Snippet #14

isaac_newton wrote:

ksandgren wrote:Thanks for the wonderful snippet. Really looking forward to the whole thing in a few weeks.

Indeed!

and in the more immediate future, to find out what is going to transpire in St. Lerys Foundry!

Isilith wrote:Huh? What did I miss?

Look at the chapter-title. It has 3 places in it, but only the first two were covered (so far) in the snippet. So, what happens in the foundry has still to come ...

Oh, and Thank you, very much, for that new snippet, RFC.

Snow Peak is in charge of the army. That strikes me as Summer Flower setting up his fall guy. He is not in charge of fighting, just in charge of doing what the Emperor demanded after accepting the idea from Desnair. So, he controls the Empire's innovation policy without in any way being responsible for anything beyond execution of that policy. If it goes badly, it was Desnair's idea. If the army get's whacked by Charisian Marines or Rainbow Waters, Snow Peak blew it.

All Summer Flowers has to do is to reorganize the foundries along Charisian lines and set up the manufactories into modified production circles. Modified from what the CoGA instituted during the jihad into powered assembly lines. No, this is not the same thing as what the Charisians are doing. Their managers aren't Harchonese, after all. SH merchant houses will supply managers and supervisors conversant with how best manage a Harchonese work force. Manage that workforce to mitigate social unrest. Oh, if the guilds squawk, tell them to suck it up or tell the Emperor they are unwilling to sacrifice their petty prerogatives in support of the Harchong reconquista.

I suspect the guilds will roll over and accept their adjusted status and the increased income opportunities that come with it.

thanatos wrote:I think Summer Flowers is craftier than you think. You always need to look at interests of such individuals. SH has always chafed at the imperial authority yet now they're playing host to that emperor and to his much diminished court of reactionary feudal lords and bureaucrats. North Wind Blowing reflects that "his" people had a threadbare majority council relative to the SH nobles. So Summer Flowers first move was to achieve dominance over the council by gaining the emperor's support for his policies. The next natural step is to arm their new military with the weapons to at least stop Rainbow Waters and the Charisian Marines in the west. Given that SH did want it's troops back, that army is going to consist mostly of South Harchongese soldiers and officers. After that, they have to land their forces somewhere while somehow getting through the Gulf of Dohlar, which may or may not be blockaded by Charis, Dohalr or both. Assuming they even can, and assuming they acquire at least some Charisian techniques (as an expedient), it would be easier to land in the central region, as you can bet that Rainbow Waters will seek to secure the shoreline and that Charis will protect it's interests in the west with it naval power. And all the while, the emperor will be indebted to SH, as they did everything they could to satisfy his majesty's demands and pandering to his whims. The one thing that could screw this up would be a military failure, which is why it would be smart to allow Northern officers to be put in command of some of their advanced units. That way, once they get killed or captured, Summer Flowers would be in the position to claim with complete honesty that it was the fault of whatever lackeys North Wind Blowing put in charge of the fiasco.

Isilith wrote:

isaac_newton wrote: SNIP

Indeed!

and in the more immediate future, to find out what is going to transpire in St. Lerys Foundry!

Huh? What did I miss?

HAHA - a secret

I just happened [for once] to look carefully at the chapter title and realised that the last bit [the foundry] had not come up in this snippet - so I deduced that it would be in the next.

Happy Thanksgiving! Thanks for the post! The high road scene was truly horrifying. I gather that peasant rebellions are like this.

runsforcelery wrote:
“Not our fault,” he said quietly. “Not your fault.”

“No?” Syngpu looked at him. “It was somebody else set those woods on fire? Put all this—” he jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at the long column of rifle-armed men marching down the high road behind them “—together?”

“It was going to happen,” Husan said. “It was only a matter of time. And if you hadn’t—if we hadn’t—started it when we did, all those rifles and anything else they had time to build would’ve been on the other side. And then more of our people would’ve gotten killed and it wouldn’t have changed a thing.”

OK, now I want Syngpu and Merlin (in his own identity or one of his alternates) to meet up. I think it would help both of them to have a chance to talk with someone else on the same guilt trip.

Julia Minor wrote:

runsforcelery wrote:
“Not our fault,” he said quietly. “Not your fault.”

“No?” Syngpu looked at him. “It was somebody else set those woods on fire? Put all this—” he jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at the long column of rifle-armed men marching down the high road behind them “—together?”

“It was going to happen,” Husan said. “It was only a matter of time. And if you hadn’t—if we hadn’t—started it when we did, all those rifles and anything else they had time to build would’ve been on the other side. And then more of our people would’ve gotten killed and it wouldn’t have changed a thing.”

OK, now I want Syngpu and Merlin (in his own identity or one of his alternates) to meet up. I think it would help both of them to have a chance to talk with someone else on the same guilt trip.

OOOOOOOOOO! Perfect place for Dialydd Mab!
Mab walks up Syngpu publicly and chats with him about those atrocities. Pretty much lays down the law on ANYONE engaged those sorts of things. Tells Syngpu to spread the word Mab and his friends are looking for badits willing to commit those sorts of atrocities and will deal with them just as they dealt with Clyntahn's Inquisitors.

Word spreads and Syngpu is off the hook for ordering anything. All he is doing is executing seijin policy. You know, God's own agents who spanked the Church when it erred. And he also gets cred for being someone the seijins come to get things done.

Moving forward Syngpu gets all sorts of intel about those sorts of butchers. A few strategic strikes on the worst bands to create examples and all OWL needs to do is post a "newsletter" or two in any camp of bandits warning them to go to a city and look for good paying work or stay and die.

Tactics like that will turn the Harchongese rebellion into a mere strenuous call for reform.

So, Yu-kwau is on the Bay of Alexov. The Bay is connected to the Sea of Harchong via the Kyznetzov Narrows and is located just east and slightly south of Claw Island. The descriptions are found in HFQ describing captain Haigyl's attack in April YOG 897.

The description of Yu-kwau involves mention of coal coming from Queiroz and the Kyznetzov Mountains between the Bay of Alexov and Shwei Bay. Furthermore, Yu-kwau is connected by the St. Lerys Canal to Shwei Bay some 1,400 miles away. Considering that parts of Shwei Bay is much closer in neighboring Sodar, it strikes me that the canal cuts through the Kyznetzov Mountains in a more manageable place. Text has the Archangels cutting the canal through those mountains. Why cut the canal if the area doesn't have the resources readily available for muscle powered exploitation?

That suggests to me that Queiroz and Kynetzov are indeed self sufficient regarding raw materials. Even more so with the aid of steam power. The textev also tells me that the Kyznetzov Mountains are even more robust along the border with the Kingdom of Sodar and the southwest coast of Shwei Bay. It strikes me that Sodar's portion of the Kyznetzov Mountains also contain rich deposits, but are just harder to reach. Railroads and steam powered equipment ought to be able to access those deposits quite nicely.

Sodar has access to the Harthian Sea and Shwei Bay. If they get Charisian investment, they'll develop their ports' access to Shipwreck Bay and the Harthian Sea. That argues for Delfehrahk facilitating distribution to avoid relying on Harchong denying access to Sodar shipping through Shwei Bay to the Gulf of Dohlar.

It would be interesting if Dohlar made the investments in Sodar's raw materials and Charis made similar investments through Irys' connections in Delfehrahk, Selkar and Myratha. Charis has to invest abroad or all that gold is going to cause inflation pretty quickly. The Ahrmahk Plan in Harchong is just the beginning. They need to invest in as many places as possible with the primary limit being how quickly they can dig up the gold.

That means Charisian international influence depends heavily on how quickly they can invest in other nations to develop those nation's prodction capabilities. Charisian economic health depends on making wise investment abroad. Charisian political survival depends on maintaining their military and productive technological superiority. The Inner Circle's primary goal is to facilitate technological adoption in as many nations as possible.

I suspect Rainbow Waters will reluctantly become ruler of a good sized portion of North Harchong, the “provisonal council” of Star arising will form a separate government and other northern provinces will form alliances and confederations of their own. Probably with some z assistance of Charis. This will leave the South Harchong aristocrats go over throw the emperor and go their own way also with some under the table encouragement or promised rewards of techniology transfers from Charis.

Playing Shan Wei’s advocate of course.

jlrice54 wrote:I suspect Rainbow Waters will reluctantly become ruler of a good sized portion of North Harchong, the “provisonal council” of Star arising will form a separate government and other northern provinces will form alliances and confederations of their own. Probably with some z assistance of Charis. This will leave the South Harchong aristocrats go over throw the emperor and go their own way also with some under the table encouragement or promised rewards of techniology transfers from Charis.

Playing Shan Wei’s advocate of course.

I suspect that the Emperor will be unleashing his hordes of ninja assassins!!

isaac_newton wrote:

jlrice54 wrote:I suspect Rainbow Waters will reluctantly become ruler of a good sized portion of North Harchong, the “provisonal council” of Star arising will form a separate government and other northern provinces will form alliances and confederations of their own. Probably with some z assistance of Charis. This will leave the South Harchong aristocrats go over throw the emperor and go their own way also with some under the table encouragement or promised rewards of techniology transfers from Charis.

Playing Shan Wei’s advocate of course.

I suspect that the Emperor will be unleashing his hordes of ninja assassins!!

Wrong ethnic cognate. More like unleashing the monks from St. Zhoulyhn's Chihirite Monastery.