China/Paths

## War in the West

Main article: Federal China/Paths
National China starts the game off at war with Federal China, which will unavoidably collapse into following capitulation, prompting the National government to declare the reunification of China. With the capture and execution of Tang Jiyao, the Kuomintang, Zhi Gong, and warlords alike will fall into a power struggle, preventing a unified Federal resistance from forming as the National government takes control over most of Yunnan. Xibei San Ma will also fall into civil war as its sole remaining ally collapses and Kuomintang leftists regroup in its territory

While the National government becomes the sole ruler of China, they recognize the extreme difficulty in pacifying the western mountains by themselves after such a long, pyrrhic war. Instead, they opt to support Hu Ruoyu and his Dali Governorate in the hopes of bringing him into the fold as the autonomous governor of Yunnan after eventually reunifying the west.

## End of an Era

With the Reunification War "won", and with triumphs being staged all across East Asia, the age of the National government would become a clear sticking point. Yang Yuting, the puppeteer of Zhang Xueming and the National government as a whole, has suffered a heart attack only months after his 70th birthday, and his Shikan Clique has been placed under high alert. Sun Dianying, the "Bandit General", would be placed as the de facto regent as Yuting's health deteriorates, but he himself would be distrusted by his fellow clique officers for his history of switching sides, and a bloodless coup d'etat would place him under house arrest as the Shikan Clique would form the Provisional Council of the Republic of China.

### Xiao-Ye power struggle

With Yuting on his deathbed and with Dianying under house arrest, infighting within the Shikan Clique would only lead to the empowerment of the Concordia Association, which would scramble for political power due to its unclear leadership of the military junta. The Shikan Clique's power, regardless, would be cast aside, and the only remaining questions would be who they should align with in the coming political shift:

* Xiao Shuxuan has been eyeing the rise of the Concordia Association with ambivalence for some time, if not for concerns over sovereignty, then over the Shikan Clique's own power status. As a result, he believes the clique should realign with the Zhang Clique, even willing to sacrifice his own leadership to *de facto* Zhang leader Feng Zhanhai, if the sake of his own men is at stake.
* Ye Peng, however, sees the Concordia Association as a "boon" (or an inevitability) to China, and carries the "support" (or bribes) of the group's members, who support his leadership in the junta in exchange for the "transition to democracy" (or transfer to a one-party Concordia state).

## The Fifty-Hour Alliance (Militarist Path)

The installation of Xiao Shuxuan as head of the PCROC will come near-simultaneously with the death of Yang Yuting, and the PCROC will remain as the *de facto* government between the Zhang and Shikan cliques. Though Xiao supports the alliance, he has sacrificed much to retain his clique's power, and now must contend with Feng Zhanhai, the most popular man in China besides Zhang Xueliang himself. Chinese observers will humorously note that, in just fifty hours, the Zhang-Shikan alliance has already broken down from one power struggle to another.

## The Concordia Dominion (Corporatist Path)

With the installation of Ye Peng as head of the PCROC, and the near-simultaneous death of Yang Yuting, the final nail has been struck in the military dictatorship's grave, and in its place stands the totalitarian civilian dictatorship of the Concordia Association. Ye will declare the "transition to democracy", transitioning the PCROC into a far weaker military authority under the Concordia, and finally removing Zhang Xueming as the official head of state.

### Bao, the Reformer

Main article: Federal China/Bao Guancheng