthayan forces were now reduced to making harassing attacks on enemy detachments and stragglers. Most of these minor actions were successful, but by no means all, as the Sultan's Great Fleet wrought havoc along the coast.

In China, things were only somewhat better. Rama I attempted to repeat the successful strategy of the previous war, sending an army from Guizhou north-east through Ming territory to besiege Beijing. This time the Qing were prepared - the Northern Army was met by a substantial enemy force in Henan and its advance was halted in bitter fighting. The eastern forces had an easier time, advancing down the Yangtze to lay siege to Nanchang and Nanjing, while the cavalry swept up Qing militia in the southlands and then turned north to aid the Northern Army. Even at sea, the Kingdom did not have things all its own way, the Qing fleets finding the opportunity - and the nerve - to land a raiding force in Taiwan in July and surprising an Ayutthayan fleet off Shanghai a few weeks later.

Lack of success on the battlefield translated into loss of support at home. In the summer of 1787, the Viceroy of New Ayutthaya and the governors of several island provinces took advantage of the King's distraction to assert the primacy of their own ordinances over those of the Assembly in Bangkok (2). Domestic malcontents were also inspired, and the Muslims of Ajeh rose once again in rebellion before the end of the year (3). At the same time, Dai Viet was - most inopportunely - plunged into the chaos of the so-called 'Tay Son' rebellion (4). The Vietnamese 'Emperor' loudly declared his intention to crush the rebels, but apparently did not communicate his priorities with sufficient clarity to the commander of hs main army, who proceeded to waste the lives of his men in a futile assault on Hong Kong in November. Following this setback, Ayutthaya's allies, despite generous inducements from the Treasury, played little further part in the war.

Nevetheless, the King's strategy was beginning to come together. Supported by the cavalry, the Northern Army eventually broke through the Qing lines in Henan, and Beijng was finally reached in October. Meanwhile, the Navy had acquired superiority over the Qing fleets off the eastern coast, and a reserve army had been shipped in from Borneo to besiege Shanghai. The first fruits of success were finally tasted in December, with the capture of Nanchang.

A Breathing Space

1788 began with news from Europe that Austria and Russia had once again partitioned Poland. Two months later, word came from England of the success of the Continental Congress (the English resolutely refused to explain what the Continental Congress was - except that it was something to do with the no-longer-revolting-colonies in America - and it was some years before Ayutthaya's diplomats discovered the truth). There was leisure to attend to these matters because the war had entered a quiet phase. The sieges progressed, skirmishes were won against Delhi on sea and the Qing on land, but neither side attempted major operations. Rama I even had time to sign a grant of provincial status for the colony of Ekimcan and to authorise yet another attempt to assimilate the Ajeh Muslims (5).

The War Returns

The first significant fighting of the year came far from the main front - and the news was no better for it. A reserve army, attempting to disperse the rebels in southern Dai Viet, who were threatening to overrun the whole south Vietnamese coast, was heavily defeated and forced back to Laos. Operations in China in the following months were more successful, with victories for the cavalry in Kowloon, Shangdong and Jiangsu, and the capture of Nanjing in August. The Qing responded quickly, however, sending a large army south from Lanzhou to besiege the key Ayuthayan stronghold of Guiyang. It was decided not to withdraw forces from the Chinese front to deal with this new threat, leaving it to the new armies being formed in Ayutthaya proper. Instead the victors of Nanjing advanced further East and laid siege to Hangzhou in Zhejiang.

The autumn produced a string of stinging defeats at the hands of the Sultan of Delhi's Great Fleet, and news of a new war in Europe (Genoa and Austria against Sweden and England). The first attempt to relieve Guiyang was defeated by the Qing in November, but this setback was outweighed by the capture of Beijing in the same month. The forces of Delhi, however, remained in the ascendant in India, and year's end brought news of an army fifty thousand strong assaulting the walls of Goa.

Interesting Times

Early 1789 brought an outbreak of peace - in Portugal, who paid off the Songhai; in England, who paid off Mecklenburg, in Poland (obviously not sufficiently partitioned), who paid of Bohemia - and in Ming-ruled China, whose Emperor allowed himself to be bought off by the Qing (6). Meanwhile the Sultan of Delhi's army had failed to breach the walls of Goa, and the Ayutthayan Navy at last attained a measure of superiority over the Great Fleet. Spring saw the Qing send an army south from the Manchu heartland in an attempt to recapture Beijing. The Ayutthayan Northern Army broke off the siege of Yanzhou in Jiangsu and marched north to face this new threat.

It was apparently an interesting year in Europe, with both Sweden and France experiencing major upheavals. The Russians apparently attempted to meddle in Sweden's problems in Finland, though what influence the Czar thought he couald exert on provinces hundreds of miles from his border remains unclear (7). The Swedes were moved to accept a peace offer from Saxony, but otherwise ignored him.

It was an interesting year in China, too, and despite the defection of the Ming, Ayutthayan fortunes continued to improve. In May, as the French General Estates demanded economic and social reforms, Hanzhou fell to Ayutthaya, and the Northern Army broke the seige of Beijing and drove the Qing north. By July, as the turmoil in France culminated in outright revolution and the subjection of the monarchy to a new constitution (partly based on Phya Taksin's Constitution of 1770) (8), the armies of the Qing had suffered three further defeats and Hong Kong was under siege.

So Much For Plans

The next trouble hit from a wholly unanticipated direction. The previous year had seen a brief border dispute with the Khazaks (9) on the edge of Siberia. It was quickly settled and nothing more was thought of it - until the summer of 1789, when reports reached the West Siberian governors that large numbers of Kazak nomads had moved north with their herds and were grazing them on Ayutthayan territory. On being challenged by Ayutthayan forces, they claimed that grazing rights had been granted by the Ayutthayan government as part of the previous year's negotiations. Furious that foreigners had been granted special rights in their territories - and without their even being notified - the governors lost no time in protesting to Bangkok, only for the Foreign Office to insist by return that no such rights had ever been granted. For their part, the Khazaks produced documents - or at least convincing forgeries - showing that they had indeed been granted permission to act as they did. Everyone blamed everyone else, the Foreign Minister, the Ambassador to the Khazaks and several minor functionaries were eventually forced to retire, and Ayutthaya's diplomatic service was paralysed for months (10).

The army, however, was not paralysed, and the great prize of Qing China - Shanghai - was secured in October. The trading companies and their agents were also active, and Ayutthaya's trade actually increased during the war - a function, no doubt, of the extinction of Qing trade in the China Seas. However, it was the near-unanimous opinion of the Assembly that a campaign in western China or in Manchuria would not be profitable, and that there was no further benefit in prolonging the war (11). The King agreed.

Rama I was in no position to arrange a complex political settlement, even if he had had a mind to. His demands were simple - Shanghai province (12), with its great metropolis which dominated the trade of Eastern China. His armies shattered, the Qing emperor had no choice but to agree.

Shanghai is conquered, 1790


Shortly afterward, a peace was also agreed with the Sultan of Delhi, who had likewise come to the conclusion that further conflict would serve no purpose (the Ming Emperor, refusing to be bound by Ayutthayan decisions, would remain nominally at war with Delhi for two more years) (13). Rama I's first order of peacetime was to further strengthen the fortifications of Bombay.

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Notes
(1) Who says the AI can't learn from experience? Delhi hit me with 26 ships (vs 10) and I lost half my warships in India in the first battle.
(2) Non-Enforcement of Ordinances, August 1787. (-1 Centralisation, to 3).
(3) ... and another Missionary fails in Ajeh.
(4) Perfect timing... <rolleyes> Dai Viet would spend the next few years dealing with mass numbers of rebels.
(5) Chance of success fo the latest Missionary now 23%
(6) For 225 ducats. Grr....
(7) The Swedish 'Act of Union & Security' and the 'Anjala League'. Russia promised independence to the Finnish nobiliy despite being - in this universe - nowhere near Finland.
(8) The French Revolution event produced 'Constitutional Monarchy'. Looks like the Republic events didn't fire.
(9) Boundary Dispute with Khazaks, August 1788. I settled.
(10) Scandal at Court, August 1789. -50 Relations with Khazaks; Monarch's Diplomatic skill -4 for 4 months. Did I mention my plans required diplo-vassalising China before the end of the year?
(11) Because, despite having +99% warscore, I still couldn't force-vassalise the Manchu. <gritted teeth>
The only thing I can think of is that I didn't control their capital (which is in Manchuria, with a medium fort and a support level of 6).
(12) Plan A having failed, I decided to go for what I could get in China. 99% warscore (and no dip skill) meant I could only guarantee getting Shanghai or two non-CoT provinces. I didn't have time or diplomats to waste having offers rejected if I still wanted to diplovassalise (Ming) China.
(13) Of course, when my monarch's Diplomacy skill came back (four days before the end of 1789), I realised that China - thanks to that <deleted> separate peace with Manchu - was still at war with Delhi and I couldn't even try to vassalise them. <expletives deleted. Many, many, expletives deleted.>

jwolf - Piece of cake? Yes, but I was playing for the whole cake.
Director - I wasn't actually looking forward to a war with Russia - maybe it was the 'None of it belongs to Mother Russia' quote that made you think so. For a start, all I could possibly gain from fighting the Russians would be dirt-poor Muslim/Mongol provinces in Central Asia. But I did think I could handle them - Russia has lost the north to Sweden and the Black Sea region to various unlikely opponents, and I had the forts and the Land tech advantage and the Siberian winter...

Chapter 24c - Rama I (fl 1790 - fl 1795)

Apologies for the delay in updating - I was ill last week and things sort of got away from me.

A Brief Interlude of Peace

With the Qing soundly defeated and their Indian allies at least temporarily pacified, all Ayutthaya looked forward to a period of peace. The armies were withdrawn from China (except for the necessary garrison in Shanghai), surplus soldiers were demobilised and the economy returned to a peacetime footing. Trade returned with a vengeance (1), while domestically the year 1790 was so tranquil that Rama I felt secure in lending one of his remaining armies to the Vietnamese, to assist in dispossessing the Chinese rebels who had taken control of Canton during the Tay Son disturbances (2). From the Siberian frontier came news of fresh settlement in Chilka (after the necessary pacification of hostile tribesmen in January) and a population boom in far-off Nerchiinsk (3).

Peace was breaking out in other lands as well - Bohemia had paid indemnities to end her war with Sweden late in 1789 and Mecklenburg would follow in June of 1790. The French abandoned their latest American war (against the Shawnee and Iroqouis) in April and gave themselves up to the enjoyment of peace for a full six months before declaing the next (against the Dakota) late in the year. There was even peace for the Ottoman Empire, though since it came at the price of six provinces (Rumelia, Daghestan & Quattara to the Mamelukes and and Macedonia, Sinai & Nuyssaybin to Persia), the Great Porte may not have thought it worth the cost. Meanwhile, the talk of Europe was all of the romantic young musician, Ludwig van Beethoven, and his performances at the court of the so-called Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold II.

When I annexed Annam, I got some better maps of western Asia. Here, Russia and Persia.
(The blue in Azov and Georgia is Sweden; the grey in Crimea is Mecklenburg!)


The frivolity came to an abrupt end at the start of 1791, when the Russians once again declared war on the Ayutthayan Alliance. No reason was given, other than some laughable claim to Siberia, which they affected to believe had been granted them by a long-dead Chinese Emperor of the Old Ming.

Bear Rampant

Following their experience in the Three Frontiers' War, both the Kingdom's military commanders in Siberia and the local civilian administrators had sought to build up their forces and the defenses of the border settlements. Backed by the formidable terrain and the even more formidable Siberian climate these were, they believed, the equal of anything the Europeans could throw at them. Once again, they had underestimated the willingness of the Czar to spend the lives of his subjects.

At first, it all went well. The Army of Siberia penetrated south into Nura and overwhelmed the local Russian field force before it could be reinforced. Rather than invest the city, they continued south to set a trap for the reinforcements, who were still hurrying north in ignorance of the fate of their comrades. It came as an unpleasant surprise to discover that these Russians were significantly better equipped than thos the Kingdom had faced a few years earlier, but the Kingdom's soldiers were still superior in both training and discipline and the Russian regiments were broken with heavy casualties. The Ayutthayan cavalry charged in pursuit of the fugitives - and ran straight into a second, much larger, Russian army advancing northward. Extricating themselves with difficulty, they could only withdraw in the face of the tens of thousands of Russians now pouring into the border regions.

The Russian build-up surpassed even the stories of Old China. When war was declared in January, they had fewer than five thousand men on the frontier; in February, they send fifteen thousand men to face the Kingdom's troops in Nura; by March, Russian forces in Nura, Aralsk and Karsak exceeded sixty thousand. When in April the Russians made their first move across the border, their General Suvorov led more than seventy thousand men and almost two hundred cannon against Karaganda.

Too Much of a Good Thing - Suvorov on the Border, 1791


Russian losses to hunger, exposure and disease were little short of staggering, and Suvorov's exposed position in Karaganda allowed the Ayutthayan commanders hope of outflanking him through Nura and cutting his exposed supply lines. But not only did a continuous stream of reinforcements come over the steppe to bolster the army before Karaganda, but another Russian horde, almost as massive as the first, advanced on Turgai from the south. With both fortresses beset and no relief in sight, it was obvious by midsummer that the campaign was lost. The diplomats were called on, and massive indemnities (4), plus a vague promise to reconsider Russian claims in Siberia, persuaded the Czar to loose his death grip on the Karaganda spur. Suvorov and his hordes vanished back into the Russian wastes - to find a European war to get killed in, Ayutthayans fervently hoped - and the defenders of the Ural frontier set about restoring their army's shattered morale and rebuilding their battered fortresses.

Peace, Again.

The second coming of peace was more turbulent than the first. The governors of the frontier provinces - and the old nobles of the borderlands - used the Russian war to press their claims for primacy against the Assembly, claiming that the failures of the Kingdom's armies in India and Siberia showed the folly of trying to govern so great a realm from Bangkok. The Assembly's authority was diminished in the wake of the Russian war and Rama I found it best to finesse the problem, promising a measure more freedom to the provinces, of course only with the agreement of the Assembly, which might be obtained in time. By the time it finally came before the Assembly, the matter had already begun to dissipate in a maze of minor faction squabbles, and neither side had quite the strength to press the issue (5). Open conflict was averted, but the stability of the Kingdom was disturbed for some time (Rianat Chapawan, typically, was able to extract further support for his plantations in the eastern islands (6)). In the confusion, the Muslims of Ajeh once again took the opportunity to revolt, and were put down with severity (7).

But despite all this, the years that followed were good ones. Trade continued to prosper (8), settlement continued in the North, the borders were secure. Turned away from the Karaganda Spur by the threat of the armies of the Czar, the trappers and traders turned north along the Ural, establishing the first permanent posts in Surgut, Vakhovska, Kondinsk, Berezov, Obdorsk & Saleharo, while the traders' base in Demjanskoje grew to a thriving settlement. Relations with the Ming (who had finally made peace with Delhi in the summer of 1793) remained good, and rich gifts were exchanged to bind the Alliance closer, though the Ming Emperor still refused to bow the knee to the Elephant Throne (9). Shanghai rebelled briefly in 1791, but extension of rights under Ayutthayan law pacified opposition, and a proper governor replaced the military administration in 1794 (10). Meanwhile, the expansion of the Kingdom's naval capability was rewarded by the founding, by the Guild of Indian Trade, of the first modern shipyard in India, in Madurai the same year (11).

Abroad, too, there was news of peace as well as war. True, Genoa, with Austrian aid, annexed Savoy in 1792; and the Austrians stripped four provinces (12) from the failing Ottomans two years later, but Franz II succeeded to the Holy Roman Empire without dispute, and Genoa's conflict with Sweden, like France's with the Huron, came to nothing. Late in 1793, the English, after a generation of struggle, finally made peace with the new-born USA (a nation built on the new principles of government which had emerged in the second half of the century, carved out of the war-torn chaos of America (13)). Only the Netherlands continued the old cycle of ineffectual colonial wars.

Closer to home, Persia was at peace at last, the Mughals were briefly victorious over the Uzbeks only to collapse themselve scant months later, the most significant news from Nippon concerned romantic poetry (14) and even relations with Champa briefly softened (15). There was a moment's disturbance for Ayutthaya's diplomats in 1793 when the Qing received an English mission with expressions of interest (16), but Lord Macartney sought trade, not territory or an alliance, and the Manchu lands, sinking back into poverty and provincialism, held little to attract the Europeans. Control of the China trade was in Ayutthayan hands now, and the Kingdom needed no help from outsiders.

It was, perhaps, natural that the Sultan of Delhi and the Qing Emperor, having forgotten nothing and learned nothing, should declare war again at the end of 1795. The trade of China and India was too great a prize to relinquish without a struggle.

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Notes
(1) Trade Tech 8 was reached in October 1798, just before the war ended.
(2)The last thing I wanted was the CoT defecting to Manchu, China or (worst) Portugal.
(3) Good ol' Regulation of the Medical Profession (+1,500 population, October 1790).
(4) Peace cost me 650 ducats. Not bad for four months' fighting.
(5) Nobles Demand Old Rights (November 1791). I accepted (-1 Centralisation), and then went +1 Centralisation shortly afterwards. Less stability loss than saying 'no' directly.
(6) Somewhere around this time I built a Refinery in Viti Levu.
(7) Ajeh many - Missionaries nil. Next one has a 23% chance.
(8) Monopoly Company Formed, June 1793 (+100 Ducats). Gift To State, July 1795 (+200 Ducats).
(9) Qianlong still hasn't died, and I still can't vassalise him. Grr...
(10) Governor & Chief Judge in Shanghai in 1794.
(11) Unexspected Invention - Naval Equipment Manufactory in Madurai, June 1794.
(12) Trabzon, Thrace, Bulgaria & Albania. The Ottomans were not having a good decade.
(13) This was the first warning I had that the American Revolution had actually happened. I'd been thinking the English had managed to put it down.
(14) Kitagawa Utamaro composes selected poems on love, June 1793.
(15) Diplomatic Move with Champa, September 1792 (+25 Relations).
(16) Manchu 'expressed interest' in 'Lord Macartney's Mission'. October 1793.

Semi-Lobster & jwolf - Thanks for the support. Yes, a second CoT after a mere 370 years!
Troggle - Good to hear from you, and I'm glad you enjoyed the AAR. The style is meant to be 'pseudo-history-text' - I hope it's not too hard to read. Shanghai, incidentally, is 'only' around 720,000 population - must have been a plague there or something.
Keravnos - I'm only about 3 Land Tech levels (1 CRT) ahead of Manchu, and equal to Delhi and Russia. I don't even have a naval tech advantage over Delhi. (Ayutthayan research is slooow). 'Eating China, one bite at a time'? Yes, that's a slogan I could go for.

Chapter 24d - Rama I (fl 1796 - fl 1798)

Opening Moves

The war began in now-traditional fashion, with the fleets of Delhi sailing forth into the Gulf of Gujarat in an attempt to blockade Bombay. They were met by the Indian Squadron of the Ayutthayan Navy and, despite the superior numbers of the Indians, Ayutthayan discipline and training prevailed and the aggressors were driven off, time and again. Meanwhile, the Navy's other fleets had swept the remnants of the Qing navy from the China Seas, and armies had advance from Guangzhou and Shanghai to lay siege to the Qing-held cites of Nanjing and Hangzhou (1).

As in the previous war, an Ayutthayan army had set forth from Guizhou across Ming territory to occupy Hebei province, the heart of Qing rule in China and the crucial link to their remaining possessions in the south. The walls of Beijing were reached in April 1796, but the army had been weakened by its long march and it was not until the following month that formal siege operations could begin. By then, the Kingdom's Tibetan allies had roused themselves from their customary torpor and sent a large if ill-equipped army against the western Qing stronghold of Sichuan. The attack failed, and the surviving troops were withdrawn a few weeks later, but the gesture was deeply appreciated in Bangkok. The Qing, for their part, had massed a considerable army, over fifty thousand men, against the Ming capital of Mukden in Liaotung.

A Few Minor Distractions

The first setback to the Ayutthayan strategy occured in April when the Indian Squadron, reduced to half strength by three months' near-continuous engagement with the Sultan's fleets, was forced to abandon the Gulf of Gujarat and withdraw to the south. Bombay was blockaded and prepared itself for a siege. This, at least, was half expected. Much more serious was the news the following month, when the Russians, seeking to take advantage of the Kingdom's preoccupation with China, attacked the Ural frontier in Siberia.

The Russian war was short and sharp. Ayutthayan forces struck first, routing a Russian detachment in Nura and pressing on into Aralsk, where they were driven back by the first wave of Russian reinforcements arriving from the west. The Russian hordes took time to assemble, though, and the Kingdom's soldier were able to reorganise and mount another successful raid into Nura in October. By then the Siberian winter was fast approaching, and the Russians had still not yet crossed the frontier. No easy victory beckoned, and Ayutthayan diplomats (and Ayutthayan money) soon persuader the Czar to think better of his aggression (2).

The summer of 1796 also saw action in China, where the Ming army attempted to relieve its capital in July. It was defeated in a major battle outside the walls of Mukden (more than seventy-five thousand soldiers fought, and twenty thousand of them fell) and driven east into Korea, but the Ming threat successfully diverted the Qing from the south. The few forces available to them there were rapidly defeated by the Ayutthayan armies, and in September Nanjing surrendered. Even the Vietnamese had marched - for reasons that no doubt made sense to their 'Emperor', they too struck into the wilds of the western Qing territories, against Gangri in Qinghai. When they arrived, they found the city under the control of local Chinese rebels, who had driven out the Qing governor. This, however, was only the prelude for what happened next.

The Return of the Lotus

Since the fall of the Old Ming, the White Lotus had become little more than a name - a tale told to children, of heroes, villains or madmen, according to allegiance and the taste of one's memories. But even children's tales have power, and as Qing rule in China failed so that power grew. The Chinese had ever had small love for the Manchu, and few of them regretted the decline of the Qing. But fewer still desired that their rule should pass to a different set of foreigners. What they desired was the China of old, a truly Chinese China, dominated not by Manchu or Thais, nor by Vietnamese or Tibetans, nor even by the Mukden Ming, who were now so intermixed with their rivals as to be virtually Manchu themselves. Once again little groups met in teahouses, once again white-sashed soldiers drilled in the night, once again men and women from all over the Middle Kingdom came together to pledge themselves to Confucian principles and the freedom of China.

Late in 1796, as Ayutthayan armies shattered the last of Manchu power in south China, the storm broke (3). The Manchu emperor, secure in distant Nakhodka, laughed it off - when had the Qing ever cared what the peasants thought? But it was no laughing matter in the west, as the Chinese rose impartially against master and invaders alike, nor in the south where Ayutthayan forces found themselves facing an enemy more numerous and determined than the remnants of the Qing. As early as November of 1796, the Ayutthayan Army of the Yangtze found itself battling a substantial Chinese force under the banner of the Lotus, which sought to turn the Kingdom's soldiers back from Nanchang.

The Manchu Civil War

1797 was a year of blood and fire across the whole of China and Manchuria. The Lotus was in arms across western, southern and eastern China, fighting Manchus, Thais and Vietnamese alike. The army of Dai Viet was hastily withdrawn south to defend Canton. The armies of Ayutthaya found themselves isolated in a hostile land, where they truly controlled no more land than their guns commanded. In the north, the Ming emperor shrewdly proclaimed his allegiance to Confucius and the ideals of the Lotus (though not to the extent of formally abandoning the Ayutthayan alliance) and withdrew his armies to his own borders. He would gain little from the war, but at least his territories were mostly quiet (4).

In Manchuria it was worse. The original Lotus partisans had cared little for Manchuria, excepts as a foreign place to which the foreigners should be returned. But news of their ideals and their actions spread swiftly to the north. And the seeds fell on fertile ground, for the peasants and townsmen and even the minor nobles of Manchuria had their own greviances against the Qing Emperors, who for a generation had brought them little but high taxation and military disaster. Once, they ruled China. Now, with Canton lost and Shanghai lost and the Forbidden City about to fall once again into Ayutthayan hands, surely the Mandate of Heaven had fallen from the Qing? Many thought so. So, as the Chinese rose under the banner of the Lotus in a crusade to expel the foreigners from China, so their Manchurian cousins rose under the same banner in the name of a reborn Manchu - for the restoration of their Empire and the recovery of China (5).

Their first target was their own ruler - the Qing emperor who had brought their nation to such a pass. As rebellion blazed across Manchuria, so the last Manchu armies abandoned China - abandoned even the siege of Mukden - and marched north to fight their brothers, as their emperor summonded those still loyal to uphold his failing power.

It was not enough. The rebels were too strong, too determined, too angry and the armies could not be everywhere at once. Province after province, city after city declared for the Lotus. Their partisans ground down the Emperor's troops in a hundred nameless clashes. In the autumn they rose in Nakhodka (6) itself, the palace was stormed and the Emperor and half his court perished in a black night of fury. The war raged on around his corpse (7).

Victory in China

The Chinese Lotus met with less success than their namesakes in the north. The latter had only to face the depleted, demoralised forces of the Qing. The partisans in the south had to face the Ayutthayan Army - better equipped, better commanded and undivided in its loyalties. Despite uprisings which wracked half-a-dozen provinces in south-east China alone, despite a dozen major clashes with the soldiers of the Lotus, Rama I refused to be diverted from his objectives, and his soldiers did not disappoint him.

Beijing fell in January, and the Army of the North turned south along the coast to Shandong and Jiangsu, scatting Lotus forces as it went. The partisans in the Yangtse valley were likewise defeated and in November the King himself accepted the surrender of Nanchang. Still he pressed on, despite further Lotus uprising behind his lines, despite the Qing army which somehow evaded the Navy's patrols to land on Taiwan in in October, despite news from home of revolts in Ajeh and Da Nang. Even grim news from India, of the failure of the last attempt of the Indian Squadron - its new ships crewed by half-trained recruits - to lift the blockade of Bombay and the consquent surrender of the fortress, did not deter him. Not until the capture of Hong Kong in May of 1798 did he deign to consider peace. He sent an emissary to the fugitive Court of the new Manchu Emperor, to demand the Forbidden City.

The Qing were in no position to resist. In July 1798, in return for a withdrawal of the Kingdom's troops from Shandong, Nanjing and Nanchang, they formally acknowledged Ayutthayan rule over Kowloon and Hebei (8). Rama I sent a team of artisans north immediately, with instructions to restore the long-derelict throne room of the Emperors in the Imperial Palace at the heart of the Forbidden City. No great proclamations were needed, for the message was clear. The Mandate of Heaven had been claimed.

The End of the Lotus War

The coming of Rama I to Beijing signalled the beginning of the end of the Lotus War, though this was not obvious at the time. The surrender of the Forbidden City had destroyed the Qing Emperor's moral authority, and the dearly-bought peace was not enought to save him from his domestic enemies, who denounced him in every and village of Manchuria. A bare few weeks later, bowing to the inevitable, the Qing Emperor surrendered to the Lotus, and came to terms. The terms were easier than he had expected, for the Lotus now had leaders, who realised that further domestic conflict would now aid only aid Manchu's enemies. The Emperor kept his head, he kept his throne, he even saved some of his associates. The Lotus's demands were restricted to lower taxes, Confucian reforms in government, a purging of defeated generals and failed governors - and a new focus for the nation, on Beijing and the recovery of the Imperial Throne (9).

Late autumn of 1798 brought peace to China (and also Ayutthaya - the Sultan of Delhi was quietly brought off in September (10)), but hardly stability. In the far northeast, the Koreans again proclaimed a shaky independance. The Ming Emperor continued his equivocal course - accepting rich gifts from Ayutthaya, but declining either to bow before the restored Dragon Throne (11) or to renounce his alliance with its occupant. The reduced Manchu lands were outwardly quiet, but bubbled within with talk of recovery and revenge. And in the backstreets and on the hillsides of eastern and southern China, men stil met in the name of the Lotus, but this time with a new enemy - the foreigners who had extended their rule across the heart of China.

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Notes
(1) I also took the chance to embargo the Manchu, now they coldn't return the favour. It probably didn't do much good, but it made me feel better.
(2) Peace cost me 150 ducats - small change at this point in time.
(3) Manchu had 'White Lotus Rebellion', October 1796. They went with 'It's likely just harmless talk' and got slapped with +20RR in all provinces.
(4) China didn't get the White Lotus event. In fact, I don't think it's got any events since rebelling...
(5) ... which produced the bizarre result that the White Lotus were revolting all over Manchuria, but not in central China.
(6) I'd expected (hoped?) that the Manchurian winter would deal with the rebels in the north, thus preventing a Manchu government collapse. Fat chance.
(7) Qianlong is (finally) dead. Ten years too late. (N.B. Manchu and China have the same monarchs, though they strangely have better stats in Nakhodka than in Mukden).
(8) A Manchu government collapse was now imminent, so I decided to take what I could get. I wanted Beijing in order to cut off the Manchu provinces in the south, and Kowloon to prevent it defecting to Portugal. (With umpteen Manchu provinces rebel-controlled, I was looking forward to picking up some defections).
(9) The Manchu government fell in October 1798, Korea became independant - and the Lotus RR simply stopped. No rebels, no RR, no defections, to me or anyone. Gaah.
(10) Peace with Delhi had cost me another 125 ducats. If Bombay had held out one more month...
(11) And even with a poor diplomat ruling China I still can't vassalise it!

Troggle - Good to know you're enjoying it!
Semi-Lobster - I fight the Russians the same way I used to fight China - gain a few quick VP and then buy a peace before they can capture anywhere. Oh, and Siam? Not in this universe (imagine the cost of changing the official stationary in all those tax offices ).
Keravnos - A land connection to Shanghai would be nice, but I didn't have time (this round) to get three provinces. Plus Dai Viet is in the way.
jwolf - There are several hundred loyal Thais in Turgai who would deeply resent being handed over to Russia, plus a fort I've spent a lot of money on. Besides, it wouldn't keep the Czar happy more than a year or two. Easier to just buy off the wars - I have thousands in the bank and not much to spend it on.
Machiavellian - The Qing still have lots and lots of well-fortified low-support provinces in Manchuria and Sinkiang - and even at 99% warscore I couldn't demand more than three or four per war. Expelling the Manchu from China proper, on the other hand, might just be possible.