Golden City of Gaodi

Humble administrator: your loyal service to the defunct Qin Empire, while misdirected, was quite efficient and most honorable. Our new emperor, the virtuous Gaodi, respects efficiency and honesy, which is why he wisely requests that you, as an experienced city administrator, lay out the plan of the new Han capital. Here on the banks of the River Wei, near the ruins of the ancient Zhou capital of Hao we will establish Chang-an — capital of the great Han Empire.
Spare no expense! It must be an impressive city. Reflective ponds can now provide beautiful places of peace and solitude for our citizens. Ensure that the people pay generous homage, and the new city will be duly rewarded with rich blessings. Sadly, famine and starvation are a problem throughout the empire, as the cruel warfare that preceded the founding of the Han Dynasty ruined many farms and left even more homeless. Requests for food are believed to be imminent.
Meanwhile, in the nearby hills, lodes of copper and iron await our miners’ arrival. All the while you must not ignore threats to the empire, for the aggressive Xiongnu still threaten the northern borderlands. It seems, however, that the barbarians have finally begun to appreciate the fineries of silk. Some might call it extortion, but fulfilling their requests may appease them.

City – Chang-an
Starts Feb 202 BCE
15,200 starting cash at Very Hard

Requirements:

  • Population of 3000
  • 32 Months of Heroes
  • Yearly profit of 4500

You must create a new capital city in this mission, and will be returning to it in the 3rd Han mission so make sure you allow for that in your planning. The goals are fairly straight forward. The first is a population of 3000. Knowing there is a higher population goal in the later mission I allowed for that and built 2 housing blocks, one all common housing and the other mainly common with 3 elite houses.

I placed the mixed housing block first, situating near the entrance to the map and allowing space for the 2nd block to later go to the south east of it. I then started growing food and hemp followed before long by fishing then ceramics.

There are no trade routes open at the start of the mission so fairly early I sent requests to all cities asking them to open trade. Chengdu and Guangzhou agreed, meaning I could sell iron and weapons, wheat was also possible, and carved jade would be if I could import jade from Xiongu later. By the start of the 2nd year I had built an iron industry and started producing weapons for export.

The other cities that wouldn’t trade were all at Apathetic and since all would buy goods I could produce, in particular silk, I decided to give them gifts and try to open trade with them. This would also have the benefit of removing the risk of military threat from Xiongu and mean I didn’t need to build any forts.

The first gift I gave was a medium cash gift to Xiongu, but they still wouldn’t trade. I started a raw silk industry in time to get a harvest the 2nd year, the first 8 silk I produced was gifted to Fuzhou and they then agreed to trade. Another medium cash gift to Xiongu did please them enough and they also agreed to trade, meaning I could import jade and sell carved jade. Later Yin would request food to aid them during a famine, meeting this would allow me to open trade with them. There were regular small requests for different food types throughout the mission, I would suggest you grow and keep aside at least a little of each to meet these. With all these trade routes open meeting the profit goal was not going to be a problem.

The last goal is the 32 months of Heroes. You can choose from Shen Nong, Huang Di, Confucius, Sun Tzu and Xi Wang Mu in this mission. With no military threat there was little use for Sun Tzu, Shen Nong doesn’t offer much, and while I could have used Huang Di to supply ceramics to housing or Xi Wang Mu to bless jade carvers I decided this time to call Confucius for his extra taxation benefit. Since you can’t pay homage to a Confucian hero until you have elite houses with Confucian coverage while I was waiting I did call Huang Di for 6 months. After he left in September 200 Confucius arrived and stayed in the city until the 32 months was complete.

Finished in September 198 with 4520 population, 32 months of Heroes, a best yearly profit of 17,691 and treasury of 39,549.

Trade

CityBuysSells
Guangzhou*12 Iron
#12 Carved Jade
*12 Wheat
24 Bean Curd
24 Salt
12 Rice
12 Weapons
Chengdu*24 Wheat
*24 Weapons
12 Salt
36 Rice
12 Lacquerware
12 Silk
24 Wood
Yin24 Lacquerware
*12 Ceramics
24 Bean curd
36 Millet
12 Hemp
Fuzhou*24 Silk
*24 Iron
12 Lacquerware
*12 Weapons
24 Rice
12 Salt
24 Wood
Xiongnu*12 Silk
*12 Millet
12 Jade

*Can produce
#Can produce if raw materials are imported

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