Ch.197197. Divided Must Unite, United Must Divide

In North Korea, they described China’s current situation as “warlords vying for power,” and true to that description, within China’s vast territory, hundreds or even thousands of warlords had emerged, each occupying their own region.

Among these warlords, some had seized the central areas of each province, and those who controlled these central regions began calling themselves kings.

Yes, kings.

These people had essentially ascended to thrones that seemed out of place in the 21st century.

“So. Is there any acceptable title for these people? Tell me.”

“Well, there isn’t one, is there?”

Conversely, with the central government gone, in this enormous landmass, the only title with any semblance of authority was that of king.

China was a land where numerous ethnic groups lived across its vast expanse—a single nation composed of dozens of countries and thousands of ethnic groups.

As such, even among Chinese people, there were many cases where they couldn’t understand each other’s languages at all. Even people living in the same country or province often used different language families.

Therefore, people from the same province, let alone different provinces, had to either speak the designated official language or communicate through writing. Honestly, it made one wonder if this was truly a single country, given how different the lifestyle customs were across regions.

In this situation, although the title of king was anachronistic, it was necessary to adopt regional royal titles to somehow consolidate power toward the center.

“I have established myself in Guanzhong, so I shall call this the Qin state. From now on, I am the King of Qin.”

The warlord who had settled in Guanzhong, known in modern times as Shaanxi Province, proclaimed himself the King of Qin and ascended to the throne.

If only one warlord had claimed such an anachronistic throne, people might have dismissed him as just another delusional emperor-wannabe.

Unfortunately, after Qin was established, others followed:

“Then I, who hold Anhui Province, shall call myself the King of Chu! From now on, address me as the King of Chu! To restore the glory of the Hegemon-King of Western Chu!”

“Hmph. I who possess Zhejiang Province am Wu Yue? Hand over the name and title of Chu to me! I will take the title of Hegemon-King!”

“Get out of the way! We who hold Jiangsu Province are the true Wu! The unification of Jiangdong belongs to our Wu! You are merely our prey!”

“Sun Jili, get out now!”

“You son of a bitch?”

In the region commonly known as Jiangdong, new states began to be established following Qin.

Anhui Province was historically the birthplace of heroes who overthrew the unified Qin Dynasty—Xiang Yu and Liu Bang, Han Xin, as well as Cao Cao who established Wei, and the Xiahou family.

The warlord who settled in Anhui Province proclaimed himself the King of Chu, and in response, the warlord who controlled Zhejiang Province established Wu Yue and called himself the King of Wu Yue.

Finally, the warlord who held Jiangsu Province—the region most familiar to us as Shanghai—established Wu and proclaimed himself the King of Wu.

This situation was already dizzying, but unfortunately, these self-proclaimed kings were just the beginning.

“Our Shandong will be called the state of Qi! And I am the King of Qi!”

The warlord who settled in Shandong Province established Qi and began calling himself the King of Qi.

“Our Henan is now Wei! We are the Central Plains!”

The one who settled in Henan Province established Wei.

“Shanxi Province is now called Zhao! To make Zhao even greater!”

Shanxi Province established Zhao.

“Beijing, which was the center, is ours! We are now Yan!”

The warlord who settled in Beijing, which would be Hebei in the Three Kingdoms era, established Yan.

“Now we declare independence from this damned China! Manchuria will be reclaimed by our Great Qing! Long live the Daiqing Gurun! Long live the Aisin Gioro!”

And Manchuria fell to a warlord claiming to be a descendant of the Aisin Gioro, who established the Qing Dynasty.

Beyond these, smaller states emerged: Zhou, Zheng, Lu, Cai, Song, Sui, Tang, Han, and another Han.

Honestly, they had surpassed not only the Seven Warring States but even the number of feudal lords said to have existed during the Spring and Autumn Period. These warlords called themselves kings and demanded the submission of other regions.

While there were too many countries established within China, with a landmass this size, this many nations emerging was actually normal.

If one considered Europe with its many small countries, China could be seen as finally normalizing, which wasn’t strange at all.

“Now is the era of the martial arts world, and we are the righteous factions! We establish the Martial Alliance! We demand the principle of non-interference between government and martial arts world so that no government can infringe upon our domain!”

“The evil factions are ours!”

“The Demonic Cult belongs to me!”

But apparently that wasn’t enough, as befitting the country where the concept of the martial arts world originated, people claiming to be martial artists also emerged.

They even shouted about non-interference between government and martial arts, completely rejecting government intervention, while evil factions and demonic cults emerged in response—the situation had gone beyond chaos to utter madness.

Even the United States had given up any pretense of finding a representative for China. Within China, not just dozens but hundreds or thousands of interest groups were emerging, and all of them were engaged in shadow wars, claiming they couldn’t cooperate with each other for their own purposes.

Yes, they weren’t talking or cooperating—they were fighting to the point where blood and flesh were flying.

“Hand over your food supplies now!”

“Give us sunny farmland where we can grow crops!”

“Damn you Qin bastards!”

Just as the concept of fratricidal struggle originated in China, Chinese people had no reason to be friendly with each other simply because they were Chinese. Rather, there were clear regional conflicts with plenty of reasons to want to kill each other.

It was customary to take what one lacked from others, and each country repeatedly plundered or exploited other regions solely to sustain their own.

Naturally, the resentment and hatred between regions was accumulating to an uncontrollable degree.

“No! China must not be divided! China has a saying: ‘The world under heaven, after long division, will unite; after long union, will divide.’ This is just a temporary division! China can definitely become one again! Everyone unite for a unified China!”

But there were certainly those who genuinely worried about China’s situation, heroes who saw this period of division as dangerous and called for Chinese unity, aiming for reunification.

These people could proclaim that this division was just momentary, and that China would come together again as if nothing had happened.

With such heroes present, one might think the period of division wouldn’t last long.

But in reality, even Seorabeol, with its small territory, experienced numerous incidents internally. To think that China, with its enormous landmass, would have no problems at all… was nothing short of wishful thinking.

Each country was already facing numerous problems and contradictions.

“Our residents continue to defect!”

“Where are they going?”

“To Han! They say Han is better than Wei!”

“These bastards!? Don’t they know about the Legitimate Succession of Wei theory!”

First, there were refugees who migrated to other regions because they disliked the established country or king…

“Independence from Qin! We will call ourselves Shu! Oh, Prime Minister Zhuge! Look down upon us with favor!”

“But the descendants of the Prime Minister are already claiming to be the Zhuge family!”

“Yeah, we have Zhuge family members too!”

Then there were warlords who belonged to established countries but took territory and declared independence to establish new countries…

“Yes! Our Xinjiang Uyghur will also declare independence!”

The karma of the previous regime began to hit all at once.

While “division leads to unity” might be true, the division had become so massive that it was beyond human capacity to manage, making the idea of “unity leads to division” seem inconceivable as the snowball effect continued.

Moreover, it wasn’t just one region being cut off from the territory.

“Get out of Tibet now! You invaders!”

Not only the Tibetan Plateau…

“Tremble in fear, you Han people! Mongolia has returned! It’s time for the wheel!”

Inner Mongolia, which had been part of China, also declared independence and began attacking to plunder China.

Yes, heroes thought that, as in ancient China, this was just a temporary period of division that would soon be unified according to the saying “The world under heaven, after long division, will unite; after long union, will divide.” But unfortunately, the current era was neither ancient, medieval, nor modern.

It was the modern age, where once something erupted, it became uncontrollable—that was their misfortune.

Moreover, it was an era where the numerous grievances that would arise during the unification process could no longer be properly addressed in the name of unifying the world, and there were far too many territories within China that could become independent or self-sufficient countries.

Yes, there were too many territories that could become self-sufficient countries.

“Orders from the central government!”

“Get lost. That guy isn’t our king!”

“What insolence! How dare you defy the king’s orders!”

“Ha. King? I’m the king here. Even a king will die if he messes with me.”

In reality, although countries had been established, these self-proclaimed kings hadn’t truly suppressed local powers. The countries mentioned so far only represented the major prominent forces. Looking at China’s internal situation in detail, thousands or tens of thousands of factions were continuously dividing and fragmenting.

In this situation, local powers had no reason to follow self-proclaimed kings who had ascended to thrones claiming central authority. Rather, they sneered and considered declaring independence from them.

The next major problem was that each province or region had vastly different interests and concerns.

“We can trade with nearby North Korea, can’t we?”

“We can trade with Japan and Vietnam.”

“Do we really need to take the initiative?”

First, coastal states like Qi, Wu, and Yue had no intention of taking the lead in unification.

Rather, they wanted to reap economic benefits and receive only the sweet rewards, pursuing their own survival in this apocalypse.

“Nonsense! Unification! Only unification can make our China strong! And unification is the task of the First Emperor of Qin!”

“The unified empire of Zhao! I will become emperor!”

“Oh Liu Bang! Please bestow your blessing upon Han! Let’s go for the unified empire of Han!”

“Wasn’t Yan originally the center of modern China? Unification led by Yan!”

In contrast, the inland regions were calling for unification, all demanding that others submit to them.

Well, this doesn’t seem like a problem that will be resolved overnight.