Chapter one
Chu Ge Liang walked slowly along the Garden Of New Youth, his head looking down. He is in deep thoughts. The year is 1835 AD, and China is a state of great chaos. The country has been divided into five kingdoms. The Second Ming dynasty, led by the brilliant strategist Chu Ge Liang, has pushed the Manchurian power to the north of the Yangtze River ten years earlier. Now all of Southeast China is under the control of the Second Ming dynasty, while the dying Manchurian empire ruled the north. Taiwan, under the leadership of the Cheng family who had established themselves there for three centuries, had become a formidable island empire that stretched southward to include Phillipines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and all of Australia. Taiwan is the very first Chinese kingdom to open contact with the west, and as a result benefited from western institutions and technologies. Tibet and Turkistan broke free from the Manchurian empire as a result of the alliance with the Second Ming dynasty, but it appears that these former allies will soon become rivals. Unification of all China seems to be a distant possibility; at least it certainly seemed so if such a task was to be achieved before Chu Ge Liang's death.
Further complicating the task of national unification are the mighty Russian, British, German, French, and American empires who looked hungrily at the events in Asia. All wished for a piece of China. In fact, were it not for the stealth, not to say shrewd, political maneuvers on the part of these western powers, China would not have been splitted into five kingdoms.
Chu Ge Liang's political strategy for the past two decades has been one heavily inspired by that of the Iron Chancellor, Bismarck, of Germany. By building up the Second Ming empire's commerce, and industries, and by opening up all of the empire's sea ports to free trading with everyone, including the Manchurian and Taiwanese nemesis, Chu Ge Liang had been able to preserve the Ming empire's fragile independence. At the same time, by allowing the zealous Western Christian and Catholic missionaries to freely convert anyone within the Ming empire in exchange for western technological, military, and industrial expertise, Chu Ge Liang was able to modernize China at a stunningly fast pace. By 1835 AD, the Ming empire has caught up with Taiwan in industrial technologies completely.
However Chu Ge Liang desperately need the very one thing that these western missionaries were forbidden to give. This is the automobile technology with tank applications. Western powers had developed automobile technologies about fifteen years ago, and Ford's ingenuine assembly line allowed for the kind of mass production that was churning out tanks in hundreds. This is a capability that even Taiwan does not pocess.
Yet to obtain this technology is vitally crucial to the future survivability of any of these five kingdoms that now rule China. This is the reason that caused this brilliant strategist to walk along the path in the Garden of New Youth. He habitually walks at this place whenever he needs to think, plan, and strategize. Today, he is thinking about how to gain access to these tanks.
His deep rumination is interrupted by the approachment of his cousin, Lee Jin Ning. She is herself an able female strategist, who now occupies the position of vice prime minister. She works directly for Chu Ge Liang, and had been a valuable source of inspiration when it comes to strategy formulation. Therefore it wasn't surprising that Chu welcomed her presence.
"If I find you here, which you always are, then you are strategizing again" Lee said.
"You know me well, my cousin. Yes, I am strategizing, yet I am afraid I have come to an impasse, from which I can not extricate myself. I humbly ask for your assistance" said Chu.
"It must be a formidable challenge then because you, such a brilliant man, have never admitted to being in an impasse", Lee said teasingly.
"I am afraid it is an insurmountable challenge. Our dynasty needs better technologies!"
"Have we not progressed enough in technologies? Look at our dynasty today. We enjoy a standard of living, made possible by these awesome technologies of the west, that is comparable to that of Taiwan, and is rapidly converging toward those of the west" Lee asked with some confusion.
"That is our civlian technology. I am talking about our military technologies. We have cannons, and rifles. We even have ironclad. But our mobile armies are consisted of ancient calvary archers while the west are now using tanks! How can our calvary fight against tanks?" Chu said with some exasperation and frustrations.
"I thought that these technologies would have been transferred to us through the Christian and Catholic missionaries"
"They refuse to do so. They are forbidden by their governments to make such a transfer. And what worries me the most is the intelligence that my merchant spies in northern China had brought to me yesterday. It appears that all five great western powers are now in secret negotiation to supply the Manchurian army with these tanks."
"What is the rationale behind such action" Lee asked
"To maintain the balance of power in East Asia. These western powers know that our Ming empire is rising rapidly. If we rise too fast, we will soon have the ability to easily conquer all of northern China, uniting a substantial part of China under our dnasty's imperial rule. The western powers can not let this happen for they wish for China to be divided permanently. Therefore to counter our industrial might, they supply Manchurian empire with military expertise. Once the tanks are delivered to the Manchurians, we will not have the ability to defend ourselves." Chu said, and sighed.
"You are wrong my cousin" Lee said
"Please enlighten me" Chu pleaded
"I have never seen tanks before, but I have heard their description. I have read western military literatures on tanks, and know one thing for certain. Tanks are useful in open terrain, such as the vast Mongolian grassland, or the rolling terrains of north that is the Manchurian empire. But here in Southeast China, our empire's geography is dominated by mountains and forests. Tanks are useless in this part of the world. Let these tanks come, for I have a strategy to capture these tanks sufficiently unharmed. Our engineers can use reverse engineerings on these captured tanks to discover the secrets of automobile technology"
Lee said these with such confidence, and was backed by such insightful analysis of the tanks' advantage and disadvantage. Chu listened, and found in Lee's plan a ray of hope. Lee expounded on her plan further, bringing much joy to Chu who knew for certain that he now had the proper solution to this dilemma that caused him a sleepless night. The thing to do now is to execute this brilliant strategy. And so, preparation would begin, leading to the famous Ming Ching war of 1835 that would spell the turning point in the event of China that would decisively favor the Ming dynasty until her successfull unification of all China fifteen years later.
To be continued
Chu Ge Liang walked slowly along the Garden Of New Youth, his head looking down. He is in deep thoughts. The year is 1835 AD, and China is a state of great chaos. The country has been divided into five kingdoms. The Second Ming dynasty, led by the brilliant strategist Chu Ge Liang, has pushed the Manchurian power to the north of the Yangtze River ten years earlier. Now all of Southeast China is under the control of the Second Ming dynasty, while the dying Manchurian empire ruled the north. Taiwan, under the leadership of the Cheng family who had established themselves there for three centuries, had become a formidable island empire that stretched southward to include Phillipines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and all of Australia. Taiwan is the very first Chinese kingdom to open contact with the west, and as a result benefited from western institutions and technologies. Tibet and Turkistan broke free from the Manchurian empire as a result of the alliance with the Second Ming dynasty, but it appears that these former allies will soon become rivals. Unification of all China seems to be a distant possibility; at least it certainly seemed so if such a task was to be achieved before Chu Ge Liang's death.
Further complicating the task of national unification are the mighty Russian, British, German, French, and American empires who looked hungrily at the events in Asia. All wished for a piece of China. In fact, were it not for the stealth, not to say shrewd, political maneuvers on the part of these western powers, China would not have been splitted into five kingdoms.
Chu Ge Liang's political strategy for the past two decades has been one heavily inspired by that of the Iron Chancellor, Bismarck, of Germany. By building up the Second Ming empire's commerce, and industries, and by opening up all of the empire's sea ports to free trading with everyone, including the Manchurian and Taiwanese nemesis, Chu Ge Liang had been able to preserve the Ming empire's fragile independence. At the same time, by allowing the zealous Western Christian and Catholic missionaries to freely convert anyone within the Ming empire in exchange for western technological, military, and industrial expertise, Chu Ge Liang was able to modernize China at a stunningly fast pace. By 1835 AD, the Ming empire has caught up with Taiwan in industrial technologies completely.
However Chu Ge Liang desperately need the very one thing that these western missionaries were forbidden to give. This is the automobile technology with tank applications. Western powers had developed automobile technologies about fifteen years ago, and Ford's ingenuine assembly line allowed for the kind of mass production that was churning out tanks in hundreds. This is a capability that even Taiwan does not pocess.
Yet to obtain this technology is vitally crucial to the future survivability of any of these five kingdoms that now rule China. This is the reason that caused this brilliant strategist to walk along the path in the Garden of New Youth. He habitually walks at this place whenever he needs to think, plan, and strategize. Today, he is thinking about how to gain access to these tanks.
His deep rumination is interrupted by the approachment of his cousin, Lee Jin Ning. She is herself an able female strategist, who now occupies the position of vice prime minister. She works directly for Chu Ge Liang, and had been a valuable source of inspiration when it comes to strategy formulation. Therefore it wasn't surprising that Chu welcomed her presence.
"If I find you here, which you always are, then you are strategizing again" Lee said.
"You know me well, my cousin. Yes, I am strategizing, yet I am afraid I have come to an impasse, from which I can not extricate myself. I humbly ask for your assistance" said Chu.
"It must be a formidable challenge then because you, such a brilliant man, have never admitted to being in an impasse", Lee said teasingly.
"I am afraid it is an insurmountable challenge. Our dynasty needs better technologies!"
"Have we not progressed enough in technologies? Look at our dynasty today. We enjoy a standard of living, made possible by these awesome technologies of the west, that is comparable to that of Taiwan, and is rapidly converging toward those of the west" Lee asked with some confusion.
"That is our civlian technology. I am talking about our military technologies. We have cannons, and rifles. We even have ironclad. But our mobile armies are consisted of ancient calvary archers while the west are now using tanks! How can our calvary fight against tanks?" Chu said with some exasperation and frustrations.
"I thought that these technologies would have been transferred to us through the Christian and Catholic missionaries"
"They refuse to do so. They are forbidden by their governments to make such a transfer. And what worries me the most is the intelligence that my merchant spies in northern China had brought to me yesterday. It appears that all five great western powers are now in secret negotiation to supply the Manchurian army with these tanks."
"What is the rationale behind such action" Lee asked
"To maintain the balance of power in East Asia. These western powers know that our Ming empire is rising rapidly. If we rise too fast, we will soon have the ability to easily conquer all of northern China, uniting a substantial part of China under our dnasty's imperial rule. The western powers can not let this happen for they wish for China to be divided permanently. Therefore to counter our industrial might, they supply Manchurian empire with military expertise. Once the tanks are delivered to the Manchurians, we will not have the ability to defend ourselves." Chu said, and sighed.
"You are wrong my cousin" Lee said
"Please enlighten me" Chu pleaded
"I have never seen tanks before, but I have heard their description. I have read western military literatures on tanks, and know one thing for certain. Tanks are useful in open terrain, such as the vast Mongolian grassland, or the rolling terrains of north that is the Manchurian empire. But here in Southeast China, our empire's geography is dominated by mountains and forests. Tanks are useless in this part of the world. Let these tanks come, for I have a strategy to capture these tanks sufficiently unharmed. Our engineers can use reverse engineerings on these captured tanks to discover the secrets of automobile technology"
Lee said these with such confidence, and was backed by such insightful analysis of the tanks' advantage and disadvantage. Chu listened, and found in Lee's plan a ray of hope. Lee expounded on her plan further, bringing much joy to Chu who knew for certain that he now had the proper solution to this dilemma that caused him a sleepless night. The thing to do now is to execute this brilliant strategy. And so, preparation would begin, leading to the famous Ming Ching war of 1835 that would spell the turning point in the event of China that would decisively favor the Ming dynasty until her successfull unification of all China fifteen years later.
To be continued
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