[Lightscreen]
[Looking at Cao Wei and Sun Wu even though they fell apart for different reasons they shared one huge thing in common. Both rotted from the inside out. When the roots are rotten no amount of pretty flowers on top can save the tree.
That is exactly why so many people drop the novel the second the Prime Minister dies at Wuzhang Plains. What is even left to read after that? Just watching everyone race to see who can be the most miserable?
You really want to stick around and watch Sun Wu go through six plus one internal rebellions? Ending with the last Wu emperor riding in a plain cart pulled by a white horse stripped to the waist all tied up holding a jade ring in his mouth and leading a sheep like a sacrificial offering?
Or seeing Liu Shan get named Duke of Anle and happily shout that he is having so much fun here that he does not miss Shu one bit?
Or watching the Jin dynasty take over Wei and get completely hooked on Five Mineral Powder leading straight into the messy War of the Eight Princes and the chaos of the Uprising of the Five Barbarians?
The book totally skips over the guys who actually did a decent job like Shi Xie.
Whenever people talk about the Three Kingdoms Shi Xie gets practically invisible. But if we are talking about achievements that last for generations very few people from that era can stand shoulder to shoulder with him.
For forty whole years Shi Xie ruled Jiaozhou and the region barely saw a single war. The economy boomed and culture thrived like crazy. Han culture took firm root blending Jiaozhou smoothly with the central plains. Even today the people of Vietnam still look up to Shi Xie as a founding father and tell stories about him ascending straight to immortality when he passed.
His family originally fled south from Shandong during Wang Mang's rebellion generations back. He studied the classics in the capital climbed the ranks in the Han court and took charge of Jiaozhi Commandery in 187 AD. As central power crumbled he steadily took control of four out of seven commanderies in Jiaozhou bringing solid stability and order across the whole region.
He ruled with a steady hand and treated everyone with genuine respect. Hundreds of famous scholars from the north fled to his lands seeking safety. Under his guidance learning flourished and the common people enjoyed decades of peace and plenty. He was a dedicated scholar himself writing respected commentaries on the classics and building a culture of learning across the land.
He played the game smart too. He sent tribute to the Han court and later submitted to Sun Quan while keeping his domain peaceful and productive. He passed away in 226 AD at age ninety having spent forty years at the helm. His family lost power not long after but his mark on the land stayed deep and lasting.
In Vietnam they honor him as King Sĩ the man who brought literacy proper rites and true civilization to their people. Temples still stand in his name and they remember him as the wise ruler who shaped their history for all time.]
The light screen played that narration over some picture perfect farming scene. Liu Bei was not buying it at all.
He actually worked the fields back in the day, so nobody could fool him with this garbage. Those farmers had soft fair skin and chubby cheeks. Since when did real farmers look that well fed? And who the hell owned that many cows? Their clothes were way too nice too! Even the ox pulling the plow looked way too healthy and pampered!
Wait a second.
Hold on.
Why was the plow curved like that?
Liu Bei frowned and really studied it. As the down on his luck descendant of Prince Jing of Zhongshan, he knew his way around farmland. He used straight plows and simple seed drills back then. This curved design looked way smarter and way more efficient.
Right next to him, Zhuge Liang, who also used to farm for a living, grabbed a scrap of silk and started sketching that curved plow straight away.
Zhao Yun pulled out his own piece of silk and drew the weird round water wheel sitting in the irrigation ditch. He sketched while thinking hard. It seemed to do the same job as the old chain pump, but the whole setup was totally different.
He figured he might as well copy it down first. If the future used this design, it had to be for a good reason.
The screen zoomed in again.
The pretty farm scene faded out and showed wide busy roads, crowds of people wearing pointed bamboo hats, and a grand statue all dressed up with folks bowing down in worship. Text popped up at the bottom: Tomb of Shi Xie.
Huang Zhong scratched his head, totally confused. "If this is Shi Xie's tomb, then why do the pillars on both sides have writing that looks like squirming tadpoles all over them?"
Guan Yu, who had the Spring and Autumn Annals practically memorized, stroked his beard and offered up a guess.
"The screen probably meant Nanyue, not Vietnam. Ancient records from way before the Qin dynasty mentioned the hundred Yue tribes, and one of them was called Nanyue. Seems their culture lasted all this time. That squiggly script looks like the old shaman divination symbols used before the Qin got started."
He trailed off right there. Even he could tell that sounded pretty shaky. Who in their right mind carves shaman scribbles all over a tomb anyway?
Everyone got stuck staring at those weird markings for a moment.
Until Liu Bei finally processed the part that actually mattered.
Having fun here and not missing Shu at all?
Having fun here and not missing Shu at all? Great. Just great. That is my son A-Dou for you!
"Do not get so mad, big brother. Just look at Sun Quan's descendants. They are way more embarrassing. They are way more embarrassing. Riding a plain cart pulled by a white horse, stripped to the waist, all tied up, holding jade, and leading a sheep like some sacrificial offering. They behaved worse than lowly servants. If Sun Jian and Sun Ce saw that mess, they would be so mad they would burst straight out of their coffins and send the lids flying!"
Liu Bei nodded on instinct before his brain fully caught up.
He glanced over and realized Zhang Fei had snuck back in at some point. The man was leaning against the doorframe, hugging a wine jar in one hand and clutching a roast chicken in the other, treating the light screen like his own personal entertainment show.
Catching Liu Bei's murderous glare, Zhang Fei shuffled over looking totally innocent. He held up both offerings. "Hey, if nothing else works, big brother, just eat and drink a little to calm down. You are gonna need the energy when you finally go spank A-Dou, right!"
Liu Bei did not know whether to laugh or cry. Half his irritation vanished right there.
He waved his hand in shooing annoyance, telling Zhang Fei to go squat in the corner and behave himself.
Deep down, though, he totally agreed with every word. Sun Jian had been fiercely loyal, and Sun Ce the boldest, most talented young hero of his time with grand ambitions to match. Both were true legends. They probably never imagined in a million years their descendants would end up this pathetic.
"Rolling over like lapdogs for other people." Zhang Fei chimed in promptly, picking up a phrase he remembered from the screen's earlier talk about the last Wu emperor surrendering, earning himself another deadly side-eye from Liu Bei.
"The screen makes such a huge deal out of Jin people getting addicted to Five Mineral Powder. What is so wrong with it anyway?" Huang Zhong asked, genuinely confused. His old lord Liu Biao used to take the stuff all the time. He loved throwing grand banquets, and back in the day guests would bring the powder along to share at big feasts.
Nobody had a ready answer. Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, and Zhuge Liang all just looked at one another, thinking the exact same thing.
'Bro, we are all way too poor to ever afford that fancy stuff, so why are you asking us?:
Zhuge Liang did recall some old intelligence reports he had come across before. He spoke up slowly. "Guo Jia died young. Back then, there were whispers that the imperial physicians in Xuchang believed his weak health came from taking that very powder."
Liu Bei laid down the final word like a boss. "Stay far, far away from it. If people a thousand years later still refuse to even talk about it openly, that stuff has to be pure poison!"
[Lightscreen]
[According to exact data from archaeological digs today, the national population in 157 AD during the third year of Yongshou under Emperor Huan of Han was 56.47 million.
By the time Western Jin unified the country in 280 AD, the national population had dropped to 16.16 million.
Over a single century, the warlords basically wiped out the common people. But Jiaozhou was one of the very few regions that actually kept its population growing. No wonder the Vietnamese people still miss him. Of course, the Ming dynasty losing Vietnam later on is a story for another time.
In the novel, after the Prime Minister dies at Wuzhang Plains, the Three Kingdoms era is no different from regular warlord fragmentation.
Surrounded by ambitious wolves, Jiang Wei, the only person to truly inherit the Prime Minister's will, could only leave behind one sentence before his death. My plan failed because it was the will of heaven.
But after finishing the depressing topic of Cao Wei, our next episode will finally talk about Shu Han.
There are plenty of blood-pressure-spiking moments there too, but at least there is a lot of fun stuff as well. Stay tuned.]
This time, Liu Bei did not even need Zhuge Liang to remind him.
He quickly flashed a thumbs-up. Jumping on the bandwagon, everyone else in the room threw up a thumbs-up too.
Even a completely clueless Huang Zhong followed the crowd and gave a thumbs-up.
The mood in the room was pretty heavy, though. The population had dropped by forty million in a single century! Even if those were forty million cows and sheep, the number would be hard to wrap your head around.
Let alone the fact that these were living, breathing people who spoke the same language!
And nobody in this room knew better than the generals present exactly how those people had vanished.
"This is exactly why we must restore the Han dynasty," Liu Bei said in a low voice. "If we let a butcher like Cao Cao, whose hands are dripping with blood while he hypocritically writes poems about white bones bleaching in the wild and no roosters crowing for a thousand miles, take this world, I would be letting down my ancestors! Plus, the screen showed a lot of contempt for the Jin dynasty earlier, mentioning the War of the Eight Princes and the Uprising of the Five Barbarians. Just hearing those words makes my skin crawl. I cannot even imagine the scale of that disaster."
"We are willing to die for our lord! We are willing to die to restore the Han dynasty!" The generals all stood up solemnly and answered in unison.
"Kongming has a successor! Now that the light screen has given us a heads-up, it means heaven's mandate truly rests with big brother!" Zhang Fei's eyes were shining bright.
"Kongming, which branch of your family does this Jiang Wei belong to? I will go fetch him right now so you can start training him early!"
Note:
In reality, the reason there was less fighting in the later Three Kingdoms period was simply because everyone was too exhausted to keep fighting. Too many people had died. The entire land had been beaten to a pulp. From Liaodong to Jiangdong, from Shandong to Fufeng, there was not a single peaceful spot left. Even Shi Xie had to deal with his own son launching a rebellion after he died, and quelling that revolt cost plenty of lives too. It really goes to show that it is better to be a dog in peacetime than a human in wartime.