This is going to be a relatively short and laconic AAR about my playthrough as Guangdong, with slightly modified NNM mod (it now lasts until 1st September 1939, and the AI is a little bit less aggressive). I haven't played Victoria for a while, so my skills in this game were quite rusty.
The first thing the new governor of Guangdong did was to encourage education in the province ("teachers" is just renamed clergy).
Foreign dogs continue to spread opium all across the Great Qing, including Guandong.
The Qing managed to keep its territorial integrity in the resulting war, but opium trade continued almost unchecked.
The cholera and a peasant rebellion made the 1850'ies a harsh decade in Guandong.
Anti-Qing sentiment was growing in Guandong as more reforms were made, both among the commoners and the elite.
Despite massive peasant rebellions, prompted by poverty and by unpopular, although necessary, reforms, the governor of Guandong refused to close the province's borders.
So the reforms continued, until finances were put in a proper order, the railroads made transportation easier, and the old weaponry replaced by new rifles, untill, finally, the province was considered truly civilized by the West.
The now de-facto independent government of Guandong oversaw the beginnings of light industry, while taking care to ensure that order and traditions are well-maintained.
The end of the sixties saw first post-westernization mass movements in Guandong, forcing the governor to allow mass meeting and institute pensions.
Of course, the Qing could not tolerate such disobedience, sending armies to Guandong, intenting to bring it to heel. But the new Guandong army doctrines and rapid mass mobilization meant that the Qing and their loyal governors suffered severe casualties even from unexperienced Guandong recruits.
Qing armies were pushed away from the capital.
Guandong fleet managed to block hordes of Qing troops in Hainan.
Armed with muzzle-loaded rifles and a new concept of social justice, the Guangdong soldiers were true Social Justice Warriors.
Although the troops often had to retreat under assault, in the end, unorganized Qing loyalist armies were always repealed.
By the end, Qing exhaustion was so high, they were willing to end the war giving some land to Guangdong.
The first thing the new governor of Guangdong did was to encourage education in the province ("teachers" is just renamed clergy).
Foreign dogs continue to spread opium all across the Great Qing, including Guandong.
The Qing managed to keep its territorial integrity in the resulting war, but opium trade continued almost unchecked.
The cholera and a peasant rebellion made the 1850'ies a harsh decade in Guandong.
Anti-Qing sentiment was growing in Guandong as more reforms were made, both among the commoners and the elite.
Despite massive peasant rebellions, prompted by poverty and by unpopular, although necessary, reforms, the governor of Guandong refused to close the province's borders.
So the reforms continued, until finances were put in a proper order, the railroads made transportation easier, and the old weaponry replaced by new rifles, untill, finally, the province was considered truly civilized by the West.
The now de-facto independent government of Guandong oversaw the beginnings of light industry, while taking care to ensure that order and traditions are well-maintained.
The end of the sixties saw first post-westernization mass movements in Guandong, forcing the governor to allow mass meeting and institute pensions.
Of course, the Qing could not tolerate such disobedience, sending armies to Guandong, intenting to bring it to heel. But the new Guandong army doctrines and rapid mass mobilization meant that the Qing and their loyal governors suffered severe casualties even from unexperienced Guandong recruits.
Qing armies were pushed away from the capital.
Guandong fleet managed to block hordes of Qing troops in Hainan.
Armed with muzzle-loaded rifles and a new concept of social justice, the Guangdong soldiers were true Social Justice Warriors.
Although the troops often had to retreat under assault, in the end, unorganized Qing loyalist armies were always repealed.
By the end, Qing exhaustion was so high, they were willing to end the war giving some land to Guangdong.
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