>>212572531>>212572562and ofc cantonese mandarins also spoke mandarin, obv, and they produced a lot of mandarin so the region is never unconnected to the central government, but geography does protect the peasant from cultural syncretism with the north
many western countries like uk had a time when they try to enforce a specific accent, received in uk and mid-Atlantic in the us, just imagine mandarin the same way today, it is on tv and in schools all the time, you need special permission from ministery of culture to have programs in whatever other chinese, and they rarely give it out so many regional varieties will die
people understand china have a lot of population so thinking that somehow everyone always spoke mandarin is just beyond insane