Recaps

Zhu Yuanzhang and Liu Bang tried to identify the Westerners who brought sweet potatoes to the South Seas, but could not determine where they came from. Zhu Yuanzhang then explained why Zhang Jiao’s Yellow Turban Rebellion failed, leaving Zhang Jiao unsettled by his claim that religious uprisings could not establish a unified dynasty.

• Liu Bang asked Zhu Yuanzhang about future dates and suggested sending the navy to Luzon to obtain sweet potato planting stock.
• Zhu Yuanzhang explained that Luzon lay near Great Ming and that Yuan forces had once attacked Song exiles in the Western Ocean, but he reasoned that the Westerners mentioned in the answer had not yet reached Luzon.
• Zhang Jiao and Liu Bang questioned what the Age of Exploration and the Americas were, then agreed to seek answers from advisers and books later.
• Zhu Yuanzhang told Zhang Jiao that the Yellow Turban Rebellion failed partly because it began before the Han court’s later collapse and because the Way of Great Peace made lasting political success difficult.
• Zhu Yuanzhang described how he had first supported and then restricted the Way of the Celestial Masters, while Liu Bang reflected on the role of religious movements in later history.
• Zhang Jiao read Zhu Yuanzhang’s claim that religious uprisings could not establish a unified dynasty and felt bewildered and uncertain.

Zhu Yuanzhang advised Zhang Jiao about the Yellow Turban Rebellion’s weaknesses, while Liu Bang learned that his descendants’ family conflicts had earned him a negative status. After the chat ended, Liu Bang mistreated Liu Ying, Zhang Jiao turned to the urgent problem of feeding his followers, and Zhu Yuanzhang became distracted by woodworking.

• Zhu Yuanzhang explained why the Yellow Turban Rebellion had failed and advised Zhang Jiao to focus on preaching or later join Cao Cao, and Zhang Jiao thanked him.
• Liu Bang asked about his negative status of fatherly love and filial piety, and Zhu Yuanzhang said it reflected conflicts among Liu Bang’s imperial descendants.
• The Administrator closed the chat for a version update and awarded Spacetime Letters to Liu Bang, Zhu Yuanzhang, and Zhang Jiao.
• Liu Bang dismissed the timid Liu Ying, who left hurt and resentful as Liu Bang thought favorably of Liu Ruyi.
• Zhang Bao warned Zhang Jiao that the Yellow Turbans were running short of food and proposed raiding more estates, and Zhang Jiao resolved to prioritize keeping his followers alive through winter.
• Zhu Yuanzhang summoned the crown prince but became absorbed in the design of his desk and chair, considering learning to build furniture.

Zhu Yuanzhang ordered a search for records about Western lands and sweet potatoes while indulging a woodworking obsession, then turned his attention to Deng Yu after learning the general had fallen gravely ill. He sent renowned physicians to treat Deng Yu in Shouchun.

• Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Zhu Biao to search imperial libraries and recruit princes, clansmen, and nobles to look for references to the Western calendar, Westerners, Spaniards, and sweet potatoes.
• After the search found no relevant records and Western Ocean envoys confirmed they knew of no Westerners or sweet potatoes, Zhu Yuanzhang resolved to send the navy to search distant islands and possibly America.
• Zhu Yuanzhang learned carpentry from a master and made a Grand Tutor's Chair, then considered raising allowances for conscripted craftsmen.
• Zhu Biao reported that Deng Yu had developed a back carbuncle on the return march and that the army physicians could not treat him.
• Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Xiao Jiuxian, Xia Quan, and other wound specialists from the Medical Academy to Shouchun to treat Deng Yu.

Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the Medical Academy to expand its work and entrusted Zhu Biao with secret plans for a Thousand-Li Telescope. In the Taihang Mountains, Zhang Jiao's worsening stomach illness coincided with the Han Army advancing on Peaceful Stronghold, and he prepared to defend it with gunpowder.

• Zhu Biao told Zhu Yuanzhang that physicians had removed Deng Yu's carbuncle and stabilized his condition, prompting Zhu Yuanzhang to reward the doctors and urge the Medical Academy to pursue more treatments.
• Zhu Yuanzhang named the medical works the Great Ming Medical Compendium and Great Ming Pharmacopoeia, then gave Zhu Biao confidential plans for a Thousand-Li Telescope.
• Zhang Bao returned to Peaceful Stronghold wounded and reported that Han Army troops were guarding the mountain routes, so Zhang Jiao ordered him to stop raiding and recover.
• Zhang Jiao vomited after eating, treated his recurring stomach ailment, and grew thinner as his pain worsened through the end of the tenth month.
• Zhang Bao reported that tens of thousands of Han Army troops were heading for Peaceful Stronghold, and Zhang Jiao ordered preparations to defend the stronghold and use gunpowder against them.

Huangfu Song attacked Peaceful Stronghold, but Zhang Jiao’s ritual and hidden gunpowder explosions routed the Han Army. Huangfu Song fled the Taihang Mountains as the Yellow Turban forces counterattacked.

• Huangfu Song divided his forces to attack the four smaller strongholds while keeping a reserve ready to assault Peaceful Stronghold.
• Zhang Jiao led a ritual on a platform as Zhang Bao commanded the Yellow Turban elites and ordered them to hold the line.
• The Han Army advanced and drove the Yellow Turban soldiers back, while Huangfu Song ordered archers to shoot Zhang Jiao.
• Han arrows wounded Zhang Jiao as Yellow Turban archers fired flaming arrows into gunpowder sacks, causing explosions among the Han Army.
• Zhang Bao rallied the Yellow Turbans to counterattack, and the demoralized Han Army fled as Huangfu Song retreated from the Taihang Mountains.

After Zhang Jiao’s arrow wound and chronic epigastric pain worsened, he sent Zhu Yuanzhang a Spacetime Letter asking for help. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the Medical Academy to find a treatment, but the physicians failed to agree overnight, and Zhu Biao later revealed they produced a prescription only after he guaranteed something to them.

• Chu Yan sent the wounded Zhang Jiao back to the stronghold and ordered Yellow Turbans Strongmen to help Zhang Bao pursue the Han Army.
• Zhang Bao returned after routing the Han Army, removed the arrow from Zhang Jiao’s shoulder, and treated the wound as Zhang Jiao’s chronic epigastric pain continued to worsen.
• Zhang Jiao sent Zhu Yuanzhang a Spacetime Letter describing his grave illness and asking whether Zhu Yuanzhang’s time had a treatment.
• Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Yunqi to summon the Medical Academy’s renowned physicians and have them debate the illness and prescribe treatment through the night.
• The Medical Academy failed to reach a conclusion overnight, angering Zhu Yuanzhang, so Zhu Biao visited the physicians and obtained a treatment and prescription after offering them his guarantee.
• Zhu Biao presented the prescription to Zhu Yuanzhang, who asked what had happened.

Zhu Yuanzhang sent Zhang Jiao treatments that could only ease his incurable illness, and Zhang Jiao made arrangements for the Yellow Turbans before dying in the Taihang Mountains. After his death, Zhang Jiao found himself able to see his own body and heard the familiar voice associated with the Rebel Army Group.

• Zhu Biao explained that the physicians feared Zhu Yuanzhang's anger, and Zhu Yuanzhang instructed him to tell them to report illnesses honestly.
• Zhu Yuanzhang sent Zhang Jiao prescriptions and confessed that Great Ming's physicians could not cure him.
• Zhang Jiao accepted that he would die and told Zhang Bao to protect the Yellow Turbans, avoid another uprising, and watch Cao Cao.
• Zhang Jiao arranged for Chu Yan to become Zhang Bao's adopted son and take the name Zhang Yan.
• Zhang Jiao died during a snowy night as Zhang Bao and Zhang Yan kept vigil beside him.
• Zhang Jiao saw his own body and heard the familiar voice that spoke when the Rebel Army Group opened.

After dying, Zhang Jiao chose to remain in his spacetime as a spectator for twenty years rather than immediately transfer his Rebel Army Group membership. When the group chat reopened, he explained his choice to Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang, who wondered whether they could do the same after death.

• The Rebel Army Group offered Zhang Jiao the choice to transfer his membership immediately or remain a spectator for twenty years, and Zhang Jiao chose to become a spectator.
• Zhang Jiao explored the Peaceful Stronghold as an invisible, untouchable spirit and decided to visit the Taihang Mountain strongholds and Luoyang.
• Liu Bang received Zhang Jiao's farewell letter and mourned his death, then hurried to join the group chat when it reopened several days later.
• Zhang Jiao told Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang that he was already dead but had chosen to remain a spectator, and explained the two options he had received.
• Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang excitedly asked whether they could also spend twenty years as spectators after death and pass their memberships to successors, and Zhang Jiao began recalling what the Rebel Army Group had said.