Daxia: Difference between revisions

Foreign policy-wise, the Corummese often like to take the long view and be cautious, which has led to accusations of being fence sitters and unprincipled in foreign affairs. Despite this, Corumm is considered a major power broker at the [[League of Nations]] where its diplomats are always carefully maneuvering and negotiating to push through or sink various initiatives. Corumm is also a nuclear power, developing its own arsenal in the 1960's and demonstrating its willingness to adopt a first strike policy, most recently in the [[atomic bombing of Shimrra]]. Politically the country is dominated by the [[Party of Corummese Democrats]] which has won every election since [[Linge Chen]]s election in 1992. Internally Corumm is a vertically arranged state, with an all powerful office of Chancellor at the cusp wielding absolute power and authority, with virtually no checks and balances. The rule of the PCD is safeguarded by a potent and cruel military and pervasive security forces which keep a tight, choking grip on all sectors of society, even abroad. Historically, relations with its neighbors have been plagued by conflict and mistrust but this is changing in recent times. The people of Corumm are highly suspicious of foreigners and their barbaric customs and hold fast to several xenophobic attitudes.

The etymology of the name Corumm is relatively well known. It is widely believed to be a derivation of the name Korun, identified in stone tables dating back to 5,000 BCE to be a location in central Corumm, specifically a mountain. These historical texts make reference to Korun as both a historical region and in the instance of the Korun mountain as the mythological home to the gods of  an old pagan religion. The morphing of the word and pronunciation seems to have taken sometime in the late 1,000's possibly to disassociate the name from its religious connotation. The name Corumm was from then on associated with the polity of central Corumm that would slowly branch out in other directions.

[[File:Statelings.gif|thumb|Territorial development during the Era of Chaos period.]]

During this era several states vied for supremacy over one another. The strongest states were Cao, Mung, Zuo, Chen, Yang, Liao and Jin(later divided into Upper and Lower Jin). Other states existed during the period but were much shorter lived.

The balance of power often changed as temporal alliances were forged or broken. The appointment in 105 BCE of Prince Dorgon as chief minister of Yang and his military reforms mark the start of the 'Era of Yang Domination'. For most of this period Yang maintained a military alliance with the southern state of Cao, which enabled it to overtake Zuo by 12 BCE. Wars with Chen would last until its final destruction over 200 years later, with Yang reaching its greatest extent by 235 CE.

The progressive dismemberment of the Yang state allowed Cao to take its place as the new hegemonic power, now supported by Mung as a vassal state until 487 CE when its remaining independence was abolished. Several expeditions against Liao were undertaken but achieved limited gain due to the difficult mountainous terrain that favored the defender. The disastrous battle of Yanxi Pass where a 50,000 strong force was ambushed and destroyed put an end to Cao's military advances for the next 50 years, although it continued to claim overlordship over Liao. During this relatively peaceful period, the foundations of the imperial state were laid down. The highly bureaucratized system of governance, attempts at standardization of coinage and language and the expansion of a road system were products of this era.

By 552 the state of Upper Jin was attacked and reduced to a northern sliver of land, allowing Cao's forces a new avenue of invasion that avoided Liao's eastern mountain range. General Jian Xin amassed a force of 600,000 men and invaded from the north, sweeping aside the outnumbered armies of Liao in two bloody engagements. He marched all the way to the capital in Gimying and stormed it after a brief siege. King Wei of Liao was deposed by Jian Xin in favor of the king's 7 year old nephew and Liao deprived of most of its territory and its treasury carried away in wagons to Cao's court. Both Liao and the Jin remnant would continue to exist in a diminished state until 641 and 643 respectively.

By the year 639, the State of Cao had either absorbed all the other kingdoms or relegated them to the status of vassals. Such was the case of Liao which had once encompassed all the western areas but was now reduced to a tenuous hold of Gimying and its environs. In the spring of 641, King Cao Kun accused Lord Shifeng of Liao of plotting to rise in rebellion. Lord Shifeng was arrested and then boiled alive in the square of Gimying, his wives and children were forced to take poison and all their servants castrated. Two years later pro Cao courtiers staged a palace coup and deposed Lord Ziao of Jin, inviting Cao Kun to rule. With the royal lines of Liao and Jin thus extinguished and its lands under control, Cao Kun could claim absolute supremacy.

In the year 645, Cao Kun renames his dynasty to Shang and declares himself First Emperor of a unified Corumm, a 'Heavenly Empire' from now on.

The Shang dynasty was the ruling dynasty of Corumm for 211 years (645–856) after the formal end of the Seven Kingdoms period. The Shang dynasty was by and large an era of progress and stability in the first half of the dynasty's rule, until the Cai Rong Rebellion and the decay of central power in the latter half of the dynasty. The first Shang emperors became revered examples to be emulated by their successors and the dynasty set the foundations for the growth of the Corummese state for centuries afterwards.

Following nomad attacks on the northern commanderies in 676, the First Emperor dispatched the eunuch Ma Fuyeng to establish a fort on the northern approaches of the Hexi Corridor to deter further attack. This strategic fortress was dubbed Yang Daopian and from there Ma Fuyeng exerted a tenuous hold on the southern marshes of Xingkai and check the power of the nomad Degei confederation. In 679 the Degei raided and subsequently destroyed the settlements that had started to form around Yang Daopian. Lacking the means to properly breach the fortress, the Degei settled in their tents to wait for hunger to overcome the defenders. On hearing news of the siege, the Emperor raised a 60,000-man army and rushed to the Hexi Corridor. Degei scouts mistakenly assumed the vanguard of the imperial army to be the whole force that was sent against them, causing them to confidently enter the mountainous corridor. By the time they realized the actual size of the enemy force, retreat was no longer an option. Seeing the bulk of the besieging force leaving, Ma Fuyeng's forces rushed out the gates and stormed the nomad camp, overrunning the few defenders left. Trapped in the narrow pass between two forces, the Degei desperately fought to break out but were decisively defeated. The Emperor forced the Degei chiefs to prostrate themselves before him and imposed upon them the humiliating Treaty of Daopian. The treaty stipulated the Degei would become tributaries of Shang, they would migrate beyond the Urus river and settle there, leaving southern Xingkai for Shang colonization and they would provide 8,000 cavalrymen to serve in Shang armies.

The Shang dynasty began to experience accelerated institutional and moral decay during the early 800's after the death of the Ninth Emperor, Cao Zang, widely considered to have been the last effective Shang emperor. His successor was his son Cao Meng, a slothful and heavy drinker uninterested in the responsibilities of state. This left the government in the hands of eunuchs and other court favorites who engaged in vicious factional struggles that disrupted the governance of the realm. A second factor was that Cao Zang willed considerable estates to his younger sons, which over time would give their branches of the family the wealth and clout to match that of the imperial court. Matters came to a head in 830 when Cao Meng's son, Cao Fulin, attempted to force the cadet branches of the imperial family to relinquish half of their income back to the central government. The refusal of Princes Zhang and Chu, the emperor's cousins, sparked the military conflict known as the ''''Thrice Cursed War'''' that devastated the country for the last 28 years of the dynasty. Cao Fulin's successors would prosecute the conflict with increasing zeal and brutality.

The period after the fall of the main Shang dynasty was one of continued turbulence and civil strife. The northern Degei confederation reneged on their status as a tributary state and once more threatened to attack the northern borders. On the west, Shang remnants coalesced into a 'Western Shang' and propped a minor as Emperor Cao Fu. Seeing the Western Shang as a dire dynastic challenge that needed to be quickly crushed, Cai Rong chose to send off one of his daughters as bride to the Degei Khan along with a dowry of 50,000 pounds of silver as dowry to seal an alliance. With the north secured from attack and a sizable nomad force marching with his army, he turned west. General Bi Liao of the Western Shang put up stiff resistance but ultimately was forced to take his emperor and retreat west into Rusanai territory. Emperor Cai contented himself at first with reimposing his rule on the recovered territory, but Bi Liao's constant raiding and ambuscades finally convinced him of the necessity of further pursuit.

The territory of modern Rusana was divided in three kingdoms at the time, Ghanim being the closest to Corumm. In 860 Chen general Qu Hou advanced into Ghanim's territory at the head of a 40,000 army and 6000 Degei cavalry, pursuing an estimated 20,000 Shang loyalists under Bi Liao. Too outnumbered to stand his ground, Bi Liao sought to evade battle at every turn and sent messengers to the local ruler asking for support. Bi Liao's messengers painted Qu Hou's incursion as an invasion aimed at Ghanim rather than a punitive expedition solely aimed at the Shang remnants. Seeing the sizable Chen army continue to make its way westward, Farukh agreed to join forces with the Shang to oppose it. Farukh mustered 13,000 men, consisting mostly of lightly armored footmen with the exception of the kings own 1500 strong infantry bodyguard armed in heavy mail. He also brought forth twenty war elephants. The joint Ghanim-Shang force moved to intercept Qu Hou's army and the two forces came into contact at the Battle of Horoz Plain.

[[File:CDA.jpg|thumb|300px|Chen Army at Horoz Plain.]]

Altough numerically inferior, Bi Liao decided to give battle due to the fact the Degei cavalry appeared to have deserted Qu Hou and he expected his elephant squadron and the king's heavy cavalry to give him the decisive edge. Unbeknown to him the Degei had separated on purpose from the main army shortly after entering Ghanim and shadowed them at a distance, and were now rushing to approach his army from the rear. At the onset of the battle Farukh's elephants were sent charging against Qu Hou's center, nearly buckling it until concentrated volleys of fire arrows and rudimentary rockets caused the elephants to panic and turn back just as Bi Liao's infantry was charging, crashing into them and throwing their lines into a panic. Liao now tried frantically to rally his panicking men to face the Corummese charge while Farukh led his elite bodyguard forwards to buy the main force time to reorganize. As Liao's men slowly managed to bring the elephants down while losing ground to Hou's advance, the Degei nomad cavalry arrived at the battle, releasing several volleys that killed and wounded hundreds of men before charging into the rear of Bi Liao. This charge broke the morale of the joint army and sent it into panicked fleeing. Bi Liao was killed by Degei horsemen while trying to escape and his severed head was presented to Qu Hou, while King Farukh was captured and forced to prostrate before Qu Hou. In the aftermath of the battle the kingdom of Ghanim retained its independence but was was forced into becoming a tributary of the Chen dynasty, handing over both the infant Shang pretender, the king's own heir as a hostage and the fertile plains around Lake Doyeon to the Chen. The fate of the child emperor of the Shang is unclear after this, the most common theory being that he was asphixiated with a pillow on his way back to the Chen court.

The second of these pretenders, Tengu Peg Leg, first rose in the city of [[Heng]] in 896. Claiming descent from the last Shang emperor, he and his supporters took over the city administration by force and gained the support of its citizens by abolishing taxes for three years and promising to give every citizen five slaves from towns he conquered. Other cities in the region expelled their imperial garrisons and approached Tengu for protection and relief from imperial taxation . With these defections the territory controlled by Tengu's loyalists grew to cover all of the Corummese northwest. He declared himsef emperor with [[Heng]] as his capital and styled his domain as Northern Shang. The loss of important economic centers like Heng and control of important trade routes to the north represented a heavy blow to the Chen dynasty's finances and hobbled its capacity to respond quickly.

[[File:Toghon.jpg|thumb|Darukh Khan, leader of the 918 Degei Confederation revolt]]

Having unseated the Chen dynasty by treachery and with the stain of defeat on the battlefield against Northern Shang, Emperor Gong of Zhong wanted nothing more than to raise new armies to reclaim what he saw as imperial territory in revolt. However the destruction caused by his own insurrection, the pressure on a depleted treasury to pay the wages and bonuses of his standing army and a restless population that were tired of war and high taxes were insurmountable obstacles to realizing his ambition of fully reunifying the empire in the short term. By 918 the northern nomad commanderies were close to revolt, with pro-Corummese nobles and officials being forced to flee their lands by a certain Darukh Khan agitating to reunify the tribes under his command. Darukh Khan was the son of a local Degei chief and functionary and had served in a Chen cavalry unit. Angered by the reduction of imperial stipends going to local chiefs and the resulting disruption of local patronage, Darukh Khan renounced his Corummese titles and began arresting Zhong tax collectors. Darukh Khan proved to be a charismatic orator for he was able to convince thirteen other clan chiefs to follow suit and mount an attack on the garrison town of Baliq where they killed the town guards, shaved the moustache of the local magistrate before kicking him out of town and forced the townspeople to prostrate themselves before Darukh. Darukh proclaimed himself Great Khan of the Degei, a title that implied universality of his rule, Corummese historians name him as the Fourth Great Impostor of the period for his ambition was to rule not just his fellow nomads but to advance south into the empire.

''Main Article: [[United Cities]]''

National Reconstruction Front-PRI analogue but more military men involved/War of attrition in Xingkaipei/Building up of communists and other groups of opposition(infiltration of said groups/government assets as leaders) as boogeymen to shore up regime support

By mid-1993 the [[Bureau of State Protection]] had been given the directive to begin the repression of the [[Communist Party of Corumm]] (CPC) and its armed wing, the [[Army of Common Men]] (ACM). Operation Dendron decapitated the communist political leadership and left the party directionless however the cell structure of the ACM prevented most of its leaders from being found out and killed. This operation also had the secondary effect of rendering the CPC and the political path almost irrelevant in the conflict to come. Dendron marked the beginning of a bloody period of state terrorism as the government sought to crush the armed resistance of the ACM by any means necessary. Hundreds of thousands of left-wing activists, students, journalists, writers and anyone suspected of sympathizing with the political left were imprisoned, tortured and killed. The ACM responded by unleashing a wave of terrorist bombings, hit and run attacks on military and police targets and killing of government employees as reprisals. Increasing efficiency in intel gathering on the ACM resulted in the design and implementation of Operation Eschaton, which succeeded in killing hundreds of leadership figures all across the country.

Finding itself increasingly cornered in urban areas by the security organs, the bulk of the ACM moved into the countryside whilst leaving only smaller three-man cells in the cities. In rural areas the organization had a degree of grassroots support, especially in the poorer west part of the country. PCD initiated security reforms had not yet reached these locales and the local security forces were too weak to suppress the ACM on their own. While the ACM had appeared to be on the backfoot or even the edge of defeat at the end of 1995, its move to the countryside allowed it breathing room to reconstitute itself and Operation Eschaton had not yet taken an irreversible toll. It coerced peasants to join its force in increasing numbers and began expanding an area of actual territorial control that surrounded several provincial cities. By the summer of 1996 the ACM had recovered in numbers and stormed the city of Khov, defeating the local garrison and with the local police force fleeing without a fight. The ACM declared a Khov Socialist Republic and invited the 'revolutionary' sectors of the city to join its forces.  

After the decimation of the ACM at Khov and the end of their territorial experiment, the vacant Directorate seats were slowly filled by BSP infiltrators acting upon Operation Maniphage. If the ACM's leader was not a government agent by this point, he was certainly surrounded by them. The new Directorate blamed the conservative leanings of the peasantry and their lack of revolutionary zeal as the root causes for the defeat and moved to suppress them. During 1997 the ACM razed close to a hundred villages, stealing crops and cattle, massacring the inhabitants and conscripting the children into its forces. Crafted by the architects of Operation Maniphage, these attacks caused a decisive break between the ACM and the western countryside. This also led to schisms to break out in the ACM, with at least two members of the Directorate(non government assets) leaving the organization and branding it insane and terroristic. With insider information of the organization's movements, the BSP hunted down its remaining cells in quick succession during 1997 and early 1998. Chancellor [[Linge Chen]] declared the organization defeated in a speech to the People's Assembly on May 1st 1998.

The Xingfu Dejia or [[House of the Blessed Brothers]] was a self help cult that had been growing in the country since at least 1985. The weakened [[National Reconstruction Front (Corumm)|NRH]] government tried to supress it at first but eventually gave up and allowed it to operate freely, perhaps hoping to complicate things for opposition groups if they took power. After the accession of the PCD-led government, things changed for the movement and it began to be more closely scrutinized for signs of subversive activities. Harassment by authorities contributed to the radicalization of the groups founder, Min Yaaj Zoov who became more dictatorial and began indoctrinating his followers towards violent action.

The persecution of the leftists was widely applauded and supported by the business class, especially the plutocrats that had benefitted by the cronyism of the military government that preceded the PCD. They mistook the government's savage attack on socialism as a sign that it intended to loosen even more its grip on the economy, perhaps by handing over control of strategic sectors to private capital. This mistaken conception would cost them dearly as the organs of terror began working again and the totalitarian nature of PCD thinking revealed iself in full. The BSP's systems of mass surveillance under Operation Panoptes had been in full swing since 1992 and the wealthy were not exempt. In March 1999 around fifty of Corumm's wealthiest businessmen were arrested and taken to Building 82, their personal bank accounts and those of their companies already frozen. With notaries present and under threat of torture or death they were forced to sign their assets away into the hands of the government. In a single move the Party acquired control of 25% of the nation's economic assets including industrial complexes, banks, mines, agricultural lands, hotels, commercial fisheries and much more.

===Climate===

Corumm experiences a combination of continental climate and an oceanic climate, but most of the country experiences a humid continental climate within the Köppen climate classification scheme. Winters bring clear weather interspersed with snow storms as a result of northern and northwestern winds. Summer tends to be by far the hottest, most humid, and rainiest time of year because of the southern and southeastern monsoon winds that carry moist air from the Omnium Sea. Approximately 60 percent of all precipitation occurs from June to September. Spring and autumn are transitional seasons between summer and winter. The daily average high and low temperatures for Mirzak are −3 and −13 °C in January and 29 and 20 °C in August.

===Government===

According to the Constitution of [[Corumm]], the country is a federal republic, wherein the Chancellor is both head of state and head of government. The Republic of Corumm is fundamentally structured as a multi-party representative democracy. The government of [[Corumm]] follows the conventional republican structure with three branches that in theory function independently of each other and serve to maintain a balance of power in the system. The constitution of 1993 created by the a legislature dominated by the PCD however tinkered with the system and did away with any pretense of balance, first by abolishing the post of President and replacing it with a Chancellor with much beefed up powers, with critics complaining that its outsized powers are more fit to an Emperor than to the head of a democratic system. The second change was the abolishment of the Senate with the remaining body being renamed to the People's Assembly and enlarged to five hundred members, still elected by direct vote but carefully vetted by the [[Bureau of State Protection]]. The Judiciary saw a quick erosion of its independence, with the Supreme Court expanded from seven to eleven members(all new members with clear sympathies for the PCD). The organ in charge of the designation of lower level judges and magistrates was folded into the control of the Ministry of Interior. These and other constitutional changes guarantee the absolute primacy of the executive branch, with the legislative and judicial as subservient junior partners and rubber stamps.

|-

|}

Main Article: [[Corummese Armed Forces]]

Main Article [[Corumm's Adversarial Table of Relations]]

The Corummese state maintains diplomatic relations and maintains embassies with almost every nation in the world. The unique nature of Corummese practices and national outlook at times cause suspicion and resentment in the 'Western World'. Nonetheless Corumm maintains excellent relations with many countries, often of a transactional, non ideological nature and always pursuing the win-win model of interaction.

The 2027 national population census of Corumm determined the total population to be 744,900,597 with a net population growth of around 0.6% per year. Population growth has slowed down from around 1% in the last two decades due to concerns about overcrowding and deleterious effects on social services. Emmigration restrictions and limitations post 1992 contribute to minimal population outflows, other than to a few authorized destinations. Non [[Corummese people|Corummese]] ethnicities have significantly higher birth rates leading to forming majorities of the population in certain localities.

{{Pie chart

===Education===

Teaching methods, notable educational institutes, government propaganda and brainwashing in post-1992 schools

===Architecture===

Something about traditional chinese architecture, also eastern styles for ironically, western corumm

===Reeducation Centers===

The government runs an undisclosed number of reeducation facilities where it houses antisocial individuals and seeks to reform and reprogram them into useful members of society. Likened by opponents to gulag networks that exist under the communist model, the use of torture, brainwashing and mandatory origami lessons are allegedly widespread.

Main Article: [[Economy of Corumm]]

===Overview===