To /u/EmeraldRange, Cultural Burmese Minister to the Emperor in Bagan, Negotiator, etc. etc. etc.

Our correspondence has gone on for several months. I have reviewed the history of our dialogue at length, and looking back we have made little to no progress. This is unacceptable in my eyes, not even to mention Emperor Shang’s eyes, or dare I say the eyes of Great Yu. However, allow me to summarize our position.

Your armies crossed the Yin-Minbu border in the 653rd year of the Radiant Shang dynasty, as well as sending another force beyond to our northern reaches. You encouraged treason in our ranks. You sent your fleet into our waters. Both your invading forces were driven back, the traitors were executed either in battle or after capture, and your fleet was utterly smashed. In addition, we occupied the border city of Minbu and the Indonesian city of Prome. By all accounts, you are losing this war, even after setting your lost honor and lost pride.

That is why the first Letter was sent to you five months ago, in order to extend peace. We have no wish to destroy or occupy the Burmese nation – you are more valuable to us as an independent entity than as a subject. Yet, you have also been an unruly neighbor. That was why this peace was sent – to broker a new era of Burmese-Shang relations based on cooperation rather than suspicion. That is why we decided to make a very fair first offer: cement the borders where they currently stand, and put this quarrel behind us.

I do not blame you for declining our first offer. With the borders as they stand, Minbu would be under Shang control, placing the lines all too close to the city of Bagan, Burma’s beating heart. That is why in our fifth letter, we sent a proposal to offer a return of the city of Minbu.

Yet you declined again, and yet again, I did not blame you. Though members of the Court in Erlitou will disagree, we have been unruly neighbors as well. That is why I offered to end all Shang meddlings in the Burmese nation.

And you declined this proposal as well. I could not blame you, of course. You had no assurances that we would not simply break this oath, beyond my honor. And though my honor has been unmarred, you wanted something material. That is why I worked with the holymen about possible integration of the faiths.

Then we started to get your troublesome offers, and the Emperor was most displeased. You demanded both cities of Minbu and Prome in return, and offered no concessions whatsoever. You insulted the nation and myself personally in the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh letters of our dialogue. You continued to evangelize, raving about our hypocrisy against our own religion. This made us most unhappy.

By the thirtieth letter, I was near the only one left in the court who continues to offer any sort of peace to Burma, still believing that peace was possible. And yet, like a crude bronze dowel, you refuse to bend. I fought hard to get the peace I desired, and yet you do not bend. I offered generously, frankly ridiculous terms beyond all reason, and still you do not bend. I embarrass myself before my court, again and again, and still you do not bend.

Shang did not want this war, Master /u/EmeraldRange. You tell me that you do not want it, but now I regret to inform you that I begin to believe that you are lying. I ask for peace, the Emperor asks for peace, Sumer asks for peace, every god that you or I could possibly conceive asks for peace. And yet, for some bizarre reason, you alone stand in the way of Peace in Asia, refusing every offer that I send, smacking away every letter.

I know you will plot your dirty tricks, in a forgone effort to retake Prome and Minbu from us, though you lost them only through your own incompetence. Or perhaps you wish to steal away some other city. Allow me to save you the time: It will not work. The longer you proceed down this avenue of action, the less pleasant we will become, and I fear that I have become quite unpleasant already.

To the crux of our problem: This is the thirty-second letter of our correspondence. We have made no real progress, agreed on no terms, become most displeased with each other, and have failed to do anything of value. In short, we have utterly failed where we should have succeeded. So, in this thirty-second letter, here are the terms that are being offered and that are subject to negotiation should they not be denied out of hand:

• 1) Minbu may be returned, but only for increased acceptance of Shangan Taoism in the Burmese Empire.

• 2) Prome will remain in Shangan hands. This is non-negotiable

• 3) Almaty and Lhasa will be considered to be in the Shangan sphere of influence, ours to do with as we wish with no diplomatic repercussion from Burma.

• 4) There will be no further forays into Burmese matters by Shangan operatives, nor will there be any forays into Shangan matters from Burmese operatives.

• 5) Shang will dismantle its spy network in Burma.

• 6) The Emperor of Burma will send a public apology to the Emperor of Shang for the invasion, and beg his forgiveness.

I urge you to strongly and carefully consider what you send as the thirty-third letter. It may very well be the last.

荔梅