Recaps

Zi Shou outlawed shamanism, crushed a feudal revolt, and began a deliberately deceptive campaign to divide the lords. After Zhang Youren endured humiliation to secure the King of Yue’s submission, Zi Shou rejected the surrender and ordered an attack on Yue’s forces.

• Zi Shou declared the Shamans guilty, ordered their books burned, and granted royal titles to feudal lords, setting rivalries among them in motion.
• When the Marquis of Yue and other lords challenged Li Jing’s Reforms, Zi Shou ordered both critics and supporters of the reforms beaten for their claims about Chentang Pass.
• At the Palace Gate, Chong Yingbiao confessed to breaking the law and wounded himself, while Yue Qian was shot by Zhang Guifang and Zi Shou ordered the shamanic books burned.
• Gao San and Xin Jia exposed the Shamans’ abuses, turning the crowd against them, and Shang Rong killed the Marquis of Yue before Zi Shou ordered the feudal lords seized.
• After E Chongyu tried to seize him, Zi Shou killed him, rallied his ministers and allies, and let the surviving feudal lords leave Chaoge rather than detaining them.
• Zi Shou devised a campaign plan against E Shun, sent Zhang Youren to Yue Territory with instructions to endure and remain silent, and softened parts of Li Jing’s laws.
• While Zi Shou delayed the army’s advance, the King of Yue abused Zhang Youren, then offered submission after the King of Wu defeated him and took the Marquis of Yue’s lands.
• When Zhang Youren returned with the King of Yue’s surrender memorial, Zi Shou tore it up, returned his pendant, and ordered the army to attack Yue’s forces.

Zi Shou took E City through an unlikely victory, then turned south to subdue the Baiyue and bring the King of Yu Yue under Shang rule. After a costly defeat taught his generals to examine their failures, the story shifted to the Heavenly Court’s plans and Zi Shou’s discovery that his reforms had spread standardized writing and literacy.

• Zi Shou defeated the King of Yue’s fleet, marched on E City, and captured it after the King of Yue helped ambush E Shun’s retreat.
• Zi Shou granted E City to the King of Yue and led the Shang Army south to campaign against the Baiyue Tribes.
• After the King of Yu Yue fled to Shang, Zi Shou demanded that he submit, kneel before the fallen soldiers’ tombs, and surrender his retainers before leaving for Chaoge.
• Deng Jiugong defeated the Nanyue forces, but Deng Xiu pursued them into a poison formation and suffered a costly defeat.
• Zi Shou convened his generals to discuss battlefield lessons and ordered them to examine their defeats as well as their victories.
• The Heavenly Emperor learned Long Ji had returned, while Long Ji and Matchmaker Yue broke the marriage bonds of Tianpeng and other gods, prompting Long Ji to oppose her father’s plans.
• Zi Shou entered Chaoge with Long Ji and discovered that standardized characters had spread throughout the realm, a result Queen Jiang attributed to his reforms and the work of Yang Ren and Turtle Spirit Holy Mother.
• Zi Shou visited Daji as she neared childbirth, and Lu Xiong welcomed Xiao Yin’s forces from Lintong Pass before preparing to take him to the palace.

Zi Shou put down Xiao Yin’s rebellion and defended Daji and their newborn son from the Chan Sect, while Yu the Great’s Dragon Vein strengthened the Human Race’s fortune. After rebuilding Chaoge and reorganizing its forces, Zi Shou used scandalous fiction to spread human-monster romances, then publicly admitted he had written the books when the court sought to ban them.

• Xiao Yin rebelled after Li Jing exposed his crimes, and fires across Chaoge revealed that Lou Yunqu and other forces had risen as well.
• Daji, Empress Jiang, Noble Consort Huang, Deng Chanyu, Gao San, and the Dare-to-Bear Army helped repel the rebels, while Lou Yunqu escaped and Zi Shou defeated Xiao Yin with Xiao Zhen’s help.
• Randeng and the Chan Sect arrived to target Daji and her newborn, but Zi Shou protected them, struck down Xiao Zhen, and refused to let Puxian bind the demons.
• Yu the Great’s spirit summoned the Nine Cauldrons and completed the Dragon Vein, allowing the Human Race’s Fortune to crush the Western immortals and turn Qiongxiao mortal.
• Zi Shou named Daji’s son Wu Geng, ordered honest reports on the rebellion and harvests, rewarded the Women’s Federation, and renamed the Slave Army the Dare-to-Bear Army.
• Zi Shou ordered seized slaves put to work rebuilding Chaoge and drafted human-monster romances for publication, but You Hun lost the manuscript to the Yao Bookshop.
• Shopkeeper Yao edited and printed Strange Tales from Yao Studio, prompting Zi Shou to add illustrations and new stories to Little Liu Bei as both books became popular.
• Yang Ren called for the books to be banned, but Zi Shou told the court he had written them and ordered their illustrations.

Zi Shou dealt with the Shu crisis, Gao Lanying’s woolen clothing enterprise, and a wave of refugees while pushing changes to labor, taxation, and the army. The ministers and nobles faced further demands to fund the state and work the fields.

• Zi Shou cleared Gao San of responsibility for the Shu deaths, appointed her Gao Lanying, and declared war before Du Yu submitted to Shang.
• Gao Lanying organized wool production through the Women's Federation, and Zi Shou proposed making affordable sweaters with support from the nobles.
• Zi Shou ordered Chaoge expanded with unpaid refugee labor and pushed Shang Rong to establish land taxes on nobles.
• Refugees and Northern Territory herding slaves rioted at the Qi River, where assassins were exposed and the arriving people explained that they had come seeking food and shelter.
• After the crowd’s remorseful response, Zi Shou proposed disbanding most of Chaoge’s army and enlisting the refugees, with taxes on nobles helping fund the plan.
• Zi Shou proposed an Ancestral Temple that ranked ancestors by their descendants’ contributions, prompting the Peng and Cao family heads to bid against each other with donations.
• Su Hu sent Zheng Lun to inspect the Great Wall Guards, who demonstrated a coordinated weapons drill under Su Quanzhong.
• Zi Shou ordered high ministers, nobles, and feudal lords to work in the fields and scheduled a public deliberation with farmers at the Ancestral Temple.