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This is my first TL to deal with China, and as we all know, China is a big topic, so please any comments are appreciated.


The Prince of Yan usurped the throne from his nephew in 1402. The Emperor had attempted to break the power of the Royal Princes, who controlled large tracts of land in China proper (not the outlying regions to the north and west). The Jianwen Emperor was defeated by Yongle in battle and withdrew to Nanjing. The Mayor of the City, however, had come under Yongle’s sway and executed the defeated Emperor, sending his head to Yongle who entered the city in triumph. His own armies numbered thousands yet the dead emperor’s soldiers were numerous. Yongle persuaded their officers to join his army by promising them lands in China. He obtained this land by moving the Royal Princes from their rich lands in China to the northern and western frontiers where they received a small stipend and held some land. The lands vacated were turned over to the officers and generals who had defected to him, many of whom he allowed to resign their commands so long as they took up arms if he called on them. These new landowners controlled large amounts of land in Shandong and Hebei especially.
With his rule secured, Yongle then turned to the government. He began by reinstating the secretariat, which had been abolished under the reign of the First Ming Emperor, the Hongwu Emperor. The Secretariat was reformed to that there were two Chief Advisors, who were members of the Emperor’s Inner Council and led the bureaucracy. Under them were 8 Secretaries who ran the eight divisions of the bureaucracy: tax collection, provincial administration, military oversight, upkeep of infrastructure, public works, upkeep of temples, foreign relations and commerce. Each of these headed a separate department which each employed thousands of bureaucrats, administrators, soldiers, labourers and any other profession. The Provincial Administration Department and the Tax Collection Department both worked under the framework that China was split into 18 provinces and these were then split into 432 Districts (24 districts per province. Districts were determined according to population not area).
The second area of reform was the military. Having paid off many generals and officers with land, Yongle now needed a reliable class of generals and leaders. He therefore applied the Exam System to officers. The exam was modified to include War Studies (based off of Sun Tzu’s text the Art of War). Once this exam was passed, the initiates would receive five years of training before being given the command of a battalion. They would then be promoted as seen fit by the Department of Military Oversight. There were 5 Generals, who were in the Emperor’s Inner Council, and below them 100 Officers of Military planning, in charge of procurement, training, levies, campaign planning etc. and then below them the military split in two- first the Provincial Officers, who were responsible for a Province’s defence. There were also military officers, who commanded battalions, etc. in the standing army, which numbered 400,000, mainly stationed in the north and west but with some 10,000 in the south.
The third area of reform was the land-owning class. Having been all- but destroyed by the Emperor in 1402 the Royal Princes were replaced with 108 Princes, who were appointed directly by the Emperor. These owned large amounts of land and these lands were further divided among 309 Dukes, who divided their land among a total of 3,215 Knights, who then let their land to peasant tenants. The purpose of the land-owning class was to raise levies in accordance with the Department of Military Oversight and the Officers of Planning. Their second purpose was to serve as a counter-balance to the Emperor. The Yongle Emperor intended these two arms of the government to be rivals and they were, for they were generally conservative and concerned with the military, and this squabbling stopped either branch from ever posing a threat to the Emperor.

This first labour completed, the Yongle Emperor felt it fit to move his capital away from old, overcrowded Nanjing to Beijing in the north. The new city was meticulously planned, sewers, temples, roads, canals, palaces, gardens and blocks of housing were all meticulously detailed. It was laid down on a gridiron pattern and when the Emperor moved there in 1411 its population was 80,000 and ever growing. The new city of Beijing was supplied by the Grand Canal, which was dredged and restored and also extended, running through China past Nanjing, which was already beginning to be forgotten by the Emperor who looked outward for his calling.
The Three Great Civil Feats of the Yongle Emperor were, therefore, the reorganisation of the State, the relocation of the capital and the restoration of the Grand Canal. These three works would ensure his Dynasty’s survival and his own, for it meant that his people were happy as they were well run and well fed, as grain passed easily from Suzhou to the great cities. The city of Suzhou was the centre of a great trading network in central China. Local grain and rice was shipped north by the millions of litres to Beijing and Nanjing along flat-bottomed barges whose loads were so heavy that they could be barely seen but for the mountains of sacks and goods that laid them low in the water. The merchants of Suzhou were taxed heavily yet not prohibitively, and their profitable business kept China fed and happy, while encouraging maritime trade. Soon ships crossed the seas south, where the city of Guangzhou grew rapidly and became ever more important to the Emperor, especially when his attention turned south.

The other three labours of the Yongle Emperor were all either military of explorative. The Fourth labour was the pacification of Mongolia. In 1418 he led an army of 100,000 men north to the Mongol city of Karakorum which burnt and his further raids saw the Mongols humbled and in 1415 he received tribute from all their peoples. He began a programme of resettlement, as farmers were encouraged to move north, and lords were given lands there and encouraged to settle there. The great plains were unfarmable yet the Chinese peasants gathered in military encampments which soon became cities. The soldiers used firearms and their horses to subdue the Mongols, who traded with the cities who sent tax back to Beijing. Mongolia was never prosperous, yet it was stable, at least for another seventy years.
The Fifth Labour was the Annam War. Already heavily involved in the southern Kingdom, in 1418 he marched three armies numbering 200,000 men south and annexed Annam directly to China, making it a province and crushing all opposition. A wave of Chinese migrants saw Annam pacified over a matter of years, and the new Province marked the Empire’s border for thirty years.

The Sixth and final labour of the Yongle Emperor was the massive project of sea exploration. Led by Admiral Zheng He, these grand fleets sailed west throughout the Emperor’s reign. His great Junk ships were vast floating cities, with crew numbering in the thousands and with gardens, farms and herds of livestock aboard. The largest voyage, that of 1420 saw eighteen ships depart China. Zheng He sailed west, and his own personal diary records what occurred on the voyage. They sailed south, along the coast of Viet-Nam which they took tribute from. They then switched west, rounding the Malay peninsula and swinging into the Indian Ocean. They sighted Ceylon three months after departure. It was here that an argument broke out among the chain of command. The fleet had a military detachment of 4,000 soldiers and the Officer in command of these men demanded that a landing be made and the island be conquered. Zheng He, however, wanted to make contact with the people there whom he had already encountered and traded with. The Officer, Gao Zhei, demanded a landing and the Admiral refused, showing him the Emperor’s letter giving him absolute command. When Gao refused to back down, Zheng had him stripped of command. They made contact with the King of Ceylon who gave tribute to Zheng and asked to be made a Prince of China. Zheng deferred the right to do so, yet sent a message to the Emperor aboard a small boat commandeered from Ceylon. When it reached the Emperor he accepted and Ceylon was made a tributary state to China, paying tribute in various commodities, most notably precious stones.

The fleet then sailed west, encountering the east coast of Africa, which they mapped and decided to return to on their return. They then turned north and entered the Red Sea. They sailed north until they reached the northern coast where they made contact with several small communities and traded commodities. When Zheng asked a local chief who ruled the land, he replied that the Sultan of Egypt did. Zheng He sent an ambassador to the Sultan asking an audience. When Sultan al-Muzaffar Ahmad replied he could not, due to a crises in the Mamluk government (a revolt by a usurper in Syria) Zheng He departed and sailed back through Arabia and then down the east coast of Africa. Here, he discovered many new species which he brought back to China. After three years of sailing he returned to China a hero. He dedicated to the Emperor the animals which he had discovered, the tribute taken from all the kings and chiefs he had encountered and his own diary, which the Emperor read enthusiastically and applauded Zheng He for his accuracy and attention to detail. He then commanded that every officer and general keep a personal diary so that, if needed, it could be inspected by Palace officials. The Emperor promoted Zheng He to Chief Admiral and permitted him to go an another voyage, which took him through South East Asia and eventually into India and Persia.

His rule unchallenged, his power invincible, the Yongle Emperor died in 1426. He had ruled long and well, and he was universally mourned. China was the strongest it had ever been, and the old usurper was forgiven his treason and remembered as a great Emperor. His son inherited a strong and magnificent state and he continued his father’s policies of expansion. Zheng He was commanded to lead a colonisation force south and he founded the city of Singapore on an island south of the Malay peninsula. The Emperor made it Zheng’s personal fiefdom, and Zheng He was awarded the title of Prince. The first Chinese colony was not the last, and soon smaller ventures secured footholds in Taiwan, Borneo, Hainan and Java. The colonies were founded for three reasons: trade, prestige and consolidation. The Third Emperor, the Bronze Emperor, reversed his father’s tax policies on Suzhou and greatly increased mercantilism. He had distrusted the Confucian bureaucrats from the beginning and now he exercised his power on them. Merchants were given tax relief and government subsidy. Government monopolies in silk were broken up and soon a booming capitalist economy was taking over China. In 1435 he authorised the first Foreign Company, which was founded by silk, tea and cloth merchants to spread their businesses. The company planted colonies across Asia and over the years grew ever more independent.

There we have it, there's more if you want it, but what do we al think?
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