Challenge:Three Kingdoms, Wu Dynasty

Alright, I know many of you have probably played Dynasty Warriors, now admit you got to like the spunk of the Wu faction and the characters that they had and many think it pretty sucky how they lost out in the end. Being also historicaly they lasted the longest of the Three Kingdoms factions, had the strongest military(not to mention a exploratory, strong navy), and the majority of the populous southern region of China.

Now, romanticization aside how can the Wu Dynasty united China and become abonafided dynasty in Chinese history.
 
Alright, I know many of you have probably played Dynasty Warriors, now admit you got to like the spunk of the Wu faction and the characters that they had and many think it pretty sucky how they lost out in the end. Being also historicaly they lasted the longest of the Three Kingdoms factions, had the strongest military(not to mention a exploratory, strong navy), and the majority of the populous southern region of China.

Now, romanticization aside how can the Wu Dynasty united China and become abonafided dynasty in Chinese history.

Historically, the Wei and Wu kingdoms were of course the two big ones. Shu-Han basically existed to help keep the balance; it would assist the weaker of the two nations at any given time (the opposite of its romanticised role, where Wu was the balance-keeper between Wei and Shu).

Since Sun Quan is relatively supportive of the Han dynasty, let's say he throws his support behind Shu-Han. He can decide that the best way to serve the Han dynasty isn't to support Wei's puppet emperor, but to assist Liu Bei, who has a legitimate claim to the throne (it was a pretty weak claim, but it existed). The Wu kingdom becomes nominally a vassal of the Shu, but is still independent. With a much stronger Wu-Shu alliance, they are able to actually create a unified front against Wei. Although Shu was in the process of attacking Wu at the time, their new alliance means far less casualties on both sides. With assistance from Wu, Shu's Northern Expeditions are much more successful, Zhuge Liang doesn't die, and Shu gains much of Wei's western territory. Wu is able to gain territory (historically, it had some successes against Wei, but never really managed to gain territory). Eventually, Wei is split between Shu and Wu.

At this point, Wu is by far the stronger power. It would've gained more out of the dismantling of Wei, and started off with more. So, perhaps have something along the lines of Sun Quan's successor deciding that he doesn't want to be a vassal of the Shu kingdom, and declares himself emperor. Or Sun Quan realizing that Shu-Han is run by a complete incompetent (Liu Shan was mentally disabled), decides that the Han has lost the mandate of heaven. A war between Shu and Wu without Wei as a potential counterbalance would end up pretty conclusively a Wu victory.

Some of this is probably ASB, it's been a while since I've reviewed Three Kingdoms history, and most of my knowledge comes from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which is heavily romanticised. But it's a start.
 
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