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Yuiiut posted:Can't wait till having our Franco-Prussian war before the landowners got their restoration itch scratched causes us restore the Purgyals permanently. It's over on the Paradox forums, but my megacampaign got through Vic2 with an intact monarchy. I'm still in the HoI4 phase, so spoilers about that phase.
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Sep 22, 2023 06:34
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Pretty sure the Hohenzollen one Wiz ran years ago was all monarchy all the time.
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Sep 22, 2023 06:40
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Is V3 really not very well liked? It seems like it has a lot of cool ideas, but idk how they translate into a working game.
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Sep 22, 2023 12:49
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V3 needs another year or two of cooking, and a DLC or three. Much like most PDox games, really.
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Sep 22, 2023 14:43
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It's definitely better than release. The patches so far have been substantial and the new military systems look promising but I have not actually played any 1.5 versions yet. I could well have waited a few more months before starting modding work but the earliest versions are still workable.
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Sep 22, 2023 15:04
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GunnerJ posted:Is V3 really not very well liked? It seems like it has a lot of cool ideas, but idk how they translate into a working game. There's a mix of genuine dislike for it in specific but probably more broadly of the 4 mainline Paradox series (CK, EU, V, and HOI), Vicky has generally been the least popular. CK focuses on characters in a way that really rewards people who like the roleplaying angle, EU is the king of mappainting, and HOI has a lot of combat depth. By contrast Vicky has always focused on internal development: flows, supply-demand, investment, etc. Like not even directed critical antipathy, its just not typically as good at sparking the imagination of a lot of people as the other 3. It definitely has fans, its my favorite, but it has never and probably will never have as big a fanbase as CK or EU even if it executed on its intended ideas perfectly (which it definitely has not).
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Sep 22, 2023 15:11
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"What good is Lhasa? I ask you this most sincerely -- what good does Lhasa produce for the whole of the Republic? A cold, windswept city atop the mountains where the only thing to come from it is words -- words of prayer on the winds, words of law on paper and slate, and words of war to armies and weapons-makers. What right does the Red Mountain Party have to sit perched in the clouds and speak to us of tradition and virtue, to tell us that we have sinned to follow the word of Allah or the teachings of the gurus? They tell us as such because if they were to stop speaking, if the words were to stop flowing, then they would have nothing to stand on and Lhasa would fall from the mountains." -Chandranath Mokammel, founder and owner of the Mokammel Peerless Cotton Weaving Company of Dhaka
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Sep 26, 2023 23:38
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Chapter 89: 1845 to 1853 - Church and State The unpublished and unedited draft of a memoir of Sonam Rinzin, Tibetan ambassador to the Republic of Wu and the Huabei Federation, is continued here. These assorted sections include a discussion of the contemporary Tibetan-Huabei War, and some scattered notes on Tibetan domestic politics of the period.  In the first months of 1845, the war continued in the same labored manner as it had for the last two years. Armies fought in the Red Basin and past the western loop of the Hetao.  The Sacred Hierarchy, exhausted in the field of battle, announced independently, and without my knowledge, that it had signed a separate peace with the Huabei Federation.  The new Sacred Hierarch, Chodha Khun, as I would learn from letters and my associates who now were assigned to that court, was a sprightly and disciplined man. He was not at all who I would expect as a leading religious figure. He was some 40 years of age, with some hair not yet grey. With this energy, he would publish speeches and commentaries on the virtues of a swift end to the war, and justifications for a 'new turn of the wheel' in the relationship between the Hierarchy and other states. This was an understandable position to take, and frankly an enviable one - not all of us were fortunate enough to live in the same prosperous and quiet neighborhood on the map of the world that he did.  The war had become exhausting news in Nanjing, a cause of exhaustion rather than some other suffering. Those gentlemen and ladies who still could hold their tea parties had grumbled about prices, although only a few about lost relatives, and frankly wanted the drat thing to be over. Topics of discussion at parties were at times about the war, though there were some who insisted on about anything else - everything else - even the remotest corners of the world. One of the most outstanding was a revolt aganst the Tlaxcalalteca colonies in distant Yorop. It had become a celebrated cause among those intellectuals, those students of the great academies that remained, and those who read stories in the back of the newspapers to loudly root for distant rebels and for the establishment of a republic.  I have never spoken to an Anglisch person, and the stories of such a distant country were a novelty to me as the surface of the moon. However, the distance of a place and the stories about it adds a fairy tale notion, right out of the marvelous fiction of the old Classic of Mountains and Seas, and on more than one occasion I was able to placate a tense conversation at a dinner party with talk of the cavalry charge of the distant shield-maidens of Anglaland and a toast to their distant bravery.  But to return to affairs of state, the war had ground to a halt in the distant loess plateau of the north, hearing of spilled blood and choking on the red dust of this earth.  I could only read the correspondence that had informed me of each new development, and hearing of the failure of the barley and buckwheat in the highlands of western Tibet was something that would only cloud my thoughts further. To quote from a friend who had written me with stories she had heard from Ngari: "It is impossible to describe the conditions in the far west that the people endure silently: where the sheep and goats have died, where all foods save stale barley have vanished and that is rapidly failing."  To compound on this ill, the war drags on interminably. The army of the Tibetan Republic had launched a counterattack in Sichuan near Deyang, south of Mianyang, which had after a valiant defense had fallen. That attack then ground to a halt in the fence of entrenchment and fortifications and the sheer weight of numbers. To quote a friend of mine who later wrote to me about the battle, and whose account I shall copy out: "The advancement of the troops of the armies was beautiful, perhaps clockwork. The ground had become dark as the black earth around volcanos, suffused with fissures and chasms from the artillery fire and the rows of thousands of muskets, showering down upon us." The battle was still a loss - the company retreated with heavy losses, and my friend had only survived because the man in front of him was torn to pieces by shrapnel and not his own body.  Then, to my astonishment, I had, through informers and other documentary sources, received word that the Anatolians, the great power and the fulcrum of the war front in the very north, were withdrawing from the war. This was a moment of total surprise. Had the war grown too ruinous to them, and had I completely failed to anticipate their exhaustion? Was there some alternate unknown cause for them to pull the armies back? As it turns out, it would be the latter.  In a speech that was then read out to all of us foreigners in the diplomatic services, from a thick-jowled officer whose hat wobbled like a child's wooden top. He recited in a rumbling toneless voice, that for the safety of the republic and its people, a military government had been established on a temporary basis to restore order and to preserve the legal and constitutional rights enshrined since the first revolution. Aramais Melik-Aghamalian, the same head of state as before, would remain as head of state, on a temporary basis to maintain the transition to a newer government. It was, to use terms commonly used by the Huabei diplomatic corps, 'dogshit'. It was a takeover, so often resembling palace coups, but if Melik-Aghamalian was still in charge, then in that case where he had come to power correctly, through legal means, and then therefore had aligned himself with the military to stay in power. I was of two minds of the issue. The first was that I was dismayed to see a mighty republic, and one I had learned so much from, brought low by such treachery, and the second was that this made ths status of our own republic more secure. I believe it was Tefere Abateid, the revolutionary and founder of the Anatolian Republic, who prayed, "When you send enemies against me, let them be in a fragile coalition."  This was not the last I would hear of the State Council to Preserve the Republic and Restore Order. I personally, found some news to be unexpectedly heartbreaking. Here I had once admired the capabilities of a great republic since I was a young man, and I still continue to respect their capabilities even as they opposed us, and now I did not know what to think now that they had fallen into a new and inglorious tyranny - I think of that officer droning out orders forever.  But to return to the war - the number of casualties over four years had now reached the two hundred thousands; a fraction of these from battle, over half from disease and desertion. In raw numbers, this was only a miniscule fraction of the population of both republics - but it was instead in the raw expense that this would bring to the state, and of the discontent of the popuations of our respective republics, who had rightfully grown sick of the war. Every so often, a new photograph - that novel device - would emerge out of an empty battlefield, or of the bodies a few soldiers grouped together, or of a field pockmarked by cannonfire, and the easy access to these images now means they are more easily embedded in the memory.  It was at this time that peace talks began in earnest. At the first round, the negotiators in my opposite party were quite peaceful - in loud clear voices and with fists on the table, they demanded extensive territorial cessions. To be more specific, all of Tibet's posessions in Hubei, with about one person in every ten of the Republic's population, and about one twelfth of all the republic's crops and manufactures. At this, I refused, being firm as my government so ordered. Even for peace talks, unless under a statement of complete duress, one does not accept the first offer.  These efforts were apparently vindicated - word soon reached Nanjing of a victory along the northern front - first denied, and then all over the major papers as each competed with the others for details. Lanzhou had been captured by Tibetan forces.  The war went on, now with movement - limited, but definite - along the northern half of the frontline.  The shift of forces along the northern front with the peace of the Anatolians had changed the calculus of the war, I thought. Perhaps more breakthroughs might come and so the entire North China Plain would not be open.  General He would soon advance further east. There was then, finally, after years of holding the line and retreat, some hope of a recovery. Those hopes were then immediately dashed.  Correspondence with instructions reached me from Lhasa. This was weeks out of date, and written in a secret code, or else some agent of the Huabei Federation read my mail. I was told, only in the most direct terms, that the government would push for any peace immediately, and that if the war went on soon, a total breakdown was possible. With this in mind, I went for the second round of negotiations with Chancellor Qi Shanlan herself. I felt sweaty and vaguely nauseous as I approached the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office.  Most of the ministers I had spoken to claimed they were eager to be rid of the war. However, nothing would be approved without talking to Qi Shanlan, who had been chancellor these past 12 years and whose business was kept secret from me. In some cases, I had known only what the newspapers had written. It would only be after some weeks of haggling that I was able to get an appointment. I walked through the lined streets, under the shadow of the walls and the guards at their towers, nearly slipping on a patch of mud. It was only me and my translator, and I approached the fine lacquer table and carved furniture, I was not offered a seat. I only stood there, and Qi regarded me coldly. A porcelain spittoon was right next to her, as was her habit. I stood before her, as well as the assembled ministers, and began from my notes, speaking about the need to prevent further losses, with the suspension of hostilies and the prevention of prolonging the war. My translator finished this (I could understand multiple dialects, but I prefer to have a translator in times like this), and then she leaned over to her translator, who spoke concurrently. After I was done, she asked: "What the f--k did he just say? I didn't get any of that." "The Chancellor would like to know further details of your proposal," began the opposite translator. "Madame Chancellor," I began, "I am interested in hearing your proposals for an end to the war." Then she said, "What - he didn't have any ideas?" And the translators passed this along. The negotiation was already a complete muddle. Something needed to be done. Gathering my courage, I said: "We, the delegation for the Republic of Tibet, request a cease-fire for peace negotiations." At this, she only paused for a moment, then nodded to an assistant, who produced a document for a cease-fire already prepared and written, as well as enough ink for my personal seal.  The chancellor slid over the inkstone and brush with her hand. "Then sign." The negotiations for peace took place over the next few days and proceeded quickly. What was enough to make the counterparty give way, was an a complete acceptance of responsibility for starting the war to the Tibetan Republic and a ban on expansion or an enforced non-intervention for the next five years. This was a sign that the commitment to peace was more genuine, and therefore enough to prevent any major territorial transfers.  On February 8, 1846, the guns went silent. The orders went out by semaphor towers, horse and rider, and telegraph, and the armies were halted, and then they were to head home. Qi Shanlan was able to portray herself in speeches and in supportive newspapers as a successful defender against foreign invasion, and a hero of the republic who had prevented 'the dissolution of the republic and the evils of Tibetan expansion since the time of Lasya the Holy', to quote a prominent newspaper, although there were some factions within the government who believed she could have earned more in concessions, and who still were in a state of profound anger at foreign invasion. Some in Tibet were able to say that the war was brought into being to oppose the further expansion of the Huabei Federation, and that the war was not fought to subjugate another nation at all but to prevent the spread of Chinese encroachment, and that the peace was ultimately a victory. As for myself, I was recalled to the Tibetan Republic and then dismissed from office. A gentleman remarks: This war was concluded virtuously. [1]  The borders remained as they were, with Tibet still controlling Western Hubei, the Huabei Federation retaining control over Ningxia.  The Tibetan state budget, as far as could be determined, was burdened by war debts, largely from the price spikes of necessary goods, but nowhere near a risk of default.   Any new policies, to the extent that they were passed at all through the Red Mountain Party's grip on the legislature, were about reorganizing the state bureaucracy to prepare measures and learn more of the state for the next war, and the army, likewise, sought to apply some of its hardfought lessons in attacking entrenched positions and in setting up fortifiable positions.  Tibet would remain a great power, although one that had to yet again learn the painful lesson could not act with impunity as it would do four centuries before, and she would remain surrounded by many neighbors who are also regional powers, with their own agency, their own plans; it required allies, preparation, or reform if it wishes to survive. Yet in terms of public debate or in statements, there were many in positions of authority who were grown practiced in the refusal to admit mistakes. Any movement or reform was framed only in further progress, and the misstep of the war was alluded to only in oblique terms. While I was immediately removed from my position, my conversations with those friends who would still speak with me granted me the impression that business would continue as usual.  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from my conversations with remaining diplomats and the aristocrats who had retained senior positions, developed an interest in developing alliances with foreign powers, even granting an audience to those in especially remote places and to those where defensive alliances may seem like an overextension.  In the realm of domestic policy, the war had left a long shadow over the inadequacy and backwardness of large parts of the Tibetan Republic due to years of neglect from Lhasa. The low rate of literacy had long been decried since the days of the earliest republic as an impediment to liberty and the flourishing of every citizen; now it had become a matter of security, with conscripted soldiers unable to understand written orders. In response, the republic had to reinvent itself, completely: with universal compulsory education. This undertaking would be sponsored by the various monasteries that had retained their privileges and resources over the centuries. The monastic heads, seeing an opportunity, were keen to take on this responsibility, although they had additional backers from the industrialists and new rich, who asserted that educated citizenry was necessary to perform clerical tasks besides agricultural labor, and even the radical liberals and trades associations.  Yet, outside of the drawing rooms and gilded debating halls, there remained a deep well of discontent. Some kind of domestic reform would be well needed if the Red Mountain Party had the faintest hope of retaining its station.  The army leadership, eager to redeem its own reputation after the war as well as to prepare for the next, became involved in the process of public debate. Education would not just be a process of personal cultivation and self-improvement, dating back to the days of Laozi and the distant inspirations to our republicanism, nor would it just be a means of debate as the monastic scholars insisted upon. It would also be a process of drill, and of organizing thought.  To quote the famous speech from Sangiya Chautariya in a public forum on the matter: "If a nation has fallen by its own inadequacy into a state of total dependence on another, the way a vassal depends on their suzerain, then nothing it had done up to that point will be enough to bring it back up again from that state."  That is not to say, of course, that the bill did not have some substantial opposition. The doubts with the most merit were those raised by peoples educated in the traditions of other languages, and simultaneously did not wish to be instructed at monasteries, and who did not with to be taught only in the Tibetan language as it was spoken in Lhasa. It is one thing to teach some Tibetan in Nangqen or Golog wherever else how to write - but if some accommodation is not made, then what would stop these peoples from demanding further language education in their own systems, or perhaps their own state organization themselves? The same logic would apply.  Despite these complaints, however, the bill was passed easily, with only a minority in opposition - the state of education in the Republic had been neglected for too long, and only a sustained effort that had been not been seen since old National Alliance in the 1750s had begun their work in certain cities would be sufficient to continue it.  Yet the world did not stay still. The Anatolian State Council of whatever it decided to call itself this week, launched campaigns further abroad to shore up its own interests or goals.  The result of these costly affairs was establishing little villages and ports along the coast. Expansionism at this point may be considered a matter of 'national prestige', although not for any commercial gain, as such a port would be grievously expensive to maintain in the earlier stages.   In the way that steam rushes out of any faulty boiler and that every heated vapour expands to fill all available space, we cannot assume that every ambitious person would seek to remain still; nor could assume that the ambitions for the junta would remain limited within the territory that it had controlled at the start.  In the case of the Tibetan Republic, there was a growing need for reform - the watchword of the day. A clique of officers and scholars had proposed a radical restructuring of the bureaucracy, noting with disapproval that it had become the private domain of the aristocracy, who as before possessed the lion's share of educational opportunities or social ties necessary to pass the examinations or find a sinecure. Even the most incompetent and feckless son or daughter of a minor aristocrat could buy an officer's commission and therefore claim they had honorably served before marching an infantry regiment off to its certain death and then blaming someone else. Their aim was that officers would be appointed by political officials, instead of positions being de facto the property of various aristocratic families.  Yet such a campaign was opposed, with the legislature and bureaucracy all aligned in this case. Few in the legislature would dare vote themselves out of a job, or vote their patrons out of their privileged and comfortable positions. Any attempts to replace them were also ground to a halt, with examinations mysteriously delayed and applications disappearing.  A series of reform bills were defeated in rapid succession, and the effort was dropped unceremoniously, with the plateau aristocracy satisfied that their own interests protected, and that they had stopped 'those people' from 'climbing through the windows'. For now, the old poem is still true: While I do not have a son or daughter, but if I do, I would wish that they were a fool, that they may live a productive and peaceful life as a minister of the state. [2]  Soon it would be election time - the heads of industry, then major players in certain cities, particularly in Sichuan and along the Ganges, had organized their own political party, named for the Gold Mountains along the far north. Everything in this damned republic must be named after a mountain. Why not an animal, or something to describe their moral aims or stated goals? Mountains, I assume are visible enough that they are not mistaken for something else.  Though I still lived comfortably, far away from Lhasa, on my savings and in my own house, I could still readily tell something was wrong when the servants talked openly of how expensive food had become. I of course raised their salaries and insisted they take home leftovers from my own stores - it would be profoundly irresponsible of me if I did not - but this was a sign, seldom discussed by those in the gilded houses, that something was amiss.  Where inequity persists for too long, where conspiracy is allowed to fester or dysfunction allowed to continue, then all of the strata of society may become unstable or reactive, and with reaction to heat or shock, they may violently react.  Yet, to my astonishment, and perhaps shock, when I read the papers in 1848, the Red Mountain Party now held 3 out of every 5 seats in the great Kashag, instead of 2 out of every 3.  Perhaps the greatest sign of change was the inclusion of the tiny faction of the industrialists into the govering coalition, either as an incorporation of policy or preventing any further defection. A member of the legislature confided to me the reasons for this decision: "We can't bring the National Alliance back in, their ideas are too dangerous and destabilizing. It would be better off if we bring in the new money. The republic should best devote itself to making steel than writing manifestos."  Policy would therefore trend towards the priority of internal improvements. Factories would come up for every kind of manufacture. Many sponsored by private individuals or families, still others by state control or direction.  Additionally, new relationships with foreign powers must be cultivated, for the sake of our own security but also to make the prospect of a broader peace possible.  Great debates were the order of the day, even with the newspapers watched and closed on a frequent basis. But there will always be people who are willing to challenge the premises of the past, who would find some method of determining causation from the school of method or whatever else to challenge orthodox belief. Yet, we cannot assume that all debates are resuming the same way, nor do we now assume that history is purely cyclical, with two opposing parts - better to think of it as a spiral, where each debate builds upon the last, the solution of each debate becoming the premise for the next.  When I settled in Dhaka, I marvelled at how much the city had changed in the last few years - engine factories and steel factories not too far removed from those I had seen in Nanjing. On the railway voyage to Kolkata, one of my favorite cities to visit, I saw the grand houses of the educated and the propertied classes had grown larger, the servants had looked more prosperous and grown in number, and they walked with practiced ease among the new buildings and factories put up everywhere. And every so often, there was a rain of soot, like dirty snow.  To take a minor example of novelty: cans of food, stored and kept for longer times and longer distances, and soldered shut, had become a fad among the middle segments of society. I myself had ordered one out of curiosity and then spent far too long trying to open it with my knife. If such a thing had been produced in large quantities for the last war, one may imagine the cost of feeding then would be less of a catastrophe.  Of course, all these reforms meant an increase in spending. While the complaints were from modern theorists that the republic must keep a rein on its expenditures; a government as large and as established is no household that has to make its bills and budget for for its food and cloth. Lending can continue for far longer. The question is for how long. But now that 'reform' was truly underway, or at least in a sufficient state of progress, the leadership of the Red Mountain Party, as near as can be determined from my investigations and from my examination of public statements and documents, also believed it necessary to expand, as did Anatolia, and where it had failed against Wu.  That, in this case, resulted in the turn towards the southeast. Other authors that I will not name would contend that this new campaign was a 'distraction' from the issues of the day - of high prices, or of poverty. I must contest that description. Warfare on a large scale is too expensive to be only a distraction. This campaign was an attempt to secure resources, enrich the treasury, and to provide what was percieved to be a more stable defensive frontier. Champa had already ceded treaty ports to Egypt and Anatolia, so that might be percieved as encroachment. Majapahit was a great power and had the strongest navy on earth. Hsipaw, by process of elimination, would be the target. For centuries, before and after the Tibetan Empire first expanded to the southeast, the region was ruled by local chiefdoms, independent city-states, or other rulers. With the retreat and eventual dissolution of the empire in the past century, Hsipaw was the greatest of these Shan States to emerge. It, like its predecessors, was ruled by Saophas, or local kings - it was insular, had no allies willing to defend it, and it had practiced the widely loathed practice of debt slavery - so the overthrow of an unloved kingdom was seen as a moral benefit.  I knew the Hsipaw ambassador to our Republic. He had passed along messages between us and Majapahit on some occasions, and I had attended the meeting where the war was to begin. We exchanged greetings, and then our ambassador handed him a note, which emphasized the sudden break of all relations between our two countries a declaration of a state of war. "A war? But why?" He said, his voice shaking. The ambassador read out his instructions as well as the full text of the note. After this, he said he understood, but then he started to cry. I poured him a glass of water.  Now, as the armies moved to the border, the military and foreign service grew keenly aware of the risk of foreign interference. They had staked much on the assumption that the Huabei Federation had little interest in the region. However, the Majapahit were another story, and a few messages were sent, keenly aware of the need to avoid offense.   Yet, to the relief of Lhasa, Majapahit had little interest in 'the continent'. The empress Jayaa's focus was further east, to settlements and ports on such distant islands as Mala, and expanding the reach of their navy and therefore the empire further. In a discussion with the Majapahit ambassador to our court, we raised some of the topics. It is not as if we are so gauche as to start by asking permission. But she was reading something about tariff schedules and waved away our concerns and asked: 'Why is that any of my business?' and that was enough of a response for us. So in that manner, the armies of Tibet marched further south, not even with the reserves drawn up.  The Saopha had made the mistake of a pitched engagement against a larger army. There is little need to belabor the narrative by excessive description. By the start of 1852, within a few months, it was all over.  A letter from my friend T---------, an officer from a sanskari[3] family who led a detachment of infantry on that campaign, went as follows: "About a week's march out of Chiang Rai, our company had stopped to visit a village off the road and to inform them that the saopha was deposed and that they were now citizens of a republic. The locals didn't know who or what a saopha was, much less anything about the kingdom they were nominally a part of. Furthermore, they had no interest in what a republic was, having been informed that they already elected their own village mayor anyway, but they were at least quite happy to swap silver coinage for supplies, although they did ask about the new writing on each coin." How obsessive is the process of establishing control! Are we so far removed from Gyalyum the Benevolent almost a thousand years before, who would take her entire court with her as she fought on the mountainside, that they might not stray too far from her grasp? The Tibetan Republic had now reached as far south as the towns of Taunggyi and Chiang Mai, and now had a more advantageous position in the area; a longer border with Champa; and if Majapahit were offended, it was not enough to cause immediate action.  The areas now administered had the burden of being some of the most impoverished parts of the republic, with peasant smallholders and subsistence farming widepsread, but maybe with such valuable commodites as lead, teak, or opium, perhaps the flow of commerce may head to the region instead of moving around it. With that business done, the debates of the central government ebbed and flowed; new topics were brought up and were set aside as opinions changed, factions formed and fought, papers and favors changed hands. The war was concluded, and Tibet saw its position marginally improved. Yet still it faced a slowly creeping deficit and slow growth as well as the growing risk of discontent, which was seldom understood or addrsesed by those in the Red Mountain Party corners. There were perhaps some stories of warehouses burned or windows broken, but these were attributed to interference, to conspiracy, or to a lack of trust in an established order.  But eventually, and not unexpectedly, there was an organized response - relief for the poor. Poverty relief had only been the domain of individual monastic complexes or possibly individual charity. The empire had left behind no legal bedrock for charity (save Gyalyum the Benevolent passing out gold dust, or Lasya the Holy either promising pillage from conquests or beheading indigents). Now, after a few experiments with charity in the early years of the republic, momentum had built up for a more organized method of relief.  Such a law, of course, would face resistance from the expected factions. The prominent landowners of the plateau aristocracy would be first among these. They still belived that poverty was caused by moral failure, in this or a previous life - and that it was neither the responsibility or the capability of the government to go on about the indigence or immorality of the very poor. The supporters of the law were a strange coalition. On the one hand, industrialists, who proposed a system of 'workhouses' as a centralized means of providing charity or relief, and - the radical liberals and trade unions who so often opposed those industrialists. These groups cited the newest tracts in the social sciences, noting that industrialists tended to push wages down as far as possible in order to maximize profit. By contrast, the Gold Mountain party was tempted to go over to the law, noting the growing problems of rural poverty, and the hypothesis of accelerating population growth and urban unemployment, and that some form of employment would be a moral good in itself.  Such a law, of course, had met stringent opposition nearly from the beginning.  For a loud and growing element of the conservatives, poverty relief was the wrong way to go about it - and certain elements within the plateau aristocracy itself saw the need for a more dramatic return - to reintroduce social hierarchy, to impose new restrictions on the non-nobility.  I had the chance to meet with one of these new figures, a Mr. Namgang Wangyal, or at least to attend one of his speeches, given to a salon of the aristocracy after a dinner party. He was a young man, clean shaven, in simple unadorned clothing, less of the types that we see every now and then talking on the street corners. He spoke at first with calming images and a low tone, of a longing for a Tibet of the distant past, of avoiding the steady compromises of the later Republic. He was colder when he spoke of the end of the unnecessary compromise, of purity, of 'stopping them from trying to climb in the windows'. There was only a cold void behind his eyes. I felt only a scream from my gut, in the middle of the polite applause, that this one was not to be trusted.  We can't just sip from our crystal glasses all day and pretend that everything will be stable forever, now can we? The agitators of the present day are ultimately a dangerous force.  Certainly, the Red Mountain Party would attempt to co-opt such rhetoric and use it for its own means; an authority justifying its continual hold on power by whichever means is most expedient.  But the trains are still coming.  The negotiations for poverty relief continued apace. The coaliation appeared fragile, and then, with new developments, there was a risk of this law going the same way as bureaucratic reform. Representatives of the Gold Mountain Party, in private conversations with me as well as in public statements, still feared the risk of granting too much to 'the idle poor', which they had decried in the strongest terms as a moral failing.  Yet as if in response, cracks in the stone facade of the opposite Red Mountain Party had made themselves known in the election of 1852. Having first won two out of every three voters, now they had slid down to just over half. The Gold Mountain Party had to be kept happy for them to stay in with the rest of the coalition. A democracy, one that lasts, is one where parties can peacefully lose.  The Tibetan Republic was still a large but if one looked at the average citizen, then there was still a vast group of the desperately poor. Millions went on and lived in the same way that they had lived for centuries before.  But with a prolonged peace, there was at least the possibility of improvement. Soon there would result a quiet toleration with Huabei, which one hopes may yet last. Trade routes emerged over some of more valuable resources, or at least those that were valuable enough to make the trip profitable - though not always manufactured goods, of which there was already an established market. And as for armaments being sold to Huabei - well as far as I can tell that has not yet happened again on a large scale.  The Tibetan Republic could continue to build up a coalition of its neighbors - whether monarchies that survived the collapse of the old Tibetan Empire or other republics. This collegiality with its neighbors would serve for the near future as a defense against other opportunist neighbors.  There then emerged a slow, uneven, belabored, yet possible march of progress, of ideals prorgressing. For the first time ever in the history of Tibet, one person in every four could read and write.  Slowly, a new manner of state was being built, with new responsibilities and new functions. The republic would run its own bank, and no longer solely rely on outside creditors.  Dhaka and Kolkata, great cities of their own, so vast that I could walk through them for an entire day and still not reach the countryside, became centers of steam-boilers, iron wheels, cranks, pipes, furnaces. It would be possible to spend an entire day in the company of the plateau aristocracy or those captains of industry and never see for a day the factories. And yet without seeing green foam, like algal blooms, rushed out of pipes.  The question of poverty had then changed again, dramatically from its original concept. Due to the push from Mr. Wangyal and his cabal, poverty relief would take on a much more paternalistic and moralizing character - with the separation of families, or enforcement of routines, or of a way to promote 'traditional discipline', citing old monastic regulations from centuries past. As if a sundial would be turned again or the gears of a mechanical clock wound back.  Poor houses were enacted, as was the schema of forced employment for wages - and then, the law hit another problem - putting the law into practice.  The scale of poverty and the number of people that would have to be found, transported, and employed, had been far beyond even the worst estimates as proposed by the relevant ministries; and the budget of the Republic, far encumbered by tax evasion, an inadequate bureaucracy, was soon in the same financial situation as conscription and a war against Huabei Federation. It would soon be argued that the program would have to be scaled back or repealed, should the state be able to maintain even the most basic functions. Poorer people were quite understandably suspicious of the law - comparing it to being abducted into slavery; and in seeing this as an unconscionable assault on the lives of their fellows, and would ambush the enforcing officer or refuse to follow his dictates or summons.  It was in this state, possessed of plenty yet shackled by the depths of poverty, claiming immense ambition yet shambling forward with hands forward like a man cast in the dark. That was the state of how Tibetan Republic found itself in the start of the year 1853. THE WORLD: 1853  ========================================= Footnote 1: This is a stylistic reference to the Zuozhuan Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals, where historical anecdotes were described in terse, succinct language and then summarized according to their moral lessons. Footnote 2: A quotation from Su Dongpo. Footnote 3: A loanword from modern Hindi; cultured, well-educated. Kangxi fucked around with this message at 16:21 on Oct 28, 2023 |
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Oct 28, 2023 14:23
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A good bit of peace to grab, if you can take it! Hopefully the poor laws can get reversed soon, that's quite the ballooning expense on a large nation like tibet
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Oct 28, 2023 15:09
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 Also, something funny that didn't make it to the post: the AI built a bunch of food factories in Tianshan, a desert province with a low population
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Oct 28, 2023 15:22
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The only reason it didn't build a clipper factroy is the lack of docks, but the AI surely tried.
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Oct 28, 2023 15:25
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Kangxi posted:
you laugh, but the canned beef for horses trade is the wave of the future!
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Oct 28, 2023 15:28
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every time tibet expands i think of mr creosote being asked if he wants a wafer thin mint
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Oct 28, 2023 18:07
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That was a less harsh peace than expected. Also, running a deficit is not a bad thing if you can keep expanding your economy to match.
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Oct 28, 2023 20:53
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Looking forward to the chapter written from inside the inevitable level 400 art academy with 1% employment.idhrendur posted:That was a less harsh peace than expected. Also, running a deficit is not a bad thing if you can keep expanding your economy to match. The 18k deficit is whatever, the 60k deficit is another matter.
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Oct 29, 2023 03:14
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I think it's a front for some illegal trading shenanigans on the border. The factories look profitable to me.idhrendur posted:That was a less harsh peace than expected. Also, running a deficit is not a bad thing if you can keep expanding your economy to match. I'm not the best Vicky player, but at this point I would be very worried. Interest will start piling up quickly.
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Oct 29, 2023 15:10
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Tulip posted:The 18k deficit is whatever, the 60k deficit is another matter. Chatrapati posted:I'm not the best Vicky player, but at this point I would be very worried. Interest will start piling up quickly. It's been a while since I've played Vic3, my sense of scale is distorted.
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Oct 29, 2023 17:25
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If nothing else, that 60k deficit is in the red, meaning that even if Tibet stopped constructing stuff they would still be losing money. That is never a good situation, even if you're that far from the credit limit. Also, yay Angaland! Never thought I'd be cheering for the English in a megacampaign and yet here we are.
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Oct 29, 2023 20:42
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idhrendur posted:It's been a while since I've played Vic3, my sense of scale is distorted. Hellioning posted:If nothing else, that 60k deficit is in the red, meaning that even if Tibet stopped constructing stuff they would still be losing money. That is never a good situation, even if you're that far from the credit limit. The red was a tell, but there's also not really one singular sense of scale in V3. An 18k deficit can be perfectly manageable. I've had 100K+ deficits be perfectly manageable. I've also triggered death spirals with 1k deficits. The actual thing that matters is the ratio of deficit to growth, specifically the growth of your maximum credit. From the screenshots we saw we didn't see the debt meter filling up so that means the deficit is more or less balanced with the growth of credit, so, balanced. And this is me going a little more into victoria gameplay theory but there's two pieces of common wisdom players have about V3 management that I think are worth breaking with pretty frequently, which are avoiding civil wars and avoiding bankruptcies. I've absolutely had games go very well where I drove my country into bankruptcy as part of a crash industrialization, and deliberate early game civil wars are honestly often a great idea. Of particular note, Qing is the #1 most commonly played nation in V3 and Qing civil wars are frequently cheaper than the costs of avoiding those civil wars. And this is a pre-1.5 piece of advice so grain of salt since that's coming out momentarily, but if you are trying to do a civil war slingshot its worth doing those early because arguably the worst effect of a civil war is that the revolters frequently tear down every single loving university they control and that's a LOT of construction waste. That might have changed in 1.5, I haven't been in the beta. I'd probably not recommend a civil war if you started with this TL's Tibet FWIW, the 1836 law set is really good. Traditionalism is really the law that's so bad that it can distort your first 20+ years of gameplay and worth fighting one (or more!) civil wars over.
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Oct 30, 2023 00:14
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my post was eaten by a probe, but the main thing about that deficit too is that you can grow an -18k from construction into something more manageable fairly quick, esp at the scale tibet is. The problem with this deficit is that there's a couple extra hidden costs to it. Mainly that it eats up and produces more bureaucracy costs, which either hit tax efficiency or your govt spending line and will keep going up as long as the institution exists at some rate. Second is the social spending line item itself will also grow with population/poor pops. So instead of being a growth-positive deficit it's got several extra stacking costs on top of interest rate increases, all of which combined can easily start one into a death spiral or at least really stagnate the actual growth you care about e. and yeah there's scenarios where you want to game civil wars optimally (oftentimes its acceptable but also lots of clicking/busywork sooo) and more niche ones where you can gently caress with default/bankruptcy poo poo, but neither really apply with a fairly progressive and ahead-of-pack tibet iirc ThatBasqueGuy fucked around with this message at 00:43 on Oct 30, 2023 |
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Oct 30, 2023 00:40
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Also, it may have been missed, but it needs to be emphasized. The heroine has appeared in Europa.
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Oct 30, 2023 00:48
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Tibet!World gets the good Victoria Also, excellent update as always!
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Oct 30, 2023 17:32
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"Lasya the Holy either promising pillage from conquests or beheading indigents" She was the best. 
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Oct 30, 2023 23:51
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Pacho posted:Tibet!World gets the good Victoria Just because I think its funny, here's a picture of Queen Victoria's mourning dress with museum staff for scale 
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Oct 31, 2023 03:58
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Pocket sized queen.
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Oct 31, 2023 13:28
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Some news: It looks more and more unlikely I'll be able to update the save to 1.5 as I did to 1.4; so it looks like I'll add a few mods such as Anbeeld's AI mod to keep things going.
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Nov 6, 2023 02:07
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Chapter 90: 1853 to 1859 - On a Bayonet's Edge Wrathful Tempers and Poison Pens: A Selection of Firsthand Documents and Primary Sources on the Political Crisis of the 1850s for Students; Edited by Bisheshwar Tsering and Kanika Sarkar. Pokhara University Press, 1983. The Tibetan Economical Review, July 1, 1853 STATE OF THE MARKETS TO-DAY  With the passage of the bill on poor relief earlier this year, the budget of the Tibetan Republic has now entered into a state of profound crisis, and the mood on the stock exchanges and halls of commerce wass at first one of concern and then sliding into sheer panic. Mrs. Dolma Yangchen, member of the great Kashag representing the district of Thimphu, claims that with the increased burden on the budget, there is the possibility of the Tibetan Republic defaulting on its outstanding debts in just over a year.  While we cannot deny that these policies have provided a measure of relief to the poorest in our society, we have to be realistic. Such a measure is only temporary. Taking the indigent poor and granting them a means of fair work for lodgings and food, while noble in intentions, the scale of this institution and the sheer need of the entire population has quickly outrun the ability of the republic to maintain it. We cannot allow the pretense of such a program to continue without limits. To tell people so would be an act of cruelty. Any attempts to raise the income from taxation would be struck down, not least by the Red Mountain Party. The longer the debate goes on, the worse the fiscal situation will become. Now is not the time to quibble.  In other news, the prices of commodities, while continuing to be high due to ongoing shortages, fell slightly today as new projects were announced in Srinagar and along the Sundarbans delta. For more information, please turn to following page where we will explain... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Kolkata Free-Thinker, August 11, 1853  Not two months after the passage of the poor laws, we heard endless talk of 'additional changes' and 'further reform' for reasons of 'efficiency'! What does this mean? Well, now the Sikyong has said it outright: 'It is no longer the responsibility of the state to provide for those who cannot provide for themselves'.  We know of the indignity of the poor houses, and our very pages have borne testimony to their abuses, of the inadequate food, or the separation of families. There is perhaps one worse thing than the poor house - begging, and death in the gutter.  How many millions have labored and died in utter deprivation and want throughout the history of the empire and the republic? How many millions still toil for the most meager scraps of food, who share one shirt for an entire family? Of all the monuments and statues and great works of the empire and the republic, how many lived and died in their construction?  The rapid movement of any bills through the legislature show either the incompetence or their malice of the present coalition. Do they not know what they have done, or did they deliberately aim to provide the barest measure of relief before taking it away - the most miserly act of mercy as an act of profound cruelty?  While the subtle tones and langorous debates are held in Lhasa, over whether or not those who live in that sacred city should be burdened by the sight of the poor, to be reminded of the cost of their poor stewardship, all around, in the rough tones of speech of the countryside, you will hear the beggars stretch out their hands and ask - 'food, food', 'water, water'. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Barbarians at the Gates, by Wangyal Namgang. Address given to the Red Mountain Party, July 1, 1854  I serve as a soldier of the republic. But our republic, as you are now aware, is wandering from crisis to crisis. It is without virtue, stained, sinking into the muck. Our great republic, Great Tibet, has been reduced to pleading in the filthy streets and tricked by the cunning and the commercial: "If I give you this, will you do this for me?" The financial burden is now so great, and so much has been stolen from us, that we do not enjoy a part of the promises of peace.  But don't we all in the center of our hearts, long for something greater? We do hold a secret want, and we must unleash a cry of anger at each new degradation. When we are weak, I ask for freedom according to their principles, but when we are strong, I must impose order because that is my principle. I hope for a world of chaste warrior queens and proud men, and I will not say that I accept anymore these naive ideas about the general nature of humanity or these utopian schemes.  We live in the ruins of a great empire. Behind me is the great Pyramid of Lasya. Marvel upon its glory, its proud triumph at conquest, commemorating the greatest empire the world has ever known. Other leaders, greater leaders, built those things. Not these ones. To our north, there are still pastoral nomads, masters of horse and plain, and they feel the triumph of conquest every day. We must either charge forward or die.  This is how the steel is forged. We can find the elements in our society and burn them all away - the impure, the unjust, the conspirators against us. Whatever sins in their past lives made them born this lowly are not our concern; we must cast them out and make a new society.  Act quickly, my fellows. It is not too late. There is still some vitality in the Tibetan nation; and this is our last hour before they stamp us all out. If we cannot oppose the social engineering of the radicals and liberals, it will then be too late. Future generations will not deserve what suffering is imposed upon them by the liberals but they will suffer it in any case. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Letter from Abhijeet Kar, a bookseller, January 11, 1855  When I read the speeches of our esteemed Sikyong, I can only slap the table in amazement. What is this talk now? Does he have any conception at all of what is happening in this country? Frankly, if you don't read or listen these people yourself, you don't know how deranged they've all become. He speaks like a child you need to pull on his ears for, talking vaguely about anything, acting as if everything is fine, and not at all knowing what is happening. He has lost touch with the world away from the plateau. But I apologize for my late reply. I will have to tell you how it took me so long to respond to your letter: I got off the train from Narayanganj, I stepped into the field of battle. Dark smoke rose from the center of the city and there was much shouting in anger. A crowd had been marching with banners outside the house of the Lukhangwa brothers, who had owned the jute textile factory. Rocks had been thrown through the windows, and a distant light flickered from behind an open door. I could see nothing, and heard little over the shouting.  I had tried to gather my things and find my way to my lodgings, I got caught up and mixed in with the crowd, panicking and nervous in the movement and noise. I felt as if half of the city was there. We had all stopped, however, with the piercing cries of a beggar woman, with the loud voice and stone-carved face of a warrior of centuries past, called upon the crowd to let their voices be heard and to call for work and bread.  The ever-present threat of famine had made itself clear; with the sudden withdrawal of aid, the poorest would rather take their bread than starve. I was locked arm in arm, marching forward, and while I was still caught in the middle, I saw and heard the sounds of running and then the sound of breaking wood and people charging into the bakeries. When there was a lull, I broke away from the two men beside me and made my leave.  The army and the police came into the city, of course, going on horseback, beating the crowd with clubs, and a few people were rounded up, that was that. What I cannot understand, and what is so confusing, is how quickly that the opposition has faded. I do not quite understand what is going to happen next. People go here and there and do this and that, and life has returned to its regular state - but now I cannot but look about me, wondering where is safe and where is not.  I think, of course, that people grow bitter with hunger, and that this will not go away so quietly.  Frankly, I cannot claim to anticipate what is happening next. There are the factions of the nobles with their own plans, the secret plans hatched in monasteries, and also the clanking machinery of the state bureaucracy in Lhasa, collecting its data, drawing up numbers, and then seeing where else it may act now that options are open to it. Please do not keep a copy of this letter; we do not know who else may be reading. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From the Archives of the Great Council of the Army of the Republic of Tibet Madam: I have the honor to report the latest details in foreign affairs as summarized from our foreign ministers and other relevant departments.  PEASANT REVOLT IN THE ORISSA REPUBLIC; CENTRAL GOVERNMENT RETAINS CONTROL OF CITIES The Repubic of Orissa (also spelled Odisha), one of the wealthiest of the successor states of the former Sacred Tibetan Empire, is now paralyzed in civil war as peasants and smallholder farmers demand relief from rising food prices and further representation in their government.  The central government still retains control of the capital of Cuttack and the cities of Bhubaneswar, near the Mahandi River basin, but have lost control of the southern countryside. A military response is believed forthcoming, and the government may call upon further aid from their treaty allies, including the Tibetan Republic.  UNREST IN THE SOUTHERN MILITARY DISTRICT - THAI REBELS KILL TIBETAN ARMY OFFICER A conspiracy calling itself 'The Secret Army' has claimed responsibility for the burning of several government offices and the murder of a Tibetan army officer near the town of Chiang Rai. It is at this point unclear if these rebels are organizing solely within our borders or if they are recieving assistants from sympathizers in Champa. A likely leader of this organization is the lady Bismai (Phitsamai) Phonphayuhasena, a known agitator of noble Mon and Teochew origins.  NORTH ULAQUI MISSION IN TUMULT, REBELS BURNING THE COUNTRYSIDE A colossal upheaval has gripped the Tsalagi holdings in Awiropa over the past few weeks, a testament to the fragility of holding any colonial authority over such a fractious territory. Led by a charismatic scholar, the rebellion has plunged the areas of Hwallaland and as far south as the districts of Caxtila and Manchapan. This insurrection, marked by stories of both social unrest and religious fanaticism, necessitates a dramatic response if the Tsalagi intend to retrain their position as a continental power and not lose their colonial holdings as Tlaxcala has in Anglaland.  This report signed by my own hand and delivered to the Great Council of the Army of the Republic of Tibet. Any omissions in this report are my responsibility alone, and I am, as always, in service of the people and the army of the republic. Colonel Hui Xin 23 July 1855 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Letters from Thet, a Bamar non-commissioned officer in the Tibetan Army, writing to her friend, Ma Hayma.  This business all started like a war - they slammed our batons on their shields and then advanced on the traitors as if charging into battle.  So when the rebels took the cities of Chiang Mai and Lampang and all that part of the country, and so they sent this army there because we were the closest ones. I don't regret it at all - Chiang Mai is a beautiful city, and I've been stationed near the moat of the old city.  They didn't even send anybody to Orissa, as much as I'd have liked to see that part of the world,   And I would have liked to go further north when I signed up, but I have heard it is boring up there. I can't believe they took Win Pyae and sent him up to Gansu. I wonder if we'll ever see him again. The mail takes months to come back down here, but there is no war. All the neighbors would be nice and peaceful, though I can't imagine that awful cold.  But yes - I'm distracted and the letter writer I paid is asking me to hurry up and he's not letting me revise this - what kind of sneeze-lurker are you anyway?- So here is what I did - the army caught the rebels and traitors in an open clearing and then we fired the new guns on them. Who did these motherfuckers think they are anyway?  We are marching south and clearing out the rebels and rounding them all up. We have done very well and I will be sending home presents that I've bought. Please send my family all my love. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Correspondence between Brigade-General Lhagyari 'Zhuoma' Dolma, commanding officer and director of the Lhasa Arsenal, to her friend Ngapoi Yeshe, August 25, 1856 Mrs. Ngapoi:  I recieved your letter of the 1st of August with delight. I read with great interest the precis of your meeting with the executives of the Ngari Steam Locomotive Company, and especially the details of how such an enterprise has made its way forward.  The work in Lhasa is proceeding apace - we have had to expand the business at the arsenal due to increased orders and the new rifle design adopted by the army. We will need everything adapted for production in Lhasa, from the mines located on the plateau to the furnaces which run on different designs and with different ratios of air to fuel due to the scarcity of oxygen at altitude. It is all a grossly expensive business and many manufacturers would rather grow a second head than be asked to work here. But my client is the Republic, which is not an average buyer, and the Republic will pay any price for the means to protect itself. That is the secret between the industries which remain in Lhasa - the central bureaucracy, the academies, and armaments!  I expect my command will continue for several months, and with the successful conclusion of the Thai revolt, more brigades of the army will need new equipment.  So long as people shall make their way to Tibet in times of woe instead of fleeing from it, then that is still a Republic worth defending and arming.  But now to more solemn business: you have inquired as to my thoughts on this year's election. I of course refrain from expressing my opinions in public, partly out of responsibility of my position but also out of a sense of dread.  The Sikyong is in trouble - the recent cabinet reshuffle has left him abandoning the industrial magnates and then making a more transparent play towards the rural voters - of which, in Tibet, there are very many.  I suspect that without wooing them or some other smaller party over the Red Mountain party of the traditional elites may lose its absolute majority. Of course, there are very few more dangerous times for a majority that to have only a narrow loss and no willing allies. So the ruling party is fractious and fragile. What other contenders are there? I worry - most of all about Mr. Wangyal, and if this firebreather is allowed to run for election on his own behalf, taking other party and skinning it so that he may wear its fur as a coat. I think little of his half-hearted and feeble commitment to republican values. In the days of our early republic, there was the dream of "One man, one vote." 一人一票. Well, I will propose an adjustment to the old phrase, one that is aligned with his true intentions. 一人一票一次。 "One person, one vote, once." And then never again. He would try and resurrect the empire or turn the place into what people thought the Sacred Hierarchy was - but it is so far removed from any society I recognize that it would be fiercely resisted. So I hope.  The fact is, many people are angry. I am not, my workers get paid, but we're a bit isolated from everything else.  But the state of affairs may continue, so long as the Sikyong does not tolerate anything silly like breaking up the old aristocratic estates, allowing the free movement of the agricultural workers. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A letter from Kunchok Rigsang, a representative for the Red Mountain Party in the 2nd Kolkata District, to his colleague, Dawa, also of the Red Mountain Party, representing Siliguri, July 20, 1857  I was of course happy to hear that you have retained your seat after the recent elections - at one point, some of the candidates were growing so parismonious with their funds that they could barely pay the printers to make posters or the secretaries to take notes. Do you know how much I have had to pay for train fare! I had a suspicion that this was going to be a difficult season when a man I did not know, unsolicited, approached my door and asked me for some charitable donation!  And so a package of bills on land redistribution, ownership, and the free movement of agricultural labor were put to a vote. A bully trap, each having to explain their vote for or against.  And the end result? Well, the Red Mountain Party lost its absolute majority. To cling onto their seat in government, they've signed up with the Mountains and Hills party - a catch-all party with heads of clans, the Khampas, and some of the more distant landowners. Such a coalition would be fractious at best, and there are many in both parties would think themselves best served if it were to fall apart.  Case in point, that rabble-rouser, Mr. Namgang Wangyal. We know how he humiliated Mr. Lungshar a few weeks ago, and by extension, the entire Mountains and Rivers Party. Of course, anybody who doesn't know how much a sack of tsampa flour or a tub of yak butter costs is so ignorant of rural politics he really should not have kept his seat. But really nobody should have let their guard down around Wangyal so easily. The ashes burn once more.  Then, not a month later, he had raised the question of which of the monastic schools or holdings would have to give up land and which would be subject to further taxation. Even the most charitable-minded institutions were suddenly averse to such a scheme, and if anyone supported it in secret they would not all denounce it in public. The speed and vehemence of the infighting among those in the holy orders was quite rapid. A few looked about and asked me, rather innocently, if anyone would assist them in explaining out the truth of the arrangement, in fine detail. I told them there was nothing I could do, the lie or the distortion was already widespread. What do they think this is, are their heads still back in the monastery? This is about blood and guts and peoples fears.  So that is how the first draft of the bill was thrown out. If the Sakyamuni came back to earth and told me to vote for it, I'd have to respectfully give him my objections.  Now there is a new bill, but now the most sensational articles are now circulating, claiming the existence of secret conspiracies or Chinese intervention, or some other incomprehensible story about what the law will or will not do. The man lies faster than anyone can keep up.  Of course, there is no way on earth Huabei would be interested in such a thing - the new President, a general from the past war, has now imposed a blockade on Tibetan exports.  So there is now poverty and lower prices from our major trade partners. How could this possibly get any worse? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Tibetan Economical Review, September 10, 1857 - SPECIAL EDITION Against all odds, the situation has grown worse. The very foundations of the Tibetan Republic are now built on loose sand.  The Sikyong of almost 20 years, Mr. Amar Singh, having held his power through deals with the Red Mountain Party and a steady knowledge of favors and law, would attempt to maintain that power beyond what is proscribed by the law.  Mr. Singh has remained in office for far too long. He has outlived his popularity and there are any number of times where he should have stepped down - after the war in China, after the debacle with poor relief. He has outlived his popularity, but not his use as a spacegoat for the rest of the Red Mountain Party.  Any conspiracy collapsed with the public and violent death of a close ally of Mr. Lungshar, the head of the Mountains and Rivers Party. Government by assassination is no way to govern. We are not in the days of the Era of Fragmentation. The editorial staff of this journal is tempted to suggest that there was no grand conspiracy to seize all power in the republic, but a feeble attempt to strike back at those who Mr. Singh felt had wronged him.  The sordid affair has came to a sudden close. With a complete absense of shame, the man refuses to depart his office. If the outcry is not enough to shame the Red Mountain Party into forcing him out, it is hard to imagine what would motivate them to even consider it. One recalls the days of the empire, where the emperors hurled themselves out of windows or fell on their own sword in moments of indignity. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Kolkata Free-Thinker, May 1, 1858  We follow the practice of land reform with considerable interest. On the one hand, this will involve the emancipation or the poorer peasantry from the shackles of landlessness and poverty, and on the other, we have to be prepared for the changes that such a system will produce, to better accommodate the needs of the emancipated. Case in point: the movement of Tibetans to the furthest regions of the republic, in the hope of claiming distant plots or finding some new resource or fertile field.  We can still dream further. The cities shall continue to be overcrowded. In the following pages of this issue, we have a remarkable essay by the engineer Mahammad Khanum on sanitation needs for the modern city.  We also welcome Dr. S. L. Nayak, who is writing her first issue for us on the questions of moral therapy and the medical treatment of nervous issues, for the formation of a healthy society.  Finally, our political editor, Palkyi Dhundhup, will write on the aristocracy's policy of 'principled non-compliance', and of the consequences of such stubborn behavior on any further political reform.  We must imagine each policy change as an experiment as a kind of laboratory. We can adjust it this and that way, in new vessels, with new reagants or in new environments, adjusting it every which way until the results are determined. But in a laboratory we can adjust our vessels and compounds; in law and economy we move with the more fragile and reactive material of human beings and their souls. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Auspicious Banner, August 10, 1858 Poison! Sedition! Conspiracy!  Read these words and think them over with care, all good people of Tibet. Namgang Wangyal, the advocate for the moral and upright people of the Tibetan Republic, had been struck with suspected poisoning! How could this have happened? The official cause, as they say, is food poisoning! A likely story! Someone so robust and vigorous, who has spent his energy for a just cause, will not be laid low forever by such deceit! We all know who is responsible. Agents of foreign powers, traitors within the Tibetan Republic, have set about to harm our champion! Tibet should only belong to those who are willing to defend it.  This is how social disorder spreads, how the last elements of Tibetan society have been stolen from us: by conspiracy, by the furtive schemes of intellectuals ('poor relief'!), of conspirators, of radicals with more brains than sense. To let them go on like this is a case of dishonorable suicide.  It is now clear that they are all willing to do anything to steer our country into chaos. We will tolerate this abuse no more.  Tibet requires a more regimented society; one where every one knows their place; where noblewomen sit only at the heads of armies and managing estates, and that the rising tide of the poor will swamp us up in the plateau. It is time to begin clearing out the filth before they drown us all. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From the Archives of the Great Council of the Army of the Republic of Tibet  ANTI-DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENTS GROW VIOLENT; MAY LAUNCH ATTACK AS LAST DITCH MEASURE After the walk-out from the legislature last months, various aristocratic families have been organizing 'defensive militias' in opposition a series of proposed bills, ranging from land reform and freedom of movement to the hiring of women outside of the gentry or upper middle classes for positions of authority. These movements are located across multiple provinces, claiming some of the most populous areas of the republic. Their activity, organization, and recruitment includes much of the Tibetan Plateau, and many of the southern provinces, which in some cases have been part of the previous kingdom with rule from Lhasa dating from nearly a thousand years ago. We have not recieved reports of such activity in the area around Chongqing, and the unincorporated territories in the southeast. This may be the case for one of two reasons: either the old aristocracy does not have an established presence in these areas, or the Chinese, Bamar, and other populations in these regions avoided these groups on the justifiable assumption that their position in society would be worsened with a more reactionary government in place. A list of notable figures in the leadership in these groups can be found in XXX[1]. In summary, this may lead to a more dangerous situation for local police forces, army garrisons, and specific national groups within the republic.  ARSENAL AT IDRAKPUR ATTACKED AND SURROUNDED; LOSS OF ARMAMENTS AND GARRISON POSSIBLE Idrakpur, which has served as a warehouse and munitions dump for the Army of the Republic of Tibet for centuries, has been surrounded by an angry mob. While the report over the telegraph notes that the outer walls of the fort have not been breached, we do not presently know how many supplies are in the fort or how long the garrison inside is expected to hold out.  RIOTS IN JIUQUAN, SUZHOU DISTRICTS AND OUTLYING TOWNS ATTACKED Riots have broken out in the city of Jiuquan, causing damage to the Suzhou District, as well as in multiple towns in Jinta County. We do not know the extent of the destruction, but they are led by troops on horsebaack and have deliberately attacked travelling groups of civilians. General of the Army of South China, He Qianlin, has proposed sending a column of troops further north to deter these rebels, and if they do not obey direct orders, to disperse them with force. This report signed by my own hand and delivered to the Great Council of the Army of the Republic of Tibet. Any omissions in this report are my responsibility alone, and I am, as always, until my dying day, in service of the people and the army of the republic. Colonel Hui Xin 1 September 1858 [1] Editors Note: An original copy of this list has not been located and is presumed lost. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  From the correspondence of He Qianlin, Commander of the Army of South China  A letter from Mayor Yin Sutang of Tianqiao, a small town five miles south of the city of Enshi. My friend- How are you? Please do not worry about me personally; we are doing well and have some stores and reserves. However, for the rest of the town, I am sad to repor that things are almost as bad as you have feared - the harvest has been very bad this year, and the roads are empty. They are still calling it the turnip winter 蕪菁之冬 because people are just eating them in general, not just as appetizers, and we know excessive consumption was not good for ones health. It unbalances the heat in the body, of course. Some of the poorer families are down to eating pea stalks but we have some pickled radish and other stores still. We hear some stories from the telegraph and the newspapers, but there is still much we do not know of events in Lhasa. How are things? Your mother is still doing well and we have brought her more rice. Although of course if there is anything we can do for you please don't hesitate to let us know. You have always been so good to us as a patron, and I hope that in these times of trouble you are able to assist us. With respectful regard: Mayor Yin  A letter to He Qianlin, General of the Army of South China, from Yang Mingzhu, commander of the Deyang garrison in Sichuan. Xiumeng [courtesy name of He Qianlin], my sworn-sister, my dearest compatriot in arms: I come to you with clasped hands and in supplication. Before it is too late, I beg of you. You do not have to do carry out the rebellious action that I and your other colleagues know you have discussed in your previous letter. You should feel no guilt for your actions at Jiuquan. I have been told that they were ready to strike first and you were right to act as you have done. You do not have to speak in such a manner as you have sent me in your past letter. Before it is too late, call off this foolish decision and tell your troops under your command to retreat and to return to their garrisons. In any case, you shall perish and your army will be beaten with you and there will be no help for you. For decades, I have known you. You would do the same if our positions were reversed. What is the purpose of such an action? Who will be victorious? No one. Do you understand this? If we face each other again, I will assuredly end your service and we can give you no quarter, do you understand this? It would be better if you came to me as an old friend and I had you as a guest as we once have done for years, since the campaign against Huabei, and we can talk this out. Nobody else is going to come in and save you, you can't rely on anything else, you have to make this decision yourself. Have pity for their mothers and fathers, and think of your troops and their children and they should not have to be raised by someone else. Call for a retreat and do not speak to me again of your duty and some distant obligation. You still have a choice. With respectful regard: Daming [A nickname for Yang Mingzhu] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A political cartoon, published in the Capital Daily paper of Nanjing 首都日報, January 1, 1859. The Sikyong of Tibet is on his deathbed, with blankets labelled 'Smothering Political Corrouption'. He is red with a wound labelled 'Domestic Unrest'. "Am I going to be the next Langdarma? Is it all going to fall apart on my watch? It wasn't supposed to end like this." "Mr. Sikyong, we will get through this. This is what sets us apart, these - these types of trials." Outside, the city of Lhasa is beset by angry crowds, with multiple labelled banners. The Pyramid of Lasya shakes and crumbles behind them. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Address Published on the Accession of Sangita Chautirya to the office of Sikyong, April 19, 1859, Year 103 of the Republic Fellow citizens of the Republic. I would give everything I have to be speaking to you under more auspicious times.  I have been selected according to the law of the republic and by the assent of the elected officials in the legislature to serve as an interim head of state.  With the sudden death of our previous Sikyong, I recognize that this is a moment of great uncertainty. A small portion of the Tibetan people have voted for me, or even heard of me, besides the inhabitants of a small group of mona steries. I swear upon my honor to protect the legal equality of every person in this republic, and to safeguard its values. Our saints and gods shall be preserved. Every lakang, every dzong, every stupa and temple shall be protected. It is the goal of our republic to built a better world and provide equality before the law for all humankind and we shall achieve that goal. Our moral and legal system and their rituals shall endure, the wellspring of all good things and happiness.  To those who would foment rebellion against us, I will warn them only once: their cause shall fail. They speak so harshly of war, but they would not know what that would do to them; the great landholders would suffocate without an outlet for their wares, their fields will lie fallow, their herds shall be scattered and their children will renounce them. Their saints and deities will desert them. They believe, in delusion, they want a war, and within a few months, they should learn precisely what it is. The people of this republic shall head down the road that has been built in 1756. There are many who would cause disorder and chaos, but our republic shall endure. We shall outlast you and we shall defeat you. To the good people of the republic, I shall do my best to serve you. I ask for your prayers and offerings in this most difficult time. May the republic endure until the end of all existence! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A letter from Gayatri Bezbarua, a naturalist, landowner, and Provost of the University of Assam, April 30, 1859 Ramesh: Having been a witness to the events of the past days, I shall summarize them to the best of my ability:  When [Professor S. A.] Dey and his delegation were able to telegraph from Lhasa, there was a great tension in the room. Dey described that the late Sikyong was both 'arrogant' and 'demanding', and that he had loudly ordered about the assembled delegates to provide a 'call for unity' and then retreated when this was not possible. He had gone to slam the door behind him in anger, but the heavy door could only be pulled slowly, and he strained with considerable effort. Dey therefore in his account claims that Singh had asked the people of the Tibetan Republic for sacrifices, but there is one sacrifice that he would not make and that was of his own power, and that he had said there was nothing to do but for him to leave. We are forced with the end of abstract hopes and the return to the cold limits of possibility. Singh was dead a few days later. We don't know what it was - poison? Somebody cut his head off, or what?  Professor Murtry, of the Civil Engineering school, had protested this news loudly, as he was one of those most committed to the government of Lhasa. A crowd found him and shouted at him outside of his office and demanded that he renounce his views. Now I do not know where he is.  Is a war coming here? What does this mean? I went for a walk briefly before I went to write this letter. The streets were empty. MAP OF THE WORLD: 1859 
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Dec 11, 2023 04:10
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The garrison in Gansu isn't looking like such a bad gig after all, huh.
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Dec 11, 2023 04:39
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Is that blue flag what we'd get if the Aristocrats win? If so, it looks like Namgang isn't cool enough for the fractal pyramid. Better wash him out with a hose.
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Dec 11, 2023 06:13
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Quick civil war to smash the landlords, in and out in six months tops
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Dec 11, 2023 06:45
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SirPhoebos posted:Is that blue flag what we'd get if the Aristocrats win? Graphics bug, I've fixed it for the next update. They should have the old snow lion flag of the Empire
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Dec 11, 2023 13:41
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just wanted to say i appreciated the Wodehouse pastiche
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Dec 11, 2023 14:05
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So our options are now a reactionary republican or also reactionary aristocrats
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Dec 11, 2023 14:19
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Tibet didn't guillotine enough nobles. Or behead them with the appropriately named device for this timeline.
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Dec 11, 2023 17:37
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A good civil war is good for the soul. Helps purge those unwanted influences, you know?
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Dec 11, 2023 19:17
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Is the revolt in France indigenous or a settler colonial revolt?
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Dec 14, 2023 23:54
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Skavenlord posted:Is the revolt in France indigenous or a settler colonial revolt? Colonial, but they're led by an intelligentsia and calling for a republic
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Dec 15, 2023 00:56
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Kangxi posted:Colonial, but they're led by an intelligentsia and calling for a republic Hm. Well. Hm.
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Dec 15, 2023 01:28
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 All the guests are here, the players are ready, the stage is set. Roll curtains and let the play begin!
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Dec 23, 2023 23:53
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Pacho posted:
This is fantastic
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Dec 24, 2023 01:15
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