In the forty-sixth year of the New Calendar, Jinxiu bore Zhao Baihui a daughter.
Half a year later, Jinyi gave him a son.
Zhao Baihui was pleased, but hardly beside himself — he had been raising children for over a decade by now, and the breathless excitement of early fatherhood had long since settled into something quieter. More than anything, he was happy for the two young women. He had always worried that their lives might be somehow incomplete.
That year, Zhao Baihui was forty-six, Jinyi twenty-six, and Jinxiu twenty-four.
That same year, twenty-one-year-old Jinyuan finally married — by coercing eighteen-year-old Mingming into marrying her.
Yes. Coercion.
Jinyuan was nothing like Jinyi or Jinxiu, who harbored complicated feelings for Zhao Baihui. She regarded him with straightforward, uncomplicated filial devotion, the way a daughter looks at a father and nothing more. She was also a woman wholly indifferent to romance, her heart set entirely on pleasure and amusement. And so she had drifted along until twenty-one, when she could put it off no longer — she had simply never met a man compelling enough to make her forget her games and her meals. With no better option presenting itself, she settled for Mingming.
Mingming was eighteen years old that year.
One can only hope the second half of his life turns out tolerably well.
As for Jinwen — she had married Mingjing, they had children, and she was genuinely happy.
…
"Two major announcements will be made at this session of the government council."
"First, the base wage will be raised — from eight yuan per day to ten. The increase is substantial, and intentionally so, as it lays the groundwork for what comes next."
"Going forward, taxes will be collected. Taxation is our instrument for further narrowing the gap between rich and poor. Government operations and state-run industries are doing well enough, but certain other sectors have seen some individual cases of extraordinarily high incomes, and that kind of disparity is a threat to social stability."
"It also erodes the people's sense of wellbeing."
"Now that we are fully networked and the banks have introduced bank cards, wages and deductions will be progressively transitioned to bank-administered disbursement and withholding."
"Everyone will pay taxes. Ordinary earners will pay at a modest rate; high earners will bear a heavy burden. Those who find these terms unacceptable are free to relinquish their Long City residency."
At ten yuan a day, even after a ten-percent tax, a worker still brought home nine yuan — more than the old eight. The people were overjoyed.
…
Eight years of war had finally come to an end. The American colonies had won their independence.
The British Empire had not only lost its most prized colonial possession — eight years of grinding conflict had left it badly sapped. It still held the throne at the top of the world order, but the other great powers sensed that Britain was no longer quite the force it once had been.
During those eight years, the two defining conflicts had been the American War of Independence and the Sino-Italian War — though the latter had concluded several years prior. That war ended with four dynasties claiming half of Italian territory between them.
In recent years the world had appeared outwardly calm, but beneath the surface the currents were gathering force.
Every nation had benefited from Long City's example. Electricity, the automobile, the railroad, even firearms and artillery had advanced at an unprecedented pace — accelerating the march of conquest across the globe.
By now the world had been nearly entirely carved up.
The concealed tensions between the great powers had begun, at last, to crack open.
Long City General Staff Headquarters.
"Setting ourselves aside, the British Empire remains the single strongest power — though that strength rests almost entirely on her navy."
"Her army, in truth, is rather ordinary, and eight years of fighting the independence war have weakened it further still."
"In terms of land forces, Germany stands first, Russia second, France third."
"By all assessments, however, Germany's cohesion is the strongest. Russia holds together reasonably well. France — that is harder to say."
"Every nation has been stockpiling warships for decades. If those fleets are not used soon, they will simply age into retirement. The time has come to flex some muscle."
"The Master says that America's current strength warrants vigilance, but it does not yet pose a real threat."
"If left to develop unchecked, she may well rise into the first tier of powers in the future — her foundations are simply too favorable. Her territory rivals our Central Plains in scale, and she sits at a safe remove from Europe, that powder keg that could detonate at any moment."
"Intelligence from multiple sources suggests that Germany's ambitions may be approaching the point of no containment. She could move within the next two years."
"If she does act, France is the most likely first target."
"Once fighting begins, the nations of Europe may be drawn in one after another into the vortex of war. For us, for America, even for certain colonies, this would be a remarkable opportunity!"
"Since the storm is coming, let us make ready in advance!"
Less than six months after that meeting, German forces struck France!
One by one, exactly as foreseen, the nations nearest the blaze — Russia, Britain, the other European powers — were pulled into the fray.
Germany's strength proved every bit as formidable as anticipated, her cohesion every bit as real. Fighting alone on two fronts, she held France barely hanging on on one side while easily repelling the Russian army on the other.
Before long, she had carried the counterattack onto Russian soil!
The British Empire threw its weight behind the Franco-Russian side. Japan, across the sea in Asia, chose Germany for an ally and invaded Russia from the other side. Italy, Spain, Austria-Hungary, the Netherlands, and others each picked a camp and joined the war.
Within a single year, a war had erupted that swept across all of Europe and half the world.
It was a war unlike any in history — one that would engulf the entire globe.
This was a reshuffling of the cards at the table, a redrawing of the world's order.
Every player at the table believed his strength was not limited to what he currently held — that he deserved more.
When every man at the table thinks the same thing, there is only one way to find out who is right: wait and see who is still laughing at the end.