PeachBlossomGoddess

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Probably partly superstition and partly to avoid public criticism that his reign is not legitimate. In ancient times, the emperor is believed to have the Mandate of Heaven. So to usurp them is considered going against Heaven’s decree. They can only be removed by popular revolt bc they are unjust rulers and thus have lost the Mandate of Heaven. It’s not in this case as the people have no issue with the reign. YFS seems a bit styled like Cao Cao who seized the throne but never ascended it, preferring to rule over a puppet. His son or grandson crowned himself emperor after his death their reign was short, further reinforcing the belief it was not legitimate.

Yeah I never felt the same way about them again…😅

The most important one is that Haui’an has both emperors in his custody. There is no way for YFS to take control - he doesn’t even dare occupy the imperial city. He is styled like a Cao Cao who never dared seize the throne he just ruled over a puppet. In addition to that he probably also wants to find out where Liu Ziwen’s Cangshuichuan stronghold is. He knows (hopefully) torture will not work on Huai’an. And he has no trading cards left - I guess he realizes in hindsight maybe he shouldn’t have killed off Bai wan. He can only hope to trick him out of it. Which is why Huai’an is so calm. It was a dangerous mission bc for it to work Gu Yu could not have been in YFS’s hands - hence Gao’s sacrifice.

The Birds was one of the scariest movies I ever watched.👻

Wow - we get some Hitchcockian flair:

Thank you for your kind comments.🍑

Of course Zhang Sheng knows who Zhang Mo is, he would recognise his son instantly. He is part of Liu Ziwen's old circle which includes Yang Chuhao and he has a some kind of oversight role at Cangshuichuan. He is also in hiding, otherwise he would be in Zhang Mo's hometown with his daughter-in-law and his grandkids. Unlike Yang Chuhao, he chose sides in the rift between YFS and Liu Ziwen instead of trying to stay neutral. I suspect his salt trading business has dealings with Yang Chuhao's and that is how they keep track of what is going on in Chang'an. Which makes Su now a key person of interest - is he also on their side? Is he the a son another 故人/old friend, one that Yang Chuhao is hiding?

Yes agree. It’s a complicated role the one they seem to be preparing him for. It takes someone with ruthlessness and both survival as well as killer instinct.

It is but he has since aged considerably.

I am watching this drama as if Wenjing is the main character in the story. His journey is the most interesting and he is very smart in his own way even though he may not see the whole chessboard. I am interested in Huai'an's strategies but not in his character - we have seen too many of this revenge driven character archetype for him to be that interesting to me.

Yes, I believe Huai'an brought Zhang Sheng into the loop. He is no ordinary shopkeeper - has some oversight role in this whole secret Cangshuichuan stronghold. He even has the timekeeper that Huai'an built as a student. And he probably lied to Wenjing - people keep coming to his shop not just to look at the time. I believe Huai'an is testing Wenjing and Zhang Sheng was tasked to evaluate him to see if he would be ready to negotiate with Tiemo. But I think his discovery of who Zhang Sheng was to Zhang Mo is probably accidental.

I think it was definitely a big setback but its not a terrible thing. Chang'an is difficult to hold on to, as Wuyang discovered. It is much easier to fight a guerilla war when you are under resourced like Huaian is than it is to have to defend such a big city.

All dramas are going through episode count cuts at the moment, it is not specific to Cheng Yi. Dramas ad slots are sold to advertisers on a unit basis - price/slot/episode. The Chinese ad market is absolutely dreadful with overall advertiser budgets nowhere near what they used to be. Platforms don't want to cut unit prices bc each time they cut unit prices, they never get it back up when the economy recovers. So they are cutting episode counts instead. This was an S+ drama - Youku had to defend its most premium slot price at all costs. Seems to me most of the episodes that were cut were in the beginning and probably related to the backstory of how Huai'an escaped and survived.

I think that is a very dated cast photo.😅😂

Yes - they switched inside the imperial city itself - most likely when Gu eats his dinner from the eunuch. Wang sacrificed himself just before Gu exited the main gate to the imperial city bc 1. once out the gate only that one guard follows Gao/Gu all the way to YFS's house and 2. there are many more guards at the gate, one of them could notice its not Gao and 3. in the ensuing chaos they wouldn't think to replace the killed guard who follows Gao.

The character is Zhang Sheng. Yin Zhusheng is a fantastic actor. He was the Right Chancellor in Longest Day in Chang'an.

像 can also be interpreted as he is like you. Meaning they have same motives.

Huai'an told YFS he is too late, Yang Chuhao has gotten away. YFS then brings up his young accounts manager Su, the one that seems to have a crush on YZ's sect sister. Huai'an admits he noticed he is a bright young man and he had checked that he is not Huben. YFS agrees Su is not Huben (phew?) but then observes there has to be a story behind why he works for Yang. And then he cryptically adds, he resembles you - which could mean they look alike or have similar stories. So there are a few possibilities - it is possible that 1) Yang Chuhao wronged Su/Su's family and like Huai'an, he is out for revenge; 2) he is Liu Ziwen or Liu Ziyan's illegitimate son or 3) he is Yang's illegitimate son. We have to wait and see.

I believe Huai'an just meant that if he told YZ the whole plan, he'd have objected. Huai'an knew that YFS would not kill him once he reaches the correct conclusion that Huai'an has the deposed emperor.
It was part of Gao's daily task to deliver all the daily memorials and court documents to YFS by the 5th watch (between 3 and 5am). YFS does not live in the imperial city, he lives in Bai Wan's old house. So Gao/Gu Yu was let out to deliver the daily documents. That's also why Huai'an knew that YFS would figure out Yang's betrayal soon after the 5th watch. Commander Wang sacrificed himself to kill the guard that follows Gao every day. All the other guards had no clue what was going on with Gao, they were only focused on killing Wang. This allowed Gu and Gao to switch places.