Liangyang Brief History

INTRODUCTION TO SUPPERSINE’S VIRTUAL UNIVERSE
CONTINENTS
His universe virtually represents the world history, but most of the personal and geographical names are changed. Only a few of them match the reality. There are 7 continents, North Gavrillia (North America), South Gavrillia (South America), Thione (Thy-oni, Europe), The Darklands (Africa), Aestheria (Asia), Thalassia (Oceania), and The Frozen Wasteland (Antarctica).

THE ANCIENT LIANGYANG NATION
THE TRIBAL ERA
Once upon a time, there was a tribe who called themselves Tai-Lao. They lived in central Cathay, in the fictitious continent of Aestheria. In several waves, they were repulsed southwestward by troops and immigrants from Cathayan dynasties.
By the turn of the 9th century AD, the tribe reached the golden peninsula and found some settlements, each of which was led by a duke called “Phor-Mueang”. Unfortunately for them, they were brought into Genian rule in the 12th century. In the old and the middle kingdoms, only male princes were eligible for the crown.

THE OLD KINGDOM
The old kingdom was founded in 1238, by duke Baang Lom Huan, or King Sri Indrajita. He revolted successfully against Genian rule, founded Narodaya as its capital, and sent tribute to pledge vassalage to Gorgut Khan the Hung, who was ruling Cathay at that time. His second son, Ramvaidya, invented the national alphabet in 1283.

THE MIDDLE KINGDOM - RISE
The middle kingdom was founded in 1351 by the duke of the great lagoon, U-Ngoen. He committed a coup to overthrow Lerd-Thai, the last, but incompetent king of the old kingdom, ending its era and moving the kingdom’s capital to Indrapura.

THE MIDDLE KINGDOM - HEIGHT
Because of king Parameshwar’s military and administrative prowess, the middle kingdom was at its height around the turn of the 17th century, strong enough to subjugate Quangnam, Stannia and Plumbia at once, and do island hopping conquests before the Lowlanders. Unfortunately, neither prediction was met.

The kingdom’s trade and foreign affairs were at their height during the reign of Shivasidhi the Great, 1656-1688. He established diplomatic ties with Flensland (France) by receiving a gift from a Flenish (French) diplomat, then sending a diplomatic mission there in return, promoting international trade, and commencing the project sending 1000 students per year to the northwestern continent of Thione, which he called “The Jnana Yoga project”. The Project still exists today as the royal scholarship.

THE MIDDLE KINGDOM - FALL
Indrapura, along with the middle kingdom, fell in April 1767 to the Plumbians led by king Mingye Lok (孟也鲁), brother of Mingye Howh (孟也虎), and son of Mingye Wualengbak (孟也 乌龙把), but was quickly retaken by King Alistair (阿里司德) the Conqueror, 6 months later.

THE LIANGYANG NEW KINGDOM
UNDER KING ALISTAIR
He had to rebuild his kingdom from scratch, using everything he had learned from a Thionean country of Boforsburg, northeastern Teutonia, forming a state with a brand new structure, compatible with further modernisation, industrialisation & reforms. He also founded the new capital of Lakshmipura in December 1767.
He did not only vanquish the 9 Plumbian armies in 1786, but also kept the warlords of Shanxiang, Genia and Stannia obedient. His early army was somewhat medieval with fusiliers defending the flanks, while his later one was composed of everything a western army had at that time. His early navy was made up of Chinese junks, while his later one consisted of western-style vessels with steam paddles, later to be clad in iron. 3 of them circumnavigated the globe during the 1787-89 diplomatic mission.
In addition, he enacted the conscription law, stating that every free man at the age of 20 must be a soldier for 3 years. It came with rigorous training based on the Boforsburger practice. Slaves were sent to farms, mines & factories to replace the missing manpower. Preparing his kingdom to cope with western threats to be faced in the 19th century, he also sent his son, Prince Ravenor, while concealing who he really was to avoid post-revolution persecution, to Flensland to study its revolution of 1789 and Napoleonic warfare.

UNDER KING RAVENOR
King Ravenor succeeded his father in 1812. Inspired by the Flenish revolution, he drafted and enacted the first but primitive constitution in 1815, establishing the legislative council, ministries and the supreme court, whose modern models did not come into effect until 1932. For the second question, to be honest, the mission was led by Grandduke Ratiraj and Prime Minister Manfred von Rohenhoff. Its aim was to request recognition and existence of the kingdom from western nations, including the newly independent USG.
Invited into another war by Pretennian (British) Lindus (India) in 1824, he quickly invaded Plumbia and reached the Ayravata river before the Pretennians do, splitting it in half, and removing it from the earth's surface for 124 years. And to be informed, Ratiraj was Alistair’s younger brother.
After that war, the kingdom, like its same goal rival, Lowland, slowly and steadily waged island-hopping skirmishes against local sultanates throughout the 19th century. And it waged several skirmishes with Quangnam for control over Genia proper. At the end of his reign, Liangyang conquered the Brunnel Sultanate, Northern Cereus (Sulawesi), and Northeastern Tantalus (Sumatra), worrying the lowlanders.

THE RAILWAY EXPERIMENT TRIP
First of all, to avoid harsh terms in unequal treaties to be anticipated in the next century, the kingdom sought international recognition immediately after the 9 army war of 1786. Prince Ratiraj and Prime Minister Manfred von Rohenhoff led the kingdom’s first diplomatic mission to Thione and the US. From 1826 onwards, the tribute from his kingdom was sent to Pretennia (The UK) once yearly to grow relations. Since 1840, it has been stopped being delivered to Cathay. In 1827, a royal mystic predicted for princess Alarielle, he said;

“The Pretennians are pulling several carts on a pair of iron rails held by planks and gravel with a steam tractor, but you need to observe the experiment on the isle… 2 years ahead of now”

The term “cart”, refers to any type of rail wagons. The term “a pair of iron rails held by planks and gravel” describes how the railway track looks like. The term “steam tractor” connotes a steam locomotive. And the term “the experiment on the isle” denotes the Rainhill Trials, the world’s first passenger railway.

Owing to the prophecy, in 1829, Princess Alarielle, along with a few chests of yearly tribute and Liangyangese technical students, observed the trials, then gave the tribute to the local monarch, Godfrey IV, and finally, ordered the students, who would like to directly serve her in the future, to work with Pretennian railway companies for 5 years to extract the rail technology. And recruited the experienced compatriot technicians to work for her.

At the first impression, she eagerly embraced this then-brand-new mode of transport as a way to strengthen her control of remote cities and to feed the factories in Lakshmipura. Immediately after the trial, she, along with L&MR, gave the Stephensons the rolling stock manufacturing contracts and bought 2 “Rocket” prototypes, including a copy of their blueprint spending privy purse gold.

THE FIRST RAILWAY

Thanks to the Jnana Yoga Project and the patriotic slogans in “Lakshmipura Daily”, Liangyang intellectuals were able to initiate the Industrial revolution with domestic capital.

In the morning on July 18, 1830, shortly after she had stepped off the steam corvette, she was told a piece of horrendous news stating that the king had been dead for 3 hours.
Despite her grief, she was willing to succeed the throne due to being his eldest child. In that afternoon, she was made the first queen regnant of Liangyang by the nobility council. After her father’s funeral, Queen Alarielle initiated her first project, the railways. While she was being in charge of track laying, the royal artisan office, on her command, was producing the rolling stock.

Her first passenger line connected Lakshmipura to Indrapura. The train was faster than everything in Liangyang at that time. This experimental railway proved to be successful with neither accidents nor technical difficulties in the first year of operation, thanks to native but western-educated engineers.

In 1831, her first freight line was the bulk train line between Lakshmipura & Relu. It was designated to feed factories in Lakshmipura with iron, using 3 trains. Another experimental freight rail line is the timber train line between Lakshmipura & Mueang Ake, which fed planks & fuel to the capital.

Once the foundation has been laid, in 1832 she established the ministry of transport & infrastructure, whose first minister was her husband, Prince Consort Thiozul. The ministry has a department directly responsible for rail transport affairs, the national railway department, or NRD, with Lord Ayomayamarga as its first director-general. Meanwhile, in the same year, assigned by her sister to study signalling systems, princess Astrelle was on a state visit to Gavrillia, not only to improve the kingdom’s relations with it, but also to study the fastest mode of communication at that time, Morse’s electric telegraph.

At the start of the 1st opium war, and before the emergence of the horse-drawn tram, the railway was about 3000 miles long. Centred in Lakshmipura, it spanned westward to the town Tannoy and continued northwestward into the Ayravata basin in Plumbia, northward to Xingmai (星脉), eastward to Lianzhou (莲州), next to the blue river, and northward to Xinglai (星来) and southward to Xiaobin (小宾).

That’s 3000 miles of track to lay in 8 years. The accountants have reported that the profitability alone was far from enough, so there must be some kind of subsidies, bonds or taxes to support this.

Recognising the railway’s efficiency and prominence, starting in 1836, some local villagers, merchants, and even mayors, gave subsidies. Some of them are a type of loan called bonds.

THE OPIUM WARS
As the regional tension escalated, HMQ Alarielle I enacted “The Railway Transfer Act of 1839” to militarize her railway and its personnel, transferring them to the quartermaster corps. Luang Ayomayamarga, the director, was demoted to secretary to let the high ranking army officers occupy administrative positions.

Forward to the Opium War in 1839, a Pretennian diplomat, Lord Oakcastle, then Governor General of Lindus, asked for military access, via Pretennian Lindus through Liangyang, to invade Cathay from the southwest, without the need to cross the world roof mountains. Alarielle, in return, asked for a temporary military alliance (until Cathay asks for peace) so that she may invade Yunnan province for more raw materials to feed the factories in Lakshmipura, and gain some privileges in case of victory. Then the diplomat asked her to provide some food, medication and ammunition for his men, expand the trade between both kingdoms, request enormous tariff reduction (10% to 5%) for Pretennian goods in the Liangyangese market, and grant 99-year extraterritoriality for Pretennian subjects. This treaty is called “The Oakcastle Treaty”.

Oakcastle imposed the 1st unequal treaty to Liangyang just to recognise his nation as the sole maritime superpower.



In Autumn 1842, Liangyang’s richer war prize, when compared to that of Pretennia, infuriated Lord Peek, a prime minister under Queen Valery. Owing to this, he vowed to lower relationship with Liangyang. Then he invited Sir Oakcastle to revise the treaty by adding some terms to limit Liangyang’s power in Cathay, especially in Yunnan, by limiting territorial claims to only south of Kunning (昆宁). Free trade to exotic goods was opened. Tariffs were further imposed on Liangyangese metal products. Liangyang was forced to sell 4 newly commissioned, domestically built, iron plated, 26-gun paddle steam frigates to the royal navy. Railway contracts with Pretennian companies were changed into a worse way - since 1843, new blueprint costs have raised. Hence, Liangyangese agents had to purchase new blueprints through the Gavrillians (Americans) and the Flenishmen (French).

The horse-drawn tram project started in Autumn 1842, when Her Majesty Queen Regnant Astrelle the 1st has decided to raise money to pay for opium war bonds. So she sold and scrapped 90% of her track mileage, including most of the rolling stock, to local tycoons, including mayors, from the town the railway had connected to.

UNDER QUEEN REGNANT ASTRELLE I

Queen Alarielle I died on April 6, 1841 while giving birth to Prince Suansaran, a mentally ill prince who resigned the nobility title and entered the priesthood to stay mentally stable, later become a Buddhist Supreme Patriarch. His mental illness was not obvious until he turned 5 years old, barring him from the throne.

After HMQ Alarielle’s death in 1841, the rail business in Liangyang did not go well in the 1840s. Because of 5 reasons; 1. Local reactionary noblemen banned connecting their remote cities with the train track. 2, Most of the railway resources were spent on the war with Quangnam for control over Shanxiang and Genia. 3. Some Pretennian railway firms stopped selling locomotive blueprints to the kingdom. 4. Queen Astrelle was busy abolishing slavery by providing universally-compulsory primary education. And 5. The new queen nearly defaulted on bonds, especially war bonds. Owing to these, nearly 3000 miles of track were removed and its materials were sold to the mayors of the towns it had connected to so that they may lay local horse tram and pump trolley networks, reducing the track mileage from 3000 to 300 within a year, and leaving only bridges standing. The railway was left that short until April 1850, when Queen Astrelle restored the civilian control of the railway, and reappointed its chief administrator, Luang Ayomayamarga, who had been demoted by her sister to let the army manage it for the kingdom’s war effort 11 years ago.

In the late 1840s when newer coach designs made omnibuses outran horse-drawn trams, most local railcar businesses, to express loyalty towards the queen, donated railway track materials back to her. Consequently, in October 1848, HM the queen regnant issued a decree to re-develop the freight rail network, in an area of 50-mile-radius around Lakshmipura.

With Phra Ayomayamarga holding a military rank, he may use his troops, as well as unfreed slaves, as the labour force for this project.

The demilitarization of the railway was issued on June 2, 1850, to convert the national railway from an army unit to a state-owned firm. Lord Ayomayamarga was demoted - he is no longer a soldier. Nevertheless, he still governs the railway, and receive missions & quests from the queen.

At the start of 1850, since most of the newer Pretennian locomotive blueprints released after 1843 were expensive, the national railway was still running on older designs - most of them are Rockets, Patentees, and Samsons.

Pretennian relations towards Liangyang remained relatively hostile until 1855, when Oakcastle becomes prime minister. Knowing Liangyang well and sympathetic towards it, and not trusting the Flenish war effort against Kislev (Lahmean war), he declared Liangyang a civilized nation-state, eased several trade restrictions on it, and attempted to renew the relationship with it after finding it virtually harmless to his nation’s hegemony, so that his nationals could sail freely between the Lindic and the Cathayan oceans (林度洋和大汉洋).