Chapter Summaries

The first episode of "Great Yan Dynasty 1566" portrayed Emperor Jiajing as a commanding ruler who used his ministers’ rivalry and a silk-production plan to strengthen Great Yan, leaving Chen Huijie and Kal'tsit questioning whether he was truly incompetent. A month later, the emperor of Great Yan screened the episode for his officials, who confessed their failings and received temporary demotions as he prepared to show them the next episode.

• Wei Yenwu questioned Yan Song about Zhou Yunyi’s source of information, and Yan Song defended the Grand Secretariat by explaining that the court’s disaster-relief spending was publicly recorded.
• Wei Yenwu ended the ministers’ factional dispute by declaring that he wanted loyal, capable ministers, then considered a proposal to expand Jiangnan’s silk production and trade.
• Yan Song proposed converting half of Zhe City’s farmland into mulberry fields, and Wei Yenwu approved the plan while ordering that the converted land keep its farmland tax rate.
• Chen Huijie and Kal'tsit wondered whether Emperor Jiajing was really incompetent, while the emperor of Great Yan asked Chen Qi to let officials watch the finished drama before the public.
• A month later, the emperor of Great Yan screened the first episode for his officials, who recognized the court’s corruption and factionalism and admitted their guilt.
• The emperor of Great Yan demoted the officials by one rank for a year while allowing them to keep their duties, then asked Lee to play the second episode.

The second episode of Great Yan Dynasty 1566 taught Great Yan’s officials about court survival before exposing how Zhe City’s authorities used a national policy to seize farmland and suppress the people. The chapter ended as Chongyue’s Qi Jiguang confronted a troop leader after stopping Ma Ningyuan’s arrests.

• Emperor Jiajing learned that Prince Yu had a son and signaled his intention to make him heir, while Great Yan’s officials felt reassured by comparison with their own emperor.
• Lü Fang rescued Feng Bao from the snow, reprimanded him for his rash actions, and taught him how officials should respond to danger and prepare for shifts in power.
• Prince Yu’s allies discussed the risks of converting rice fields to mulberry fields and sent Tan Lun to consult Hu Zongxian in Zhe City.
• The drama showed soldiers and Celestial Masters forcibly burying rice seedlings, prompting Great Yan’s officials to condemn the abuse and demand Ma Ningyuan’s punishment.
• Ma Ningyuan branded the protesting farmer Qi Dazhu a Deep Sea Cultist and ordered the protesters arrested, but Chongyue’s Qi Jiguang arrived and halted the arrests.
• Chongyue ignored Ma Ningyuan and confronted a troop leader with visible anger.

Hu Zongxian tried to prevent famine and revolt by delaying the conversion of rice fields to mulberry plantations, but the Yan Faction chose to force the policy through, even at the cost of destroying dikes and flooding fields. After the episode ended, the emperor asked his officials to study better solutions, while Chen Qi prepared to film the next, more brutal stage of the story.

• Chongyue punished the Celestial Masters who had buried seedlings, took his soldiers away from Ma Ningyuan, and left Ma Ningyuan facing the angry commoners alone.
• The emperor of Great Yan and the Grand Tutor welcomed Hu Zongxian as a capable official, while the emperor worried about Emperor Jiajing's role in Great Yan's corruption.
• Hu Zongxian ordered grain merchants to lend grain and recommended postponing the conversion of rice fields to mulberry plantations until Zhe City was prepared.
• Yan Shifan and her subordinates insisted the commoners must sell their fields, while Yan Song acknowledged Hu Zongxian's concerns about provoking an uprising.
• The emperor asked his officials to devise solutions to Hu Zongxian's crisis, and Chen Qi asked Xi to paint dikes for the next episode.
• Lin Yuxia objected to playing a character who destroyed dikes and flooded fields, but Chen Qi defended filming the oppression so it could be exposed.

Chen Qi used the drama to show Great Yan’s officials how factional struggles and corrupt policies could devastate ordinary people, while Chen Huijie reaffirmed her resolve to uphold justice. The group entered Xi’s painted world to film the planned destruction of Zhe City’s dikes, with the flood about to begin.

• Hu Zongxian explained that Tan Lun’s arrival had turned a manageable land-reform dispute into a factional struggle that left him unable to protect the people of Zhe City.
• Chen Huijie told Wei Yenwu that witnessing the officials’ greed had strengthened her judgment and her resolve to act on her conscience.
• Yang Jinshui, Liang Xun, Ning Ciqiu, and The Emperor persuaded Ma Ningyuan to take responsibility for the dike destruction and flooding in order to shield Hu Zongxian.
• Ling condemned the officials for disguising selfish crimes as loyalty and righteousness, and Chen Qi said the filmed disaster would warn Great Yan’s officials.
• Xi led Chen Qi and the others into her painted world, where she had recreated Zhe City’s dikes, villages, and towns as storm winds and rain gathered.

Chen Qi filmed the flood disaster in Xi’s painting, forcing Zuo Xuanliao and the others to witness how Great Yan’s corrupt officials sacrificed civilians and soldiers for private interests. The experience left Zuo Xuanliao convinced that Great Yan’s greatest enemies were within its own ranks, and he promised to defend the drama’s release.

• Xi destroyed nine dikes in the painting, unleashing a flood that devastated the surrounding counties and horrified the viewers.
• Li Xuan confronted Yang Jinshui about the sabotage, but Yang warned him to stay ignorant of the conspiracy.
• Hu Zongxian and Tan Lun struggled to contain the flood, and Hu Zongxian chose to divert it after soldiers and Celestial Masters failed to stop it.
• Qi Dazhu and the villagers volunteered to have the flood diverted into their county, helping Hu Zongxian limit the disaster to one and a half counties.
• Zuo Xuanliao lamented that Great Yan was doomed by its own officials, then learned that the apparent deaths had been staged within Xi’s painting.
• Zuo Xuanliao thanked Chen Qi and pledged to protect the drama’s release, while Ling and Nian noticed Xi’s affection for Chen Qi.

Chen Qi returned to the palace and told the emperor that Jiajing would fail to become a Feranmut and Prince Yu would briefly revive Great Yan. As they watched the fourth episode, Hu Zongxian condemned Ma Ningyuan for the flood disaster and exposed the self-serving officials Ma Ningyuan was trying to protect.

• The emperor asked Chen Qi whether the corrupt Great Yan portrayed in the drama still had a future, and Chen Qi said Jiajing failed to become a Feranmut and Prince Yu ushered in a period of recovery.
• Chen Qi invited the emperor to watch the fourth episode, where Hu Zongxian questioned Ma Ningyuan about what it meant to do what could not be done.
• Hu Zongxian rebuked Ma Ningyuan for flooding nine counties, and Ma Ningyuan panicked and begged him to protect his family.
• Ma Ningyuan insisted the disaster would help the court's policy of converting rice paddies to mulberry groves and accepted responsibility for it.
• Hu Zongxian explained that Ma Ningyuan was shielding officials who traded people's livelihoods for money, then ordered him to listen to what those men truly thought.

The Yan Faction’s officials tried to shift responsibility for the sabotaged dikes onto Ma Ningyuan, but Hu Zongxian forced them to seek a delay in the mulberry policy and arrange relief. Back in the capital, Yan Shifan admitted to Yan Song that she ordered the flooding, while Yang Jinshui’s meeting with Lü Fang ended with the Great Yan emperor furiously cleaving the screen in two.

• He Maocai revealed that Yan Shifan had ordered the dikes destroyed, and Hu Zongxian used the admission to prevent the Yan Faction from placing all the blame on Ma Ningyuan.
• Hu Zongxian ordered the officials to deliver relief grain, seek a three-year postponement of converting rice fields to mulberry plantations, and include Yang Jinshui’s approval in their memorial.
• Yan Song learned from Hu Zongxian’s memorial that the dikes had been sabotaged, while Yan Shifan admitted she had ordered the flooding to force the land conversion policy forward.
• Luo Wenlong defended Yan Shifan and claimed the common people should accommodate the court’s difficulties, angering Wei Yenwu and Chen Huijie.
• Yang Jinshui offered tea to Lü Fang, who told him the emperor knew about the flooding and valued his loyalty; the Great Yan emperor then cleaved the screen in two.

After the emperor of Great Yan stormed out over the drama’s criticism of his reign, Wei Yenwu assured Chen Qi that filming could continue. The crew completed episode four, ending with Lin Yuxia’s fierce portrayal of Yan Shifan, while Chen Qi’s companions prepared to protect him from possible repercussions.

• The emperor of Great Yan left the lounge in anger after watching the drama, and Zuo Xuanliao, Liang Xun, Ning Ciqiu, and Wenyue went to speak with him.
• Chen Qi was surprised that the emperor had taken offense after only four episodes, but Wei Yenwu explained his younger brother’s reaction and backed the decision to keep filming.
• Chen Qi filmed Hu Zongxian’s visit to the Yan Residence, where Lin Yuxia’s Yan Shifan refused to let him see Yan Song and cursed at a servant who questioned her.
• At the Shrine of Worthies, Lin Yuxia’s Yan Shifan accused Zuo Xuanliao’s Hu Zongxian of betraying the Yan Faction, then slapped herself twice and demanded to know whether he would enforce the policy in Zhe City.
• After filming ended, Chen Qi’s companions surrounded his room with guards, but he turned them away and said that he and Talulah could protect themselves.

Chen Qi and Talulah spent the night together while Xi arranged for foreign powers to seek access to his Great Yan political drama. The Great Yan emperor faced a gathering of state guests asking to study the production, leaving him unable to easily protect Great Yan’s reputation or refuse Chen Qi’s visitors.

• Vina and Saria tried to arrange guards for Chen Qi, but he sent them away by making them listen to his private time with Talulah.
• Talulah admitted defeat and suggested Chen Qi visit FrostNova, but he stayed beside the sleeping Talulah instead.
• Xi told Nian she had left paintings in countries the crew had visited and planned to use them to draw foreign interest in Chen Qi’s work.
• The Great Yan emperor received a succession of diplomatic delegations, including representatives from Kazdel, Victoria, Columbia, Syracuse, Laterano, and Ursus.
• The Great Yan emperor summoned Chen Qi and the state guests, who explained that they wanted to watch his drama to help guide their countries’ reconstruction.
• The Great Yan emperor realized the visitors wanted to see Great Yan Dynasty 1566, while Xi and Nian watched him struggle to respond.

Chen Qi secured the Great Yan emperor’s approval to continue filming “Great Yan Dynasty 1566,” while Xi saw the state guests’ visit as an opportunity to win Chen Qi’s support against Ling. At the state banquet, Wei Yenwu warned Theresis against threatening Great Yan, and the emperor prepared to use Talulah’s new title and Chen Qi’s arrival to signal his ties to the imperial family.

• The Great Yan emperor agreed to let the state guests watch the first four episodes and asked Chen Qi to include a positively portrayed official; Chen Qi introduced Hai Rui as the second protagonist.
• Xi resolved to use the distraction of the state banquet to get Chen Qi to clarify his position, while Nian noticed Xi’s excitement.
• Wei Yenwu praised Chen Huijie’s performance as Hai Rui and told Chen Qi he hoped the young characters could change Great Yan; Chen Qi said a few people alone could neither save nor destroy a country.
• Theresis and Talulah found Chen Qi, and Wei Yenwu warned Theresis that Great Yan would support Kazdel only if its ambitions did not threaten Great Yan.
• At the state banquet, the Great Yan emperor gave Talulah the title of Lady to emphasize her connection to Great Yan’s imperial family, then summoned Chen Qi and Wei Yenwu before the wary foreign guests.

At the state banquet, the Emperor of Great Yan forced Wei Yenwu to sit beside him, signaling that the brothers jointly ruled, while Chen Qi screened episode five of "Great Yan Dynasty 1566" for the foreign leaders. The episode exposed Jiajing’s dangerous suspicions of Prince Yu and Hu Zongxian, and ended with Hu presenting evidence about the deliberately destroyed dikes.

• The Emperor of Great Yan seated Wei Yenwu beside him and told him he could take the throne if he acknowledged his identity as the emperor’s elder brother.
• Chen Qi and Talulah screened episode five of "Great Yan Dynasty 1566" while Chen stood ready to explain its political subtext to the state guests.
• In the episode, Jiajing questioned Hu Zongxian about executing officials without permission and warned Prince Yu over Tan Lun’s interference with the rice-to-mulberry policy.
• Chen Qi explained that Jiajing suspected Prince Yu of opposing his policy and possibly plotting rebellion, alarming the Duke of Windermere and the other leaders.
• Hu Zongxian offered to resign and accepted sole responsibility for the flood, then presented confessions from Ma Ningyuan and the other officials about the dike destruction.

Jiajing and Yan Song maneuvered Hu Zongxian into continuing the conversion of rice fields to mulberry groves while keeping the Yan Faction in power, and the rulers watching debated the drama’s lessons. As Jiajing took an elixir, Lü Fang explained that Hu Zongxian remained trapped between opposing sides.

• Jiajing revealed that Hu Zongxian’s confession described neglected river dikes, and Hu asked to be removed from office.
• Jiajing refused to let Hu Zongxian step aside and kept him in charge of Zhe City and Southern Zhili.
• Yan Song proposed stripping Hu Zongxian of his administrative post while requiring him to safeguard Zhe City’s trade routes and the silk deal, leaving him responsible for the mulberry policy.
• Talulah criticized Jiajing for claiming hardship, and the emperor of Great Yan declared that future rulers should be better than him.
• Jiajing took an elixir, and Lü Fang told him that Hu Zongxian was caught between the Yan Faction and its opponents.

Jiajing tried to balance the Yan Faction and the Purists while protecting Hu Zongxian, but the Purists proposed sacrificing Zhe City to bring down their rivals. After the foreign rulers requested recordings of the drama to study its statecraft, Chen Qi agreed to send them, and he explained that the emperor of Ursus wanted to keep the recordings secret from his aristocrats.

• Jiajing ordered that Tan Lun be protected, that Prince Yu and several officials receive approval to send people to Zhe City, and that the palace stop obstructing Hu Zongxian.
• Zhang Juzheng explained that the Purists planned to let Zhe City descend into chaos so the Yan Faction would lose its usefulness to Jiajing, while Prince Yu's Consort condemned sacrificing the people.
• Yan Shifan sent Gao Hanwen to oversee the rice-to-mulberry conversion, intending to use him as a shield if the policy caused a popular uprising.
• The emperor of Ursus, Theresis, and other rulers asked Chen Qi for recordings of each new episode, and Chen Qi agreed to send them after broadcast in Great Yan.
• Chen Qi told Chen Huijie and Talulah that the emperor of Ursus wanted the recordings delivered privately so his aristocrats could not study the drama, and said the emperor's time to regain power was limited.

Chen Qi oversaw a scene in which Hu Zongxian warned Gao Hanwen about the dangers in his relief plan, then fell into Xi’s painting and reassured her that she belonged with the crew regardless of her powers or family ties. Xi’s attempt to confess her feelings was interrupted when Nian kissed Chen Qi, and Ling arrived to discover the confrontation.

• Chen Qi watched Zuo Xuanliao teach Zuo Le, through their roles as Hu Zongxian and Gao Hanwen, how Gao’s relief plan could spark unrest and how he should leave difficult decisions to the court.
• Chen Qi returned to his room, fell asleep over Xi’s painting, and woke inside its world beside Xi.
• Xi asked Chen Qi whether he had welcomed her to the crew for her authority or because she was Nian’s younger sister, and Chen Qi assured her he valued her as a person.
• Xi began to tell Chen Qi about a decision she had made, but Nian used Reforging to separate Xi from the painting and then pinned Chen Qi down and kissed him.
• Xi returned to the painting and confronted Nian, while Ling appeared and angrily rebuked her; Nian kissed Chen Qi again, leaving Xi to collapse and Ling to curse her.

Chen Qi continued filming Great Yan Dynasty 1566 as the drama’s local officials plotted to force Hai Rui into helping them exploit disaster victims, while Emperor Jiajing pursued immortality through elixir pills. The chapter ended with Jiajing’s cultivation scene underway and the consequences of his pill-popping still to come.

• Ling spared Nian a beating after Chen Qi intervened, then warned him to restrain Nian and Xi and keep their affairs hidden from Talulah.
• Nian told Xi that she had deliberately provoked Ling to take the blame and protect Xi, though Xi realized Nian had also wanted to reveal her feelings for Chen Qi.
• Zheng Michang and He Maocai concluded that the court’s failed farmland-conversion policy would leave them facing punishment, so they planned to frame Qi Dazhu for colluding with the Church of the Deep and force Hai Rui to compromise.
• Chen Qi explained that Hai Rui’s knowledge of the law and the officials’ mistakes would thwart Zheng Michang and He Maocai, while Shen Yishi would buy farmland through the Weaving Bureau.
• Wei Yenwu filmed Emperor Jiajing taking elixir pills and attempting to ride clouds, as Chen Qi planned to show the pills’ deadly consequences later.

Jiajing confronted Yan Shifan over the sale of disaster victims’ farmland, using his power over the weather and a thunderous oath to expose the danger facing the Yan Faction. As the drama’s scenes unsettled Terra’s observers, rulers watched Jiajing with a mix of fear and envy, hoping to command their own states as firmly as he did.

• Lü Fang used Jiajing’s treatment and a staged display of tears to make him ask about trouble in Zhe City, then reported drought and corruption in the Weaving Bureau’s name.
• Jiajing learned that disaster victims’ farmland was being bought under the Weaving Bureau’s name and angrily summoned Yan Song.
• The next day, Yan Song questioned Yan Shifan about Zhe City’s relief and land conversion, while Jiajing watched to see whether she knew of the purchases.
• Lü Fang’s remark about the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau alerted Yan Shifan that the sale had been exposed, and Jiajing dismissed the guards before confronting her.
• Jiajing challenged Yan Shifan to swear truthfully before Heaven, then invoked Heaven and the people as thunder and rain accompanied his condemnation of selling their fields.
• Chongyue and other viewers were shaken by Jiajing’s authority, while rulers including the emperor of Ursus and Theresis watched the drama and envied his control over his ministers.

As the drama showed Yan Song and the court turning disaster relief into a way to fund the war, Shen Yishi revealed how he had maneuvered to protect Yang Jinshui and Yun Niang before accepting his own fate. Chen Qi then explained that Shen Yishi’s final weapon was an account book—and that his seemingly vast wealth concealed a discrepancy the court could not ignore.

• Yan Song rebuked Yan Shifan, ordered the court to stop buying disaster victims’ fields cheaply, and directed officials to pressure wealthy merchants instead.
• Hai Rui confronted Shen Yishi, who turned the grain meant for purchasing fields into relief supplies, but Jiajing ordered the court to arrest him and confiscate his estate to fund the war.
• Shen Yishi told Yang Jinshui that he had concealed the scheme to keep Yang uninvolved and explained how Zheng and He had drawn the court and the Weaving Bureau into their plot.
• Shen Yishi arranged for Yang Jinshui to protect Yun Niang, then entered a burning mansion and left behind a poem condemning corrupt officials.
• Chen Qi told Wei Yenwu that Shen Yishi’s final curse was an account book documenting assets, bribes, and financial dealings, and hinted that Shen Yishi had surprisingly little property to confiscate.

Shen Yishi’s accounts exposed how Great Yan’s officials had embezzled the Weaving Bureau’s profits, prompting Lin Yuxia to doubt whether she could remain an official. Months later, the emperor used the evidence to punish corrupt officials, while the drama showed Jiajing maneuvering to weaken both the Yan Faction and the Purists.

• Shen Yishi’s letter revealed that officials had taken most of the Weaving Bureau’s silk and left him with almost no wealth, shocking Wei Yenwu and the others.
• Lin Yuxia told the Rat King and Wei Yenwu that she wanted to resign, but Chen Qi reassured her that good officials could help far more people and promised she could achieve as much as Hu Zongxian.
• The emperor investigated local officials after receiving Wei Yenwu’s recording, uncovered widespread collusion with merchants, and ordered corrupt officials punished while clearing the names of falsely accused officials.
• Wei Yenwu comforted his distressed younger brother, then joined him in watching the latest drama recordings.
• In the drama, Jiajing’s account team calculated that Zhe City officials had embezzled seven or eight million taels, and Jiajing removed Yan Shifan, Gao Gong, and Zhang Juzheng from the Grand Secretariat while appointing Zhao Zhenji governor of Zhe City.

The emperor of Great Yan watched Hai Rui’s failed effort to expose the Zhe City corruption scandal and learned that the coming salt inspection might give the Yan Faction another weakness. At Chen Qi’s film set, he rewarded Liang Xun and Ning Ciqiu for their performances and prepared to film the next scenes with Wei Yenwu.

• Yan Shifan provoked Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng after they left the Grand Secretariat, but both resisted him in different ways and he stormed off.
• The emperor watched Hai Rui gather evidence against corrupt officials, but Jiajing burned her memorial and punished only Zheng Michang and He Maocai.
• Hai Rui rejected Zhao Zhenji’s offer of a new post and resigned after the court’s failure to pursue the scandal.
• Wei Yenwu told the emperor that Yan Maoqing’s coming inspection of the southern salt administration could bring down the Yan Faction, so the emperor went with him to the Western Garden.
• Liang Xun and Ning Ciqiu apologized to the emperor for their roles in the drama, and he pardoned them, promoted Liang Xun, and assigned Ning Ciqiu to help him at the Ministry of Revenue.

The Great Yan emperor watched Jiajing uncover how the Yan Faction had been embezzling Great Yan’s salt taxes, then ordered an investigation into the real accounts. As Jiajing confronted Lü Fang about his loyalty, the chapter left the emperor poised to punish the Yan Faction for reaching beyond the limits he had set.

• The Great Yan emperor appointed Liang Xun and Ning Ciqiu to the same ministry, then joined the others to watch Chen Qi film the Yan Faction’s salt-tax plot.
• Yan Maoqing returned with 3.3 million taels from his southern inspection, and Yan Shifan revealed that the money had been divided between the treasury, the palace, and the Ministry of Works.
• Ling explained that the low salt-tax revenue pointed to corruption in the collection agencies, while the Great Yan emperor recognized that the Yan Faction’s reach was threatening his control.
• Jiajing questioned Lü Fang about the salt-tax figures, learned that Yan officials had embezzled the revenue, and demanded an explanation for why Lü Fang had hidden the pill he gave him.
• Lü Fang revealed that Yan Song’s men controlled the salt offices and handed over the money only when Yan Maoqing came to collect it, prompting the Great Yan emperor to order an immediate audit of five years of accounts.
• Jiajing told Lü Fang that he had sent Yan Maoqing south because the Yan Faction had forgotten who came first, and he regarded their greed as a betrayal of their place under his control.