Primer on Zheng Foreign Relations

Unlike more united Chinese dynasties in the past, the Zheng Empire is not the undisputed master of the Middle Lands, the great empire to which all foreign and barbarian realms kowtow. Instead, it is locked in multiple rivalries and enmities on all fronts.

Grand Map
This is a map of our neighbours, or at least the notable ones. There must be many other states elsewhere, but before the light of our Empire, what are they?

North
It is a great irony that the Zheng state has managed to outlive all of the regimes that drove it out of the Central Plains into the south. The self-proclaimed empire of Wei, which sacked Luoyang and captured the Zheng Emperor, quickly collapsed in an orgy of violence and civil war, as well as defeats in the field as they tried to drive south.

The result of that was a decades-long carousel of short-lived, heavily militarised, often barbarian-ruled states that rose and fell as new barbarians came from the steppes and slaughtered each other, taking thousands of the northern Chinese along with them. The fact that these states had formidable cavalry forces, and were militarily far superior to the Zheng, prevented Zheng forces from reclaiming their lands, however.

Qin 秦
Qin is the newest, and also the most powerful and vigorous, of the states in the north right now.

Liang 梁
The state of Liang is a rump of the great empire of the Later Wei - the state that united the north of China and launched two enormous invasions of Zheng.

The cruelty of the Wei rulers, however, soon led to discontent among their subjects, and amidst open revolt, a general assassinated the Emperor and set up his own puppet ruler, who then abdicated the throne to him. Currently, Liang rules a mere fraction of its former domain, but is still holding its own against the invasions of its two rivals, Yan and Qin.

Thuong Xuan 常春
The Thuong Xuan Kingdom - or the Kingdom of Eternal Spring - arose from a revolt against Zheng rule in the southernmost territories, by what would now be called the Vietnamese people.