Korea: Kingdom of the Sleeping Tiger

[Xanthippus]

Hello all, I'm a long time player of Victoria and other Paradox games, and I've spent a lot of time on the forums, however I've never written an AAR... so I thought it was about time I did! Since I'm no stranger to the game I'm going to pick a relatively difficult country to play, and since there are so few Korean AARs, I thought I would give it a shot. I don't know how I'm going to go with the giant China to my north, and an aggressive Japan just waiting to civilise and gobble me up, but I guess we'll find out. In thinking about how to do my AAR I couldn't decide between a narrative and a more cut and dry strategy guide to how I've been playing... so I've decided to do both. I'll start with the narrative, then afterwards I will explain why I did what I did. So without furth adue...

Korea: Kingdom of the Sleeping Tiger

Chapter 1: The Tiger Awakens

King Heonjong Joseon was only 8 years old when he came to the throne in 1834. He never rose to power due to his age and the machinations of power hungry schemers on his mother's side. However, luckily for Heonjong he had an uncle who did not wish to see his brother's son be pushed into the foot notes of history. He began tutoring him and helping him fight the influence of the noblemen who sought to usurp his power. By 1836 Heonjong had grown into his role aptly, becoming mature far beyond his young age of 10.



Heonjong, with the help of his uncle, had managed to consolidate some power, and he began to use it for the good of Korea. His first acts were to balance the budget and ensure Korea would not become an impoverished country that was to be conquered by European colonists, like so many other asian kingdoms had. Fortunately Korea had strong exports of coal and iron, and so Heonjong ordered that research go into developing the methods of mining in order to increase their ability to export these vital products.





The nobles on his mother's side of the family did not take well to Heonjong taking the reigns of the kingdom, and they began increasing their efforts to dominate the court. When Heonjong refused to back down, they threatened to kill his sister, and it was then that the young King realised that these men could not be bargained or reasoned with. Heonjong enjoyed popularity with the Korean people as his uncle had made sure that he spent time creating a public figure for himself, and so Heonjong decided to make a bold move. The current faction that dominated the court, and which these scheming nobles belonged to, was the traditionalist faction. His father had supported them as they wholly supported the absolute rule of the King, however the majority of the people supported the conservative faction which, while upholding the tradtional power of the King, also promised to endeavour to grant more power to the people as well - or at least to the people who were priveleged enough to own land.



And so on November 20th 1836 the King addressed a crowd outside the palace in Seoul, announcing that he would be appointing the conservative faction to fulfill the role of his advisors as the traditionalist faction had become rife with corruption and greed. His words were greeted with adulation.





This act was a gamble, but in promoting the conservatives he gained a group of loyal allies who guarded him against the traditionalists. This was not the end of the battle against the scheming nobles, but it was a major setback for them, and Heonjong gained full control of the kingdom as the traditionalists withdrew from the court to lick their wounds and plot their next move. He then had to cede some of that power to the conservatives, however they did not challenge his rule at all. Heonjong managed to hold back giving the vote to land owners, though he made a solemn promise to the conservatives to make a serious reconsideration of the prospect in at most five years.

Heonjong now decided to set about increasing the scientific research in the kingdom. Most of Korea was populated by farmers and labourers who were barely educated, though he swore to improve that no matter what the cost. Though that would take more time than he was comfortable with, so in the short term he decided he would dedicate the kingdom's treasury towards training Confucian monks to help with the research. While Korea's economy was healthy for such a small kingdom, it was not strong like that of the European's, so it would take time to train enough monks to make a difference. By 1839 Heonjong had raised enough money to train over 80,000 monks.





As Heonjong was placing such a strong emphasis on the Confucian religion, the public began to emulate their beloved King in the best way they thought they could. This resulted in pogroms of Koreans searching for those who had fallen under the sway of Catholic priests. In the best cases they were simply beaten, but things quickly escalated and the pogroms began executing the Catholics. Heonjong was at a crossroads, he did not want to anger his people, but while he held no love for Catholics either, he dreaded the potential international repercussions these acts could have. Heonjong understood well the need to remain on good terms with the Europeans if he hoped for Korea to remain independent and to become modernised, and so he issued an edict outlawing violence against Catholics, and ensuring their protection. The edict is wildly unpopular, and the traditionalists use it to their advantage. In May they assassinate the leader of the conservative faction and the party is thrown into disarray.



Heonjong responds swiftly by issuing a ban on the traditionalist party. They use this to gather sympathy and several riots break out. They are small however, and Heonjong does not use the army to break them up unless they turn violent. Eventually the riots dissipate and the people's support for the traditionalists ebbs out.

Not long after this domestic crisis, an international one begins in October with the outbreak of the Opium War. The British declare war on China and storm Hong Kong, capturing it in short order. By July 2nd 1840 several more major ports are also lost to the British.





On July 14th 1841 China declares a guarantee over our independence, however Heonjong seriously doubts that they could do much to protect us as the British continue to drive deep into the heart of their kingdom.



As Heonjong continues to hear reports of the immense Chinese casualties, he begins to form an idea. Although he has now trained over 120,000 Confucian monks, the kingdoms literacy was still low, and scientific progress was slow.



Heonjong decided that Korea needed another source of income to help expediate its training of monks, and the only nearby kingdom rich enough to help provide that was China. So Heonjong increased military spending and began reinforcing the four detatchments of troops in the Korean army. There were not enough soldiers to reinforce them to full, so Heonjong had a group of farmers trained and sent them to the border with China. With these new recruits three of the detatchments were reinforced in full, with the fourth half reinforced.





With the troops prepared on January 29th 1842 war is declared on China, and General Sul leads the 30,000 strong army towards Andong. British troops continue to ravage the south of China, and we hope that they will distract the Chinese long enough for our plan to come to fruition. In March China's ally, Ryuku, lands a small detachment of troops in Ichon. Luckily the fourth detachment under General Jung was still nearby, on its way north, and so we redirected him to handle the attack.



As the army continues to advance on Andong, Heonjong reviews the nation's budget and ensures that the new military expenditure is not impoverishing the people. Luckily the economy is healthy enough to absorb the extra expenditure. As the troops march on a scout report comes back advising General Sul of 10,000 Chinese troops to the north. However the scout also reports that the British have landed in Manchuria, and the Chinese seem focused on them rather than the Korean troops, and so General Sul marches on confident in victory. On May 5th Andong is reached, and the scouts report that the British have defeated the detatchment and they are retreating in our direction. We are confident of General Sul's ability to handle them however, so this does not trouble us. The scouts also report a detatchment of 20,000 Chinese troops marching through Mukden, but they are advancing towards the British and not our troops.





The scouting reports were slightly innacurate however, as the Chinese forces were in fact retreating to Mukden and they never encountered our troops at all. On July 3rd Andong was secured, and after reinforcing the troops General Sul marched onwards to advance on Chaoyang.



In August the British troops meet the 30,000 Chinese troops in Mukden and roundly defeat them. The scouts report the troops are retreating towards Xilinhot and not Chaoyang. We hope they are accurate this time. Shortly after on August 22nd the battle of Ichon commences, and is shortly won. We only suffer 180 casualties, whereas the entire Ryukan detatchment is wiped out.





In September Chaoyang is reached, however we are surrounded by Chinese troops and General Sul begins to get nervous. Though the British are relentless in their attacks, and it seems as though they might handle them for us. Shortly after arriving a small Chinese detatchment retreating from the British stumbles upon our forces, however they are quickly and effortlessly defeated. Though the high spirits brought by the victory would not last long, as on September 29th the British signed a truce with the Chinese, and the East India Company was shortly to follow suit.





Heonjong began to fear for the safety of his troops, and the Korean people at large, and so when Chaoyang was captured before the scattered Chinese forces had a chance to regroup and counter attack, he sent a messenger to Beijing to offer the Emperor peace in exchange for indemnities paid to Korea. Unsurprisingly, the Emperor refused, knowing that he had the Koreans surrounded and outnumbered. General Sul began to panick and wanted to withdraw the troops immediately, but Heonjong ordered him to remain. Fortunately the Emperor was merciful, and on January 14th 1843 a peace was offered without any concessions from either kingdom.







King Heonjong readily accepted. The advantage had been lost with the British peace and no favourable peace was possible any longer. While the sleeping tiger had awoken, it was still slow and had not yet awoken fully. The King had hesitated too long in deciding to invade China, so now he would have to find another source of income. All was not lost however, and the King made a resolve to find some other way to bring his nation to glory. Perhaps the Europeans would even open up another such oppurtunity in the future.

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So my basic strategy here is to modernise and civilise ASAP. I'm playing VIP:R 0.2, so my first priority is to turn a profit and raise my literacy and RP. Fortunately Korea has strong exports with iron and coal, hence why I chose mechanised mining as it greatly improves the efficiency of those RGOs and will raise both my industrial rating and my profits. However Korea, as with most uncivs, has horrible RP per month, starting off with just 0.07. So I went about promoting POPs into clergymen, taking pops out of the low value RGOs such as grain and fish so that their work will not be missed, in fact taking them out of the RGOs didn't even affect my monthly income as the lost income from the production of the resources was made up by the increased income from taxing the middle class. Yep... grain is a really worthless product.

However, after promoting three 40,000+ size pops into clergymen, my RP per month had only gone up to 0.12, so I decided I wanted to speed things up. Since the only neighbour I have is China, they're the only country I can DoW. Normally it would be suicide, but since the Opium War had started, I thought I might be able to get to Beijing and demand war indemnities before it ended. Unfortunately for me, my knowledge of Asian history is pretty limited, and as I've never played China or Korea before and not taken much note on when the Opium War ended, I didn't realise I had less than two years to take the capital. With a civilised nation it wouldn't be an issue, but having 30,000 irregulars taking 7% attrition doesn't exactly spell a recipe for success, and as you can see I didn't make it there. I could've tried to press on, but the troops in the next province numbered 30,000 at the end of the Opium War, and were soon reinforced to over 50,000, so it's a good thing that I just sat tight. I got very lucky and was surprised that China offered me a white peace, so I'll just have to hang tight and wait for the second Opium War.

So, I hope you've enjoyed my first attempt at an AAR. More to come soon!

[asd21593]

Never seen a Korean AAR before

Look interesting, good start!

[Xanthippus]

Originally Posted by asd21593

Never seen a Korean AAR before

Look interesting, good start!

Thanks, I hope I can keep it interesting.

Korea: Kingdom of the Sleeping Tiger

Chapter 2: The Tiger Strikes

Following the war the Kingdom takes time to reorganise, and the conservatives elect a new leader. The party remains in a state of disorganisation, but efforts are made to reconsolidate and stabilise the party. In the meantime Heonjong had recovered the power he had ceded to the conservatives previously, and as such the affairs of the realm were not considerably effected by the disorganisation of the conservatives. Then on July 5th 1843 Mechanised Mining was discovered and work began on Practical Steam Engine.



By the beginning of 1844 the conservative faction had reconsolidated and began demanding the powers ceded to them in the past. Heonjong conceded them without argument, only intending to keep them long enough to stabilise the kingdom in the first place. In May the council reminded him of his promise to reconsider granting the vote to landowners, which was now overdue. Again Heonjong conceded the point without argument, and soon a constitution was drafted for the rights of the council and landowners to vote on governmental policy, while at the same time affirming certain rights of the King to set policy.





The first election is held shortly afterwards and the conservatives win the election by a wide margin. With the kingdom's internal policies resolved, its external concerns were focused on. Scouts reported a build up of Chinese forces on the border, and this lead Heonjong to start preparing for a build up of his own forces.



These fears were reinforced in 10th June 1845 when Chinese smugglers were caught. They were interrogated and found to be smuggling weapons to insurgents belonging to the traditionalist faction. Heonjong was left with a difficult decision, but he decided now was not the time for weakness. He ordered the smugglers to be hung and their cargo siezed in order to help improve his own forces.



Heonjong now decides that the traditionalists need to be dealt with once and for all. Too long had they been left to their own devices, and now they were planning to overthrow him through armed conflict. He readied the army and his loyal commanders and sent them out to capture and execute the treasonous traditionalists. They had not expected the King to discover them, so the insurgents were caught off guard. Some escaped north into China, but the majority were caught, including the primary ringleaders from Heonjong's mother's side of the family. Public executions were held, and Heonjong then selected a group of loyal noblemen to replace them. They reformed the traditionalist party, though they were far less reactionary than the previous party had been. Heonjong then reformed the court so that it could include more than one party, but the number of advisors from each party would be dependent on the number of votes they had received. After the dust had settled from this domestic skirmish, Heonjong set about increasing the number of Confucian monks in the kingdom again. By November 1845 thousands more monks had been trained and inaugaurated, greatly increasing the literacy and research of the kingdom.



Things were progressing well, and a group of citizens inspired by the kingdoms progress got together in December and volunteered to fight in Korea's next glorius war. We then trained more farmers into soldiers as reserves for the new regiment.





Heonjong then orders the commission of a regiment of elite troops. As we prepare for their training and outfitting the Chinese guarantee our independence again. We hope this will keep them from attacking us before we are ready for them.



In November 1847 Practical Steam Engine is discoverd and we begin reasearching Clean Coal. This steadies the economy which had recently begun fluctuating with our increased military spending.





Then on January 16th 1848 we capture one of the remnants from the old traditionalist party. They had been spying on our kingdom and selling our secrets to the Chinese. He is summarily executed for his treason. Following this we commission another brigade in order to combat the Chinese when the war inevitably arrives.





In February 1849 the second round of elections start, ending in november with the conservatives winning all the votes.





Then in August 1850 the oppurtunity that Heonjong was waiting for arrived. Russia attacked China and the troops were drawn away from our border once again. In preperation for the war we promote a promising young officer who had distinguished himself in training the new brigades. General Kim is then put in charge of the main force and ordered to march on Andong in December when our peace treaty with the Chinese expires.





January 1851 Ryuku lands another force in the south of Korea. We transport our secondary brigade to handle them.





May 1851 Andong falls and after reinforcing the troops General Kim marches on Chaoyang. The battle of Pusan takes place on the 29th and is over within the day. The Ryukuan detatchment is entirely wiped out and we only suffer 40 casualties.





Following the battle of Pusan the troops are loaded onto the transports and sent to handle Ryuku. On 19th June 1851 the troops land in Amami and begin capturing the city.



Then on July 10th 1851 our General Kim reaches Chaoyang, as Russian troops reach Mukden. General Kim has a case of De Ja Vu, which is proved to be more than just a gut feeling in August. As Chaoyang falls, the Russians sign a peace treaty with the Chinese, leaving our troops surrounded by Chinese once again. Nevertheless, the decision is made to press on, and in September we receive word that rebels have risen up and siezed Beijing, confirming that our decision was a good one.







The Chinese forces prove to be ill prepared and still remain scattered by the Russian offensive. September proves to be an excellent month, with Clean Coal completing its research and the research team begins work on Post-Napoleonic Thought. Then on the 29th Ryuku falls, and our troops are transported to Okinawa which they find undefended.





On 27th November 1851 China offers peace. Despite being surrounded by Chinese troops we decide to take a gamble and decline their offer; then on 4th December 1851 the rebel forces which took Beijing meet our troops in Tangshan. Some of the troops come forth and their leader pledges their support to us, we readily accept. We quickly defeat the remainder of the rebels who refused to join us.





January 1852 partisans rise up in Chaoyang, and Ryuku organises a militia to defend Okinawa. They are of little consequence however, and General Kim continues on unfettered, while our troops in Okinawa soon defeat the militia. Then on 20th January Tangshan falls. Despite the precarious position we reinforce our troops as much as possible and General Kim marches on Beijing, the ultimate goal.

[Xanthippus]

In March our troops are harrassed by small Chinese detatchments, but it is nothing General Kim cannot handle. Okinawa falls on the 5th. The Ryukuan fleet then attacks our transports, forcing them to retreat to Amami and trapping our troops on Okinawa. On the 27th both Ryuku and China offers us peace, but we decline.





18th April 1852 General Kim reaches Beijing. After a short skirmish the Chinese forces there retreat and we begin occupying the city. May 1852 more partisans rise up in Chaoyang, but their numbers are still relatively small and we are confident that General Kim will complete his mission before they manage to recapture Chaoyang.





Then on 16th June 1852 Heonjong receives word from a messenger that he had long awaited to hear. General Kim has taken control of Beijing, and the Emperor has been captured in the palace. Amidst celebration Heonjong orders that Ryuku be annexed and incorporated as a colony of Korea, while demands of indemnities paid to Korea shall be made to the Chinese Emperor. The Emperor readily accepts.









With this General Kim is recalled to Seoul, where he is given the Cross of Joseong, a new award the Heonjong invented for those who show brilliance and bravery on the battlefield. The victorious troops are given a parade and are greeted by an elated crowd. After the celebrations die down, Heonjong then uses the Chinese indemnities to complete his training of confucian monks. Thousands more are trained and inaugaurated, then sent off to help in research. Once nearly half the population has been trained as a monk Heonjong is content and stops training more monks, only spending a small amount of money implementing a program to retrain monks when the current ones pass away. In August Post-Napoleonic thought has completed so we begin work on Ad-Hoc Money Bill Printing. Heonjong then reviews the economy, which has taken a sharp turn for the better, not only due to the indemnities, but also since the perfection of methods for extracting coke, which vastly increased the kingdom's production of coal.



The future of Korea was looking bright, and Heonjong now set about improving relations with Japan and improving the military even further.

------------------------------------------------------

So not much to say here really, since I was just continuing on the same strategy as my last update. The decision to give voting rights didn't really hold any strategic value, that was just a bit of roleplaying really. Plurality is only at 2% so there's no real advantage by being a Con Mon, but since the entire population, more or less, is conservative, there's no danger of me getting a party in power that I don't want.

As for the war, having regulars made a world of difference. I was able to destroy the Chinese forces, even when they had groups of 60,000 irregulars, one regular with a guard attachment and three irregulars was more than enough to handle them with a good leader, and Kim is a really good leader. The regulars also made a massive difference to how quickly I was able to reach Beijing, as they made the capturing of each province much, much quicker. Taking out Ryuku was a good idea for two reasons; firstly I could annex them, but more importantly, if I had been unable to make it to Beijing, taking their capital would still give me +25% warscore, as taking the capital of an ally gives you that with the leader of the alliance. That's why I didn't annex Ryuku straight away, but instead waited till I was sure that I had taken Beijing first. Once I did that I annexed them, and the demand for war indemnities was accepted on the first try by China.

That then gave me all the money needed for me to complete my promotion of clergymen. I promoted every POP over 10,000 that wasn't in a coal, iron or timber RGO, giving me over 0.4 RP. That is pretty damn good for an unciv, so I'm well on my way to researching all the techs I need to become civilised. For those of you who aren't familiar with VIP, here's the requirements for civilising: http://www.paradoxian.org/vickywiki/...ncivilized#VIP

[Enewald]

I hope you shall manage to attain the Mandate of Heaven, time for a Korean Dynasty.

[Eärendil]

Ah, another Asian unciv AAR, I'll be following this one. I see you're using similar strategies to the ones I used, very nice. If you want the full list of all the techs you need for civilizing, just give me a hint and I'll sent it to you. Also, how many techs does Korea start out with?

[gis]

I like this AAR, I'll be fellowing, good luck to Korea!

[Xanthippus]

Originally Posted by Enewald

I hope you shall manage to attain the Mandate of Heaven, time for a Korean Dynasty.

Definitely on the cards. I am contemplating my approach here, as I either need to wait till I'm civilised so I can nab provinces from China with no BB, or I need to make sure I have a huge military score to prevent BB wars.

Originally Posted by Eärendil

Ah, another Asian unciv AAR, I'll be following this one. I see you're using similar strategies to the ones I used, very nice. If you want the full list of all the techs you need for civilizing, just give me a hint and I'll sent it to you. Also, how many techs does Korea start out with?

Thanks! Actually you inspired me to start this game, I'm quite loving your Tibetan AAR. I never really thought Korea had much potential just sitting around waiting for China, Russia or Japan to gobble you up, but after I saw how you kicked China about I thought I might give it a go. Working a charm so far, I played a little more yesterday and waged another successful war against them. I'll update sometime over the weekend with it. As for the techs needed, I found them all on the wiki, but thanks. I'll have to check what techs I started with when I get home, but it was definitely better than what Tibet starts with. From memory I think it was 2 in army, 0 in navy, 2 in commerce, 0 in culture and 1 in industrial.

Originally Posted by gis

I like this AAR, I'll be fellowing, good luck to Korea!

Thanks, I know I'll need it when I go up against Russia or Japan.

[Ahura Mazda]

Originally Posted by Enewald

I hope you shall manage to attain the Mandate of Heaven, time for a Korean Dynasty.

This would be so cool!

[Emp_Palpatine]

Very interesting AAR indeed.

[Xanthippus]

Korea: Kingdom of the Sleeping Tiger

Chapter 3: Disciplining the Dragon

The next two years were reasonably uneventful for the kingdom, however the government was evolving. The court factions were becoming increasingly democratic, forming parties focusing on specific issues and interests rather than simply being cliques of nobles with agendas for their own personal gratification. When the elections began in 1854 the vote given to landowners started to mean something more than a mere rudimentary gesture given by Heonjong as the King agreed to cede some legislative power to the elected advisors. Heonjong made this decision in an effort to Westernise the country, as the democracies of the West had achieved so much surely it could work in the East too. However Heonjong understood the need for caution here, and was careful not to implement anything too radical, or too quickly, lest he enrage the majority of the Korean people who hung tightly to tradition. Nevertheless, things were changing, and the 1854 elections were the first in which there was an accompanying election campaign. As the elections began there were only two parties. The first was the Korean Traditional Values Party, which had been formed by the old traditionalist faction. The second was the Democratic Korean Party, which had been formed by the conservatives faction. However shortly after the elections began, two more parties came into being. The Democratic Moderniser's Party was formed by a schism in the DKP, where some of the more radical nobles who wished to see the country modernise at a much faster pace decided to form their own party. The fourth party was formed by a group of greedy nobles who wished to establish a form of oligarchic republic, which would be lead by a council of nobles. They named their party the Korean Revolutionary Party.

The parties began touring the kingdom and campaigning to the nobles. The DMP and the KRP were for the most part dismissed as legitimate parties, but they did gain some support, and Heonjong did nothing to intervene as he wished to promote the spirit of free democratic parties, and he did not feel threatened by the KRP as they had so little support. The KTVP and DKP continued to resonate well with the nobles, as the factions had over the last two elections, and the campaign period was mainly dominated by these two parties. The open forum of debate ended the tendency of just one faction to be supported, and the KTVP found itself able to win back the vote of many of the nobles who had abandoned the old traditionalist faction. At one point in the election it seemed as though the KTVP might even win, until General Kim decided to pledge his support to the DKP and toured the kingdom to make this known. Such a lauded hero provided a huge swing in the DKP's favour, although they did lose a considerable number of advisors in the council. The final poll came in August, with the DKP winning the election and 89 seats on the council, the KTVP winning 10 seats and the DMP winning 1 seat.



Following the election the DKP sends a mission to Japan with the hopes of trading technologies. After three weeks of discussion and bargaining an amicable agreement is finally reached. We dispatch a group of technicians to Japan in order to help them construct a working practical steam engine, and also agree to pay the Japanese the equivalency of 2500£ once they have sent their economists to Korea in order to help us understand the concept of free trade and to help establish private banking institutions.



With this knowledge Heonjong grants greater economic freedom to the people as a whole, and small groups begin to go into business, forming export companies for coal and iron. These people begin to turn a profit on a private basis and are able to establish larger businesses and help develop the mines. We hope that they will also begin to establish industrial businesses.



Then in February 1855 the Seoul University is completed. The DMP had begun constructing it, with a grant from Heonjong, shortly after the election, and it was unveiled and opened to the public on the 19th. Its teachers are primarily Korean, but several Dutch from the East Indies, and British from China, are persuaded to come teach, for a healthy salary of course.



On the 21st of June 1855 while Heonjong was expecting another shipment of Chinese coins, he instead received a message from the Emperor informing him that while he wished no ill will upon the Korean kingdom, the Emperor would be ending payments of indemnities. Heonjong had expected this day might come, and so he began preparing for war once again, commissioning two divisions of cavalry in December.



Further progress is made in May 1856 when one of our economists teaching in the Seoul University has a major breakthrough in understanding the western system of currency. Helped by the British and Dutch economists, our research into developing an ad-hoc bill printing system is put forward by years.



In Junde of 1857 our peace treaty with the Chinese has expired once more, and Heonjong orders General Kim to ready the troops. An officer by the name of Gam, who distinguished himself in the last war, is put in charge of the new cavalry divisions and sent to the coast to await an amphibious landing close to Beijing. Word was then received that the Russians had invaded Manchuria and Mongolia once again, and so war was declared on China. General Kim leads the troops towards Andong, while General Gam loads the cavalry onto the transports and on the 9th of July makes a landing in Tangshan, without any Chinese resistance.



The Chinese manage to mount a counter attack on General Gam, but the skirmish is brief and the Chinese troops are quickly sent into a retreat. Tangshan falls October 17th and General Gam rides towards Beijing.



In November the Russians sign a peace with the Chinese, but this does not trouble us as our forces are far better developed than in the last war. Andong falls on the 3rd and General Kim then marches on Jilin. Shortly afterwards our economists finish developing an ad-hoc bill printing system and we direct our research efforts towards improving the training of our officers.





On 21st of January 1858 General Gam finishes securing Beijing, and the Emperor is once again captured inside the forbidden palace. The Emperor is left under guard while General Gam leads the cavalry on to Zhangjiakou. On the 7th of February General Kim reaches Jilin and meets the Chinese General Tao. The battle of Jilin begins, but as Kim s met by troops marching from Chongjing, Tao finds himself outgunned and outmaneuvered, and after suffering heavy casualties is shortly forced to retreat.





On 6th March Jilin falls, but the Chinese also managed to liberate Andong. We dispatch General Kim to recapture it. Then on 28th April Zhangiakou falls and General Kim rides to meet Chinese forces attempting to cut him off by retaking Tangshan.





The Chinese forces had recovered from the Russian invasion and were now putting up much more resitance, however their troops were spread thin and largely disorganised. General Kim and Gam had several brief skirmishes in which they were triumphant, and by January 1859 had managed to capture Datong, Andong and Mukden. Although the Generals were keen to press on, the Chinese troops were being reinforced every day as more troops from the previous Russian front flooded in, and so Heonjong decided it was time to settle peace with the Emperor.





Heonjong sends a messenger to Beijing demanding Jilin, which has a sizable Korean population, and war indemnities to be paid once again. The Emperor, eager to be released, accepts.





General Kim and Gam return to Seoul to another ceremony in their honour, with General Gam being awarded the Jongseon Cross. Spirits are high across Korea, and Heonjong begins devising plans for how to topple the Qing dynasty.

[Xanthippus]

Originally Posted by Xanthippus

From memory I think it was 2 in army, 0 in navy, 2 in commerce, 0 in culture and 1 in industrial.

I was right here, except it's actually 2 in culture.

[Enewald]

Dude, demoracy sucks! Someone is going to stage a coup against the crown sooner or later with it.

Wow, doubling your size?

[gis]

Wow, nice job winning China, again.

what's next? Annexing Japan? :P

[Ahura Mazda]

Originally Posted by Enewald

Wow, doubling your size?

Manchurian provinces are ridiculously huge!

[stnylan]

Looks like you are making very commendable progress, and telling a pretty good story into the bargain.

[Sir.Roosevelt]

cool AAR