It was already known that the capital of Great Ming stood at Yingtian Prefecture.
It was also known that Yingtian had once been called Qingqing Circuit under the Yuan, Jiankang and Jiangning under the Song, and had served as the refuge capital of Southern Tang. The Liu Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen dynasties of the south had all ruled from here before being destroyed by northern states, and the Eastern Jin had likewise crossed south and established its capital here.
Reading those few simple lines, Zhu Yuanzhang felt a chill run down his spine.
Even a man as confident as he was could not help muttering:
"Could it be that my unworthy descendants…"
In his mind, if a Ming emperor ended up guarding the realm from Yingtian, there were only two possibilities.
Either Beiping had fallen, the Mongols had returned, and Ming had been forced like Southern Song to rely on the Yangtze as a defensive line.
Or Ming later followed the Jin and Yuan model, establishing multiple capitals and elevating Beiping into a northern capital where the emperor made regular inspection tours.
But that second option risked exhausting the people.
Too many possibilities. He shook his head before finishing the thought and instead asked quietly:
"This light screen… is it a kindly immortal offering guidance, or some spirit playing tricks?"
He was not unfamiliar with such ideas.
When he was young, after Huangjue Monastery had closed and he was forced to wander with a begging bowl, he had spent eight years roaming Huaixi. He had heard countless ghost tales from villagers and listened to storytellers speak of immortals offering enlightenment or descending into the mortal world.
He had never believed them then.
But now, hearing this young voice speak of events yet to happen, those stories were the first thing that came to mind.
Empress Ma shook her head seriously.
"I cannot know. But whenever so-called immortals give guidance, they always end up sounding more vulgar than market folk bargaining over vegetables."
"This young man's voice has asked for nothing since it began. If anything, it truly feels like a storyteller's tale. You and I are merely customers who wandered into the wrong teahouse."
Zhu Yuanzhang fell silent, then made a decision.
"Tomorrow I'll send a team of imperial physicians north. Station them in Beiping to watch over Xu Da's health."
If a powerful enemy ever rose again, broke Beiping, and pushed into the Central Plains, the only prerequisite Zhu Yuanzhang could imagine was Xu Da falling like their old comrade Chang Yuchun had.
Otherwise, even if Genghis Khan himself returned from the grave, Beiping would not fall.
As his thoughts churned, he felt the empress gently pat his back. A few soft strokes were enough to calm the worry in his chest.
"Today is your Heavenly Longevity Festival. You should be celebrating, not frowning like this."
"If this screen turns out to be false, all the better. If it's true, then enemies can be destroyed, traitors can be executed, and foreknowledge of defeat only gives us time to prevent it. That should make you happier, not gloomier."
The nickname made him smile despite himself, and her words lifted his spirits.
"Little sister, if I hadn't met you, this Great Ming might never have come into being."
He soon felt her lean lightly against his shoulder, her voice soft.
"I'd rather you could live more easily like before. Now you've even taught Biao'er to stay up working late like you…"
At that, Zhu Yuanzhang actually looked pleased.
"Biao'er handles state affairs in an orderly way now. Far better than I did back then."
"He'll be a worthy ruler of Ming. Better than me. His achievements will rival Han Gaozu, and his virtue surpass Tang Taizong."
The emperor's words rang with certainty. The empress agreed.
[Lightscreen]
[After the Battle of Yehuling, the Mongols chased the Jin like hunters after rabbits, winning battle after battle.
Then… they stalled at Zhongdu.
Three Mongol armies converged outside the city and fought for half a year. Still they could not take it.
Before gunpowder warfare became widespread, this was simply how things worked. No matter how elite your troops or brilliant your generals, if a properly defended major city stood in your way, you were likely to fail.
The key word here is properly defended, not strong walls.
History has proven countless times that even the strongest fortress collapses once breached from within. And that was exactly what happened to Jin here.
Zhongdu was the Jin name for the city. It was also known as Youzhou or Yanjing. After centuries of construction, it was undeniably the northern shield of Hebei. A true great city. The Mongols failing to take it was perfectly reasonable.
But the Jin emperor, Emperor Xuanzong, lost his nerve first.
Despite the defenses being secure, he offered money, grain, women, and even the daughter of the former emperor Wanyan Yongji, the Princess of Qi. The Mongols withdrew.
They retreated in the second month.
In the third month, Emperor Xuanzong proposed moving the capital south.
By early May, the decree was issued. The evacuation was completed with unprecedented speed.
That single decision was like stomping on the accelerator while the Jin state was already rolling downhill. From that moment, anyone could see the dynasty was finished.
Rebel forces erupted across Hebei. The Mongols wasted no time. The following year they broke Zhongdu and entered Hebei.
From then on, the fall of Jin was only a matter of time.
Yet at this critical moment, Temujin had already marched west, launching the first Mongol western campaign. Because of that, Jin managed to cling to life for a few more years.
Just as ancient emperors rarely knew the true size of their own realms, Genghis Khan did not suddenly wake up possessed by divine fury and decide to march across the world to kick Europe in the teeth.
From the Han through the Tang, once the steppe was unified, nomadic empires always had only two real choices:
Invade the Central Plains for plunder.
Or conquer westward to control the Eurasian trade routes.
At first, Genghis Khan chose the first option. Zhongdu proved too difficult. For the Mongols of that era, massive cities were still a nightmare.
And right at that moment, news arrived of the rise of Khwarazm in Central Asia. Naturally, this triggered the Mongols' first strategic shift westward.
The ruler of Khwarazm at the time was Shah Muhammad.
He was, without question, a formidable monarch.
Earlier we mentioned Yelü Zhilugu, who allied with Khwarazm to betray his own father-in-law. The partner in that alliance had been Shah Muhammad himself.
Later, Yelü Zhilugu became emperor of Western Liao, while Muhammad led Khwarazm to independence and expansion. One could say they parted ways on good terms.
After taking the throne, Yelü Zhilugu gradually lost his sanity and ruined Western Liao's governance.
Meanwhile, Muhammad moved the capital to Samarkand and began a sweeping campaign of conquest.
In just five years, Khwarazm's power stretched from the Pamirs in the east to Azerbaijan and the Red Sea in the west, encompassing most of Central Asia and Persia.
At nearly the same time the Mongols were stalled at Yanjing, Muhammad held a grand procession across Persia. Provincial Turkic governors lined up to swear loyalty.
The flourishing scene convinced many that a great Central Asian empire had risen.
All under heaven united, roads and scripts aligned.
How could Persia remain divided?
With a million troops raised upon the Red Sea,
He reined his horse in Khurasan, master of Central Asia.
And in such circumstances, when one of his governors falsely accused a Mongol trade caravan of being spies simply to seize its wealth, Muhammad merely waved his hand dismissively.
"This kind of thing needs reporting to me?
Just execute them all."]