PeachBlossomGoddess

Yes me too - its just the way FTY keeps yapping about the NW is behind ZL like can just tell them to roll over and they will obey - its so not reflective of the situation.

Idk I don't watch the trailers.

For some reason I thought YJX got it for her from Yake at one point but was forced to give it back - I just don't remember whether he gave it back to his mother or to his wife.

Well, don't fall for FTY's propaganda - she is bad at politics and her read of the situation with the NW is shallow and naive. The NW are not really ZL's power base nor were they really united behind him. They always knew he is first and foremost the emperor's man so they kept him at arms length and only worked with him when his and their interests aligned. They are not aligned with him in the salt reform bc it jeopardizes their supply of grain. The reform cuts them out completely of getting salt permits, making them 100 pct dependent on the (often empty) Treasury to send them silver for grain. That's why in the end General Mo agreed to support the reform in exchange for Mdm Wu's yearly donation of grain for his troops. This is something even ZL was not able to get from him.

In the embezzlement case, ZL had to ask for Commander Wang's support in obtaining evidence of Li Mao's grain embezzlement by forming a marriage alliance between A Sen and the Wang daughter. Mdm Wang always kept her distance from the Zhaos bc she feared they would expose her husband's past salt smuggling. When ZL got close to Commander Wang in Ganlin, ZL also cut off General Mo's path to advancement. That's why Mrs Mo is envious and resentful of ZL and pressured her husband to seize the moment with the bribe. Now General Mo is going down, forcing ZL to once again choose between Mo and Wang. He hasn't gotten much from his NW ties and now risks his reputation and the investigation of the Yu embezzlement case. As ZL himself told his wife long ago, an alliance with the NW can be a double edged sword.

Not sure I would call it mutual benefit - Ms Wu has a ledger that will help ZL/FTY indict the Yu alliance. This would be a big gift, one that FTY has no cards in hand to exchange for - all she is offering to do is help ask the emperor to give her a legitimate household register. I am going to guess that she will also have to beg Yake or YJX for Ms Wu's indenture. I don't remember which one of them is holding on to it.

There are a few posts in the Discussion section above that explain in detail.

100 days is the traditional mourning period.

Is this any good?

Well hopefully he is not bringing his wife into battle and letting her direct the troops...😅

Yeah I thought maybe that was also what she was trying to do but... the stakes are high and they are wrong footed and have nothing at the moment. Maybe the acting/direction was just off for that scene.

Possibly she is bluffing or trying to play a stronger hand than she has. But it seems unwise to be so cold she already owes her for bailing them out on the mausoleum issue.

I think she just became her same old self from the very beginning. One of the opening scenes that stuck with me was how she walked right past her soon to be fiancé YJX without even looking at him and made a beeline to Mdm Yu to "kiss her ring" so to speak. I never really blamed him for detesting her on sight as a result and doing everything in his power to escape being married to such a woman. It is disappointing to see after all the hardships she endured, she has not been humbled at all.

I think if you read the history, the reform didn't really work either. The corruption just moved to how the Ministry of Revenue/issuers of the permits allocated them preferentially for kickbacks. But the biggest blowback was beyond the corruption they just became speculative instruments raising salt prices for all and sundry. So Zhao Ling is setup to fail in this if they follow history. Best he extricate himself and go grow flowers with his wife in some bucolic countryside village.

As for endemic corruption, there were many periods in Chinese history where the emperor was forced to look the other way bc he couldn't afford to remove all the bureaucracies. The only solution was to maybe cut off the head (in this case the Yus) but let everyone else complicit in it off the hook. Not all of them did it bc they were greedy or bad. General Wang for example was involved in the salt smuggling bc his men needed the salt. But its a huge mess to figure out who is punished and who is not. My fear is that Ms Wu's ledger contains evidence implicating not just the Yus but even some of Zhao Ling's allies and for certain the Fu family.

Yes so he is also realistic as a character.

The writing for sure has gone downhill in the latest arcs. As you point out, lots of logic holes and character decisions that don't make sense. With respect to your specific points:

1. The reformed salt system simply paved the way for a new form of corruption. It paved the way for speculation in the salt permits where they changed hands increasingly high prices without any salt changing hands. They became like the tulip bubble of ancient China. Mdm Wu was trying to secure a preferential 50 pct allocation of the salt permits directly from the Ministry of Revenue bc that would be at the most favorable price. She could turn around and sell them at a much higher price to other salt merchants. In return for that, she would give Mdm Yu evidence of corruption in the NW military, ZL's power base. What I found ridiculous about that arc is that General Mo knew it was bribery and yet he signed a piece of paper giving evidence to the quid pro quo - i.e, he would support the salt reform in return for yearly donations of grain for the army. He knew it was bribery why would he give Mdm Wu the evidence that could indict him? I know he is not a smart character but that is beyond dumb.

I would also observe that Mdm Wu was not entirely dumb - she was just greedy. She distrusted Mdm Yu enough to stash evidence implicating the Yus and other court officials potentially in years of corruption with her niece Ms. Wu. It was stupid of Mdm Yu to let her visit her niece that night. It also makes the ending so predictable you can see it a mile away (sigh!) - the women will save the day with Ms Wu giving FTY the ledger indicting the Yus.

2. Yes agree completely. I was thinking - hey y'all enemies, now's a great time to attack! But in all seriousness I am sure there are next level down generals in charge while they are gone.

3. The court shenanigans were ridiculous but it was Minister Yu's indirect way of hinting to the emperor and the court that ZL is coming after him for personal reasons - i.e., his son slandered his wife and now has an unbecoming infatuation with her. He further went to visit FTY at her shop so that the entire capital gossiped about it, dragging her reputation further through the mud. He was also once again stalling for time so that he could cover his tracks. But it seems to me his real strategy is to implicate as many court and military officials into the past/future corruption as possible. The emperor cannot have a functioning empire if he is forced to dismiss/indict the entire court and military. He just has to accept the "storage" and "transport" losses. Which I think the emperor is also well aware that the corruption may be endemic and hard to really prosecute. I don't think he embarked on the salt reform in order to prosecute everyone but to try to close all the old loopholes.

4. The entire Fu daddy arc was written by a moron.

Don't we all meet tons of people like that? Perfect scores at school. Not one ounce of common sense in life. Turns out they are just better at memorizing and reproducing.

Tik Tok is banned where I live. And from the sound of it, that is not a bad thing. I don't enjoy fluffy romance dramas at all. POJ is the kind of stuff that bores me silly though I know there are tons of fans of that genre. Even in this story - my personal observation is there is very little chemistry between the leads but it doesn't bother me all. I am not here for that.

Except the way she talked down to her you would have thought she was doing Ms Wu a huge favor instead of Ms Wu bailing their sorry asses out again! Honestly I think the acting in that scene may be very off off. If I were Ms Wu and someone spoke to me in such an arrogant and condescending manner when they needed something from me, I would have said F-off and tried to use my leverage some other way.

Ah ok - I don't even remember him. I found POJ to be one of the most forgettable plots of 2026.😅

Song Yan who?