Heavens Restored (Patreon)

Heavens Restored - or ‘Time to stage a coup, save my cute cousin, and become the Chinese Emperor’ (Code Geass, SI)

Code Geass.

This series is… weird. Maybe. I may be a bit biased because my general preference on history and political games was so that the underlying bullshit mystical contracts just made me very, very prone to hate this sort of shit.

I love the history, I love the lore and I love some characters. I don’t like the whining aspects of it, which were many and bullshitty.

Now, the story of today is not aimed to repeat word by word what is already known of the show- well, not in the key you may expect. Not when the focus of it is China-

In a world where the Han Dynasty managed to pull through, smack the Mongols, usurp the Manchu tribes and actually preserve stability despite a few shake-ups along the way, China still found a way to suffer quite stupidly.

It all started when the Emperor from four decades ago ended up putting too much trust on the Eunuchs and the Eunuchs decided to pull an ‘Empress Cixi’ on his ass.

To explain the historical meme, the Emperor tried to implement reforms within the system, the Eunuchs staged a fake coup to justify the house arrest of the Emperor and obtain the real power over the Heavenly Kingdom.

Differently than how Empress Cixi did it, however, the Eunuchs didn’t need to have the support of some shady military guy that was old as fuck and plotting to become Emperor himself.

This was… bad. Like, really bad. To the point that a mirror event to the Xinhai Revolution, but happening in Shanghai and on a limited scale, unfolded and saw a bloody massacre of troops that, yes, ended in the Eunuchs prevailing, but it severely weakened the Chinese Banners.

And it got to the point where a ‘Federative Empire’ and a few token reforms were introduced to avoid the outbreak of major independence strikes against the main government.

Now, where do I fit in this? Let me introduce myself with my name.

I am Jiang Hu, Prince Han, current heir to the Han Dynasty in case my cute cousin, Empress Tianzi, was to meet an unpleasant demise at the hands of nasty people. Not that I planned this, but it would be dreadful if it happened… now.

First thing first, no- I didn’t choose this girly form. I was born with those genes, but I wasn’t exactly one that wasted the chance to exploit my trap self as a means to acquire food for free since I am such a ‘pretty girl’.

Food is nice, the lack of weight-gain is dumb though but I had not a single complaint about it. And let me tell you what situation I have to deal with:

Being born to a secondary branch of the Imperial family should technically make me a target- but the truth is that there were other heirs and we were all ‘young’ to the Eunuchs. We were young, dumb and weak- and, worst of all, content.

I wasn’t most of that, with the youth being limited to my body alone, which set me up as a game-changer in the long run. I was reborn in this body and I had the means to make sure that the bastards paid for annoying my wholesome and cute cousin!

Of course, such a move can’t be nurtured without a powerbase to rely on. Which is where the classic Chinese weakness tended to shine in terms of ‘antiquate military’. While the equipment and the pseudo-mechas the army used made it a dangerous opponent to the other worldwide forces, the truth is that the army was mostly decentralized.

The mainland was firmly under the control of the Imperial bureaucracy, but regions like Manchuria, Burma, the Philippines and even India had their own ‘autonomous armies’- which is a term used to define armies that were conscripted by locals, somewhat commanded by them and yet fully lead by ‘loyal’ governors.

I found my base of operations in Shenyang, in the good ol’ capital of where the Aisin Gioro clan would have then built the Qing Dynasty from. Moving up north was a brazen move, but not one without enough reasons to show it as an innocuous interest. I wanted to see more of the ancient Mongolian relics kept there, and also see if the Amur river tended to freeze so early on during the winter.

Silly kiddy ideas, which made the Eunuchs unaware that such a harmless ‘puppet’ had bigger plans and greater grip of the region than they could have ever hoped to achieve in the first five months I was there.

My second-in-command was a good man, but still a fierce soldier that worshiped the Empire first and the Eunuchs after.

Fang Tao was a traditional general- very revered for his resolve and mighty loyalty, but also disliked for his attitude towards the ‘real rulers’- hence why he was cast aside in Manchuria to find a potential death in the cold and unforgiving weather of the region.

When I first met him, I could sense a lack of aim in his future. He was quite old, he was quite unsure, and lacked guidance. He lacked someone to look into for the sake of restoring the former Imperial glory. Then, I approached him when I first settled in the region. We shared a few tea sessions, he told me how life was in Manchuria in exchange for me telling him how ‘restrained’ I was with my guards.

Surprisingly enough, he managed to find a way to silence my guards by bribing them. I wasn’t sure why and I thought he had some nefarious reason to do so- he did feel like a villain at first glance, but the man just took me out to… fish. Well, teaching me how to fish.

It was a pleasant experience. I think he wanted to play the role of my father- it was nothing new in Chinese culture from what tales I read on the topic, but I slowly managed to shift that relationship into one of confidants when I made my disdain for the system known to him.

Tao had already made his dissent known, so I found a positive reaction from that, but he didn’t roll over when I said I wanted to set up operations in Manchuria. He had questions, fair questions at that as I was planning to tackle Luoyang’s might through the use of brute force.

I told him what I wanted to do and… he let me try.

First… I needed manpower. Not just soldiers and grunts, but also researchers. I wanted to have a small quality force that properly worked in these unpleasant circumstances.

My luck coincided with the timing I had taken hold of Manchuria as a fertile ground for a rebellion. At this very point, Tianzi was 7 and it was 2013 a.t.b.- The Second Pacific War had occurred three years ago and while I had been tempted to provide some anonymous assistance of some sort to the Japanese, I ultimately realized that it wouldn’t have changed things for the best.

All in all, an independent Japan was meant to be a cushion between China and Britannia- without it, friction at the borders were more frequent, with minor incidents that could easily be used to cause a war.

Britannia was, however, in no position to launch an offensive. While it managed to overwhelm Japan, the timing needed to conquer it was subpar to what a nation with incredible naval and ground power should be able to achieve.

Its army was not as well-oiled as they proudly boasted it to be.

But for now, that was not relevant as I didn’t plan to tackle Britannia until a bit after my bid to power.

What was important to me were the many citizens that were still fighting the occupation force. At this point, people were paying literal gold to migrate to China and while the Luoyang Administration put a ban on travels to the country, that didn’t stop the controls to be lax in Manchuria.

And I exposed to Fang a very simple plan: let the Japanese come, let them create settlements and pay taxes, let them be our friends and let us make them our best buddies- in return, we get technical expertise, loyal manpower and, best of all, blueprints on prototype knightmare projects.

The last bit was feasible since among the rich people migrating there were researchers- people that had ideas but were limited by a budget. That wouldn’t be a problem by letting them in.

Fang obviously had an issue: the costs of such an endeavor in promoting the trip while keeping it a secret. The solution I offered was quite simple in nature, but still demanded a price.

While we would still have to invest on these treks, we would rely on the Japanese community in what once was Korea to create a fertile industrial ground for the region.

Out of all sections of Manchuria, the Korean peninsula wasn’t regarded optimally due to how limited the industrialization effort had been in the last century. The fact that many Koreans tended to relocate to other parts of the country also meant that what once was a minority in the country such as the Japanese community started to become more prominent with each decade.

So, by allowing Japanese people in the region, we would have enough space to let them in the country, we would have the proper infrastructure to build from in developing villages in towns and towns in cities.

The project would have to go unnoticed, but with how loyal the overall government was to Fang, that wasn’t going to be a problem. So, in the span of just a few months, I started to plant the seeds of my glorious rise to glory- well before Lulu could get the chance to use his pretty eye to screw people up.

And while the stage was being set and people were being ‘rescued’, I accepted that things were soon to change and… I kind of hired someone that got my attention and my delight.

“Ah~, your hands are so good, Romi-chan,” I hummed in Japanese, having studied it with my tutors a few years ago. The girl handling and rubbing me smiled shyly as she stared down at me… while keeping on comforting me in that lap pillow.

The girl was an orphan that had enough money to make the trip, but not a place to call home, so, people petitioned Fang to adopt her but… I asked to keep her as my maid. I promised to treat her nicely as long as she was willing to be a good servant. I wouldn’t mistreat her- she was after all more than a mere maid.

“You’re too kind, Hu-sama.”

She was my Shoulder Loli. No one said a trap couldn’t get a Shoulder Loli~.

—-----d-d-d-d—-

AN

Next time, Mecha Banter. Let’s try to get ourselves a metal gear!