Chapter 6: Mangosteen

Late Ming era.

Chongzhen was in tears.

"Was it truly I who brought down Great Ming?"

"I deserve death!"

Wang Chengen trembled as he tried to console him.

"Your Majesty, this is not your fault."

"The Celestial Screen is fair. Please do not blame yourself so."

Great Qin.

Ying Zheng's gaze shifted slightly.

"The fall of a dynasty is seldom the fault of one emperor alone."

"But the last ruler of a fallen dynasty can never escape blame."

"And Chongzhen was incompetent, yet he had backbone."

"That is rather impressive."

Early Han.

Liu Bang shook his head.

"Diligent in rule, yet the dynasty still fell."

"This shows an emperor can't just be willing to work hard."

"He has to know how to use talent."

"Chongzhen really was no good."

Great Tang.

Li Shimin sighed.

"Chongzhen... what a pity."

"Born in peacetime, he might have been a competent custodian of the realm."

"But in chaotic times, his character only hastened the dynasty's fall."

Empress Zhangsun smiled.

"Your Majesty rates so highly this emperor who let a foreign tribe take the throne?"

Li Shimin said.

"With the situation Chongzhen faced, no one could have done much."

"On the contrary, though he did poorly, he was far better than Yang Guang."

For Li Shimin.

With a prodigy like Yang Guang preceding him.

Any emperor with even a single redeeming quality.

He would not hesitate to acknowledge.

After all, who could be worse than Yang Guang?

Even Huhai wasn't that guilty.

Though Huhai was also pure trash.

Great Ming.

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes were bloodshot.

"Wanli."

"Tianqi."

"Chongzhen."

"How is it that my descendants are worse one after another?"

"Useless! Useless!"

Empress Ma sighed.

"Chongba, stop being angry."

"At least Chongzhen had some backbone."

"He didn't surrender, wasn't captured, didn't disgrace Great Ming."

Zhu Yuanzhang raged.

"What good is not surrendering?"

"I want the realm to last forever, not for him to hang himself from a tree."

Empress Ma said.

"Still better than the Zhao Song, no?"

Hearing this.

Zhu Yuanzhang calmed down.

"True, he did have more backbone than those cowards of Song. Zhu Youjian wasn't bad, he didn't disgrace us."

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly frowned.

"Hm? Why do I feel something's off... Zhu Youjian? The You generation?"

Great Ming, Yongle era.

Zhu Di drew his blade and hacked the table apart.

"Insolent wretches!"

"Zhu Gaochi!"

"Look at your descendants!"

"A pack of useless trash!"

Zhu Gaochi cowered, not daring to speak.

"You're useless too!"

"Prepare grain and fodder for me!"

"I'll go wipe out the Wild Boar Skins myself!"

"You stay and oversee the realm properly! Educate the descendants properly!"

"Yes, Father!"

Zhu Gaochi wiped his sweat and let out a breath.

Zhu Di glared at Zhu Gaochi.

He greatly disliked this son.

But he also knew.

That he could build military achievements.

And change the tainted image of his usurpation.

All thanks to the logistics his good eldest son provided.

Not to mention, there was also a good grandson he deeply favored.

It was just a pity that the good grandson's descendants turned out so worthless.

Disgraced before all the heavens and myriad worlds—his old man might have seen it too.

Zhu Di didn't dare imagine.

Right now the Celestial Screen was only playing videos.

If some immortal method truly appeared later.

That could bring his old man over from his timeline.

How would he explain himself?

So.

He had to set everything right immediately!

Change Great Ming's fate!

Otherwise.

When the time came, the trouble would be enormous!

The Celestial Screen continued.

[So much for Great Ming's rot.]

[Now let's talk about Great Shun's rot.]

[Li Zicheng led the peasant army, breached the capital, and destroyed Great Ming.]

[By all logic, he should have been the heroic ruler who inherited the realm.]

[But the Great Shun regime he established was equally rotten.]

[In essence, it was a refugee regime.]

[No platform, no territory.]

[And likewise, no popular support.]

[They only knew how to kill, kill, kill.]

[They only knew how to loot, loot, loot.]

[If the common people had any other way to survive.]

[No one would have followed Great Shun at all.]

[Especially after Great Shun entered the capital.]

[They only knew plunder, not production.]

[And even less about defending against foreign enemies.]

[After the Manchu Qing entered the pass.]

[Everyone expected a great battle.]

[But who'd have thought it was like regular troops fighting bandits.]

[They scattered Great Shun's forces with ease.]

[Just like that, a newly founded regime collapsed in a few months.]

[As a peasant rebel army, Great Shun had its natural righteousness and nothing else—completely rotten.]

The bullet comments flooded the screen.

[Li Zicheng: I came, I won, I was gone.]

[Great Shun—a textbook counter to legitimacy, useless at everything else.]

[Plainly put, Li Zicheng was a refugee bandit with no vision.]

[Annihilated countless times, yet always resurrected—purely on Great Ming's blood transfusions.]

[While the legitimate dynasty still stood, he only needed to survive and carve flesh off Great Ming.]

[Once the legitimate dynasty was gone, he couldn't face any enemy at all.]

[Li Zicheng's greatest contribution was paving the road for the Qing.]

Early Han.

Liu Bang shook his head.

"I rose from the bottom too."

"But when I entered Xianyang, I made the Three-Point Covenant and harmed not a hair of the people."

"This Li Zicheng only knew how to rob."

"Worse than Chen Sheng and Wu Guang."

"No wonder he fell."

Great Tang.

Li Shimin sighed.

"He who wins the people's hearts wins the realm."

"Li Zicheng never actually won the people's hearts."

"He survived by plundering Great Ming."

"Once Great Ming was gone, so was he."

Late Ming.

Li Zicheng was in the capital.

He had just taken the dragon throne and was brimming with pride.

Then the Celestial Screen suddenly lit up.

Watching the Screen's evaluation.

Li Zicheng's face turned ashen.

"People of later ages dare mock Us?"

"We are the one who destroyed Great Ming."

Niu Jinxing whispered beside him.

"Your Majesty, the words of the Celestial Screen cannot be ignored."

"After our Great Shun entered the capital, military discipline did indeed deteriorate."

Li Zicheng raged.

"Shut up."

"Our affairs are not yours to lecture."

Liu Zongmin sneered nearby.

"What Celestial Screen."

"Nothing but demonic words deceiving the masses."

"Your Majesty, let me lead troops to destroy Wu Sangui, then deal with these babbling fools."

Li Zicheng clenched his fists.

"Wu Sangui."

"That fickle, treacherous little man."

"We treated him well, yet he surrendered to the Qing."

"Would We ever fear him?"

"We shall ride out of the city at once."

"And fight the Qing army to the death."

"Let the Celestial Screen see who is the legitimate ruler!"

He donned his armor and charged out of the palace.

And then, as expected, Great Shun collapsed.

Li Zicheng's emperor dream vanished in an instant.

Southern Ming era.

Li Dingguo was in the Guangxi military camp.

He watched the Celestial Screen, tears welling in his tiger-like eyes.

"How did my Great Ming come to this."

The soldiers around him all bowed their heads.

A deputy general choked out.

"General, can we still resist the Qing and restore the Ming?"

Li Dingguo gripped his long saber.

"We can."

"As long as this general still draws breath."

"The Tartars will never sit easy in the Central Plains."

"We will guard His Majesty and fight to the very end."

The soldiers shouted in unison.

"Resist the Qing! Restore the Ming!"

"To the very end!"

Their voices shook the wilderness.

The Celestial Screen.

[That's Great Shun done. Now Great Xi.]

[The Great Xi regime was just like Great Shun—both refugee regimes.]

[Zhang Xianzhong was even worse than Li Zicheng, but the one difference was.]

[Zhang Xianzhong saw Great Shun's destruction and the Qing's entry, and later turned from a roving bandit to resisting the Qing.]

[This added a bit of righteousness to the King of Great Xi, Zhang Xianzhong—though most important was Zhang Xianzhong's adopted son, Li Dingguo.]

[The true national hero Li Dingguo—without his wholehearted service to the people and steadfast resistance against the Qing, the Great Xi regime wouldn't even deserve a mention in history.]

[That's Great Xi done. Now the Southern Ming regime.]

[This one is even more heavyweight.]