Normally I played with default demesne size settings, and vassals cower in fear. This is largely caused by China being all feudal (sorry, "Confucian Bureaucrats"). I can improve my relations with temple vassals by building up hospitals, and cities are generally not very rebellious and offer good tax base, but in China neither of these have any power. And there was one thing I could do - build a massive retinue. Once done it will be about 5k troops. It's been a while since I last did any retinues, they were totally overpowered once, but they got nerfed so many times I didn't even bother last few campaigns.
As my lands were so rich, I was suffering constant barbarian raids, so I decided to at least crush the Zunyi barbarians, who just defeated my emperor's attempt. That got me a lot of land I didn't particularly want, but stopped attacks from the West. Then I had to do the same with Taiwan, but there are still barbarians coming from faraway lands which would be much more difficult to crush.
My cousin, the Zhao Emperor died, and his son gained the throne. After his wife and my daughter died of cancer at ripe old age of 24, I gave him another one of my daughters in marriage. Unfortunately he then died in personal combat while leading troops against the rebels. My grandson was the next emperor - and I got him to remarry his father's second wife and my daughter.
Jin Emperor attacked us claiming my territory I captured from the Zunyi barbarians, and even though the fight was bloody, we were far from losing. However, the damn emperor surrendered to the Jin! A few years later he decided to attack Jin, and took back the same duchy, but for himself, not for me.
Zhao and Jin look like the strongest contenders for the Dragon Throne. Chu is still hanging on, but Han, Yan, and Tang look weaker and weaker. My son-in-law lost Yan throne, but at this point it's just too weak to matter.
Mongols have been attacking China, mostly weak dukes in the North, but at some point they'll need to fight Jin. They 115k event troops is down to 72k, but they conquered themselves a nice empire with that.
I was saving my grandson's Khmer Empire from his own vassals again, when he decided to break the alliance based on me not helping him. Interestingly my war contribution was "1%", even though he'd have absolutely lost without my help. CK2's way of counting war contribution is terrible, it's based on prolonged bloody battles and endless sieges, not on surgical strikes that obliterate enemy, and quick assaults that take their holdings.
Another Zhao Emperor died, and my grandson became 4th Zhao Emperor. there's however someone else I'd much rather see on the throne - my granddaughter Wenxiu with very good claim and great traits.
Meanwhile, the Pope proclaimed crusade for Jerusalem, but due to division in control over Jerusalem, the victorious kingdom is only 7 counties, not one of them actual Jerusalem. Then king of Jerusalem and the Pope started fighting each other and I'm not even totally sure why.
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