Chapter 7 - The Golden War
Though there is a war on, life continues on; not long after the declaration of hostilities between the Valley and the Emperor, Queen Jessica makes it known that she is pregnant with her first child. King Thao I vows to pay better attention to his new wife during her pregnancy; he refuses to repeat the errors of the past.
Renovations for the Imperial Palace continue apace and the royal builders discover an old metal box deep within the bowels of the palace; while eager to see what secrets it contains, King Thao I hires a local expert in Old American locks to make sure it is not trapped. His caution pays off, as the box contains a set of beautiful Old World jewelry.
The Imamites dust off their old strategy from the Sacramento War: a quick attack into the County of Bako, with the goal of seizing the pass into the Valley. Unfortunately for them, the Valleyans have learned their mistakes and a fully reinforced army waits for them at Arvin; the Battle of Arvin is a resounding Valleyan victory, throwing the Imamites back into Socal.
The Valleyans follow up their victory at Arvin by pursuing the retreating Imamites to Tehachapi, where they are once again defeated; a few months later, in February of 2686, Tehachapi falls to the Valleyans. It seems as though nothing can stop King Thao I’s advance.
On March 16th, 2686 Queen Jessica gives birth to a daughter, who she names Jessica. King Thao I receives the news just as his army begins to leave Tehachapi; he orders all his men to stop breaking camp and invites them to join him for a celebratory feast for the birth of his newest child.
In a strange quirk of fate, the king is given a chance to meet his new daughter not long after her birth; the barbarians of Death Valley have answered the Emperor’s call to arms and have managed to slip into the Valley to begin laying siege to Sacramento. The Valleyan army rushes back to Sacramento and beat back the barbarians; this leaves Tehachapi with only a small garrison, which the Imamites take advantage of to score an easy victory.
When the Valleyan army prepares to leave Sacramento, King Thao I decides to stay to look after his family and to continue working on his various papers and essays for the Ivy League; his latest one concerns celestial bodies and their relationship to Earth.
The king is quickly consumed with his study of the sky, finding its mysteries endlessly fascinating; while pondering the movements of Venus during a meeting with his council, he accidentally fires his guru, Teacher Zack. After making his apologies to him, King Thao I returns to his work as if nothing had happened.
In September, the Imamites are driven out of Bakersfield and Bako County is once again in Valleyan hands.
With this latest defeat, it has become clear that the Emperor with his Imamite allies has no hope in enforcing his rule over California and so he approaches King Thao I to open up negotiates. The terms are hammered out and in October a treaty is signed; in it, King Thao I is crowned as the newest Emperor, House Yudkow is allowed to keep its titles in and around Las Vegas, and the Imamites are allowed to continue ruling Socal, with the newest Imam, a man named Karim II, given a place on the Imperial Council. It is not the crushing victory that Emperor Thao I wanted, but it is a step in the right direction.
Now the undisputed ruler of California, Emperor Thao I institutes several bureaucratic reforms, with the goal making the Emperor the undisputed ruler of California; now that he is the Emperor, he will suffer not intrigues or power plays that would threaten his throne. With the Empire’s treasure open to him, he spares no expense in his reforms.
Emperor Thao I also takes the time to meet with Imam Karim II in private, where he manages to convince the Imam that he has no plans to remove the rights given to the Imamites under the old Yudkow Emperors; while this is not the case, the emperor knows that to move now would only expose him to his enemies.
The bureaucracy of the old Valleyan royal court and the office of Governatus (of which, Emperor Thao I is technically still the head of) integrate seamlessly into the new Imperial Court; it is almost like Emperor Thao I had been planning for just such an eventuality.
The emperor also institutes a new law: the Right of Revocation, which simply states that the Emperor of California has the right to revoke the titles of anyone who would betray the throne. The Imperial Council, nothing more than a group of toadies and puppets, is only too happy to throw their support behind the new law. The remaining Kings of California complain about Imperial overreach, but none make any serious moves to stop Emperor Thao I, as they quickly find out the Right of Revocation allows them to revoke titles from traitors.
Between bouts of reform and legislation, Emperor Thao I still takes time to study the sky and work on his essay on celestial bodies, even when it hurts Imperial tax collection, not that the emperor really notices.
Emperor Thao I’s work seems to pay off when he predicts a major meteor shower; he invites his court to come watch with him, only for the predicted meteor shower to not actually happen. A humiliated emperor learns to measure twice and cut once.
Still, even with the bitter taste of failure in his mouth, the emperor continues to be a powerhouse of Imperial reform. Under him, tax collection becomes efficient, easy, and effective; the treasury bulges with gold from owed back taxes, previously uncollected under Emperor Reuben II.
Empress Jessica announces in July that she is once again pregnant; an overjoyed Emperor Thao I makes sure that she is well taken care of, now that he is not consumed with the stars.
In September, word reaches the emperor that the Prefecture of Goldengate, the jewel in the crown of Gran Francisco, has fallen to barbarian sea raiders from the far north. An important part of California, both for the Cetic faith and for the tolls it collects, Emperor Thao I cannot allow Goldengate to remain out of Imperial control; a holy war for the prefecture is declared not long after.
Mittens, the emperor’s beloved cat, also passes away in September. Emperor Thao I picks a small plot in the Imperial gardens for her grave, along with a small, short ceremony in her memory. She will truly be missed.
The bureaucracy of Socal is finally fully integrated with the Imperial bureaucracy towards the end of September in 2687; the emperor’s assurances that they will still be mostly autonomous from the main branch of bureaucracy, along with the endorsement of Imam Karim II, finally wins the Imamite bureaucrats over.
In February of 2688, Emperor Thao I’s second son is born and is named after the emperor. By all accounts he is a healthy, normal baby.
The Battle of San Rafael marks the first major battle in the Reconquest of Goldengate; the northern barbarians are easily defeated; during the battle, a young Valleyan noble, named Max, manages to recapture his regiment’s lost battle standard, earning himself fame and glory, as well as the attention of Emperor Thao I, who invites him to stay at his court in Sacramento.
The second battle of the war takes place at Daly, when a barbarian army, led by the so-called “High Queen of Goldengate,” makes landfall. During the Battle of Daly, Emperor Thao I proves himself once again worthy of his position, as he joins in the battle with his men, slaying many barbarians. That night, his men sing songs in praise of his skills not just in court but in battle; the most popular of these is “When the Emperor Came to Goldengate,” which goes into full, gory detail about the Battle of Daly and Emperor Thao I’s role during it.
The Battle of Daly marks the end of the Reconquest of Goldengate; the High Queen is forced to surrender the prefecture to the emperor on June 27, 2688. Instead of returning the land to Gran Francisco, Emperor Thao I gives Goldengate to his brother and long time ally, Prince Khais; the King of Gran Francisco is besides himself with rage at the move, but the emperor is quick to point out that it was he who lost the prefecture, not the emperor. Powerless to stop him, King Walter I must watch as Emperor Thao I crowns Prince Khais the ruler of Goldengate.
In celebration of his reconquest of Goldengate, Emperor Thao I distributes a large amount of grain to the citizens of Sacramento, much to their pleasure; Emperor Thao I is quickly becoming a favorite among the common people of California.
Peace returns to California, one where Emperor Thao I is the undisputed ruler of the Golden State. With his popularity at an all time high and a competent and loyal bureaucracy at his beck and call, it seems as though nothing can stop the rise of the new emperor.