The early years.
Here is a map of China as I start the GC. The names of the neighbors (get used to them!) and underlined are China's useless vassals.
China is tolerant of all except Christians, which we do not even know exist. Let's just say we do not tolerate the idea of Christians. We have a pretty large army and navy, with a fairly advanced naval tech: 5. China is apparently in 2 alliances, which i hope to fix ASAP. First shift is towards Aristocracy, because i could use the bonus to DIP.
By some miracle, our Treasure fleet, under the command of eunuch Zheng He is off the coast of Gujarat.
These three provinces are obviously not worth keeping, with this insane Revolt Risk, but unfortunately i cannot release them as vassals. Guess i'll have to wait...
The treasure fleet discovers new nations, and we also ask for access through some of them. Very important is access so that the fleet can come back home without losing ships to atrition, and also access through Japan, as a start in exploring the Eastern Ocean and whatever lies beyond it.
I finally get a chance to release Dai Viet, although after they became independent, not my vassals, because their entire country was in the hand of rebels. I think a government collapse caused this.
This might very well be the world's first detective agency. Innovativeness goes down 1 point.
I *thought* something was wrong with this China. Its capital was in the wrong place. Well, problem solved.
We finally get the respect we deserve.