[Lightscreen]
[In truth, within Western Xia at the time, there were indeed people who wanted to act.
When the Mongols first destroyed Jin, the one who negotiated peace with them was Emperor Xiangzong of Western Xia.
Later, Li Zunxu, a remarkably capable man who had once placed first in the Western Xia imperial examinations, deposed Xiangzong and crowned himself emperor. He would later be known as Emperor Shenzong of Western Xia.
At the beginning of his reign, Shenzong still followed the national policy of obedient submission to Mongolia.
But while the Mongols marched west to conquer Khwarazm, Shenzong began quietly stirring trouble.
First he refused Mongol demands for troops and grain.
Then he actively sent envoys to repair relations with Jin and discuss an anti-Mongol alliance.
He even dispatched multiple embassies into Sichuan, hoping to gain Southern Song's support and "jointly deliberate great plans."
But no amount of ambition could change the reality that Jin and Xia were both weak.
When Western Xia refused to obey, the Mongols simply mobilized troops and surrounded the Xia capital. Shenzong had no choice but to submit. There was no room for resistance.
When news arrived that Khwarazm had fallen, Shenzong understood what fate awaited his own state.
Unwilling to be remembered as the ruler who lost his country, he imitated the Song precedent and abdicated in favor of his second son, becoming Retired Emperor.
In truth, by this point nothing Western Xia did could change its destiny.
Two years later, Temujin returned and settled accounts. Western Xia was destroyed.
One mystery that still surrounds the Mongol campaign against Western Xia is the death of Genghis Khan.
The History of Yuan is extremely terse on the matter, so some scholars suspect the manner of his death may not have been particularly glorious for the Mongols.
From Yuan to Ming times, unofficial accounts generally fall into two main theories.
The first: Temujin was wounded in battle and, already advanced in age, eventually died of those injuries. Various explanations exist for the wound, including a fall from his horse or an arrow strike.
The second: Temujin forcibly took a Western Xia queen, and during the night she assassinated him. The weapon likewise varies by story, ranging from a dagger to poisoned wine… to her own teeth.
One obviously unreliable account comes from the Portuguese envoy Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, who traveled to Mongolia decades later and insisted Temujin was killed by lightning. That possibility can only be described as extremely unlikely.
Still, before his death, Temujin had already arranged the fates of Song and Jin quite clearly in his mind.
He believed the two states were mortal enemies and could never reconcile. Under such conditions, Mongolia could pursue a strategy of allying with Song to destroy Jin, and he assumed the Song would certainly agree.
Later events in the Mongol–Jin war broadly followed the direction Temujin had predicted.
Only in the details did reality diverge considerably.]
"That Western Xia queen was truly a fierce woman, to attempt assassination like that."
"But if she was summoned to the bedchamber, how could she bring poison or a dagger? If she killed him with her teeth… that would indeed be fierce."
Zhang Fei shook his head in admiration. He felt that later generations calling Genghis Khan a man who only knew how to shoot eagles might not be entirely wrong.
He had fought countless wars and made countless enemies. In the end, even the manner of his death was barely recorded.
But one question lingered.
"Even if Temujin was old, he should still have been able to overpower that queen. How did she succeed?"
"This…"
Liu Bei paused.
He had a suspicion, but seeing the sincerity in his sworn brother's eyes, he swallowed it and simply shook his head.
"I truly do not know."
Zhang Fei turned toward the two strategists.
Lu Su hurriedly waved his hands.
"I don't know either."
Instead, Zhuge Liang tapped Zhang Fei lightly with his feather fan.
"What use is it to dwell on such details? Whether she used wine, blade, or teeth, she acted with the resolve to die, seeking vengeance for her ruined state and fallen house."
"We need only honor her courage and understand her resolve."
Zhang Fei nodded, enlightened.
Then the strategist continued,
"As for commanders dying in battle, from falling off horses or being struck by stray arrows… that is entirely commonplace. Better to treat those as warnings and guard against them."
Lu Su blinked, then gave a slow nod. Zhang Fei nodded vigorously, committing it to memory.
Liu Bei, however, was pondering something else.
"Later generations say it is unlikely he was struck by lightning… could it be that, as the strategist once speculated, they truly studied that brief flash in the sky? Could they harness lightning and tame it into lamps?"
He had been deeply envious of the lights seen everywhere in later-age landscapes and dearly wished to see them with his own eyes.
Unfortunately, the strategist had once said seriously that this idea of harnessing lightning was only a hypothesis. They had not even figured out how to test it.
Well, not entirely.
Kongming had searched through ancient records and noted that lone trees in open plains often attracted lightning during storms, and towers on mountaintops could do the same.
From this he reasoned that a man in armor riding across an open field during a thunderstorm, or standing beside a tall solitary pole, might also draw lightning.
But how to store that lightning… that remained utterly beyond them.
The third brother had eagerly volunteered to try.
Liu Bei slapped him back into place.
After a quiet discussion that led nowhere, Liu Bei instead focused on a name mentioned earlier.
"Portuguese… is that not the country that later invaded Ming?"
Kongming, with his flawless memory, nodded.
"They are skilled shipbuilders. They construct vessels called galleons. Yueying has already set up a workshop in Chang'an to build child-sized models to study their principles."
"And by the historical timeline, it was Portugal that began the Western incursions into China."
"According to the calendar, their fleet entered the southern seas more than two hundred years after this man."
Two hundred years was a long time, enough to encompass the entire Wei and Jin period with room to spare.
Two hundred years was also short. Han, Tang, Ming, even both Song dynasties all endured longer than that.
In the end Liu Bei shook his head.
"For us, if we were to march west now, we would only face changes in Rome."
"But Tang stands more than four hundred years after us. They must prepare in time."
Kongming raised an eyebrow. The reasoning felt slightly strained. If he remembered correctly, in early Tang the only great powers around the Mediterranean were the Eastern Roman Empire and the Frankish realm. Portugal had not yet appeared.
Still, early warning never hurt, so he nodded.
〖Liu Bei: Your Majesty Taizong, Kongming believes that from the time Portugal first sent envoys to when it dispatched fleets eastward, less than three hundred years passed. The rise and fall of states can fit within three centuries as if in a single moment. This should serve as a warning.〗
Inside Ganlu Hall, Li Shimin looked mildly indignant.
"Why does the Marquis Wu not tell me this himself?"
Du Ruhui and Fang Xuanling exchanged helpless glances.
You always refer to him as the Marquis of Wu, so naturally Emperor Zhaolie relayed the message.
Still, Fang Xuanling spoke solemnly:
"The Marquis Wu speaks truly. Consider how Yelü Dashi fled west with barely two hundred riders, yet forged a powerful state in Central Asia."
"Now that our Tang differs from later recorded history, it is entirely possible that some western exile could emulate him, endure a century like Temujin, and sweep back east and west in conquest."
"Therefore, even if we recover the Western Regions, we must not grow complacent."
Li Shimin sighed.
"Do you think I do not know that? In the Western Regions, the only real threat at present is the Turks."
"It is Liaodong and the southern seas that require the greater effort. I cannot afford complacency."
In Kunning Palace, the Ming Emperor naturally remembered the approximate date of Temujin's death.
He lowered his head and calculated.
"If Temujin died… then two or three decades later… and then another two hundred years…"
"Wouldn't that place it just over a century after the founding of Great Ming?"
"So the words spoken under Emperor Zhaolie's name… are they saying that about a hundred years after Ming's founding, we must face a western nation called Portugal?"
"Enemies from the west… arriving by sea?"
Within moments Zhu Yuanzhang's mind shook violently. For a brief instant he even felt the urge to grab an axe, smash this screen apart, and throw it into the imperial kitchen stove.
But as Son of Heaven, and having already accepted the possibility of enemies coming by sea, he would not pretend not to hear.
Instead he murmured,
"Could it be that Emperor Zhaolie and the Marquis Wu show their spirits… and, in recognition of my merit in driving out the Yuan, offer this warning?"