Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Summary and plot analysis at the end of Volume 2
first question:
Some book friends said that the plot that Xu Shouhui wanted to subdue Lu Jin, who was stronger than himself, was wrong. Let me explain it here.

First, reality does not require logic, but fiction does, and this has historical basis.

Historically, Xu Shouhui first subdued Chen Youliang in early 1352, and then recaptured Ming Yuzhen by means of coercion and inducement. He had the real experience of "relying on the righteousness of "being the first to proclaim himself emperor" to recruit surrenders and rebels everywhere.

(Don't underestimate the matter of 'being the first to proclaim the emperor'. Modern people may not take it seriously, but in ancient times, why don't you try to proclaim yourself an emperor? See if the imperial court will beat you to death? Some people say that if he is the first to proclaim himself an emperor, can he recruit other rebel forces everywhere? Indeed, he can, but it is not certain whether the other party will follow him. If they don't follow him, they will be separatist forces and will have to wait to be beaten, provided that he can beat them.)
(In the original history, Xu Shouhui subdued Ming Yuzhen by coercion and inducement. If you submit honestly, I will give you an official position and many benefits. If you don't submit, just wait for me to beat you. The difference between the protagonist and Ming Yuzhen is that Xu Song really could beat Ming Yuzhen at that time, but Xu Song and the protagonist had no road connection and could only communicate through the canyons of Dabie Mountains. It was difficult to beat Lu Jin, so the threat was not established. If your means were not strong enough, the other party would naturally not obey.)
The Chaohu Navy has a close relationship with Peng Yingyu. After all, Zhao Pusheng and Li Pusheng are his apprentices, and they are also the founders of the Chaohu Navy. In the original historical plane, Xu Song did surrender Zuo Junbi of Luzhou. If the protagonist had not suddenly traveled through time and replaced Zuo Junbi, he would have been surrendered by Xu Song long ago.

The previous plot mentioned the envoys from Xu and Song three times.

The first time was with Ou Puxiang. At that time, Xu Song's appeasement of the protagonist was just a routine appeasement. In early 1352, Xu Song appeased everyone he met. The protagonist did not receive any special treatment. Xu Song did not know the protagonist's strength, and the protagonist's strength at that time was indeed not exaggerated.

So Xu Song's attitude at that time was that Xu Shouhui himself did not take Lu Jin seriously. He saw Lu Jin as just a slightly larger version of Ming Yuzhen. If Ming Yuzhen could be appeased, then why not the protagonist?
Peng Yingyu had only heard that the Chaohu navy had emerged as a new force and captured Luzhou and other places, so he wanted to use the relationship between his two disciples to bring this force back under his control. He did not know the whereabouts of his two disciples at that time.

Faced with Xu Song's first attempt to appease him, the protagonist refused to accept the position of Bianliang Guan Gou on the grounds that the position was too low and he did not want to cause friction with Liu Futong. He also informed the emperor of Zhao Pusheng's death and concealed Li Pusheng's whereabouts.

It is important to note here that in order to avoid friction with Xu Song, the protagonist did not say anything definite, nor did he say things like 'I would rather die than obey, just come and hit me'. He just made excuses to politely refuse, hinting that if he wanted me to submit, there was still room for negotiation. In fact, he was buying time and accumulating strength.

[Some people might ask, after the first time, Xu Song knew the strength of the protagonist, why did he insist on appeasing him? Here I will talk about the change in Xu Song's attitude. 】

2. The change in Xu Song’s attitude.

At the beginning of 1352, Xu Song experienced a period of great development. Within two months, the territory expanded by thousands of miles. As long as the team could continue to grow and the company's profit scale could continue to develop, all contradictions could be covered up. However, starting from March of that year, the Yuan court counterattacked, and Xu Song was defeated all the way and soon lost most of its territory. At this time, contradictions began to emerge.

First of all, there was the conflict between Xu Shouhui and the generals. Xu Shouhui himself was a mascot, but because his skin turned white when he took a bath, he was elected as the leader by everyone. What kind of a lousy reason is this???

Xu Shouhui had no prestige at all in the Xu-Song Red Turban Army. All the battles were fought by Zou Pusheng, Ni Wenjun, Chen Youliang, Ming Yuzhen, and Peng Yingyu's disciples. The soldiers were also in the hands of these frontline generals. Xu Shouhui had no military authority or real power at all.

What did Han Feizi say about the danger of extinction? "When the government is empty and the ministers are powerful, when the regular households are poor and the host families are rich, the country is doomed to fail."

You are an emperor with no soldiers and no prestige. The military power is in the hands of the generals, and the military achievements are also made by the generals. If you don't die, who will die? !

This was also the reason why Ni Wenjun rebelled later, and Chen Youliang rebelled again, and finally killed him with the final blow.

If you were an emperor who succeeded to the throne and had no military achievements, it would be fine, because the throne was passed down from ancestors. But you are a founding emperor, you never fought a single battle, and all the military achievements went to your generals. How could you control these arrogant founding generals? Don't you understand the principle that meritorious service will frighten the ruler?

Do you think Xu Shouhui is Li Yuan? He has a son who is as good at fighting as Li Shimin. If Xu Shouhui really had a son like Li Shimin, do you think Ni Wenjun would dare to rebel? Do you think Chen Youliang would dare to kill the emperor?
In the original history, the Ming Dynasty also commented on Xu Shouhui, "Shouhui was too lenient and gave all power to the people below him, which led to the conspiracy to usurp the throne."

So, is Xu Shouhui stupid? He is not stupid. Doesn't Xu Shouhui know that this situation is not good for him? Of course he knows.

So he wanted to recruit Lu Jin to join him and make him his helper. Even if he couldn't use him, he could bring him in to balance the generals of other factions. There was nothing wrong with his idea. (I wrote about Xu Shouhui's attitude in the previous article, but I forgot which chapter it was in)
This led to Xu Song's second diplomatic mission.

The background of Xu Song's second visit was that Xu Song had suffered defeats for three consecutive months and lost thousands of miles of territory. At this time, they came again to recruit Lu Jin.

From a public perspective, he could win over a strong ally and break the stalemate from the outside. From a private perspective, Xu Shouhui wanted to win over Lu Jin to use him to balance the internal factions.

Moreover, he had said before the mission that even if Lu Jin would not agree immediately, he would try his best to persuade Lu Jin to send troops to attack Jiujiang together.

[Someone asked, knowing that the protagonist is so powerful, why didn't Xu Song choose to form an alliance? 】

What about status?
Only when the relationship is equal can an alliance be formed. Xu Shouhui is the emperor, and they are the Song Kingdom. What is the protagonist? It is just a local separatist armed force. Xu Song cannot form an alliance with the protagonist, unless they lower their status and say that they are just a separatist armed force, or automatically admit that they are equal to the protagonist, then the protagonist can also establish a country and become emperor.

In the feudal era, would the Chinese emperor recognize another emperor?

For example, what was the original purpose of Emperor Wu of Han sending Zhang Qian to the Western Regions? It was to let Zhang Qian seek an alliance with the Wusun Kingdom, so that the two countries could attack the Xiongnu together. The Han Dynasty was a country, and Wusun was also a country. You had to recognize the equal status of the other party before you could form an alliance.

If the other party is of lower status than you, it is not called an alliance, it is called an order!

Would the Ming Dynasty form an alliance with Korea? No. But did the Ming Dynasty recognize Korea as a country? Yes, it did. The two sides had a vassal relationship, a father-son relationship. The Ming Dynasty was the emperor, the father, and the suzerain state, and the King of Korea had the title of a prince (one level lower than the prince of Ryukyu), the son, and a vassal state. If the Ming Dynasty asked Korea to send troops to fight the Japanese pirates together, that was called an order, not an alliance.

In short, you have to have a status. This is the rule of the game in ancient feudal dynasties, the Three Bonds and Five Constant Virtues, and the Confucian worldview. You cannot use modern people's eyes and take it for granted that the two sides can form an alliance casually. The ancients attached great importance to things like alliances, which involved etiquette and law. For example, the Weishui Alliance of the Tang Dynasty, the Chanyuan Alliance of the Song Dynasty, the White Horse Alliance of the Han Dynasty, and the alliance of the Eighteen Princes to fight against Dong.

To form an alliance, you must first recognize the other party’s equal status.

There is also the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, when Liu Bei and Sun Quan formed an alliance. At the beginning, neither of them proclaimed themselves emperors. They were both separatist forces with equal status, so they could naturally form an alliance. Later, both sides proclaimed themselves emperors and recognized each other's equal status, so they could naturally form an alliance.

But the relationship between Xu Song and the protagonist is not equal, so they cannot form an alliance. Lu Jin has not agreed to submit, so it is not a subordinate relationship. Of course, the other party's order to send troops can be rejected. Can you understand that?

Let’s talk about the second envoy. One reason was to seek external aid, and the other was that Xu Shouhui personally wanted to subdue Lu Jin and use him for his own purposes. Xu Shouhui’s attitude changed from indifference to attention.

During his second diplomatic mission, Peng Yingyu's attitude changed. The first time, he wanted to use the relationship between his apprentices to regain control of Luzhou, a force developed from the Chaohu navy, but what he got was news that one of his two apprentices died and one was missing, and Lu Jin, who came out of nowhere, suddenly took power.

Peng Yingyu suspected that Lu Jin had killed his two apprentices. Of course, it didn't matter whether the apprentices were dead or alive. He had a lot of apprentices, and more than one or two of them had died. But he could use this incident to make a fuss.

During the second mission, Peng Yingyu's attitude changed. He tried to appease the enemy and contact his two disciples to seize the throne. Peng Yingyu did not expect the protagonist to surrender. But Xu Shouhui still wanted to conquer Lu Jin privately. He did not want Lu Jin's power to fall into Peng Yingyu's hands. Wouldn't that make his situation even more difficult? So he still wanted to make it happen himself.

So there was a second diplomatic mission, but this time Lu Jin had been developing for some time and was stronger, so he asked for a higher price. However, he still refused on the grounds that the official position was too low, the title would not be granted in reality, and he was worried that Peng Yingyu would bring up old scores.

But in order to delay Xu Song and avoid a complete break with them, the protagonist still declined politely and did not reject it completely. He still left Xu Song with hope of continuing negotiations and even gave armor and looms as a gesture of goodwill, but he just refused to agree to submit and send troops, forcing Xu Song to attack Hangzhou.

After the envoy went back for the second time, Xu Shouhui still had hope of winning over Lu Jin, because Lu Jin did not refuse directly and asked the envoy to go back and explain the misunderstanding for him, which was obviously a gesture of goodwill.

Peng Yingyu completely lost his patience in trying to persuade Lu Jin to surrender, and came to the conclusion that "Lu Jin will never surrender easily unless the army is at the gates of the city", and then he went to lead the attack on Hangzhou. Xu Shouhui raised the stakes and sent an envoy for the third time.

(He really wanted to have a force of his own, and Xu Shouhui didn't want to be a mascot forever. This was why he wanted to recruit the protagonist even though he knew Lu Jin was powerful. What if the deal was successful? After all, the protagonist did not refuse outright, but was showing goodwill to him instead).

After that, on the third diplomatic mission, the protagonist was watching the situation in Jiangnan and preparing to cross the river. He had been avoiding the envoys from Xu Song, and then the current plot came.

second question:
[Some people say that the plot before the crossing of the river in the second volume is a bit slow. ]

I admit this. Why? Because when the protagonist captured Luzhou and established a base, some readers complained that the story developed too fast. The protagonist recruited soldiers without much training, but they were immediately sent out to fight and always won. This was unreasonable.

But they never thought about the original history. Did Guo Zixing's soldiers have training? Why could the peasant army he just recruited repel the attack of the Yuan Dynasty? Did Xuzhou Zhima Li's soldiers have training? How could he capture cities everywhere by raising 100,000 soldiers overnight?
Of course, in order to make the plot more 'reasonable', I also took into account the readers' opinions and tried to write the development process in more detail, so that they would not say that the protagonist developed too quickly, thus slowing down the plot development.

In fact, judging from the timeline alone, the plot has developed very quickly.

According to the original history, Zhu Yuanzhang crossed the river in 1355, which was the fifteenth year of Zhizheng, and the protagonist originally planned to do so around 1353. Now it has been brought forward to September 1352, which is already very fast, three years earlier than Zhu Yuanzhang in the original history.

As for why it still feels like the progress is too slow, it’s because of the update speed and the fact that it’s written too detailed.
Third question:
[Some people say that if you don’t include famous ministers and generals, you won’t be able to write? ]

As for this question, it depends on my personal understanding. I didn't write historical texts before, and this is the first time I have tried to make the transition. However, I have also read quite a few historical texts. My personal opinion is: the core of historical time-travel texts is to make up for some of the regrets of modern people about ancient history, and to see how the original historical figures will develop differently under the influence of the protagonist.

For example, those who wrote about the Qin Dynasty did not hope that the second Qin emperor would perish; those who wrote about the Three Kingdoms all hoped that Ji Han would succeed in his northern expedition; those who wrote about the Song Dynasty all hoped that Yue Fei would have a good ending; those who wrote about the late Ming Dynasty all hoped that the Qing Dynasty could be destroyed. This is to make up for regrets and influence the original historical figures.

If I don’t write about the famous officials and generals in the original history, who should I write about? There are also many original characters in the book, such as Zhu Shou and Zhang Wen. Although they have historical prototypes, there is no information about them except their names, so they can also be considered original characters. There are also people like the Bao brothers in Luzhou and the Qin family in Chao County, who are all original characters. But if I only write about them and don’t play opposite roles with the original historical figures, then will anyone know that this is about the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty?
Those famous officials and generals in the original history are actually part of the background of the historical era. They are used to create the historical environment of that era, so they must be written about. (This is my own understanding)

Then there is the most recent plot, which is about Bian Yuanheng and Shi Nai'an. Both of them are very talented people. Bian Yuanheng is a talented commander, understands military tactics, and has high martial arts skills. With some experience, he should be able to become a wise and brave general like Xu Da and Chang Yuchun combined. However, just because he followed the capricious Zhang Shicheng in the original history, this man was completely laid to rest. Isn't this a waste of talent and a regret?
There is also Li Huafu, a man who dared to rebel and break into a prison for his friend, a man of affection, righteousness, courage and resourcefulness. However, he was brutally killed by Zhang Shicheng just because he refused to accept the amnesty, and his troops were also annexed. Isn't this a pity?

(I just want to change the fate of this kind of people in the book, leaving no regrets.)

There is another point of view. These people are already there. They are a talent pool. If you don't recruit them, someone else will. If someone else recruits them, they will use them to attack you. It's a relationship of gain at the expense of loss.

If I write that all these powerful generals are from other people, and the protagonist leads a bunch of original characters, if the protagonist loses, you will definitely say that I am cheating for the enemy. If the protagonist wins, you will say that I am disrespecting the original historical figures. A bunch of unknown original characters are hanging up and beating up the princes and dukes in history. Anyway, no matter how I write it, it is impossible to win everyone's hearts.

That’s all about the plot issues, and then let’s talk about the updates in the previous period.

There were duplicate or reissued chapters before, that was not to prevent theft (Qidian now has official anti-theft protection, so authors don't have to do it themselves), that was purely a problem of my mentality at that time, and I was lazy and had a late stage of procrastination. I apologize to everyone, I'm sorry, I'm willing to apologize Orz
The main reason is that I have never written this kind of historical text and have no experience. Those who have read the comments when the book was put on the shelves should know that the outline of this book was changed temporarily, and even the main story line was changed. It is basically two different books from the original one, or it can be said that this is a new book that was rushed out within three days, and the outline and other things were all written temporarily.

Then, around some time, the protagonist conquered Luzhou, Hexian, Dingyuan and Haozhou. The early development was too fast, but it was still early for the main line of crossing the river (it was originally scheduled to be around 1353). Suddenly, I didn’t know where this part of the story should develop. In addition, many people complained that the development was too fast during that period, so I just wrote about internal affairs and equipment.

Then a plot of fighting on Anqing Road was added temporarily. This place was not originally planned to be fought before crossing the river, but now it has been moved to before crossing the river.

But the plot has come to this point and we can't keep dragging it on. If we cross the river now, the strategic timing is not ripe. According to the original history, when Zhu Yuanzhang crossed the river in 1355, Toghto had already died, the Yuan court's central army had collapsed, Zhang Shicheng had already rebelled, and the Xuzhou Zhima Li Group had also collapsed long ago. Zhu Yuanzhang's only opponent was the local Yuan army in the south, and there was no strong enemy at all.

But if the protagonist had crossed the river in 1352, he would have encountered all the powerful enemies mentioned above. But in order to make the plot develop more reasonably, some corresponding deployments had to be made here.

For example, waiting for Xu Song to attack Jiangnan and luring away part of the Yuan army in Jiangnan, or persuading Tuotuo to cultivate land in Dadu and lay the foundation in Yangzhou and Huaidong roads in advance (including recruiting Li Huafu and Bian Yuanheng, all of which were products of this strategy), and supporting Xuzhou Zhima Li and asking them to help take the blame. These were all preparations for crossing the river earlier than in history.

Some people say that the protagonist is so powerful now, what is he waiting for, why not just push forward directly.

How should I put it? Actually, the book says that with the current strength of the protagonist, he is indeed very strong, so strong that he can fight the Yuan Dynasty Central Army alone, one life for one life (no matter how strong you are, after all, the troops are limited, and there are only so many people in Luzhou, it is impossible to have unlimited troops), and completely destroy the entire Yuan Dynasty. Then what? Then the protagonist's own troops are almost exhausted, so what is the point of fighting for the world? Wouldn't that be making wedding clothes for other rebels?

In the chicken-eating competition at the end of a dynasty, being able to fight is of course important, but being able to survive is equally important. Being able to fight does not mean being a reckless man. Don't be stupid and become cannon fodder for others.

Okay, that's all I have to say, otherwise it's time to spoil the story -
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Those who are interested in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio or fairy tales can take a look.

(End of this chapter)