Tianxia China: Part 02: 943-956: Imperial Connections

Now that I had duke rank, I could focus on important things, like making money and family connections.

Now that I was a respectable, duke, I got my three children respectable betrothals, my daughters got arranged marriages with:

• Liao Emperor
• youngest son of Jin emperor
• Korean king of Goryeo - and after that got mysteriously cancelled (why I never get notifications for that?) king of Annam instead
• heir to Empire of Japan

And my sons got got arranged marriages with:

• granddaughter of Wu emperor
• daughter of king of Dali
• sister of Han emperor
• sister of king of Goryeo

Quite a few other kings and emperors considered a duke too lowly for their children. The whole East Asia is strictly agnatic, so there's pretty much no way to gain any land with these marriages, but it's still a nice and prestigious thing to do.

My emperor got involved in a war with king of Chu, and they waged it mostly over my demesne. I even got pierced by a spear as his commander, it severely disfigured me, and the wound got infected. Thanks to my help, that losing war ended up with white peace, but it cost me personally and my demesne too much.

After that all forces of my emperor were spent, and rebels started running all over the place.

I sacrificed enough, so instead I passed primogeniture succession, and pressed my claims to two coastal counties. That war was going very poorly, as my demesne troops were so depleted, and my enemy hired some mercenaries, so I waited until he ran out of money and had to dismiss them, and hired my own.

Overall all this decade expanded the realm by just two new counties, and one city I built, but there's been a lot of construction and technological progress in my demesne.

I also wrote top quality Magnum Opus on Transmutative Alchemy.

Han Empire looks overran by rebels, and about to lose a county to Tongren tribals

Rebels even fight my opponent duke of Lien

Fortunately unlike Chu, they stayed away from my lands, so I won't help

Liao, Shu, and Min empires are nearly over.

Jin is far ahead of everyone else, Wu is far behind Jin, and Han far behind Wu

If Han Emperor remains incapable of protecting the realm, maybe I'll ask another claimant for protection instead