"So this Goguryeo place. Is that basically Korea?" Jian Yong was making an educated guess.
Their available information was pretty limited, but Jian Yong vaguely recalled something. Up in the Liaodong region, there was definitely a place by that name, was there not?
Kongming remembered it clearly. But he also felt that explaining the full picture would take way too long right now. So he just confirmed the basics.
"Emperor Shizong Xiaowu destroyed Korea. After that, Gaogouli County was established under Xuantu Commandery."
He paused briefly before adding the follow up.
"During the reign of Emperor Shizu Guangwu, the ruler of Goguryeo declared himself king and sent envoys to pay tribute."
Everyone understood immediately. This was yet another one of those subjects who bowed their heads and then flipped the table the moment you turned your back.
"Why the hell does the screen call them 'Sticks'?" Zhang Fei could not figure it out. So many possible names existed. Why did the light screen specifically use that one?
"Future generations seem to hold their speech in low regard. It must be a term of contempt," Jian Yong reasoned it out.
"Their rulers actually believe such obviously fabricated wild history. And they even hire actors to perform it just to fool their own people. You could call that a nation of fools."
"Ohhh." Zhang Fei nodded, fully satisfied with this explanation. Then he turned his head to look at Ma Su.
"Youchang. Make sure you never end up like those sticks."
Ma Su's mouth twitched. Third General, if you want to call me a fool, just say it to my face and spare the geography lesson.
For Kongming, there were far more important details to capture. He simply picked up his brush and started recording them himself.
The names of various illnesses and medical conditions, for one. Those he would need to discuss with Zhang Zhongjing later. The medical knowledge of future eras was clearly profound.
And this Sima Yi character. He actually had an imperial title? Did that mean the Sima clan's usurpation of Wei all traced back to this one man's hands?
[Lightscreen]
[Another fascinating aspect of the Book of Jin is its treatment of 'taboo' names and figures.
The main subject of the Book of Jin is the Sima Jin dynasty. But the Tang historians did not treat the Sima clan with any particular reverence at all.
In fact, Erfeng himself was basically the Sima Jin dynasty's biggest hater.
In Erfeng's own final judgment on Sima Yi, he starts off by acknowledging the man's skill with personnel, military command, and political contributions.
But then, the tone shifted drastically.
He stamped a giant seal of 'TREACHEROUS MINISTER' on Sima Yi's legacy. He openly mocked the man for being terrified of a dead Zhuge Liang, and finally, he laughed at the irony of Sima Yi's life.
And finally he takes one last shot. He points out that Sima Yi threw away a lifetime of loyal reputation and still never actually became Emperor himself. All he got was an empty imperial title slapped on him by his descendants after he was already in the ground. At his core he was still just a Wei official.
Since the Emperor himself was leading the charge, the Tang historians figured they might as well join in.
So they happily included all the more questionable stories. Sima Yi trying to scare Cao Cao. Zhang Chunhua stabbing a maid to keep a secret. Sima Shi killing his own wife. it all went into the record
However, Li Erfeng had his own ulterior motives as well. Take his evaluation of Sima Yan, for example.
Erfeng argued that Sima Yan's biggest mistake was naming his foolish and weak eldest son as heir. He pinned the destruction of the dynasty directly on that choice.
Sima Yan's eldest son was the famous idiot Emperor. The guy who famously asked why starving peasants did not just eat meat.
But let us be real here. The guy was an idiot. Not a tyrant. He definitely bears some responsibility for the collapse. But calling him the main cause? That is a stretch.
Sima Yan himself was far more absurd;
he once banned marriages across the entire empire just so he could have the first pick of women for his personal harem. How is that any less insane than what his son did?
Li Erfeng's harsh critique of the Jin succession was mostly a psychological defense mechanism, a way to justify his own actions at Xuanwu Gate. You know. The whole killing his brothers thing.
But honestly? The common people never cared about any of that.
Shimin. Li Shimin. The name itself means to 'save the world and bring peace to the people.'
The populace of the Tang Dynasty truly enjoyed a century of the 'Taixuan' Golden Age, and because of that, they praise and remember him without reservation.
Later on, the Song and Ming dynasties looked at Li Shimin's achievements and started building the argument that Li Yuan only managed to found the dynasty because of Li Shimin's efforts in the first place.
And in modern Xi'an, there is a place called Great Tang All Day City. where Li Erfeng and his ministers stand tall as statues, immortalized in the hearts of the people.
Modern scholars don't even bother debating the ethics of the Xuanwu Gate Incident anymore.
As the lyrics of a popular song say: 'Fight for the world, sit on the throne!'.]
"Sire... are you... crying?"
Zhangsun Wuji had noticed that Li Shimin had gone completely still, standing there like a statue carved from stone.
Earlier, when those Goguryeo descendants had used that absurd theater to mock him, this young Emperor had blazed with a fury hot enough to scorch the heavens.
But as the screen transitioned to dissect the historiography of the Jin dynasty, Zhangsun Wuji saw something else on that youthful face. He saw disdain, he saw exhaustion, and he saw a flicker of lingering insecurity.
As both an imperial in-law and a trusted minister, Zhangsun Wuji believed he knew this Emperor inside and out.
This was a man of peerless military merit who had paid back insults tenfold. He was a man who seized the throne because he refused to sit idly by and wait for death.
Yet, despite his self-preservation, he had never truly been able to leap over the psychological hurdle of traditional rites and brotherhood.
But now, as Zhangsun Wuji watched, that wisp of dark smoke that had always clung to the blazing sun of the Great Tang finally dissipated. It melted like frost under a spring morning. Gone. Completely gone.
"Fight for the world, sit on the throne!" So this is what the common folk of the future really think?
"This light screen is far too stingy!" Li Shimin casually brushed the moisture from the corner of his eye with his sleeve and let out a short laugh. "How is anyone supposed to see anything properly in such a cramped little space?"
No one answered him. Because at that very moment, the light screen bloomed into a vast and resplendent city of eternal night.
Dazzling lights. Rivers of people strolling without a care. A sea of lanterns turning darkness into day.
The streets were broad and welcoming. Every face in the crowd looked completely at ease. There were even women from that future era dressed in clothing reminiscent of Tang styles, laughing and playing without a hint of worry.
Li Jing craned his neck and squinted hard. Finally, he offered his assessment in the same tone a doting grandfather might use to critique a beloved granddaughter.
"Not plump enough. They must be skipping meals over there."
Li Shimin, meanwhile, had his eyes locked onto the massive equestrian statue standing proudly at the very heart of the display.
He could not make out the facial features. But the instant he saw the four characters carved into the stone pedestal:The Grand Commander of Zhenguan, he knew with absolute, bone-deep certainty.
That's me.
"The Grand Commander of Zhenguan... heh. Not bad at all."
As for that old Tiance General title? Li Shimin had already thrown it to the back of his mental storage room and slammed the door shut.
Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui, and Zhangsun Wuji were all utterly transfixed, gazing at the scene as if in a collective dream. Their only pang of regret was failing to spot their own likenesses anywhere among the statues.
"Worry not!" Li Shimin reassured his closest ministers with a wave of his hand. "Earlier, this immortal light screen paid a visit to Chancellor Zhuge's city of Chengdu."
He spoke with the serene confidence of a man stating an immutable law of nature.
"Sooner or later, it will take a full and proper tour through this sleepless Chang'an as well!"
Du Ruhui and the others felt a strange, unfamiliar itch somewhere deep in their chests.
And buried within that itch was a tiny, petulant grumble. Your Majesty, why in the world did you not summon us earlier?
Who in the realm wouldn't want to see the Chengdu of the future?
"This light screen... it's still too damn small." Li Jing, too dignified to physically shove his way to the front, settled for this grumbled observation instead.
Li Shimin felt exactly the same way. He found himself frowning in genuine consternation. How exactly are we supposed to fix this problem?
...
"Not as nice as Chengdu." Liu Bei offered a highly biased critique, a man who knew for a fact that his own city had an entire temple dedicated specifically to him. Chengdu's practically my second hometown by now. Of course it looks better.
"So this is Chang'an. The city the military advisor never got to see with his own eyes." Zhang Fei's words dropped into the room like a brick into a pond. Absolute silence rippled outward.
But Zhang Fei, utterly oblivious to the sudden atmospheric pressure drop, just kept muttering to himself. "Gotta admit, it really does look impressive."
He paused, scratched his chin, and added with genuine curiosity, "Makes me wonder what Hefei looks like. You know, the place Sun Shinwan-ge spent years failing to reach."
Kongming chose, with practiced grace, to let the comment evaporate into the ether. His mind was elsewhere, thoroughly preoccupied with that Tang Emperor.
"Killing his own brothers. Spilling the blood of his own kin." He murmured the words slowly, turning them over like strange artifacts. "And yet he still became an Emperor praised through the ages?"
Ma Liang, blessed with a sharp memory for the texts he had personally transcribed, recalled the earlier passages with clarity.
"If the light screen's earlier words were indeed about this Li Shimin, then he himself claimed to have pacified the realm in just seven years."
The deduction practically solved itself.
"So the 'Er' in Erfeng... it's simply because he was the second son." Liu Bei found himself in a genuine moral quagmire. From his own standpoint, it was nearly impossible to render a clean verdict.
A savior to the common people, yet a criminal against the sacred rites?
But the future generations, even a thousand years removed, still remembered him with fondness. Still honored his monumental achievements.
"The common people... the masses..." Liu Bei chewed on those two words, tasting their weight.
The great aristocratic clans had all bowed their heads to that traitor Cao Cao. But the common people? They had chosen to follow him across the great river.
The title of Imperial Uncle wasn't the true source of his strength. It was the name of benevolence, the reputation for virtue, that gathered men's hearts.
In that singular moment, Liu Bei felt a strange and unexpected lightness settle over his shoulders.
"This Li Erfeng. The man truly stands at the absolute pinnacle of military achievement."
Even Kongming felt a genuine spark of admiration kindle in his chest. The man had personally conquered the realm. Personally forged a golden age from nothing. Personally stretched the borders of the empire to their breaking point.
And then, unbidden, a treacherous thought surfaced in the depths of his mind.
If this man had been the one leading the northern campaigns from Mount Qi... perhaps the whole matter could have been settled in a single battle.
On the light screen, the vision of that Great Tang All Day City had flickered and faded after only the briefest of moments. leaving even the picky Liu Bei wanting more.
[Lightscreen]
[So if the Book of Jin treats its own main subject, the Sima Jin dynasty, with such blatant disrespect, does it truly achieve a state of objective neutrality? Yeah, no. Of course not.
There is exactly one ruler in the entire Book of Jin who gets the VIP treatment. He appears as a flawless paragon of wisdom and virtue, completely scrubbed clean of any negative records whatsoever.
That would be Li Hao, the founding monarch of the Western Liang during the Sixteen Kingdoms period.
Why does he get such embarrassingly special treatment? Simple. He's the officially certified, stamped, and approved ancestor of the Li Tang imperial bloodline.]
The smile on Li Shimin's face stiffened like drying cement. He had watched this light screen long enough to recognize its patterns. A very bad, very familiar feeling began crawling up the back of his neck.
[Lightscreen]
[The practice of 'ancestor-claiming' was rampant in ancient times, and the Tang Dynasty was no exception.
According to the Book of Jin, Li Hao was recorded as the sixteenth generation descendant of the famed Han general, Li Guang.
Then, as if by bureaucratic magic, the Book of Jin conveniently produced a previously unverifiable grandson for Li Hao, one named Chong'er.
This Chong'er fellow supposedly had a descendant named Li Hu. Now Li Hu, that name actually checks out. He was the grandfather of Li Yuan and one of the legendary Eight Pillars of State of the Western Wei.
Everything ties together nice and neat, right?Wrong.
Regarding this particular genealogical fairy tale, modern historical giant Mr. Chen Yinke has delivered a devastating verdict on this lineage. His evaluation? 'A fabricated transmission.'
The reasoning is not even that complicated. During the Taihe era of the Northern Wei, the Liangzhou region operated under a very strict two-tier social caste system.
On one side, you had the Liangzhou Natives. These were the local powerful families, the old money and old land.
On the other side, you had the Fengpei Old Houses. These were the descendants of families who had been forcibly exiled and conscripted into military service after the disastrous failure of the Six Garrisons Rebellion.
The Liangzhou Natives enjoyed a very cushy perk. Complete exemption from menial labor and military conscription. Sweet deal.
The Fengpei Old Houses? They were the designated lower class, stuck with the miserable job of frontier defense. The Book of Wei explicitly records that unless someone had committed complete and total social suicide, no respectable person would ever willingly associate with these people.
And right here, at this exact intersection, we hit a glaring, irreconcilable contradiction in the historical record.
The Book of Wei states that Li Hao's great-grandson, Li Chong, served as Deputy Director of the Secretariat. That position placed him firmly in the Liangzhou Natives category.
Meanwhile, the Old Book of Tang claims that Chong'er had a son named Li Xi, who served as a garrison commander at Jinmen. That job is about as Fengpei Old House as it gets.
Two men supposedly from the exact same bloodline, existing in the exact same era. One was a downgraded soldier scraping by on the frontier. One was a local elite aristocrat swimming in privilege. There is absolutely zero connection between these two.
The unavoidable conclusion? The Li Tang imperial house almost certainly did not originate from the prestigious Longxi Li clan. They were likely just an ordinary, unremarkable minor family who hit the ultimate jackpot.
And the funniest part? Li Hao ended up as the biggest winner of all. An entire royal house voluntarily showed up at his doorstep and claimed him as their glorious ancestor. And as a lovely bonus, they very helpfully swept away any historical dirt on his record in the process.
Oh, and there's a fun little side effect. Because the Li Tang imperial house made this particular ancestral claim, the great Tang poet Li Bai was later retroactively researched and also declared to be a descendant of Li Hao. Nepotism by historical revision.
But let's be honest here. None of this actually matters.
Everyone knows the names Li Bai and Li Er'. Their fame is eternal. Their legends are carved into the bedrock of history.
Li Hao and the Longxi Li clan? They've long since drowned in the dusty, forgotten piles of ancient paperwork. Nobody cares.]
Li Shimin's fists clenched so tight his knuckles went white.
Li Erfeng I can tolerate, but now you've simplified it down to just 'Li Er'?!
As for the debunking of his royal lineage, Li Shimin squeezed his fists one last time before slowly shaking his head. "It is merely a joke for the future to laugh at."
Zhangsun Wuji glided in with the practiced grace of a man who had made an entire career out of saying the right thing at the right time.
"Your Majesty's name shall echo for ten thousand ages."
"The Longxi Li clan endures in the annals of history precisely because of Your Majesty's glorious name. Your Majesty never once needed to borrow the name of the Longxi Li clan to pacify the realm and unite the world."
That was... actually very nicely put. Li Shimin's eyes narrowed ever so slightly in deeply comfortable satisfaction.
"Still. I do wonder about one thing."
He tapped a finger against his chin. "Who exactly is this Li Bai?"
That was the single point of genuine curiosity still gnawing at him.
The light screen had brought up the title of Poet Immortal multiple times now. And the way it spoke, the casual reverence in its tone, it seemed to imply a level of cultural immortality comparable even to his own title of Emperor Praised Through the Ages.
It was a genuine shame he would never get to meet the man.
Based on the timeline clues scattered throughout previous broadcasts, this Li Bai fellow wouldn't even be a twinkle in his great-grandparents' eyes for another seventy years or so.
Zhangsun Wuji, sensing the shift in mood, hurried to fill the silence.
"Without a glorious Tang, how could there possibly be a Poet Immortal of the glorious Tang?"
"And without Your Majesty," he pressed on, his voice thick with conviction, "how could there possibly be a glorious Tang?"
Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui exchanged a fleeting glance. Behind their carefully neutral expressions, a synchronized mental scoff echoed in perfect harmony.
This Zhangsun Wuji is getting far too skilled at this bootlicking business.
Li Shimin, however, found the entire performance extremely agreeable. His face split into a wide, cheerful grin, all traces of his earlier tension evaporating like morning mist.
So what about this Poet Immortal Li Bai? At the end of the day, his entire immortal legacy still owed a massive debt to the reflected glory of Li... Erfeng!