Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Yijing

197-198AD

A few events happened over the year 197.

• I spent the summer and fall depopulating the east coast in preparation for a massive invasion of Yuan Shao's (yellow) territory.
• Winter put a freeze to this.
• In the spring, Yuan Shao, Liu Bei (green), and Gongsun Zan (brown? formerly region #3) started fighting.
• Gongsun Zan died, and territory changed hands between Yuan Shao and Liu Bei, fracturing both empires.

Those last two points actually align somewhat with history, only a year ahead of schedule and with Liu Bei's involvement. Coincidence, or semi-scripted event?

By March 198, I have 20 generals commanding nearly 400,000 soldiers stationed in regions #6 and #7, neatly divided between the well-armed (in #6) and the poorly armed (in #7). Yuan Shao isn't getting through to me. The poorly armed spend their time searching for metal. The well-armed go in.

Once again, the enemy just doesn't have enough provisions to support a defense. All I have to do is turtle.

We push on through the territory, driving Liu Bei out of #16, and spilling into #17 and #15 beyond.

Liu Bei puts up a long, flame-intensive defense, in which some of his own generals defect to me, and at least one burns to death in his own fire trap, but he too eventually runs out of rice.

He started with 14 generals.

I have him executed, and while his rule is succeeded by his top general Guan Yu, multiple officers below him refuse to swear loyalty. Such is the price of soldierly humility, I suppose.

Winter comes, and I know to stop pushing my luck. Guan Yu is absolutely furious, but there's not a whole lot he can do about it now. Yuan Shao is a bit cross, and several of my own territories are within striking distance of his, so I pay off his animosity with a bit of wuzhu, and hunker down until spring. During this time, I finally complete arming the generals in state #6, and also steal one of Guan Yu's former generals.

In spring, disease claims the life of Dong Zhou - formerly my strongest rival - and of another general whose name was unremarkable.

Nine down. Six to go.