The Jurchen horsemen were raging through the city, burning houses and government offices, cutting down those unfortunate enough to cross their path. The city’s arteries are choked with the mass of panicked people trying desperately to escape the destruction that awaits them—the year is 1126 and the ancient civilization of the Chinese people has suffered a grievous blow. Kaifeng, the flourishing cosmopolitan capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, has fallen to the Song’s erstwhile Jurchen allies. When the Jurchens had revolted against their Liao overlords in 1115, the Northern Song had allied with them hoping to drive out the Liao from their historically Chinese lands. This plan had backfired on the Song however, as the Jurchen had turned against the Chinese as soon as the Liao had been vanquished. When the flames consuming Kaifeng died down at last, the valley of the Yellow River would be controlled by the Jurchen, who would erect a state known to history as the Jin Empire upon the ashes of the Northern Song. As for the Song court, those fortunate enough to escape had fled southward from the barbarian horsemen, finally reaching comparative safety beyond the southern banks of the Yangtze River. It was on the banks of the Yangtze, at the city of Hangzhou, that the Song established their court in exile—a shattered Chinese realm remembered by posterity as the Southern Song Dynasty.
When we pick up the thread of Chinese history in 1150, the Southern Song are still busily attempting to rebuild China into a semblance of a nation once more. There is a long way to go; the once-mighty army of the Celestial Empire has been reduced by disease and desertion to a mere 4,000 men. Many of the provinces still held by the Song remain unfortified, while the Northern Barbarians of the Jin Empire and Xi Xia continue to rule over lands given by Heaven to the Chinese Emperor. The picture presented so far may look bleak, but the Song still have a few things going for them—a growing mercantile economy in the Southern lands of China and a considerable base of manpower to draw on for the reclamation of the Mandate of Heaven.
As for the technical details:
EU2 v. 1.08, Mongol Empire Scenario mod as Song China
The goal is simple: Reclaim the Mandate of Heaven by vanquishing the Northern Barbarians
Normal/Normal
For those unfamiliar with the MES, here is a screenie of the East Asian set-up at the start of the GC (1150):
The scrawled lettering is my own doing I'm afraid, the numbered states being as follows:
1: Koryo
2: Nippon
3: Annam
4: Champa
5: Cambodia
6: Siam
7: Pagan Kingdom
8: Assam
When we pick up the thread of Chinese history in 1150, the Southern Song are still busily attempting to rebuild China into a semblance of a nation once more. There is a long way to go; the once-mighty army of the Celestial Empire has been reduced by disease and desertion to a mere 4,000 men. Many of the provinces still held by the Song remain unfortified, while the Northern Barbarians of the Jin Empire and Xi Xia continue to rule over lands given by Heaven to the Chinese Emperor. The picture presented so far may look bleak, but the Song still have a few things going for them—a growing mercantile economy in the Southern lands of China and a considerable base of manpower to draw on for the reclamation of the Mandate of Heaven.
As for the technical details:
EU2 v. 1.08, Mongol Empire Scenario mod as Song China
The goal is simple: Reclaim the Mandate of Heaven by vanquishing the Northern Barbarians
Normal/Normal
For those unfamiliar with the MES, here is a screenie of the East Asian set-up at the start of the GC (1150):
The scrawled lettering is my own doing I'm afraid, the numbered states being as follows:
1: Koryo
2: Nippon
3: Annam
4: Champa
5: Cambodia
6: Siam
7: Pagan Kingdom
8: Assam