Chapter 3 :the rule of Abu I : the power of alliances
our new monarch was a wise man , and so greatly skilled he was called blessed by god.Early in his reign he was greatly impressed by the come of a holy man ('Abd al-Jalîl Shâh Amir , but i'll spare his name afterwards) and the religious aspect was somewhat more important after. national decisions were enacted in order to convert the heathens recently incorporated.
He denounced the sect practises and Established Sheikh ul-Islam Office with some side effects as increased revolt risk but more trained missionaries were at the disposal of the kingdom
unlike his father , he was not obsessed with the kingdom of ayut , but ended fighting it nearly as often ^^
another thing he didn't do as his father , he didn't take command of the armies personally , but rather appointed a general and watched it a few kilometers from the battles
the first war of his reign would come soon , but this was new , it was a defensive war
our wayward cousins of majahapit attacked or allies of Makassar , and we of course helped our allies , taking the leaderwhip of the war
fortunately , they had no alliances so the was was majahapit against Malacca* + aceh + makassar , and though they were quite rich , they did not build forts on their country self confident on their power.
too much self confidence is a usual way to disaster and we were able to enforce harsh terms in the peace negociations.
their fate was now sealed , and god even gave us two missions to conquer them , giving legitimate claims on two out of their four provinces
on these two wars not much was to be said , except we fought Ayut both times , having them concede defeat each time (and releasing Sukhotai the second time) , and our king ordered to delay an assault to allow them to complete their fortifications , storming them before defenders could get inside
a benign neglect event occured , bringing much needed funds to pay the missionaries
in 1430 he was wondering why nobody ever send merchants to jiangsu , and corrected this mistake ... the trade income of the realm , allowing to mint a few money while still investing more than before
in 1432 a skilled researcher presented himself to the court and was quickly hired , and the king decided more of these elite scientists would be needed , and that the realm should become a patron of art to attract these skilled men, and now should concentrate all research on producion tech.
as the conversions porgressed nicely , god tasked us to destroy the evil kingdom of ayut , this time for good , but that would not be done before many years
in 1435 it was brunei's turn to attack our allies our brothers on Makassar , and again we and Aceh agreed to help them
it would not be easy to beat them , their army wasn't that great but they had a formidable navy , the biggest one on the area ...
after months of baits andcareful positionning who saw makassar's navy sinked our navy , with some help from aceh's one , were able to achieve a major victory
after that , the war went sommthly , and Brunei was soon stormed by our armies , and had to sworn allegience to us
in 1438 the time to destroy that northern kingdom has come , and all their provinces except the capital were seized.we feared the samourai here would take some land , as they would be a formidable enemy to fight , but left empty-handed as they were not the alliance leaders
i'll stop here because something major happened shorlty after ^^ and we'll see it in the next chapter
Note on technology :
we are in a harsh group ... each tech cost about 2.5 times more than europeans
some priorities have to be made , as all levels don't bring the same benefits
-land tech has only few differences between 3 and 9 , i don't fear being a few levels backward , victory can be achieved with superior numbers and leadership
-naval tech .. same thing , even worse ... before level 9 i won't have to worry about pirates
-porduction tech , all levels 10-18 bring 2% instead of 1% effiency , but more important level 9 allow the workshops , they will boost the economy , and the poorer the land the more effective that boost is
-trade tech , level 7 allow to search for mecca and more advanced brothers in the west , the 'ottomans' being one of the two most advanced suitable countries at game start
later , level 15 allow monopolies and level 21 the marketplaces , but the europeans should get them before i do , they will boost the economy by quite a bit ^^
and the all important government tech , level 4 allow one idea , level 9 allow another , level 11 allows a third
some interesting decisions can be made with govt tech , most between levels 8 and 12
after the move towards narrowmindness i moved towards innovative with the -5 prestige event
and the king decided a 20-30 provinces country would be best , not too big that lag on tech , not too small where all neighbors are dangerous ^^
i expanded in lands somewhat richer than the starting 4 provinces , 2-4 base taxes ... that's low ^^