Chapter 7: Progress on all fronts
As I said previously, I saw no reason to slow down despite my vassals starting to get a bit uppity. I had to hope that I'd be strong enough for them not to actually do something, and once Haixi would be gone that should shift the balance of power in my favour some more again.
First I continued the conquest of Indochina, Khmer conveniently had a province adjacent to the one I took from Pasai earlier, so I could holy war.
Probably should not have taken, so that I could holy war for it again...
Next up was Japan. Once I'd united all of Japan under my vassal they'de probably the next to be diplo-annexed, since I don't really want to rely on the AI's naval landings when I want some military help from my vassals. Plus it'd be hard to get any more use (coring) out of them then.
During that war I also enacted the "Ritual Education" decision, really nice that the basic Pagans get some additional help when it comes to converting now too.
It's still not very much, but it's something at least. Some way to get another missionary too and I'd be happy already, really.
On a more worrysome note:
This one really worried me for a while, but luckily noone followed up on that. And I was planning on finishing of Ayutthaya soon anyways.
Anyways, the war in Japan ended in my vassal gaining total control of the islands (expect for Okinawa and that one province I kept to holy war), and something unexpected happened:
Didn't think that could fire for vassals.
To put an end to them supporting the independence of my vassal, Ayutthaya was the next to fall:
And I even remembered to take a province for myself on the Cambodian border.
Next stop was the western front again, getting my troops in position for another war against the Uzbeks.
And apparantly my weak heir got under the influence of the Bureaucrats, too bad that he has weak stats with a strong claim, and can't really make use of that...
I really could have used some 80 or so years ago, but the wheels of bureaucracy do tend to mill a bit slowly sometimes I guess...
Anyways, I had to use a Reconquest CB on the Uzbeks, so I wouldn't be able to get too much out of it (Oirats had only two more cores).
Next time will be better though.
And then it was time to pick the next idea. I originally wanted to take a military idea to spread my ideas out, but decided on something else instead after some thinking:
I don't really mind falling behind a bit in Admin tech for a while, and it just solves too many of my problems for me to pass up on it.
Since my armies were already in the area the next war was against Yarkand and Delhi, both severely weakened by now. The war itself wasn't very exciting, but some interesting things happened during that time:
The people are very happy with our policies, whoever is responsible for our propaganda deserves a big bonus.
The provincial leaders on the other hand...
...are a bit out of whack. "Lack of Autonomy", yeah right...
The peacedeal in the war against Delhi and Yarkand mostly saw some big territorial losses from Yarkand. I did have the core-cost reduction from admin ideas already, but I still didn't want to core too many of the rich Delhian provinces at once and on my own.
That direct border to Multan might come in handy though.
Continuing the counter clockwise rotation, the next stop was Indonesia again.
Pasai shouldn't take much more, and I also started fabricating on Brunei and Majaphit already. Even if I wasn't quite sure yet how I'd handle the coring there. I was considering just taking their land for myself directly, but Pagarruyung could also core it for me...
And then it was time for a trip to the far north, the land and people of Kamchatka were to become part of our Empire.
I really wasn't sure how I felt about this.
He was a weak heir, and already in his 30ies. But he wasn't absolutely terrible either (1/3/2 Iirc), and more importantly had a strong claim. My emperor was in his late 40ies already, and didn't have another crownprince at that time, so this had the potential to get really ugly.
Fate tempted me with an event about a talented daughter (something along the lines of an 5/4/5), but the weak claim was just too dangerous imo. I still had the risk of simply getting a worse heir with a similarly weak claim, but I felt I had to hope for a better claim.
Regardless of these considerations, the mighty Kamchadals stood no chance and soon had to surrender:
And true enough, a son and heir was born soon after:
That's... much better than anything I hoped for.
Even a regency council would be better than someone without a strong claim imo.
And while I was still celebrating this, the annexation of Haixi finally finished:
And just in time, the other vassals were getting more and more cranky. It still wasn't pretty, but once the new balance of power got calculated and I got a diplo level it started to looked like something I would be able to handle again.
A bit of shuffling around and rearranging my armies later, and Indochina was only one more war away from being under my complete control:
The next was a bit more messy, in an attempt to break the big Indian blocks I attacked first the Timurids and Multan, and then the Uzbeks and Persia (Timmies and Persia were at war at that time, so that helped
).
The war against the Timurids and Multan had little territorial gains, but I made sure that this would be different for the next wars in that region:
Multan had a little OPM vassal, so I took that. They were in a great position to both get western India and expand into Persia, and with Haixi gone a new spot for a vassal was open. Well, as open as it gets when you're 3 over your relations limit.
And amidst all this warfare, I finally managed to repay my last loan.
Some events cost me a lot of money, and I spent a lot on buildings and my armies, so it took a bit longer. Butit's finally paying off now.
Meanwhile an expeditionary army reached the shores of the far east:
Once I'd core these provinces I'd finally have my very own first colonial nation.
Meanwhile the war against the Uzbeks and Persia was reaching its conclusion as well:
Once again I cut myself off from my target, but luckily I should be able to just go through whoever is in the Terra Incognita over there.
If you're looking very carefully, you might also be able to spot an unhealthy yellow/golden glow along the western and northern border of Uzbek. Looks like we're not too far away from our first direct contact with a European nation.