AleksandraSucur

It's useful to rewatch such an episode, packed with new info, to spot details one could have missed at first.
Eg. Eagle King knows about Li Mao's origin. I think Eagle King has spies very close to the throne and my first sus is chief eunuch Feng. Maybe Li Mao put him in charge for the same usage Eagle King had with Lejun: to (unknowingly) report to the enemy court things he actually wants to be reported

The role of LiMao's character in the story is to confuse the audience, to release red herrings to mislead our thoughts and expectations, to distract us from important things and important details...

The important facts were: the end of internal class strife, the establishment of equal opportunity official selection system simultaneously to the rehabilitation of two noble clans and innovative flood prevention method they've used... These things were done JOINTLY by XWY and LM
and the Eagle King wasn't happy with such an outcome.

Now they must deal with that external threat, in particular with Eagle King, who - interestingly - knows about Li Mao's origin. Eagle King evidently has spies who are very close to the throne...

The emperor was the first person he asked the hooded man to save.
It's a very important detail which would indicate LM is not that obsessed with power as we may think given what we see

the second thread:
https://mydramalist.com/790870-que-gu/discussions/153566-timeline-of-events

Read them to the end, people made other questions in it

The discussion section is just above this comment section.
The first thread is https://mydramalist.com/790870-que-gu/discussions/153476-who-are-li-mao-and-li-lejun-and-how-are-they-related-to-the-imperial-family

PeachBlossomGoddess explained them well and together with timeline in two threads of the discussion section, you'll find them there

not only Wuyi, but the emperor, too!
I wonder whose lives the mysterious doctor asked for as a compensation...

Yup.
But, this "split personality" actually makes sense. On one hand, he wants XWY to stay alive, otherwise, why would he asked that mysterious doctor to cure WXY (and, interestingly, the emperor, too!)? On the other hand, he wants to make decisions and exercise power in his own right, without restraints imposed by WXY's power...

Well, it wasn't Li Mao who asked Eagle King to kill his father.
I think Li Mao pretends he fell in Eagle King's trap. What he said during YuanJi's punishment in the court would point in that direction...

No, Eagle King did it, to enable Li Mao to take over Beifu Army foiling Northern Expedition plan

I also think he is acting. He pretends he fell in Northern Qin's trap making them believe that Beifu Army is now on its way to Jiankang and that they have a free road to invade

It looks like Li Mao fell into Eagle King's trap. Li Mao certainly wanted Beifu Army, it was his second request to XWY when he imprisoned him, more important than the divorce from Yaoyao, which was only his third request, so all the evidences point he imprisoned Xiaos to get Beifu army (=the only power which can restrict his power).

But, there's still a small factor of uncertainty and probablity he is faking he fell in that trap. Li Mao knows the GT's death was staged by the Northern Qin to stop the Northern Expedition of Beifu Army - this was clear from his words during the punishment of YuanJi in the court. Thus, it is still unclear why he wants XWY to pass the army over to him, unless XWY wrote clear instructions how to command it in the esseys he wrote in prison and gave to LM. In such a scenario, he only pretend to fall in Eagle King's trap (he will detain Xiaos, punish YuanJi who'll come to defend them, take JiaYu etc), while the Northern Expedition can secretly continue and take Northern Qin by surprise...

Finally, in ep 24 Li Mao reached the point we were awaiting for so many eps and choose between being committed to good governance (following XWY's vision and reforms) and being the ultimate villain.

Consort An, a biological mother of Li Mao, was his lover. She was executed with her clan. Beside, those two were noble families and he is a paladin of noble families' rights which emperor Wenxi tried to suppress and counter-balance by pushing these two clans under the bus...

Yeah, that's also true.

I think we should take into account that independently of Li Mao's governance abilities and hypocrisy he in a way "inherited" by his father/teacher, Li Mao (and not the emperor, who lacks the necessary strenght and motivation, but is intelligent enough to delegate tasks, dividing power between LM and XWY) is called to decide on heavy unresolved issues of the past generation and in particular on the class clash which erodes Ye from within. In these past issues, nobody is innocent: Lu-An were not guilty of crimes for which they were convicted, but they were still nobles who suppressed and even killed scholars from commoners' class and we have seen even now the nobles protesting against the equal opportunity examination system. Emperor Wenxi and his circle of followers wanted to counter-balance their power bc detrimental for the state, but they've convicted these two families for crimes they did not commit, based on fabricated evidences... These issues are vicious circles which perpetuate(d) injustice and complexity to govern for decades.
When taken into account, these issues are valid reasons for Li Mao's leniency in the court. At the same time, he sided with XWY's pov by aknowledging the old selection system was the main generator of injustice, social tensions and overall weakness of the state and with XWY's "cut the Gordian knot" solution by establishing a permanent selection system on equal footing.
So, yes, the emperor has a better personality than Li Mao, but Li Mao is a better choice for ruling in the exact direction XWY wants

you are welcome 🙂

the emperor knows Li Mao's true identity, his mom sent persons to check on his wet nurse who gave him to the Qi couple when he was a baby. She didn't act and didn't oppose him becoming a CP, thinking she'll get a timely opportunity to expose him (probably when her son, the emperor, dies) establishing her own (He) dynasty.
It was mentioned the emperor knows, but there's another person in the palace who knows but wasn't mentioned: ED's eunuch, used and discarded by Li Mao

Ofc, I agree with you. I think the author initially imagined his character as a flawed person, blinded by his obsession with Lu-An case to the point in which his judgment is clouded. A hypocrite who built up his own soft power as a great scholar, titled as a Grand Tutor not on the grounds of his great academic/scientific achievements but bc he offered some miserable support to poor scholars (only to use them as tools) while being a paladin of noble families who detest those poor scholars... The script offered other examples of his misjudgment of characters: he underestimated his own wife, not to mention how he misjudged things Lejun was capable of when under stress to defend her "brother's" interests. But I also think such a grey character (and basically a villain, despite his just reason) deserved more articulated characterisation of his inner contraddictions, both in terms of time/number of scenes which would better explain his flaws and in terms of performance. I've seen Peter Ho in another "obsessed man" role (🤦‍♀️), he did better in this drama but still underperformed...

Xiao Yao wasn't "banished from Jian Kang", he was only stripped off of his titles. It's a light sentence for a person with executive and supervisor's responsibilities. In any country in any time he'd at least go strait to a jail if the construction collapse he was encharged of caused more than 1000 person to die. Instead, he was given the opportunity to atone for his negligence (he simply ought to be more cautious, this was not the first time Xiaos were framed, preventing set-ups), using the bamboo cage & pebbles method.

Person who was banished was scholar Liu (aka Pei) who forged false letters and ledgers. That sentence is light as well. He was fully conscious of the fact the entire Xiao family would be falsely indicted and executed and that he was using such a nice person as princess He to get handwritings of the family members. He was ready to run away with money given by GT and if GT didn't send his henchman to kill him, he wouldn't confess at all, he'd be on the run.

As for the GT... well, we can't expect Li Mao to condemn his own father, espc. bc Li Mao knew about the set up and could have prevented it if he wanted. But although he has 9 powers, he is still not the emperor... (beside, we've seen the ep 24 trailer and know GT will be indicted...).

So, I agree with you that Li Mao isn't worthy to govern, but without an alternative, we can only trust XWY's ability to teach him gradually. As a commander of Beifu army, he can depose him anyways, anytime he wants. XWY has a real, tangible power of his own, he doesn't need a controversial Wenxi CP title. And with a genius wife he married, that army will soon have the most advanced weapons... If I can see any logical flaws in the plot, I can't understand why GT married such a formidable daughter to XWY. GT is highly educated, he couldn't missed this girl's talent... A talent one wants to keep for himself instead of making it a gift for the only power which can rival the imperial (and his own son's) power.