6,200 infantry
3,000 cavalry
50 BT-2 tanks
all armed to Indonesian standards with bolt action rifles, machine guns, and mortars. The army uses Indonesian organization.
Indonesian built BT-2 tank of the Ever Victorious Army advancing.
The Empire of Chengdu is a rugged, often mountainous land in the southern area of what was once the People's Republic of China. The empire's capital is the city of Chengdu, in Sichuan, the northernmost province.
The Chengdu state began with the coalescing of power around the mayor of a small city south west of Chengdu, Xinjin, whose charismatic leadership helped keep his area fairly stable during the chaos of the nuclear exchange and the years immediately following. Mayor Wei Yanlong gained the cooperation of the local PRC military, such as survived the 1985 debacle, and with the military's aid gained control of most of Sichuan Province by the year 2000. In 2001, Wei Yanlong was proclaimed Emperor of Chengdu, the most important city of the region, only partially destroyed in the nuclear exchange. This move infuriated the new emepror's overlords in the PRC government. Major offensives by the rump PRC in 2002, 2003, 2007, and 2011 failed to dislodge the new emperor from his throne and left with with a battle hardened army with top notch leadership. Once the fury of the PRC was spent, a peace was signed in 2013. The Treaty of Macao acknowledged the independence of Chengdu and allowed the Emperor Yanlong to turn on the warlords to the south of Sichuan. By 2032 he had conquered all of Yunnan Province. Yanlong died of cancer of the liver in 2037. His eldest son, Chi Mo, became emperor, only to be killed in battle while leading an invasion of the Kachin region of northern Burma in 2044. His brother Wei Yifu took the throne after his death and completed the conquest of the Kachin highlands in 2045. It is commonly believed in Yifu's court that his next target will be the rump of the PRC itself. Further penetration into the south is likely to bring intervention by the Indonesians. Yifu has recently hired the famous mercenary general, Homer Lee, and his Ever Invincible Army to train and modernized his army as much as the limited resources of Chendu will permit.
Chengdu is the best organized of the native Chinese run states, save for Taiwan. It suffers, however, from a lack of access to the sea, cutting it off from imported military hardware.
The Emperor Yifu does tolerate foreign traders, and has even allowed a small contingent of Christian missionaries to operate in his territory.
The territories of the Empire of Chengdu covers Sichuan, Yunnan, and the northern regions of Burma and Bangladesh.
Yifu is thirty-three years old. As the second son of Yanlong, Yifu was not expect to become emperor. Instead, he chose the life of a contemplative Buddhist priest and scholar. He remained an obscure figure in the Imperial Court until the death of his brother in battle in 2044. At that point, Yifu's ambitious wife Wenhi Ruyu manipulated the army commanders, headed by Marshal Jing Kwan Ha of the Imperial Guard to support Yifu for the throne over his four year old nephew Junyan. He is noted for his scholarship, and is well known as a patron of the arts and scholars of Buddhism. Unlike most of the rulers of the mainland Chinese states, Yifu is a true progressive, and supports contact with the outside, trade, and technological progress,
The empress is thirty-six years old. The daughter of one of the Emperor Yanlong's palace officials, Ruyu was married, reluctantly, to Yifu when he was fourteen and she seventeen. Their relationship has been reported bo be stormy. Unsatisfied by Yifu's apparent lack of ambition, Ruyu engineered the coup that placed her husband on the throne. It is also widely believed she ordered, and even witnessed the strangling of the four year old Junyan and his mother. While Yifu is the brains and heart of the empire, Ruyu is the ruthless right hand in a mailed fist. Rumors about here are rife: that she has many lovers, is a tyrant, and greedy beyond the imagination of men. Papal Nuncio Piero Carracela calls her "the Messalina of China." She is known to have engineered the hiring of Homer Lee and his mercenaries. Some factions in the court believe her to be planning to overthrow Yifu with Lee's help.
The crown prince is sixteen years old. He is a strong willed young man, prideful and inflexible. He is just beginning to participate in government, but is reported to be all too much like his mother in personality, but he is much closer to his father despite this.
The princess is the oldest child, seventeen years old. Beautiful, vain and spoiled, she has most of her mother's worst traits except for her mother's ambition. A prize pawn in the marriage diplomacy game, she has been promised at various times to several neighboring rulers and key warlords, though currently, she is not betrothed to anyone.
The princess is the youngest child, fourteen years old. She is supposed to be much like her father: scholarly, quiet, and stubborn. She is estranged from her mother. She too, has been used as a pawn in diplomacy, though again, she is not currently betrothed.
A creature of the Empress Ruyu, Feng is a feckless drunkard, much more interested in his pleasures than actually performing his duties.
Along with the Minister of the Interior, Hua is one of the two most influential cabinet members, One of the most ardent supporters of military expansionism, Hua is a master of playing both sides against the middle. None of the factions in the Imperial Court are confident that they can pin Hua down to any one opinion or faction. He is both feared and distrusted.
A crony of Chief Minister Feng's, Fanqin spends most of his time reveling with that worthy and very little doing anything else. Foreign merchants and diplomats universally despise him.
Miao is the closest cabinet minister to the emperor. He reflect's Yifu's desires to better the lot of the empire and its people by restoring as much of the pre-1985 technological society as possible. He has the reputation of being a strong, stubborn man, defiant to those who refuse to see the light or thwart what he sees as they way to the future.
The head of the police in the empire, Lu is a bitter, depressed old man. his only son, General Lu Jianying, was killed by his own troops after trying to lead an insurrection against the empress. While on of the most powerful men in the cabinet, Lu has withdrawn from public affairs, and it is believed by Taiwan's intelligence service that there is a power struggling going on between the various political factions in Chengdu over control of this most powerful office.
Hsiu is the most friendly cabinet official to foreigners. Well aware of the importance of trade to the empire and knowing the minister of trade to be totally useless in that post, Hsiu takes up much of the slack. Reputedly incorruptible and competent, he is a power to be reckoned with. His very incorruptability, however, has led him into conflict with the empress who wants her endless extravagance and schemes funded.
Ming is the emperor's right hand, providing that man with both friendship and balance. He controls the operation of the Imperial Court and the emperor and empress' personal officials. He does much to curb Ruyu's excesses, and is thus deeply hated by her and her supporters.
Named after a mercenary force that served Imperial China against the Taiping Rebellion in the mid-19th Century, the Ever Victorious Army is the brain-child of Homer Lee, a man of Chinese descent born on the big island of Hawaii in 1997. Homer's father, Hannibal Lee, a major land owner, fled Hawaii in 2012 after the island was occupied by the UKA. Settling in Taiwan, the elder Lee soon developed a thriving business running guns and contraband to and from the island to the mainland. He also made a fortune as a fence for the expanding Fijian pirate fleets.
Homer sailed with the Fijians for a few years prior to 2020, then began raising a mercenary army on the model of"Chinese" Gordon's, hoping to make himself a major player on the mainland Chinese scene. The Ever Victorious Army has worked for the PRC, Macao, and most recently the Empire of Chengdu, where is is training the Imperial Guard and some of the Regular Army in the use of its new, more modern weaponry and acting as elite shock troops the the recent war agains the PRC.
Currently, it consists of three brigades of infantry, mostly recruited from Tagalog speakers, Malays, and Moros. There is one large infantry battalion, that originally was the Imperial Roman Far Eastern marine Battalion, mixed European mercenaries and Chinese, a Tartar cavalry brigade mostly Manchu, and a tank battalion with 50 Indonesian BT-5s, mostly with Indonesian and Japanese crewmen. The army is a first class fighting outfit, experienced, well led, and superbly trained.
The army is believed to consist of:
6,200 infantry
3,000 cavalry
50 BT-2 tanks
all armed to Indonesian standards with bolt action rifles, machine guns, and mortars. The army uses Indonesian organization.
Indonesian built BT-2 tank of the Ever Victorious Army advancing.
Tartar Cavalrymen of the Ever Victorious Army
Lee has been made provisional General in Chief of the Chengdu Imperial Army.
The Chengdu Regular Army is a long service, professional force. The standard enlistment is for twenty years. Chengdu's regulars are experienced, professional soldiers with a successful tactical system and an excellent record against Chengdu's neighbors.
Chengdu's forces are known for their aggressive tactics, and fast movements. Much of the empire's success has come from its army's ability to outmanuever and crush its slow moving and rapidly befuddled opponents. It tends to have a lower number of servants, and under the tutilage of Homer Lee, had greatly reduced the usual Chinese baggage train.
The Regular Army of Chengdu's standard infantry division is organized into four infantry banners (regiments) and one artillery banner. Each infantry banner conisists of four battalions of four hundred men, armed with rifle-muskets, giving a rough infantry strength of 6400 men for the division. Unlike many of the other Chinese states, Chengdu tries to maintain its units at full strength. The artillery banner has three battalions. The Position battalion has four 68 pounder smoothbores, and eight 12 pounder smoothbores, all ox drawn. The other two, both light battalions, have twenty-four 6 pounder smoothbores each, all horse drawn. The Position battalion is too slow to keep up with the division on the march. It normally is only available for set piece battles and sieges. Marshal Lee seems to have proposed stripping all the Position battalions from the infantrydivisions and assigned them at the army level.
Reserve Divisions are organized similarly, except they lack the artillery assets and are equipped with smoothbore muskets rather than rifle-muskets. They only seve part time and are far inferior in fighting quality to the regulars.
Total divisional strength is believed to be:
8,080 infantry
1,700 servants
80 wagons
1,220 horses
4 68 pounder smoothbores
8 12 pounder smoothbores
48 6 pounder smoothbores
12 ox limbers
48 horse limbers
48 ox carts
216 oxen
Chengdu's regular cavalry has an inferior reputation to its infantry. A lack of access to China's best horse country has kept the cavalry branch small and of lower priority to the infantry and artillery. Generally, the operational function of the cavalry brigades is to serve as blocking forces and rear guards. Low firepower and the lack of any hosre artillery keeps it from playing a major role in Chengdu's battles.
Total brigade strength is believed to be:
2100 cavalrymen armed with rifled-muskets
400 servants
40 wagons
2640 horses
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