Just sharing some of my thoughts/observations. Not a recap and of course, there are SPOILERS which I won't hide so read at your own risk.

Later Jin

Wuyue

Wuyue's longstanding foreign policy is one of appeasement. Pay tribute in return for protection from whoever rules the Central Plains and stay out of war. This was passed on from one generation of Wuyue king (not emperor) to another. With Later Jin's imminent demise, they are now deer in the headlights. Who will take over and will they get drawn into war and chaos or will they be able to reach a similar accord with the successor nation?

Wuyue's threats seem to me to be more internal than external. The previous Wuyue King clearly favored his third son and initially intended to name him as his heir. But the evil old goat Hu Jinsi (definitely a big villain) pointed out that he is just an adopted son and should not be heir when the king has legitimate sons. Its a pity bc he is actually really the king's never acknowledged biological son and from his military prowess and grasp of Central Plains politics, would have made a phenomenal successor. Not to mention having a pirate mother that rules the high seas! It was tragic he was never acknowledged by his father before he died. But its quite clear when the first heir he names is Hongyou/Sun Ben, what the father's intent was. 

So they went with the 6th prince who was very young and very green and was manipulated to turn against his own family. Luckily Shuiqui was able to to set him on the right path and he seems to be growing into his role. And Hu Jinsi is temporarily brought down by his own son's scandal but I don't think we are safe from that vicious pompous ass that served 2 emperors until the man is dead. The villains with the audacity to loot the King's personal coffers so far seem to have got off scot free.

Not a bad start at all despite too many character intros. Feel a little bad for both Prince Qi of Later Jin and the 6th Prince of Wuyue. Both were unequal to the task before them. But at least the Wuyue king left his son some pretty solid advice while the Later Jin emperor didn't leave any useful instructions. 

The young actor that played the young Hongchu is awesome. Someone to watch. I think he was also the young Tang Lian in Blood River.

Qian Hongchu is the 9th Prince?

 mparthur:

Qian Hongchu is the 9th Prince?

，yes

Thank you!!! This thread is really helpful, I was trying to figure out the characters and how their stories impact the actual event. So the events and happenings are based on historical records, it’s like watching a history documentary;).

 Freefoxx:

the drama has struck a nice balance between creating an interesting plot within the constraints of the actual history

Thank you for your insights - I am not familiar with Wuyue's role in of history during this period so your contextualizing how some events and characters are portrayed is super helpful. I am kind of glad they skipped over this Zhang Deán figure bc there are so many characters as it is. And it took me awhile to figure out why Hu Jinsi moved so viciously against Dai Yu was to cut off the support for the Third Prince who had military power. I suppose in real history he was not really the unacknowledged biological son of the Wuyue king. And it was kind of poetic justice that after helping the 6th prince secure his hold onto power, he got ensnared in undermining the First Prince's military support.

 I think for this kind of story, its quite smart to focus on the POV of a historically not that significant player during that time as they can take literary liberties that make for better storytelling without substantively distorting history.

Huge fan of Zhu Yawen and I do like how his character is written so far and am looking forward to how he takes forward the role of Zhao Kuangyin. However, he does not look the part of a young Kuangyin - in some scenes he looks more like his father's peer than his son.  So I do kind of wish they had also cast a younger actor to portray him, at least in the first few episodes. But I am confident the actor will be great in the capacity of an older Kuangyin.

Thanks so much for the ep 1 to 6 recap. Please do another 7 to 12  episodes recap 🙏🏻 

Even with subtitles i wasn't able to make out the relationship linkage and ongoing conflicts. Atleast some background explanation helps a lot! 😀