Mu Qing was stunned by Old Zhu’s sudden whim. Even if he weren’t an adult in a child’s body, but a genuine child, he still wouldn’t be able to tell whether the video was created by monsters or immortals.
As a materialist youth raised under the red flag, his atheistic worldview had already been shaken after personally experiencing transmigration. Now, seeing the video that came with him, he grew even more uncertain about the existence of gods, ghosts, and demons in this world.
He was just an ordinary small-time content creator—why did they have to scare him like this? Wuwuwuwu.
Tears glistened in the unlucky little fellow’s eyes, not daring to utter a single word for fear that speaking would reveal him as the narrator in the video.
Although his current appearance differed greatly from his video persona, and his voice was completely different, his speech habits couldn’t be changed overnight. If he spoke too much, someone would quickly notice something amiss.
Fortunately, he hadn’t been adopted for long, and Old Zhu was rarely home due to military campaigns. Otherwise, he’d be facing a suspicious Old Zhu.
Unlucky little fellow: Crying.jpg
Old Zhu had merely recalled the folk saying that “children can see things adults cannot” and didn’t actually expect him to provide answers. Seeing the child on the verge of tears, he quickly backtracked, “Dad was just joking. Don’t be scared, don’t be scared. With Dad here, no monsters or demons would dare approach.”
Mu Qing froze, not daring to move. He felt like he was exactly the kind of monster Old Zhu was referring to, but he didn’t dare say it.
In those few moments, the images on the light screen changed again.
Emperor Huizong of Yuan’s three-phase reign timeline disappeared, replaced by majestic landscapes of mountains and rivers.
The camera zoomed out, reducing cities and mountain ranges into tiny markers on a map. Dadu, Zhongshu Sheng, and even the entire territory of the Great Yuan—including the Chagatai Khanate and Kipchak Khanate—were fully displayed.
Zhu Yuanzhang abruptly stood up. The other generals in the hall also fell silent, having lost their desire to chat. After years of leading troops into battle, they understood better than anyone the value of detailed maps.
They were all men of humble origins who had never seen such fine things.
The maps they had seen before were simple circles and dots—unintelligible unless they had drawn them themselves. In all their years, they had never encountered such clear, detailed maps where every location was instantly recognizable.
This monster—no, this Divine Manifestation—was truly a great treasure.
Mu Qing secretly observed their reactions. Seeing everyone awestruck by the video footage, he subtly puffed out his chest, his pride making him feel like his tail would wag if he had one.
While creating the video, he had consulted numerous references. Since history and geography are inseparable, a key feature of his content was integrating historical narratives with geographical context.
The military officers scrambled for inkstones. Though poor at writing, they were confident in their drawing skills.
A group of burly men, unaccustomed to holding brushes, dipped their fingers directly into ink and began smearing it on paper. They needed to sketch the map while it was still visible—once the image disappeared, they would have no reference.
Zhu Yuanzhang’s temples throbbed at their chaotic efforts. He ordered Li Shanchang, Tang He, and others to each memorize a section of the map, planning to compile them later after the display vanished.
His own memory was sharp—he could grasp the general layout at a glance, though not the finer details. Still, he was far more reliable than these fellows doodling haphazardly with their fingers.
The scene plunged from the vast, unimaginable expanse of the Great Yuan’s territory—past the Zhongshu Sheng, Dadu, and the Imperial City—before finally settling on the towering main hall of the palace.
Zhu Yuanzhang gritted his teeth. “That damned emperor really knows how to live in luxury.”
A few chibi-style figures appeared on the light screen, making it easy to identify who each one represented.
The heavenly voice continued.
[When Brother Guo first ascended the throne, he was a puppet. The turbulent storms of the previous court had nothing to do with him. No matter who the powerful minister monopolizing the court was, he remained a marionette. So, he wisely stayed deep within the palace, never stepping out, spending his time painting and doing woodwork.]
[It’s worth mentioning that Brother Guo was quite skilled at woodworking. The title “Luban Emperor” wasn’t exclusive to the Tianqi Emperor; our Brother Guo was also called the Luban Emperor in his time.]
[As mentioned earlier, the internal strife in the Yuan dynasty was particularly severe. During the years Brother Guo stayed in the deep palace as the Luban Emperor, the powerful ministers in the court changed yet again.]
[He was welcomed back to Dadu and enthroned by the powerful minister Yan Temuer. The minister who rose to power after Yan Temuer was named Bayan. This Bayan was not the general who conquered the Southern Song, but the powerful minister of the late Yuan dynasty.]
[A side note: In Mongolian, “Bayan” means “rich,” and “Temuer” means “iron.” These two names were very common in Yuan dynasty historical records, similar to Han people naming their children “Fugui” or “Tiedan.” At that time, most Mongols had a low level of education and didn’t put much thought into naming. They simply used words with positive meanings, resulting in a very high rate of duplicate names.]
[Back to the topic: After Bayan eliminated Yan Temuer’s remaining faction, he monopolized power, indulging in extreme luxury. Not only did he ruthlessly purge his opponents, but he even entered the inner palace and had an affair with the Grand Empress Dowager. Historical records note that Bayan…]
[Bayan’s personal character isn’t the focus here; what we’re discussing is his political stance: the exclusion of Han people.]
[As is well known, the Yuan dynasty had a four-class system. Although this system was never explicitly mentioned, Han people and Southerners were indeed heavily oppressed at the time.]
[The Yuan dynasty did have imperial examinations. The first time they reinstated the exams, they selected one hundred jinshi, with twenty-five each from the Mongols, Semu people, Han people, and Southerners.]
[At first glance, this seems fair. However, Mongols and Semu people combined made up less than three percent of the total population. Three percent of the population received fifty percent of the spots. Moreover, the exam questions for Mongols and Semu people were different from those for Han people and Southerners—not only was their admission rate higher, but their questions were also easier. Friends, doesn’t this sound familiar?]
[Bayan himself was highly cultured. Perhaps it was precisely because he understood Han culture and recognized the indomitable spirit of this people that he was so determined to exclude Han people.]
[Under his leadership, Mongols and Semu people could assault Han people and Southerners without fear of retaliation; Han people and Southerners were forbidden to learn Mongolian or Semu scripts; they were prohibited from possessing weapons; the imperial exams were suspended, and strict controls were placed on Han people and Southerners holding official positions.]
[During Bayan’s rule, Han people and Southerners faced unprecedented exclusion.]
[As Lu Jia of the Han dynasty once said, “You can conquer the world on horseback, but you cannot govern it on horseback.” The Mongols were a nomadic people, and their military prowess was indeed formidable. However, managing the Central Plains with the methods used to govern tribes simply did not work.]
“Since ancient times, nomadic tribes moving south to conquer the Central Plains inevitably underwent Sinicization. Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei’s reforms serve as a prime example. Conquering territory is difficult, but governing it is even harder. Only through Sinicization can one truly control the Central Plains.”
“Bayan halted the imperial examinations and strictly forbade Han Chinese from entering officialdom. To put it bluntly, this was a path to self-destruction.”
“It’s said Bayan’s hatred for Han Chinese drove him to insanity—he even petitioned to exterminate the five major Han surnames: Zhang, Wang, Liu, Li, and Zhao. His reasoning was that eliminating these most populous Han clans would leave few Han people remaining.”
“Fortunately, Brother Guo retained some sanity at the time, preventing Bayan from reducing the Han population to a mere handful. However, this account may not be entirely reliable. Even someone as unhinged as Bayan might not have gone that far—it’s more likely a smear campaign fabricated by his political opponents after his fall from power.”
Li Shanchang sighed deeply. Though the origin of this heavenly voice remained mysterious and its language plain and straightforward, its reasoning was remarkably insightful.
Under foreign rule, Han people suffered severe oppression. Court officials were almost exclusively Mongols or Semu people. Han intellectuals found no paths to advancement—some even changed their names and ancestral lineages, registering as Mongols just to take the imperial examinations.
Was this fair? Of course not.
But fairness mattered little when power rested solely with the Mongols. The Han could only endure it.
Scholars studied to cultivate virtue, regulate families, govern states, and bring peace to the world. They sought to “master civil and martial arts to serve the imperial house,” dreamed of “starting as farm boys and ascending to the emperor’s court,” and aspired to “establish moral principles for heaven and earth, secure livelihood for the people, continue lost teachings of past sages, and open eternal peace for all generations.”
At best, they wished to serve the people; at minimum, to bring honor to their ancestors. If they couldn’t realize these aspirations, what was the purpose of their studies?
If the court had acted responsibly, how could rebellions have erupted everywhere?
What a cursed era.
The heavenly voice said the court’s methods felt familiar. Could even the heavens experience such injustice?
If fairness didn’t exist in the heavens, where could it be found in the mortal world?
Old Zhu curled his lips. “If I became emperor, I’d never commit such follies. Those who prove capable through study shall become officials; those who don’t can farm the land. Anyone daring to eat without working will face my blade.”
Zhu Wenzheng muttered under his breath, “Father, what about military examinations? As long as one has martial prowess, illiteracy shouldn’t matter.”
Old Zhu’s eyebrows shot up. “Since when do military top graduates not know how to read? Are you defending illiteracy?”
Li Shanchang rubbed his sore hand, adding cheerfully, “Military examinations test not just martial skills but also strategy and military texts. Illiteracy won’t do.”
“See? No serious study, no command!” Zhu Yuanzhang scolded again, then bounced the child in his arms while admonishing earnestly, “Wenqing, never follow your brother’s example. If he remains illiterate, he’ll never be more than a foot soldier.”
Zhu Wenzheng didn’t dare retort, slinking away in silence.
Mu Qing nodded vigorously like a pecking chick. He would study diligently every day to become a useful son to his father—striving to make himself indispensable even if his identity were exposed, so his father wouldn’t consider eliminating him.
The fighting chibi figures on the light screen transformed back into the Great Yuan’s territory map. Everyone in the hall snapped to attention, hastily writing and sketching to record everything shown on the screen.
【Bayan’s perverse actions plunged the already unstable realm into greater turmoil, with peasant uprisings erupting everywhere. It was during this time that Peng Yingyu, the founding patriarch of the southern Red Turban Army, began his rebellion.】
【In the fifth year of Zhiyuan, Henan Province produced a ruthless figure named Fan Meng. Brother Meng was a man of few words but extreme actions—either exploding under oppression or perishing by it. He resorted to forging imperial decrees, vowing to slaughter all who had oppressed him. Terrifyingly, he succeeded, nearly wiping out all high-ranking officials of Henan Province.】
【Brother Meng’s story will be detailed later. In short, Bayan’s autocracy led to increasing chaos across the land. Not only was the court administration in disarray, but he also attempted to depose Brother Guo and install a new emperor. If this could be tolerated, then the title of “ruler who doomed the nation” ought to be passed to someone else.】
【The invisible Brother Guo, pushed to his limit, conspired with Bayan’s nephew Tuotuo to take action. They seized the opportunity when Bayan was out hunting to launch a coup, staging a Great Yuan version of the Gaopingling Incident.】
【The powerful minister Bayan ultimately died on his way into exile, marking the end of the Bayan era.】
【Brother Guo successfully shed his title as a puppet emperor, appointed Tuotuo as Right Chancellor, changed the era name to Zheng, and declared he would “make a fresh start with the realm,” preparing to realize grand ambitions and restore the Yuan dynasty.】
【At this time, Brother Guo was brimming with ambition, wholeheartedly focused on reorganizing the court administration. Tuotuo was also one of the rare capable ministers of the era, and the ruler and his subject worked together with fervor.】
【They reinstated the imperial examination system abolished during Bayan’s rule, promulgated the “Nongsang Jiyao,” rectified official conduct, recruited recluses, exempted taxes, lifted the horse ban, and reduced salt quotas—a series of reforms later known as the “Zheng Reforms” or “Tuotuo Reforms.”】
【Under Brother Guo’s diligent governance and Tuotuo’s diligent competence, the early Zheng years of the Yuan dynasty even experienced a fleeting resurgence. Even Han scholars who had been marginalized under Bayan’s rule wrote poems praising them.】
【In the fourth year of Zheng, while the reforms were in full swing, Tuotuo retired due to illness. Subsequently, Brother Guo appointed Alutu and Bie Erqie Buhua as chancellors. Though less capable than Tuotuo, they did not significantly hinder progress. Brother Guo’s determination to govern diligently remained unwavering, and Tuotuo’s departure did not stall the continuation of the reforms.】
【But one must not forget—this was the twilight of a dynasty, and its conflicts ran far deeper than what met the eye.】
【In the fifth year of Zheng, Brother Guo dispatched imperial commissioners to inspect local officials across the realm. These commissioners wielded immense power: if they deemed a local official guilty, “those of the fourth rank or higher were to be suspended pending review, while those of the fifth rank or lower could be executed on the spot. All matters concerning public welfare and eradication of evils were to be handled at their discretion.”】
【Had these commissioners been just and upright individuals, granting them such authority would have been unproblematic. The tragedy lay in the fact that only a handful were genuinely committed to their duties—the vast majority colluded corruptly with local officials.】
【Before the commissioners arrived, the people “waited as eagerly as for rain during a great drought, or as infants longing for a loving mother.” But upon witnessing the commissioners’ actions, their hopes turned to despair: “Officials were like lanterns painted black—the commissioners only added another layer of darkness.”】
【Local officials extorted the people, filling the commissioners’ pockets while enriching themselves, leaving the populace with nowhere to turn, crying out to unheavenly heavens and unresponsive earth.】
Xu Da scowled and cursed, “Bah! Both the dog emperor and his dog ministers deserve to be beheaded and fed to the hounds.”
Hua Yun chimed in, “Old Xu is right.”
This time even Old Zhu didn’t voice any objection. The statement “Those damned emperor and ministers all deserve to be beheaded and fed to dogs” was unanimously approved.
Well, quite fitting for their identities as rebels.
[As mentioned earlier, regarding the fall of the Yuan dynasty, Brother Guo largely served as a scapegoat. The corrupt court was already beyond redemption—whether he exerted great efforts to govern or simply gave up and slacked off made little difference to the doomed Yuan dynasty’s fate.]
[After the fourth year of the Zhengzheng era, China entered a period of frequent disasters, with the central region under Zhongshu Sheng and Henan Province suffering the most severely. The Yellow River changed course to enter the sea via the Huai River, famines became frequent, plagues broke out, and common people were displaced—even Dadu couldn’t escape unscathed.]
[Historical records state: “Starving people gathered in the capital, inside and outside the city, those crying and begging, collapsing and unable to rise lay piled upon one another.”]
[Brother Guo grew extremely anxious, issuing edicts of self-blame and reappointing Tuotuo. If someone had told him that jumping off the city wall could reverse the Yuan dynasty’s decline, he likely would have leaped without hesitation.]
[With continuous natural disasters, the world grew turbulent and unstable. Peasant uprisings frequently emerged among the populace, and great chaos was imminent.]
[After Tuotuo returned as chancellor, he attempted to turn the tide. Vast areas of the Yellow and Huai River regions suffered floods, maritime transport in the south was obstructed, and the court’s finances were depleted. To raise funds for river management, he altered currency policies and excessively issued paper money. Then he dispatched Jia Lu to conscript over a hundred thousand laborers for waterway projects, accompanied by twenty thousand troops for supervision.]
[Contemporaries mocked: “The chancellor counterfeits money, his attendants become robbers. Jia Lu wants to dredge rivers, stirring the whole land into chaos.” There was also a famous popular verse at the time: “In the mighty Great Yuan, treacherous officials hold power. River works and currency changes are the roots of disaster, provoking millions in red turbans.”]
[These two matters—river dredging and currency changes—will be explained in detail later. In short, regardless of Tuotuo’s original intentions, these two measures became the triggers that ignited the massive peasant uprisings of the late Yuan period, serving as the final straw that broke the dynasty’s back.]
[In the eleventh year of Zhengzheng, White Lotus Society leader Han Shantong and his follower Liu Futong seized this opportunity when popular resentment was boiling. They spread teachings about “Maitreya Descending” and “King of Light Reappearing” while circulating the folk rhyme: “Don’t say the stone man has one eye—when this appears, the whole land will rebel.”]
[They secretly carved a one-eyed stone figure and buried it along the planned river course. When laborers dug it up, they were utterly astonished. With emotions sufficiently stirred, the great peasant uprisings of the late Yuan officially erupted that year.]
[How massive was this uprising’s scale? Historical records provide evidence: “Rebellion emerged from Huainan, throughout western Zhejiang, southern Jiangdong, northern and southern Hunan, including Min and Shu territories—any city without complete defenses fell.”]
The light screen flickered with scattered sparks that landed on the map, transforming into masses of impoverished people rising in rebellion. Everyone in the hall watched intently as the images shifted on the screen, knowing those points of light included themselves.
Li Shanchang, being a meticulous scholar, sighed deeply upon hearing this. “Such are the times, such is fate.”
Setting aside the current reality of widespread chaos and focusing only on the heavenly voice’s description of the Great Yuan emperor, he simply felt the emperor was a pitiable figure.
Human-caused disasters might be avoidable, but natural calamities were impossible to prevent entirely. The court had already become a rotten mess—for the emperor to appoint capable ministers and issue self-critical edicts was quite commendable already.
Mu Qing: …
Right. If this guy ever becomes a high official, he’d definitely be one of those who says, “How could the Emperor be at fault? The blame lies entirely with the treacherous ministers who misled him!”
It’s fine to be sentimental now, but if Old Li keeps this up later, he’s definitely going to get beaten up by the crowd.
Old Zhu and the others wore complicated expressions upon hearing Li Shanchang’s lament. Unlike Old Li, they weren’t so sentimental, nor did they think the emperor was pitiful in any way.
It was the common people who suffered from hunger and cold, freezing or starving to death. It was the Han people who were oppressed by the Mongols. What was so pitiful about an emperor who had food, drink, and shelter?
They didn’t expect lavish feasts every meal, nor did they aspire to live in glittering palaces. All they wanted was to avoid freezing or starving to death—even a drafty shack for shelter and meals of bean cakes, wheat bran, or even tree bark and roots would suffice.
If there had been even the slightest chance of survival, they wouldn’t have been driven to this point.
The emperor pitiful? If the emperor is pitiful, then how should those who froze or starved to death be described?
If an emperor living in luxury could be described as “pitiful,” they’d gladly take that “pity” for themselves—no complaints whatsoever.
Old Zhu hugged the child in his arms and moved farther away from Old Li. He couldn’t care less about the emperor; he just thought Old Li was a lunatic.