Jirhalang

Jirhalang (濟爾哈朗 Jì'ěrhāláng; July 6 1850 - January 21 1943), formally known as Prince Yanxi, was a Kuijuan noble and politician who served as the Grand Secretary of Kuiju between 1931 and 1943, and was responsible for launching the Kuijuan invasions of Chisei and Arshavat during the Second Escar-Varunan War.

Traditionally educated in Chisei, Jirhalang was a reactionary legalist scholar and Kuijuan nationalist vehemently opposed to the democratic and revolutionary movements that had emerged in Escar during the mid-19th and early 20th centuries. He called for the Kuijuan monarchy to double down on autocracy and embrace militarism as a means of building social cohesion and maintaining natural hierarchy, taking inspiration from the ideals of Yamataian Kayakoism and the Sakura Revolution. In 1925 he was appointed as the tutor of the Kuijuan prince Jaikan, crowned King in 1930; a year later, Jirhalang thus attained the post of Grand Secretary, and was finally able to implement his ideological views.

In response to the Nomohan Disturbance with Arshavat, Jirhalang pushed for the Kuijuan king to sign the Niihama Pact with Yamatai in 1934. This would ultimately lead to the Kijuan invasion of Chisei on the 10th of July 1937, after a Chiseian attack on the New Territories. Jirhalang's wartime leadership proved to be ineffective, and his frequent circumvention of Royal authority made him highly unpopular. After the campaign in Chisei stalled to a halt in 1938, Jirhalang began mobilising forces for an invasion of Arshavat, assuming the war on the western front would be quickly wrapped up by Yamatai.

The eventual second invasion in 1939 would initially prove highly successful, driving deep into the Arshavati interior, and Jirhalang briefly enjoyed a surge of authority as morale among the government and army swelled, though the alliance with Yamatai was severely strained. This success would be short lived, and by 1942 Kuiju was on the retreat on both fronts. Once again the Grand Secretary's credibility plummeted, and in January 1943 he was assassinated at court by a band of nobles, including one of his ministers, while his bodyguards fled.

His death however, would not lead to a significant improvement in Kuiju's fortunes, as the politically and militarily inexperienced King Jaikan took direct command of the war effort.