Talk:Chinese (Age of Empires II)/@comment-2605:6000:170D:83BD:1888:2319:49F8:4BA6-20190121083546/@comment-1328622-20190121120357

Historically, the Yangtze River provided a natural barrier in which Northern and Southern China developed divergently. North China was much more militarily strong due to availability of warhorses, but Southern China was much more scholarly due to mass exodus of Chinese intelligentsia during the Jin Dynasty.

This division actually persisted all the way to 1912 and beyond, with Southern Chinese always topping the imperial examination charts and a form of affirmative action had to be instituted for the Northern provinces, whereas waves of conquest had always been southward the overwhelming majority of times. (In fact, there was only really two successful attempts with Zhu Yuanzhang and Li Zicheng, but both only succeeded due to their opponents basically collapsing from within. Li Zicheng then was defeated by the Manchus, who came from even further North).

Culturally, northern Chinese diet is mostly wheat, but southern Chinese diet is mostly rice. Northerners are usually bulkier than Southerners as well.

It would actually be one of the less questionable splits this game did if done, tbh. I'm still not in favor of it though.