Chaos Period

### Outcome

Restoration of the Great Zhi EmpireSignificant Michise emmigration across the world

Birth of democracy in Michu

### Also known as

Great Michise WarMichise Civil War

The Chaos Period, or the Chaos Era, was a prolonged conflict within the Great Zhi Empire, that spanned over an entire century, and fundamentally altered mainland Hezranan politics. The Chaos Period was the last challenge of the Great Zhi Empire, and the first time in over a thousand years that the Great Zhi came close to falling.

## History

### Prelude

The 18th and 19th centuries had been an era of steady economic and cultural growth within the Great Zhi Empire, as successive rulers had pacified the Yuan, imposed the Imperial Tributary System upon their neighbours, and settled disputes with Treko. During this time, the Empire reached a size unrivalled in history. This period of economic success, hid growing institutional problems within the Empire, as the rising power of the provinces, combined with the scale of Imperial domains, ensured that local governors reigned as petty tyrants, under loose Imperial supervision. The late Zhi era was especially dominated by the Zheng politicians, language, and officials, leading to a decline in regional languages, to the detriment of the standard Imperial Bulwark strategy, even Weishun was not immune from this. The linguistic dominance of the Zheng was so great, that the Emperor Shuaifen (1757 - 1783) was fully incapable of speaking Weishun, and instead held all meetings in Zheng. His successors would follow in his footsteps until the reign of Emperor Xinsheng, who revived the language during the Chaos Period. Government corruption greatly increased in this time, as buying posititions and titles became not only widespread, but legally encouraged as a form of social mobility. By 1790, the practice of 'Blending into Gold' was formally permitted, with Zheng servants and labourers accumulating enough wealth to buy their way into Weishun families.

### Beginning and Stagnation

Since the early 1700s, piracy had been growing throughout the Great Zhi Empire, primarily following the extermination of the Yuan, and valuable trade convoys from western based merchents. However, piracy reached it's zenith in 1811, following the rapid success of Wanhua Xing, who pillaged the south of Michu for several years, causing several copycats, and significantly undermining river and sea based trade. While the Empire began to compensate by developing primitive rail systems, to incentivise land based trade, the downturn in trade was significant. The Imperial Navy was frequently mobilised, and remained the most prestine of all Imperial assets in this era, tasked with hunting down pirates, and putting them to death. This Navy Primacy itself caused significant tension between the local governors and the Imperial Court, as the authority of the navy allowed them to act with impunity, without regard for the governor's will. Piracy quickly became the most profitable profession in the Empire, and corrupt navy officers, themselves often turned to piracy when they saw the abundance of wealth offered by putting their vessels to a new purpose. In 1819, Xing fled to Moslit, and married the Iffirin. Refusing to hand over the Queen to the Empire, Moslit negotiated a pardon, in exchange for Moslit submitting to the Empire as a tributary, causing widespread outrage at home. Following this decision, the Emperor Huowei's advisors and family was criticised at court, for ennabling piracy at the expense of the people, causing many of the powerful southern governors to refuse to attend court, under the auspicies of defending their people. Taxes went uncollected, as local governors bribed the tax collectors, and redirected the money instead to their own private armies, as well as their own salaries. Some assert that this is the begining of the Chaos Period, though the Great Zhi Empire remained nominally intact until 1829, when the Emperor Huowei died. The new Emperor's succession was recognised, though his enthronement ceremony was not publicised, due to a lack of funds. This was used as the final excuse, as the local governors cited their loyalty to the Emperor, and sought to liberate the young monarch from the grip of his 'corrupting influences'. Piracy began to slowly fall, at least temporarily, as provincial navies were well drilled, competent, and fast. The assets of the pirates were generally confiscated by the local governor, and used to mobilise more resources, to advance his national agenda.

Initially, almost all Warlords respected, and nominally accepted the Emperor as their sovereign. All of the former Emperor's policies that they disagreed with, were blamed on his advisors, corrupted family, and their political rivals, who convienently had more power than themselves, and sought to ruin the country. Ownership of the Shaozi Palace never formally changed in this period, and each conqueror would present themselves as a liberator, provide the Imperial Palace with the minimal funding it needed to function, and continue their wars against their rivals. The Emperor Xinsheng's reign was dominated by such strongmen, shifting between warlords eight times in his sixteen rule. He was also enthroned each time, as every other Warlord refused to recognise their predecessor's enthronement, as not grand enough. Some regimes were outliers, such as the state of Great Jia (1832 - 1876), ruled by Wanhua Xing as Queen. This state of affairs continued until 1853, when fighting would greatly intensify, and the brutality of war dramatically increased. Eladistani slavers joined the conflict at this time, seeking victims to bring back home to satisfy their need for labour and servants. Regimes began to take on a more locally isolationist stance in this period, as the time since unificaiton, and the wealth of the governors, allowed for the establishment of semi permanant borders, creating a system known as 'Imperial Concert', wherein weaker warlords would pay tribute to stronger ones, and the status quo was maintained through coalitions of Warlords, against upstarts.

### Anarchy and Reconstruction

Following the death of the powerful Warlord Qin Suihan, the Imperial Concert began to break down further, as resources began to dwindle, and oppression became widespread. Famine and disease began destroying huge swathes of Imperial territory, and the anger of the people became much more felt by the those in power. Regimes began to regard the Imperial system with open disdain, and some more western styled republican regimes began to band together, in 1902. Tangxian, the great banner of the Republic, was founded in the city of the same name. Though intially small, the Republican government grew to a dominant position around the nation.