Yizhou - 7,240,000 inhabitants 
| Birth Province of: | Gan Ning |
Home to the endangered pandas today. As what Zhuge Liang has told Liu Bei during Liu Bei's three visits to his thatched hut, Yizhou boasts a high population along with fertile soil to feed a growing population and army. Furthermore the rugged terrain to the north, the gorges along the Yangtze river to the east and the Himalayan mountain range in the west make it difficult to invade. Thus Yizhou serves as an ideal base of operations if Liu Bei hopes to have a kingdom that can contend with Wei and Wu.
It is generally a calm and peaceful province except for the battles prior to the founding and fall of the Shu kingdom as well as the southern rebellion by the barbarian tribes led by Meng Huo. Its capital is Chengdu which is the capital of the province of Sichuan in present day China.
Yongzhou - ??? inhabitants 
| Birth Province of: | Jin Xuan, Fu Gan. |
The capital Changan (modern day Xian) was also the capital of the Early Han Dynasty (206 BC - AD 8). Han Gaozu, the man who built the Han Dynasty came from this area.
There is little cultivation in the West because of extremely poor soil, but few regions are as easy to defend. Because of its great defensive attributes, Dong Zhuo agreed with his advisor Li Ru's advice of shifting the capital from Luoyang to Changan for a more favourable scenario against the anti-Dong Zhuo coalition army.
| Birth Province of: | Cheng Pu, Han Dang. |
Prior to the outbreak of the war against Dong Zhuo, this province was under the control of Gongsun Zan. After the disintegration of the Coalition army against Dong Zhuo, Yuan Shao set his sights on expanding his domain and the northern territories became his first priority. Gongsun Zan vanquished Gongsun Zan's forces with relative ease and northeastern China fell to Yuan Shao. With Hebei pacified, Yuan Shao turned his expansion plans to the south.
Although he had huge army, Yuan Shao was repelled back by Cao Cao in the south and suffered a series of defeats followed by his death shortly thereafter. Youzhou is the last bastion of resistance the surviving Yuan brothers hope to put up but Gongsun Kang executed the Yuan brothers for fear and presented their heads to Cao Cao.
Climate in this province is harsh. Unacustomed to the harsh weather conditions in the north, Guo Jia fell ill. An illness he never recovered from and died even though Cao Cao sent him back to Jizhou to recuperate.
After the establishment of the Wei Kingdom, this province became the staging grounds for Gongsun Kang's rebellion.
Jizhou - 5,930,000 inhabitants 
| Birth Province of: | Zhang Jiao, Ju Shou, Yue Jin. |
Governed by the warlord Han Fu. Han Fu's kind act of assistance sealed the fate of this province when he delivered food supplies to Yuan Shao's army that are homeward bound. Convinced by his staff that a great man should not rely on others, the ungrateful Yuan Shao turned against Han Fu and captured the province with a ruse that involves Gongsun Zan.
Felt cheated by Yuan Shao since he refused to divide the newly conquered province equally, Gongsun Zan mobilizes his forces for an assault to seize back Jizhou from Yuan Shao. Consequently, Dong Zhuo acting as peacemaker ordered both warring parties to cease fighting with an edict using Emperor Xian's name. Thus Jizhou still remained in the hands of Yuan Shao.
Peace that were very much sought after returned to Jizhou with vanquishment of the Yuan family and the whole of Hebei falling under the domain of Cao Cao.
Yanzhou - 4,050,000 inhabitants 
| Birth Province of: | Dian Wei, Dong Zhao, Pan Zhang, Wi Yi, Cai Yong, Chen Gong, Liu Biao, Man Chong, Yi Ji, Li Dian, Cheng Yu, Zhang Miao, Yu Jin, Bao Xin, Wang Kuang, Puyang Xing. |
The province where Cao Cao carved out his kingdom. After being freed from capture by Chen Gong, Cao Cao built up his army here using his family fortune. However much of Yanzhou was captured later on by Lu Bu while Cao Cao is away at Xuzhou with the bulk of his army seeking vengeance for the death of his father.
Unable to afford losing his powerbase, Cao Cao led his army back in full retreat to try to recapture Yanzhou from Lu Bu. Although badly beaten by Lu Bu's army in the first few engagements, Cao Cao's forces managed to turn the tide of war against Lu Bu and subsequently managed to wrestle back the entire province.
Since it is located in the central plains of China, this province generally yields a good harvest provided there is no flooding from the Yellow river. Depending on how you view it, the river has both its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage being that the floods will bring enrich the areas along the river bank with fertile sediments. The disadvantages are obvious; lost of lives and livestock and property damage.
Qingzhou - 3,700,000 inhabitants 
| Birth Province of: | Xu Sheng, Liu Dai, Taishi Ci. |
Governed by Kong Rong initially before falling into Yuan Shao's hands. With the dismise of Yuan Shao, this province became a part of Cao Cao's evergrowing territories.
The Sea of Beihai lies to the north and the Yellow Sea in the south. Flooding is no problem in the eastern part of the province and both metal and salt are produced. Even though there is regular flooding in the west, the high level of industry makes this a relatively prosperous region.
Xuzhou - 2,790,000 inhabitants 
| Birth Province of: | Chen Deng, Chen Jia, Mi Zhu, Wang Lang, Zhang Zhao, Zhuge Liang, Zhuge Jin. |
A heavily contested piece of province in the early years prior to the establishment of the Three Kingdoms. Xuzhou was governed by Tao Qian, Liu Bei and Lu Bu before falling into the hands of Cao Cao. A great massacre of Xuzhou took place when Cao Cao marched his army in to seek revenge for his father's death by a subordinate of Tao Qian. Upon Tao Qian's death, Liu Bei saw to the day to day affairs of Xuzhou. It was during this time whereby Lu Bu was driven out of Yanzhou by Cao Cao's forces and came seeking shelter in Xuzhou.
However the mutual assistance between Lu Bu and Liu Bei did not last long due to ploy agreed by Cao Cao to drive a wedge between the two of them. Thus Lu Bu was left as the sole warlord of Xuzhou, a land he did not own for long when he was finally defeated and captured in the last defending stronghold; the city of Xiapi.
Yuzhou - 6,170,000 inhabitants 
| Birth Province of: | Lu Meng, Xu Jing, Yuan Shao, Chen Fan, Huo Tuo, Xu Chu, Cao Cao, Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, Liu Fu, Xin Pi, Zhong Hui, Xu Shu, Xun Yu, Zhang Lu, Qiao Mao, Xun You, Du Xi, Chen Qun, Quan Zong, Que Zong. |
-During the Yellow Scarves Rebellion, the Yellow Scarves in the region stored a lot of grain in Runan, which Cao Cao capitalised upon to bolster up his army reserves of grain. The self proclaimed Emperor Yuan Shu ruled this province. However Yuan Shu could not survive the onslaughts by the combined attacks against him by Cao Cao, Lu Bu, Liu Bei and Sun Ce.
Being in close proximity to Luoyang, it is a properous province but one that is not easy to defend.
Sizhou - 3,100,000 inhabitants 
| Birth Province of: | Guan Yu, Sima Yi, Ren Jun, Xu Huang, Jia Chong, Sima Hui, Sima Zhi, Sima Lang. |
Contains Luoyang, the capital of the Later Han Dynasty (AD 25 - 220). With the capital of Luoyang in this province, the people are well endowed with culture and arts and many of the nobles live here. Gaining control of this region is extremely vital towards your goal of controlling the nation. This is very well documentated as evidenced in the northern campaigns launched against Wei by Shu. Both Zhuge Liang and Jiang Wei know that capturing Luoyang and the nearby Xuchang would score very high marks towards their aim of gaining control of the country.
Bingzhou - 700,000 inhabitants 
| Birth Province of: | Wang Yun. |
Bingzhou offer some highly mountainous and rugged terrain which provides good protection from invasions. The southern part of the province is near to Luoyang so the area and population around the southern area is pretty well-endowed with culture. With internal strife among Yuan Shao's sons, Bingzhou was easily conquered by Cao Cao.
Liangzhou - 400,000 inhabitants 
| Birth Province of: |
An arid region lies in the north Liangzhou serves as the door to the "silk road" between China and Europe. A lack of farming and industry make this a poor province. However, since the risk of being invaded from the middle of the country is limited, you should be able to govern with few worries. Before Cao Cao captured this province, this piece of land was governed by Dong Zhuo followed by Ma Teng and then his son Ma Chao.
Following Ma Chao's unsuccessful attempt to capture Luoyang and Xuchang and his subsequent escape to seek shelter under Zhang Lu, Wei kingdom was further extended west when Han Sui surrendered to Cao Cao.
Though sparsely populated, the armies that shouldered the vast responsibility of repelling wave after wave of Shu invasions mainly came from this province and Yongzhou.
Yangzhou - 4,330,000 inhabitants 
| Birth Province of: | Jiang Qin, Chen Wu, Zhou Yu, Lu Dai, Zhou Fang, Zhu Zhi, Zhu Huan, Zhang Wen, Zhu Ran, Lu Xun, Lu Mao, Ling Cao, Ling Tong, Sun Quan, Sun Jian, Sun Ce, Sun Jing, Ding Feng, Zhou Tai, Yu Fan, Dong Xi. |
The main powerbase of the Wu kingdom. Jianye, capital of the East Wu is located in this province. Prior to the establishing of the Wu kingdom, warlords such as Yan Baihu, Wang Lang and Liu You resided in this province before being subdued by Sun Ce. "Ships in the south, horses in the north" runs an old expression describing China's highly developed transportation system.
This is a warm and desirable region and one that provides most of the ships. Together with Jingzhou and Yizhou, these three provinces were the target locations for folks escaping from the constant warfare during the Yellow Scarves Rebellion and the inter-warlord power struggles in the north.
Almost the entire province is under Wu control except for the northwestern part that was tenaciously defended by Wei. The famous battlefield of Hefei is located there. East Wu attempted a few invasions of Hefei which was a strategic area to try to break deeper into Wei held territories in an effort to expand its northern borders. However the invasions did not gain much ground.
Jingzhou - 6,260,000 inhabitants 
| Birth Province of: | Liao Hua, Pang Tong, Cai Mao, Li Tong, Wei Yan, Deng Zhi, Deng Ai, Empress He, Guoyou Zhi, Huang Zhong, Wen Pin, Dong Yun, Ma Liang, Ma Su, Xiang Chong, Xiang Lang, Liu Zhang, Huang Gai, Pan Jun. |
A heavily contested piece of territory and the land responsible for the scouring of relations between Shu and Wu due to the many excuses Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang gave in an attempt to delay its return to East Wu. Originally envisioned by Zhuge Liang as part of the territory Liu Bei should possess together with Yizhou, most of Jingzhou fell into the hands of the Wu kingdom upon the death of Guan Yu.
Besides Guan Yu losing his life trying to defend this piece of territory, Zhou Yu was the other famous character who died trying to recover Jingzhou from Liu Bei. In a scheme to drive Liu Bei and Sun Quan further apart, Cao Cao got Emperor Xian to appoint Zhou Yu as the governor of Nanjun. Zhou Yu's quest to capture back the other parts of Jingzhou from Liu Bei led to many skirmishes with Liu Bei's forces.
Its proximity to the capital of the Later Han Dynasty (AD 25 - 220) and its position near the center of the map makes control of this region particularly important towards gaining control of the nation. If Jingzhou had not been lost, Zhuge Liang's quest to overruning the Wei kingdom would be easier to realise with a two pronged invasion; one launched from the north of Yizhou and the other launched from Jingzhou to capture the major cities of Wei which are Changan, Luoyang and Xuchang.
Intellectuals such as Xu Shu, Ma Liang, Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong lived in Jingzhou before serving their respectively lords.
Jiaozhou - 1,110,000 inhabitants 
| Birth Province of: |
The capital is Nanhai, also known as Canton. The summers are extremely hot and the soil is poor. No profit will come from governing this region.
There is a large population in the southern region lacking loyalty and who will be difficult to govern. Realizing your dream of ruling the entire nation is the only reason to bother with this region.