It shows an alt-hist version of Manchuria, formally the Empire of China, but it's de facto just OTL Manchukuo with a different flag and a power struggle. How it got here? Well, Following the creation of the Republic of China and the following war against the Qing, negotiations between Yuan Shikai, a talented, high-ranking member of the Qing's army and Republican leadership (namely Sun Wen) would occur, with the Republicans trying to get Yuan to defect. In OTL these negotiations would succeed, and Yuan and those under his command would switch sides, which gave the Republican forces the manpower and material they needed to defeat the Qing. However, in exchange for this, Sun Wen ceded the title of president to Yuan Shikai, and everything just went down from there. Yuan Shikai would proceed to make his position stronger, involve China in WW1, get the nation to agree with Japan's 21 Demands, and then go on to declare himself Emperor of the new Empire of China. Needless to say, the people weren't happy, and China then fell into pieces in what is now known as the Warlord Era.
Now that that OTL explanation is done, let us put up our first point of divergence (which from here on out will be written as POD). Let's say negotiations between Yuan and the Republicans break down, and he and his army remain on the Qing's side. Normally, this would lead to a drawn out war between the two as neither would have had any real advantage without someone changing sides and would tank China's well, everything come the war's conclusion, regardless of who comes on top. Now for our second PoD, which is that this conflict lasts short, maybe because of outside intervention, although the only source of that would be the Russians, and they'd only be willing to give stuff out come late 1917. Anyway, let's just say that I use my power as author of this alternate history to make it so that the Qing lose some key battles and are corralled into Manchuria. Here they get their bearings straight and manage to hold on to the land they have left, and by 1914 or so, they announce a ceasefire and force a temporary peace with the Republicans. Unfortunately the Qing going from great Asian nation to just Manchuria has a lot of even the most fervent loyalists lose faith in their child emperor, which besides having a toddler rule was kinda less than desired out of any head of state. So, just as in OTL, Yuan seizes the moment and declares himself the new Emperor, only this time replacing the Qing instead of the Republic(this is also where I got Manchuria's flag and name). He would just as in our timeline sell the nation to the Japanese (but even more this time), mainly in an effort to stabilize the free-falling government he left in the wake of his coup, among other things. All this happened by 1915 to early 1916. Yuan would just in our timeline die of a uremia come 1916, and this would lead to a power struggle. The Japanese would to put up some pro-Japanese administrators to replace the now-dead emperor, but by 1922, 2 factions had grown to rival Japanese rule over the empire-in-name-only. These are, the Restorationists, led by a now resurgent wave of Qing loyalists, who want to put Puyi, the in line for Qing emperor at the time historically back on the throne, and the Abolitionists(gib better name), led by Zhang Zhoulin, who in OTL led the Fengtian Clique (Manchuria but warlord), a group of opportunistic members of the government who want to throw out the old monarchic system and put themselves in power. both of these factions also pose a threat to the Japanese presence in Manchuria, as such is their nature when competing with a pro-Japanese administration, although both factions are willing to cooperate with the Japanese if the situation calls for it.
Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2019 8:41 am
