Chapter Summaries

Zhu Yuanzhang received later-generation instructions for making allicin and a microscope, then shared both with Liu Bang and Zhang Jiao. He sought Liu Bang’s advice about Great Ming’s maritime prohibition and was left considering how future rulers and ministers might exploit it.

• Zhu Yuanzhang read the allicin instructions and microscope plans, then chose to share both rewards with Liu Bang and Zhang Jiao.
• Zhu Yuanzhang told Zhang Jiao to try garlic for his illness, and Liu Bang recorded the shared information while Zhang Jiao tried to memorize it.
• Zhu Yuanzhang explained how Liu Bang’s treatment of rival kings led Lu Wan to flee to the Xiongnu, then discussed the dangers of granting kings military and financial power.
• Zhu Yuanzhang asked Liu Bang to advise him on Great Ming’s maritime prohibition and explained why he had avoided funding an ocean navy.
• Liu Bang questioned how the prohibition could lead to Wokou raids and private profiteering, and Zhu Yuanzhang blamed future foolish rulers and treacherous ministers.
• Liu Bang urged Zhu Yuanzhang to consider how later rulers and ministers might exploit the policies he left behind.

After Liu Bang advised Zhu Yuanzhang to share maritime trade profits so others would defend his policies, Zhu Yuanzhang considered reforms to the maritime prohibition and Guard Posts system while struggling with an urge to fight crickets. Liu Bang arranged to seek foreign garlic and make a microscope, then unsettled Chen Ping by proposing to spend the night at his house.

• Liu Bang told Zhu Yuanzhang that sharing maritime trade profits could give powerful groups a stake in preserving Great Ming's policies after his death.
• The Rebel Army Group ended, and Zhu Yuanzhang received two Spacetime Letters and reviewed the allicin and microscope instructions alongside the problems with Great Ming's maritime prohibition and Guard Posts system.
• Zhu Yuanzhang's cricket-fighting urge took hold, so he ordered Mao Xiang to buy four or five crickets discreetly with funds from the Imperial Treasury.
• Zhu Biao brought the Medical Academy's treatment methods and prescriptions, and Zhu Yuanzhang asked him to obtain descriptions and preparation methods for their ingredients before asking whether he liked cricket fighting.
• Liu Bang decided to ask the Xiongnu about foreign garlic and have craftsmen make a microscope, then invited Chen Ping to stay overnight before proposing to stay at Chen Ping's house instead.

Zhang Jiao received Zhu Yuanzhang’s medical advice and began gathering ingredients for treatment, while Zhu Yuanzhang ordered preparations for an ocean navy but became absorbed in cricket fighting. The chapter ended with Zhu Biao reporting that two physicians might understand the term “anatomy” in a proposal about development medicine.

• Zhang Jiao woke to Zhu Yuanzhang’s letter, then dictated its treatment formulas to Zhang Liang so the Yellow Turban Army could gather the ingredients.
• Zhu Yuanzhang resolved to revise the Maritime Prohibition and prepare to build an ocean navy after recalling Japan’s raids and Great Ming’s future humiliation.
• Mao Xiang presented Zhu Yuanzhang with five crickets called the Five Tiger Young Generals, and Zhu Yuanzhang rewarded him and the accompanying guards.
• Zhu Yuanzhang canceled the noon court and spent the day fighting crickets in the Western Side Hall.
• Zhu Biao interrupted Zhu Yuanzhang’s cricket match to report that two renowned physicians might know what “anatomy” meant in a development medicine proposal.

Zhu Biao explained to Zhu Yuanzhang why physicians Zhao Yizhen and Xia Quan believed anatomy required dissecting human bodies, and the emperor approved Xia Quan’s role in the research. By the sixth month of the tenth year of Hongwu, Great Ming had established the Medical Academy and its medical education system, while Zhu Yuanzhang also ordered the Treasure Shipyard built at Three-Fork River.

• Zhu Biao told Zhu Yuanzhang that Zhao Yizhen and Xia Quan considered anatomy the study of dissecting the human body and described their medical backgrounds and skills.
• Zhu Biao proposed using the bodies of executed criminals for anatomical study, and Zhu Yuanzhang approved the plan and agreed Xia Quan should initially be named a professor.
• Zhu Biao warned Zhu Yuanzhang not to become too absorbed in cricket fighting, and Zhu Yuanzhang sent the cricket cages to the Eastern Side Hall before returning to his memorials.
• By the seventh day of the sixth month, thirty-seven renowned physicians had registered with the Medical Academy, which appointed five academicians, fifteen professors, and seventeen doctors.
• The court recruited seventy-two young physicians as graduate students and announced free medicine schools across Zhili and at Provincial Administration Commission seats.
• Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the Treasure Shipyard built at Three-Fork River outside Jinling.

Hu Weiyong celebrated his promotion to Left Chancellor and dismissed concerns about Wang Guangyang, while Fang Xiaoru grew furious over the court’s free medical education policies. In August, Zhu Biao visited Zhu Yuanzhang to announce that the Microscope had finally been made.

• Zhu Yuanzhang ordered sealed submissions delivered directly to him, then promoted Hu Weiyong to Left Chancellor and appointed Wang Guangyang as Right Chancellor.
• Hu Weiyong boasted to his faction that feigning illness had persuaded Zhu Yuanzhang of the Central Secretariat’s importance, while Tu Jie warned him not to underestimate Wang Guangyang.
• Zhu Yuanzhang established the Directorate of Communications under Zeng Bingzheng to manage memorials and forward sealed remonstrances directly to the throne.
• Fang Xiaoru became enraged after his attendant told him the court would teach medicine for free, and he drove the attendant from his study.
• Zhu Biao entered while Zhu Yuanzhang was secretly staging cricket fights and announced that the Microscope had finally been made.

Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao tested Great Ming’s first Microscope, discovering tiny creatures in water and on living things and considering how cleanliness could prevent illness. Liu Bang then received a different instrument made by Mohist-trained craftsmen after they failed to produce a proper Microscope.

• Zhu Biao told Zhu Yuanzhang that the completed Microscope had revealed moving creatures in a drop of water, and warned that suitable crystal was scarce.
• Zhu Yuanzhang agreed to Zhu Biao’s proposal to have Imperial Guards quietly search for more crystal instead of burdening local authorities and the people.
• Zhu Biao brought the corrected Microscope to the palace, where Zhu Yuanzhang saw creatures in water and on a cricket; Zhu Biao also found them on his finger and discovered that washing reduced them.
• Zhu Biao connected the discoveries to Xia Quan’s advice about boiling surgical instruments and cleaning hands, and Zhu Yuanzhang asked him to have Xia Quan investigate with the Microscope.
• After Zhu Yuanzhang wondered whether Liu Bang had built a Microscope and whether Zhang Jiao had recovered, Xiao He showed Liu Bang a copper tube devised by Mohist-trained craftsmen, and Liu Bang went outside to test it on distant scenery.

Liu Bang named Xiao He's new invention the Thousand-Li Telescope and ordered further work on the Microscope. In the Taihang Mountains, Zhang Jiao recovered enough to learn that Zhang Liang had died during a disastrous attempt to rescue Zhang Bao's forces at Xiaquyang, and the chapter ended with Zhang Jiao seeing the Rebel Army Group open again.

• Liu Bang tested Xiao He's bronze-tube telescope, named it the Thousand-Li Telescope, and ordered rewards for its craftsmen and continued work on the Microscope.
• Zhang Jiao's illness improved as the Yellow Turbans established strongholds in the Taihang Mountains and gathered supplies, including sulfur for making gunpowder.
• After learning that Dong Zhuo had failed to take Xiaquyang, Zhang Liang led more than ten thousand Yellow Turban Army soldiers out of the mountains to help Zhang Bao.
• Zhang Liang and Zhang Bao's forces suffered a crushing defeat during their attempt to break out of Xiaquyang, and Zhang Liang died while holding off the Han Army's pursuit.
• Zhang Jiao grieved over Zhang Liang's death, told Zhang Bao not to blame himself, and saw the Rebel Army Group open again.

Zhu Yuanzhang inspected the Treasure Shipyard, then exchanged news with Liu Bang and Zhang Jiao in the Rebel Army Group. After learning of Zhang Liang’s death, the group prepared for the upcoming Rebel Army Q&A.

• Zhu Biao reported that construction at the Treasure Shipyard was underway and expected to finish by next summer or autumn, and Zhu Yuanzhang ordered him to oversee its funds and supplies.
• Zhu Biao left Zhu Yuanzhang and privately considered releasing the crickets kept in the Eastern Side Hall so his father would not become obsessed with cricket fighting again.
• Liu Bang told Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhang Jiao that Former Han craftsmen had built a Thousand-Li Telescope, and he explained how it was made.
• Zhu Yuanzhang described Great Ming’s microscope and shared what he and Zhu Biao had learned about tiny creatures, boiled water, and hygiene.
• Zhang Jiao reported that Zhang Liang had fallen in battle during a failed attempt to break out of Xiaquyang, and Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang offered their condolences.
• The Administrator announced that the Rebel Army Q&A segment was about to begin.

Liu Bang, Zhang Jiao, and Zhu Yuanzhang correctly identified four essentials for a rebel army, then answered a question about crop yields. Zhang Jiao chose sweet potatoes and won the round, while Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang faced punishments.

• Liu Bang, Zhang Jiao, and Zhu Yuanzhang each chose A, C, D, and E as what a rebel army needed in its early and middle stages, and all three were correct.
• Zhu Yuanzhang explained that proclaiming a ruler, attacking the capital, and roaming as bandits were optional or unwise at that stage.
• The Administrator asked which of eight crops had the highest yield, and Liu Bang chose corn, Zhang Jiao chose sweet potatoes, and Zhu Yuanzhang chose rice.
• The Administrator revealed sweet potatoes as the correct answer, surprising all three and prompting Zhu Yuanzhang to suspect that potatoes, corn, and sweet potatoes had arrived in China later from overseas or the Western Regions.
• The Administrator ended the round, rewarding Zhang Jiao and assigning punishments to Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang.

Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang received negative statuses after answering incorrectly, while Zhang Jiao earned a choice of questions and selected how sweet potatoes came to China. The answer revealed their extraordinary yields and arrival in Great Ming, leaving Zhu Yuanzhang hopeful that the crop could greatly increase food supplies.

• Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang questioned why the Rebel Army Q&A had ended after two questions, and the Administrator assigned Liu Bang the status "fatherly love and filial piety" and Zhu Yuanzhang "woodworking obsession."
• Zhang Jiao received the reward "Choose One of Two Answers" and publicly chose to learn how sweet potatoes came to China.
• The group explained that Chen Zhenlong smuggled sweet potato vines from Luzon to Fujian, where his family cultivated them and promoted the crop during a famine.
• Liu Bang and Zhang Jiao discussed the reported yields and the different weights of a jin in Great Han and Great Ming.
• Zhu Yuanzhang concluded that sweet potatoes could greatly increase Great Ming's food production and smiled at the prospect of fewer famines.

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.