When faced with such a monumental task, one must prepare thoroughly. Any loose holes in the plan will result in certain death. This is especially true when dealing with our current target. But alas, a warlord is still just another warlord. Though they may be loved by their people in the present, the ever-shifting tides in our times will still relegate them to footnotes of textbooks only decades from now. Their legitimacy is ill-conceived, possessing not a morsel of longevity. After all, how can a man who claims power only through the military be anything more than a despicable despot?
Feng Yingxiang may rule the North, but in the South, he is not seen as any different from the low characters of the South Western Chieftains. After all, a warlord can only propagate themselves to people they rule. And that is why they'll never unify all of Shenzhou. They are only loved through fear and repression, their subjects may accept their legitimacy, but anyone outside their realm's grasps is sure to be indifferent, if not apathetic. Never have I heard a southerner wish for Ying to unite the South, never have I heard a Northerner wish for Ying to do so as well. The praise fed to Ying, and all warlords for that matter, are all born out of necessity for survival. Pure animal instincts. After we all know that it does not matter whether the ruler is a Feng, a Piao, a Zhou, or a Chiang. It will all be the same. Life will go on as normal for all, as nothing shall change despite some petty titles for a bureaucracy that has long disintegrated.
For the past three decades, the people of Shenzhou have only known a queer continuity. Despite lands changing hands like an opium pipe at a drug den, the lives of the common folk have miraculously remained constant. As hundreds of generations have done before, the average Tang Shenzhou man will awake at the break of dawn only to till his fields as he has since he could walk. The average Nurchen man will herd his flock as his ancestors did a hundred decades ago.
Even in the bustling international settlements of Shenjiang, an eerie unvarying lifestyle rests. The average Shenzhou native urbanite spends his days laboring in the factories, while the foreign expats spend their nights cajoling native women and drinking their livers out from the profits they make through shameless exploitation. That is simply the way of life for the beating heart of Shenzhou, and has been since the centuries dawn.
This continuity will not evaporate in the near future. Admittedly, this is all coming from a mercenary that would likely be out of a job if Shenzhou was to be united all of a sudden. But just because I'm a mercenary doesn't mean I hold no love for my country. I proudly call myself a patriot! Don't let anyone tell you otherwise!
"Captain! the lieutenants have gathered outside and are awaiting your orders!"