Best Korea: Part 07: 1499-1503: Korean Beijing

I have 2 mountain forts protecting West and East pass from Manchuria to Korea, but if Ming moves fast enough, they have enough artillery and good enough generals, and they could take them and be on my capital before my troops come back.

Even worse, they could also get all their navies together and prevent me from ever returning to the mainland. It would be disastrous.

There's often huge tactical advantage for the attacker, since they can have troops and fleets in place the moment of attack. It's a good thing AI rarely takes full advantage of it.

Still, I really need to finish war with Japan as soon as possible. Fortunately their armies were really poorly coordinated, and I got that Age of Discovery ability  to let me transfer vassals for half cost, so I got myself 64dev Ogasawara and 32dev Tokugawa as vassals.

That leaves Ashikaga with just 3 OPM daimyos, and since they control Kyoto and Tokyo they could annex them and form Japan.

Ming's military was completely lost. They were unprepared for my quick return from Japan, and their fleets and armies were divided between North and South frontlines. Soon Beijing was sacked, and half the Ming fleet was under water.

It looks impressive, but Ming has so much depth and so many armies pushing for 100% war foolish.

I didn't have paper mana to even core what I took anyway.

Originally I hoped to white peace Ming as soon as possible, but the war unexpectedly went really well.

Ming was far from crushed, and they just reached neutral mandate point of 50. I knew exactly what I needed. Beijing with its whole territory, two nearby forts, war reparations, and 682 gold to be divided between us, with me getting 468.

I could get so much as Ming attacked me with Unify China CB, not Enforce Tributary CB, and that gives 50% warscore cost discount on all lands in China region. It's really their fault for walking into this trap. Any other CB, and there's no way I'd be able to get that much.

I hoped to get Colonialism, as it can spawn for anyone who discovered a single New World province, unfortunately Portugal got it. Portugal already finished one colony in Caribbean and is building 2 more, and I barely started one in Aleuts, so I guess they deserve it.

Eyeballing it, I think we had 3 eligible provinces each, and nobody else had any, so it was a 50% shot that I lost.

I can get Colonialism without dev push if I get a colonial nation, so I guess that's the priority now.

And so ends Age of Discovery. Age of Reformation is upon us, and we're definitely reforming Confucian faith to include other faiths.

Pretty typical timeline elsewhere.

So far everything went really smoothly this campaign.

I got into many fights which were against the odds on paper, but I had some kind of leverage in them all.

Ming waited too long with its attack, and was too indecisive.

If I also got Colonialism, that would just be ridiculous amount of luck.

Great Powers:

• Ming - much weakened due to foolish war, and loss of Beijing is costing it mandate. Due to have Crisis of the Ming Dynasty disaster in March 1507
• Korea - freshly took Beijing, and controlling 1/3 of Japan directly and 1/3 through vassals
• Ottomans - took some border provinces from the Mamluks with a fort. This looks trivial on the map, but AI Mamluks is doomed in their next war
• France - a bit stuck what it's doing
• Muscovy - it needs either Ryazan or Smolensk (held by the Commonwealth) to form Russia, and it foolishly allied Ryazan, so Russia might not form at all
• Castile/Aragon/Naples/Navarra - needs to remove Grenada to form Spain, and Grenada is allied with Morocco, Tunis, and the Ottomans, so best of luck
• Poland/Lithuania - can form Commonwealth as soon as it gets the right tech
• Mamluks - expanded a bit into the dessert, but already started losing to the Ottomans

Other interesting countries:

• Lan Xang - after breaking free from Ming, it got 2 tributaries for itself, and that blocks it from ever becoming Ming's tributary
• Khmer - also broke free from Ming, rival of Lan Xang in spite of their shared alliances with Korea and Pegu. Has has Zhu dynasty as Ming and Korea.
• Ashikaga - has 3 OPM daimyo vassals, could technically form Japan if it annexes its daimyos and I annex my 2 independent daimyos, but I don't plan to let it
• Timurids - expanding into Persia instead of into India. I'd really love to see some Mughals
• Bohemia - new HRE emperor. First reform passed, but reformation already started, so that's how far it's likely to go