The Prosperity of Great Peace - a Ming Story-AAR

[TheDanish]

The Prosperity of Great Peace
A Paradox Newb's Story-AAR of the Great Ming​

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Zhengtong Emperor, r. 1435-1449, 1457-1464​

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The Veritable Records of Ming Taizu
Section 28.2
Twelfth Month of the First Year of the Hongwu Reign
[Gregorian Calendar 1369]

明太祖實錄 / 卷二十八下 / 洪武元年十二月

In ancient times the ruler of sages would not selfishly benefit himself with salary, or selfishly love himself through the benefits of government. He would only seek men of ability in order to govern his people; this is the means by which he would show just rule to all under Heaven. When the Mongols came from the desert and established the Yuan Dynasty, they only took responsibility for their own personal gain and did not illuminate the way of the former kings. The government and ministries employed only Mongolians and Central Asians. They only desired selfish gains for their clansmen and to tyrannize over the people. They did not have the intention of benevolent rule over all under Heaven, nor did they love the people or consider the heart of governance. Moreover, wicked officials would follow this precedent and deceive the dynasty, thus perverting the law. The upper ranks of the court bribed those who carried out just actions. The careless government continued these practices for years. All were of the same mind and did not assume it strange.

From the last years of the dynasty this abuse became especially pronounced. Consequently the state collapsed and all were in peril; among the soldiers, none saved it. The ministers should have assumed to warn against this. Thus I instruct: establish your officials’ boundaries; carefully select your men and employ them properly. By no means permit this sort of abuse. Respect and obey my words and you will forever enjoy the prosperity of great peace.​

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The founder of the Ming Dynasty is known by many names. He was born Zhu Yuanzhang, and posthumously he is known as Ming Taizu, or ‘the Great Ancestor of the Ming.’ But it is the reign title he took that best characterizes his rule – Hongwu, or ‘vastly martial.’ Indeed, the Hongwu Emperor was a military man of no educated background, having lived as a peasant until plague destroyed his family and propelled him along the path that would win him the emperorship of the Middle Kingdoms. He was no progenitor of rebellion, but seized power within those uprisings that challenged the authority of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty. With a secure base in the heavily populated Nanjing region, the future Hongwu Emperor defeated rival claimant rebels and ultimately expelled the Mongols from the ancient heartland, securing the northern regions that had been lost to barbarian peoples since the fall of the Glorious Tang Dynasty over four hundred years prior.

But Hongwu’s reign was many decades ago, a more tumultuous time. It is now the ninth year of the reign of the Zhengtong Emperor, counted in faraway Roman lands as one thousand, four hundred forty-four years after the birth of their greatest sage. Among all the kingdoms under Heaven, Great Ming alone enjoys peace, prosperity, and indescribable might. In the islands of the east the Ashikaga Shogunate struggles to maintain control of its archipelagic clans, and conflict and disorder loom large. To the north the Mongols have fractured, and perpetual war between the Oirats and so-called Northern Yuan consumes their khans with dreams of reunification – hopeless dreams, for Heaven has revoked its mandate, granted only to the Yuan in bygone years when it alone possessed the power to bring peace to the Middle Kingdoms. In the northeastern regions the fledging Joeson Dynasty flourishes under Ming patronage and protection, having thrown off the yoke of its Mongol conquerors and renewed Confucian virtues; and the descendants of the Jurchens, who so briefly ruled the Yellow River two centuries ago, now regularly offer tribute to the Ming court. To the south the Viet are no longer under benevolent Ming rule but have instituted a government modeled after the ancient sages; and from the west the Lamas of Tibet have come to Beijing with the purpose of returning the imperial seals of Yuan in submission to the Ming Dragon Throne.

It is a time of peace for the empire’s ninety million subjects, just as the Hongwu Emperor desired. And yet from his seat of power at the center of the world, the young Zhengtong Emperor finds himself more and more a figurehead, a fixture around which the state revolves, not the benevolent hand that revolves the state. Every day, bureaucrats bring memorials to the throne, imploring that he focus his energies on the maintenance of rites and proper conduct; to offering sacrifices to Heaven and the Ming founder, his great-great-grandfather; and to leave lesser matters of government to his faithful subjects. Learned Daoists seeking benefaction present ever more complicated alchemic concoctions and ever more esoteric texts, the latter of which the emperor has granted his disinterested support, if only to remove the bickering priests from his presence. Zhengtong knows this game well – the Daoists truly seek the tiny ingress they need to purge the dynasty of their Buddhist opposition, and the bureaucrats only desire to consolidate the position they have jealously guarded for over a millennia. Neither faction, however, wishes to see a strong and dynamic emperor on the throne, for such a phenomenon would remove the space that permits the operation of sectarian autonomy.

But among the endless vagaries of interests, between the logico-moral assaults of the court Confucians, around the patronage for which the temples clamor, and deep in the halls of the private arenas that are the imperial apartments, there are voices. Voices which fawn and hint and suggest. One in particular comes from a eunuch by the name of Wang Zhen, and he tells the emperor things. He kneels before His Majesty’s feet and knocks his head thrice for suggesting something which is not his place to suggest, but a thing that he, nonetheless, believes is both in the dynasty’s best interests and will honor the martial memory of the emperor’s great-great-grandfather. He wishes to see the emperor once again a mighty figure, one that inspires awe and obedience in equal measures, a man the Confucians will no longer seek to control but to whom they will look for guidance; a man who will become the disseminator and cultivator of the Three Teachings of the Great Ming, and thus put the Daoists in their place; a man who will be the conduit of wondrous and powerful virtue between Heaven and Earth.

Wang Zhen suggests something not even Hongwu could accomplish: humbling the mighty Mongol khanates. They foolishly continue to claim the possession of Heaven’s mandate and plague the northern frontier with perpetual raids. The Northern Yuan no longer exists but in the minds of its descendants, a people now vanquished from the sedentary empire, who live once more in perpetual saddle-borne movement on the dry steppes of the north. They eat mutton and stink of sheep and have forgotten all of the empire’s civilized customs, but still they believe they own the right to rule the Middle Kingdoms.

Wang Zhen says to demonstrate once and for all that they, in fact, do not. And beyond that… who but Heaven can say?

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Welcome to The Prosperity of Great Peace, a Ming AAR. This represents a series of firsts for me – my first Paradox game, my first EU4 campaign, and my first AAR/LP. I consider myself a veteran gamer in a variety of genres, but strategy games both small and grand have always held a special place in my electronic heart. Neither am I unfamiliar with extraordinarily complicated games (Dwarf Fortress, anyone?). More importantly for the purposes of this AAR, I am a Ph.D. student of Chinese military history and world empires, particularly between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries. I hope to inject into this AAR some of the arcane and obscure knowledge I have spent far too much time and money accumulating.

This will be a story AAR with period-appropriate commentary that will draw from actual history. Obviously I will introduce ahistorical descriptions and narratives to match the ahistorical course that EU games inevitably take. The story will include translated portions of the Veritable Records of the Ming (Ming shilu 明實錄) as presented above, a compilation of court records, the emperor’s statements, bureaucratic memorials, and local official reports, all perused and assembled after the death of an emperor to mark his reign. The translations are made from Classical Chinese and will largely be my own, with some minor embellishment for story’s sake. Just as the translations will serve the AAR, the AAR will serve as motivation and practice for my translations.

So let’s get down to business and defeat the Huns Mongols! I have a series of objectives for this AAR that become less concrete as they go along:

Objectives
1) Conquer the Mongol Khanate and Oirat Horde
2) Conquer other regional powers, including Japan, the Manchus, Dai Viet, and Southeast Asia
3) Colonize and Westernize (or Westernize and Colonize?)
4) ???
5) Profit (and/or attempt world conquest)

I will certainly begin preparing for Objective #1 at the very start of the game, but I may not necessarily shoot for #2 immediately thereafter, and may not try for #5 at all. Furthermore, if #1 proves absolutely unfeasible, I may skip ahead and come back to conquer the hordes when I’m in better, Westernized shape.

Initial Plans
Making war against the northern hordes without westernized units or a significant military tech advantage will require extreme care and acute positioning. Judging by research and my own preparatory experience, fighting hordes on their own territory amounts to suicide, as fifteenth-century horde armies are extraordinarily strong on flat terrain. This means I will need to employ mountainous provinces, rivers, and luring tactics to destroy the hordes in the field before I advance on their core regions.

Before putting actual boots on the ground, of course, I will need to prepare extensively. To follow actual history, I will give myself until August of 1449 – the month the Zhengtong Emperor led his ill-fated expedition against the Oirat warlord Esen and was subsequently captured – to prepare the empire economically and muster the forces necessary to avert historical catastrophe and crush the Mongols.

In the event this absolutely does not work, I will probably leave the hordes alone for the time being and concentrate on other combat fronts, at least until I get access to artillery (military tech level 7, if I am not mistaken).

Forum Interactivity
I would also like this to be an interactive AAR to some extent. If you all have tips or advice, please feel free to offer it up. Do you want screenshots and text that focuses on more macro-historical or micro-historical developments? What, in general do you want to get out of this AAR? Obviously I’ll be playing and preparing my submissions before I actually post them, so I’m afraid I won’t be able to respond to every minute request, but I will try to move in directions that forum-goers generally suggest.

So that’s my introduction. First report should be up in a few days' time!

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Contents

Chapter I
1 - The Ordinances of Heaven
2 - The Grand Favor of the Emperor
3 - To Mourn Bitterly
4 - The Nature of Man
5 - The Moral Law
6 - The Right Hand
7 - The Arbiter of Fate
8 - Perpetual Heaven and Earth
9 - The Capacity of the Virtuous

State of the Empire, 1594

 

[TheDanish]

1 - The Ordinances of Heaven​

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The Veritable Records of Ming Taizu
Section 26
Tenth Month of the First Year of the Hongwu Reign
[Gregorian Calendar 1368]

明太祖實錄 / 卷二十六 / 洪武元年十月

In order to protect the people of the Middle Kingdoms, how can Heaven necessarily order them to use peace to bring virtue and governance to the barbarians? I feared that the land had become corrupt, and that barbarous customs had caused the people to become disorderly. Thus I led grand heroes and spared no effort to sweep these things away. My aspirations resided in expelling the barbarous enemy and quelling rebellion. I employed the people to retake their land and wipe away their shame. If the Mongolians and Central Asians – although they are not people of culture – are nonetheless the same as those born between Heaven and Earth, and among them there are those who can know righteousness and wish to become subjects, then fostering them is no different from fostering the people of the Middle Kingdoms.​

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Winter has come, and in the northern regions of the empire it is not kind. In the cold night a film of snow settles across the imperial capital, red-tiled roofs now white as they hunch over virtual miles of snaking alleyways, devoid of bustle for the curfew. On the main road - a way as wide as a canal and paved of even brick - a pair of soldiers halt their patrol and peek through the enormous gates of one of the city's three dozen wards. In the silent night they mutter exchanges with the watchers within, who confirm that all is well. Lanterns swinging, the two guards continue on their way, boots leaving the night's sixth trail of routine in the fair powder.

Somewhere distant, the first of twelve drumbeats sounds. It is the deepest night. But not all sleep.

In the city's center there rise vermilion walls ten times the height of a man, topped with stone ramparts and pinpoints of moving torches. Through the grand Meridian Pass, one with clearance would find a great, open square, and beyond that another square, and beyond that magnificent marble stairs ascending to the pillared edifice of the emperor's throne. From here the emperor rules the known world, but now he is absent. He resides in the recesses of his apartments, where wet melts through the papered windows and leaves a trickle of warm water over the sill. In a lacquered chair under flickering lamplight he sits. His robes are midnight blue, a barbaric color but one he wears with sacred authority as he frowns at his table. Upon it is an empty inkstone and dry brushes, as well as a broken ball of wax, from which the emperor has procured a small scroll scripted with most interesting news...

Before we discuss this news, however, the recent affairs of the empire must come first.

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Mere months after Wang Zhen offered his humble suggestion, the Zhengtong Emperor issued a startling decree. The empire, though at peace, was stagnant; and though strong, found its fortifications crumbled after years of neglect. The factionalization of the bureaucracy served only to stifle proper rule, and so in accordance with Heaven's ancient designs, the emperor ordered a centralized process of self-reflection. This process would entail three things: a wholesale reorganization of the high bureaucracy, the revitalization of the navy to protect trade, and the relaxing of the Ming Dynasty's strict regulations on tribute conduct. In the emperor's words, it was better to permit the lesser kingdoms more avenues by which they could bring tribute to the Ming, and those avenues should include seaborne commerce.

Though the latter two portions of the decree broke from the Great Ancestor's founding laws, few questioned the wisdom of the Son of Heaven. Few, except those with a vested interest in the established order. The Ministers of Works, Rites and War all objected and submitted memorials to the throne, begging His Majesty to rescind his decrees and thus re-establish classical order and stability under Heaven. In the event His Majesty did not concur with his ministers, they decided they would resign in protest.

And so Zhengtong permitted their resignation. Then he circumvented the court once more and personally selected their successors. Within the week, three new ministers served the empire.

Wang Zhi, Peng Chenggong, and Han Tan were elevated from their secondary and tertiary positions to helm the vacant positions of the six ministries.

Peng Chenggong had risen to high power through the imperial examinations, a system re-instituted after the fall of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty. His grandfather had been a Nanjing merchant who had supplied the founder with information and connections during his rise to power, and Chenggong's father was granted a middling official position as a reward. Peng Chenggong climbed from those fortunate beginnings to dizzying heights to which even he, privileged as he was, had not aspired. Now he was one of the most powerful men in the Empire of the Great Ming: the Minister of Rites. But he owed his power to the emperor, and the emperor alone. Thus, when the Son of Heaven commanded Chenggong to employ his capacity as the negotiator between the Middle Kingdoms and barbarian realms, Chenggong complied wholeheartedly.

The Joeson Dynasty, always a loyal follower and repository of Confucian virtue, was now engaged in royal marriage with the Zhu clan of Ming. Behind closed doors literati high and low balked at the degradation that the Zhu name would suffer for marrying the emperor's niece to a lesser realm, but none voiced their disapproval to the emperor himself. Only Zhengtong fathomed the reasons for this alliance of blood. And reasons there were, for the belligerent Jurchens to the north mustered for war. Against whom, however, Ming agents could not say. Regardless, if the emperor wished to realize his plans to humble the Mongols and reconstitute the core of the old Mongol Empire, he would require a peaceful eastern front.

Simmering concern with the emperor’s insistence on deploying his authority soon boiled over. Early in Zhengtong's tenth year on the throne, Han Tan, the Minister of War, submitted to the throne a memorial suggesting measures to secure other borders while the empire gathered funds and manpower for the northern punitive campaigns to come. The emperor gave the measure his approval. Naturally, the gathering concern became open disapproval on ritual grounds.

It was one thing to connect the lineages of the Ming ruling family with the faithful Confucian rulers of Joeson. It was quite another to benevolently gift the recalcitrant Viet of the south the same grace. They had refused Ming administration and ejected Ming armies only a few decades prior. Now the emperor faced dissenting debate in court over the dilution of imperial blood. The concern was only tempered when the Zhengtong Emperor assured his subjects that he would not engage with the Tibetans or Shan in the same manner. Opposing voices temporarily silenced, and the initial phases of preparation for the northern campaigns finished, the emperor turned his energies toward gathering his grand armies.

That is, until one cold winter night, news came in that fateful wax ball. A Jurchen prince had fallen out of power among the northeastern barbarians and fled to Ming territory. With him he brought news that the Jurchens would soon march on the Mongols themselves. Indeed, in high summer of that year horns blared across the Amur River.

The Khanate, being vassals to the Oirats, called upon their masters to protect them. And the Oirats answered, galloping across the great Mongolian steppes to sweep through the pine forests of Jurchen territory. The Jurchens found their cause for war inadequate moral support in the face of the martial prowess of the Oirat, and their armies crumbled. But the Oirat did not press their advantage, content to teach the Jurchens a bloody lesson before they retreated to their inland recesses.

For the Ming Dynasty, however, the spat reminded Zhengtong of the oft-repeated, age-old words of political wisdom that guided dynasties a thousand years past. "以夷治夷" - to use barbarians to control barbarians. And the Oirat had accomplished that very task for the Ming. But this brought the empire to a new crossroads. The Oirat had demonstrated not only their strength, but also their restraint by inflicting a punitive campaign of their own without wanton conquest. The Jurchens, however, had revealed themselves as the most uncultured and bloodthirsty of the barbarians. Now, in their weakness, they invited a strong, centralized hand to bring order to their disorderly realm. Truly this was Heaven's ordinance.

Thus, the Zhengtong Emperor finally sounded the call to arms. But the armies of the Great Ming would not destroy the power of the Mongol khanates. Not yet. First the might of the Ming, long thought in torpor, would be demonstrated against the barbaric Jurchens. That autumn, fifty thousand Ming troops marched into Heilongjiang.

In the midst of the campaign's second winter, remaining Jurchen power finally broke and the Zhengtong Emperor ordered Peng Chenggong to dispatch an envoy. Seeking to reestablish peace under Heaven, the emperor instructed the Jurchen khan to cede Ming lordship over their core territories, and thus benefit the majority of the Jurchen people. The Jurchens would be permitted to govern a state on the eastern coast, so that they might learn the art of proper governance from the inheritor of Heaven's mandate.

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So! That was a fairly successful first campaign. Obviously I have already broken from my initial list of objectives and decided to cripple the Manchus (for whom I use their contemporary name, Jurchen) instead of warring with the Mongols. I took the opportunity that presented itself when the Oirats kicked the Manchus up and down northeast Asia but failed to push their advantage. With Manchu armies depleted, my overwhelming forces only fought one major battle. The rest was cleanup.
Here is the present situation:

I definitely need to consolidate and solve my overextension problems. I've stationed troops in my conquered provinces and begun coring Haixi. I think I will settle down for a bit and build up my monarch points and economy once more, and I really need to start teching. I might avoid wars of conquest for now and try to rush exploration for New World colonies, or I will make my promised push on the Mongols after a period of rebuilding.

 

[sigeena]

I like the historical context. Just a small correction. Zhu Yuanzhang was a given name. The name he was born with was alot humbler, Zhu Chongba 朱重八 (good ol'fashioned peasant name)

I'll rather Ming don't westernise, if possible. A westernised Ming will no longer be challenging or fun to play.

 

[TheDanish]

You are absolutely right about the founder's personal name. I went with Yuanzhang because very, very few people know him by the name Chongba, and there is some discussion that Chongba was a name the founder retroactively applied to his past to appeal to Buddhists (eight being an important number in Buddhism). There are no strong local records for the late-Yuan era in which he was born, so it's hard to say!

Glad to see you're following. The first part should be up shortly. And I'll definitely consider avoiding Westernization, though this is my first game and giving a superpowered, Westernized Ming a spin across Eurasia sounds like a blast

 

[GulMacet]

I don't know if you have read Merrick Chance's excellent AAR Lords of France, but in any case, that's the sort of insightful explanation of history and (sometimes violent) societal change I would wish to see from an individual as informed as you. Also, more characters! And keep the pinyin, Wade-Giles sucks.

 

[Sir Garnet]

I very much look forward to such a well-informed AAR. Detailed AAR's are tough work and a labor of love. I expect yours will be fascinating.


I have played Ming from 1521 to the end of the century, achieving the limited goal of establishing prosperity, strength, and a ring of vassal tributaries - supreme in its sphere, including a fortuitous personal union with Japan that secured its rear. I then rolled the dice to move on - it was to Persia, to recover its frontiers and fortunes, which was passably well done and a position of strength established by the early 1700s (including good relations with China as a hedge against the Russians and Moghuls. During this time, AI China gobbled up vassals and embarked on further incremental expansion. Vassal armies have proven quite useful to me with their favorable force limits (e.g,. hordes) increasing friendly numbers much more than if their manpower were to be absorbed into China.


Then I was on to Britain after Persia, saved for when I have time, which seems a different kind of proposition, and likely to come into conflict with China.


I've also started a 1592 Ming game to see how well a non-Westernizing China will fare to the end of the game with a semi-historical strategy but taking a pro-active approach to pre-empting threats. Asymmetrical warfare through the espionage ideas plays a big part in the strategy (in particular, lowering Russian foreign relations, creating discontent, and funding rebels - I don't expect cozying up to Russia would work for me as it would interfere with its eastern ambitions). I'll see if it is true that non-Western powers can be competitive without Westernization - Russian troops are tougher, but detachments can be beaten, and they have other enemies.


Note that "interactive AAR" has a specific meaning regarding who participates and requires forum authorization - I think what you intend is simply an active dialogue with your audience. I shall be happy to oblige. Strategy, how it turns out, and lessons learned are always useful in an AAR, and tying it into the original historical timeline is to me always interesting.

 

[Avalen]

Looks very promising! I will be following with a keen eye and will offer suggestions of course, when the AAR gets properly into gear.

 

[Scorpi]

Am subscribed... sounds interesting !

 

[Arilou]

Looks fun, looking forward to it!

 

[TheDanish]

First part is up! For one reason or another it seems to have been positioned as the second post in the thread.

 

[DarthJF]

Love China AARs. Will be following.

 

[Arilou]

Sweet! Ming AARs are always fun.

 

[saint242]

Super-subbed! Really like your writing and the injection of all your historical knowledge. Hope this goes well. I just started playing EU4 and I really want to try a Ming game, but I'm getting my feet wet in Western Europe first. Hopefully I'll learn something from your game.

Also, I'm disappointed to note that the adviser portraits are all still Western-looking. Oh well.

 

[TheDanish]

2 – The Grand Favor of the Emperor​

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The Veritable Records of Ming Taizu
Section 56
Ninth Month of the Third Year of the Hongwu Reign
[Gregorian Calendar 1370]

明太祖實錄 / 卷五十六 / 洪武三年九月

The former Yuan generals Jiang Wenqing and Yang Sizu travelled to the capital to submit to Ming rule. By imperial edict, Wenqing was generously granted a thousand households and Sizu command of a guard garrison. Their officers – some eight hundred fifty men – were each gifted woven silks. The court then ordered Sizu to go recruit soldiers from former military households of the Yuan. The imperial edict from the emperor to Sizu read:

“Successive dynasties rise and fall; this is the way of Heaven. For the sake of the people, officials ought to at this time act with vigor, but they risk calamity out of a desire to preserve themselves and their families; no doubt this is not uncommon. The fortunes of the Yuan have waned, and all under Heaven was disorderly. Your soldiers and officers have died in droves. You alone have been preserved, and now you have come to pledge your allegiance to the Son of Heaven. It can be said that you recognize the turning of the times. Now I, the Sovereign, award you a hereditary garrison post. I dispatch you to recruit your fellows and instruct others to come to pledge their allegiance as well. If they come and subordinate themselves, I will shower them with grand favor. I also know that among the Mongols there are those who wish to come and submit; have them come to the frontier, and escort them to the capital. I will see that they are managed.”

Sizu replied: “I staked my entire life on the fallen Yuan state, but when it fell there was nowhere to turn. Having now beyond all my hopes obtained Your Majesty’s imperial grace, I shall exert myself to the utmost in your service to repay Your Majesty’s compassion.”​

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正統十八年

Eighteenth Year of the Zhengtong Reign
[Gregorian Calendar 1452]

Under Heaven, the Empire of the Great Ming now stretches through Heilongjiang, farther north than even the Glorious Tang projected its law centuries ago. The Zhengtong Emperor has demonstrated the might of the Celestial Kingdom to the world, and the bulk of the Jurchen people are now properly governed under His enlightened rule.

But the Jurchens do not perceive His Majesty’s benevolence as the boon that it truly is.

The victorious, veteran-swelled armies from the Punitive Jurchen Campaign were once more dispatched to quell the rebels forcefully, and so they did, for the Ming soldiers annihilated the ragtag belligerents in a series of swift autumns and springs. Following these expeditions, the court decreed that permanent garrisons be stationed in the northeastern provinces.

In order to forestall future sedition, Minister of Works Wang Zhi forwarded a memorial to the throne suggesting that the state invest in the infrastructure of the former Jurchen territories, so neglected were they by their former masters. But the Zhengtong Emperor did not assent. It was better, he proclaimed, that the seditious elements understand their folly through proper punishment.

The years that followed saw wondrous blessings of Heaven bestowed upon imperial lands, proof that the Ming strongly possessed Heaven’s mandate.

The glory of the Jurchen punitive campaigns swelled the number of imperial recruits. Hundreds flocked to county yamens to declare their desire to serve the Ming state and secure the name of their lineages. Though the civil service was still the sole professional avenue under Heaven, soldiery provided men with security for their families in terms of prestige and finances. Truly this was proof that the Ming, though governed by a proper dynasty founded in the Middle Kingdoms, had inherited the powerful martial legacy of the Mongol Yuan.

And when the Middle Kingdoms flowered, the old regime withered. The Northern Yuan, after years of decline, was finally subsumed into servitude to their masters, the Oirat Mongols.

News of the Oirat takeover first came with thousands of former subjects of the Northern Yuan khanate. In their masses they began to gather at – and press through – the passes of the Great Wall, pleading protection. In years past such gatherings were causes of concern for the Ming court, for it often heralded the arrival of ferocious Mongol armies. Now, however, those that came were women and children, shepherds and horse-breeders. They had no desire to serve the Oirat barbarians. They wished instead to submit to the Son of Heaven.

Zhengtong was no longer a young, inexperienced emperor. Now in his prime, his senses of statecraft had sharpened immensely. The coming of the refugees informed him not only of Oirat power, but of the inadequacy of the Great Wall as a protective frontier. Reports from frontier garrison commanders indicated that the Wall was severely undermanned and in desperate need of repair. Within the court, debate sparked over how the empire was to rectify this issue. Wang Zhi implored the Son of Heaven to commit the necessary resources and labor levies to reinforce the Wall. Han Tan, however, reasoned that with the empire’s newfound strength in soldiery, there was no need to maintain such fortifications. After all, the Ming would come to rule the Oirat, sooner or later.

In the end, Zhengtong agreed with his Minister of War.

The empire’s levies unsquandered, the state would funnel them toward another endeavor. Given Oirat strength, the emperor decided upon a new course of action. He consulted the ancient texts and reflected on the way of the sage-kings. In the end, he determined that the Ming would require subordinate kingdoms to aid in the process of the conquest of the north. Thus, he ordered that the empire prepare a second campaign against the Jurchens – suspected of supporting the provincial rebels – in order to fully bring them within the Ming sphere.

In the midst of the empire’s military preparations, however, misfortune struck.

Peng Chenggong passed away at an unfortunate young age. His son, a minor local official in Hangzhou, entered the three years of traditional mourning, but it is said the emperor himself disappeared from court view for three weeks in honor of his deceased minister. When he emerged, he honored Chenggong with an honorable posthumous literary name – the One who Follows Heaven.

But it was Zhengtong’s choice for Chenggong’s replacement that gave the court pause. Chen Youxue was not a high official – he was the son of a minor clerk, and Youxue himself served merely as a fourth-rank censorate officer in a local Beijing bureau. Few fathomed the emperor’s decision, but fewer still openly voiced their concerns. Some, however, whispered that knowledge of Youxue’s prowess in unearthing secrets and purging corruption had been passed to the emperor through the eunuchs of the imperial apartments.

Within months, though, the rationale behind Zhengtong’s appointment was revealed.

In defiance of the role of the Ming as the proper administrator of the Jurchens, Joseon had established an alliance with the northeastern barbarians. The emperor was naturally upset, but in his wisdom, he ordered Youxue to find an alternative method of campaigning against the Jurchens without disrupting theretofore harmonious relations with Joseon. Thus, Chen Youxue implemented a secondary plan that would permit Ming occupation of the final Jurchen territories.

Indeed, within the year, the Jurchens responded in kind. During a ceremony in which the Ming court received the Jurchen return envoy, he turned his back on the emperor. The envoy was, of course, summarily executed. The following spring, Jurchen troops crossed into the Ming-occupied territories.

But even the barbarous savagery of the Jurchens could not overcome the vast field armies of the Ming Dynasty. Led by astute Ming generals, not a single battle went in the Jurchens’ favor.

Ming forces routed the Jurchens across the forests and plains of the northeast. In late spring of the Second Punitive Jurchen Campaign, the last strongholds of the enemy succumbed to protracted siege. As imperial armies breached the Jurchen capital of Hetu Ala, the Jurchen king Tolo threw himself from the battlements. In the aftermath of the final conquest, the imperial court established a regency council of Ming bureaucrats for Tolo’s young son Sibeoci.

Finally, the northeastern frontier was secure, the Jurchens reduced to tributary status, and the great Oirat enemy surrounded. Zhengtong had accomplished what no ruler of the Middle Kingdoms had done: bring the northeastern barbarian under proper rule under Heaven.

Reviewing his histories, Zhengtong knew that if he were to also reduce the Mongols to submissive tributaries, he would secure the glory of the Ming Dynasty for ten thousand years.

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This chapter was certainly a learning experience. I did some reading up on game mechanics and decided that I will try to diplo-annex the Manchu. I wasted about 200 admin points by coring Haixi and then giving it right back to the Manchu when I released them as a vassal, but it’s not a huge issue. Lesson learned!

I got a shocking five manpower-boosting events for a total of some 12500 men, plus the Great Wall event which threw another 26500 on top. This definitely cut down on the time between the two wars of conquest against the Manchus. Ming revenue, too, continues to astound me. I had to pay off three war debts but still ended up with about 1000 ducats before my second Manchu war.

Regarding the Oirats, I think I’ll spend more time teching until I’m at least one, if not two, military tech levels above them. Following that, I may go with sigeena’s request and avoid westernization. I’d also like to colonize as much of Siberia before the Russians show up.

 

[GulMacet]

What about Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang? A proper dynasty should expand in all directions, especially if you want to reclaim the glory of the Tang, whose mastery of the Central Asian savages stretched as far as the Oxus!

 

[TheDanish]

Totally. I'll definitely have to deal with Tibet, since right now they're allies of the Oirats. I want to break that alliance up before I move against either, of course. I plan on picking Exploration at some point early-on to start colonizing Taiwan and Siberia.

 

[verdas]

This is really well done.

Will Korea accept vassalization? Your tax base has to be massive compared to theirs.

 

[TheDanish]

Unfortunately they will not. Apparently my tax base isn't nearly large enough yet.

 

[Sir Garnet]

Korea seems in my experience an unreliable ally due to the border tension and AE dynamics, and too willing to ally with Jurchens or Japanse. It must be much reduced in extent before it will accept the offer of vassal status diplomatically, and requires several wars to conquer fully and force vassal status upon it.

This makes it a hard road to replicate the close fraternal ties between the big and little brother nations. A personal union seems more readily achievable.

 

[Arilou]

This inspired me to play my own Ming game.