AleksandraSucur

still, they are not pimps, they only collect taxes from that business

It was a good juxtaposition but how much money - collectable only in form of tax revenue - can sex industry generate in a war destroyed city? How many merchants pleasure houses can attract?
They need millions of taels to compensate 1y salary of 120.000 soldiers and disband them and other millions to reconstruct the city. So, the next idea must be miraculous, this one was just for fun

indeed, that was a little bit unbearable

Confucius, Mencius, blabla... just give money to brothels to boost the economy. 🙄 I hope GPY will come up with some better idea soon...

Ukraine has 0 chances to join NATO. Any RF-UA peace treaty will include this clause among its first dispositions, with a series of the serious safeguarding clauses in the case of its breach.
GDP per capita at ppp of Ethiopia (where China strongly invested) is 4.400 USD for 2025 (source: IMF)
GDP per capita/ppp of Ukraine is 2.219 USD (for 2024, last estimate, source: FRED)
Not only Ukraine is poorer than many African countries, it faces more serious problems than just lack of money. Its population halved and will continue to drop furtherly, the only variable is the speed of that shrink.

I read that possibility (China rebuidling Ukraine) completely different than you. The crisis of Chinese construction industry on the internal market is such that it is constantly pushed to the external markets, while being subsidised by the state in such enterprises (even in constructions abroad) is nothing new or uncommon. If China doesn't make such an offer, the reason can only be in awaiting to see the amount and allocation of EU funds and where will the USA exactly start to invest under the agreement Trump-Zelensky for UA mineral resources exploitation in order to avoid direct clashes with the Americans. It's not a secret that China today is a leader in this industry and hardly any great project can be carried out without at least Chinese tech and products in the field, so it's in a way unavoidable for China to be (at least, partially) involved.
The problem with Ukrainian reconstruction is all... political. The Europeans are aware they'll have to pay the most for this reconstruction and will try to stall it - formally for high corruption reasons - sine diem.

ok then, I'll take it as Ms Su convinced Jiu to burden GPY with this ungrateful task.

Ofc., that's the obvious reason but it doesn't explain why GPY and not some other more reknown and experienced businessman/money maker. Ms Su explained GPY was chosen by Jiu because GPY has no powerful backers in Bejing. Why would he care about the backers if his only goal was to make cash and disband the troops? If the person tasked with money making had a powerful backer, wouldn't it be even better and more certain that potential obstacles can be removed in an easier way? So, the only logical explanation is that he wants GPY and not some other person is bc he wants people from central power(s) at bay. The question is why he wants to avoid their involvement

yes, the author created this character (Rui Lin) in order to make us think these 7 provinces were ruled by a civil, not military officer as it was in real history. But he (the marshal) still must have smth to do with the management of Liangjiang, otherwise, with what kind of authority would he asked GPY to be his (Rui Lin's) economic advisor?

btw. what's your opinion why he wants GPY as a post war economic management advisor?

Oh, tnx, I didn't connect "Jiu" with 9. I've ruled him out exactly bc he was Zeng Guofan's bro and responsible for the Nanjing massacre (Zeng the Butcher). He indeed served as viceroy of Liangjiang but 2 decades later (1884).

I was initially sceptical about the role of her character in this story, it looked unrealistic how freely she moved with 300 horses across half of China to be delivered to the rebels or her disguise as servant at prince Gong's mansion during the tea competition in order to poison Cixi... Her dangerous, arrogant and unpredictable actions somehow didn't match the description LWT gave to LQ about her: "the smartest person I've ever met..." and that her dealings with people always meet what the other person desires the most and cannot refuse the deal with her. Later I've thought she is just functional for story-telling, bc she often provides "enlightments" on the background of certain issues and persons. But now I think it was just a prejudice in my head to connect smartness with modesty and caution. In real life actually there are very smart persons who are arrogant and unpredictable in their speech and action. That means I've started to see this character believable, realistic.

That business was sunked by Li Qin's father. Go back to ep 5 to the dialogue LQ and LWT had in the family vault, before LQ departing...

Thank you for such a huge compliment. Actually, I'm a European (so, a foreigner as well), I'm just completely thrilled by this drama that's why I write so many comments, lol.
It touches practically all my weak points:
- I love a well-told interesting story
- I love history (actually, I've studied the history of warfare, the contemporary history of Asian countries and although the latter only superficialy addresses the reasons of the downfall of Qing, I've passionately researched Cixi's life and regency on my own...)
- I love to travel, so I love its stunning visuals of different parts of China, I feel like I am traveling, feeling a joy of learning a lot about the unknown places I see. With this story, we space- and time-traveled from Ningguta, historical harsh NE place for exiled people to today's UNESCO protected Pingyao at the moment first draft banks started to flourish in it, incredibly enriching this town (and turning it to a financial heart of the empire) and Shanxi province, then to Mongolian grasslands... We enjoyed stunning views of tea planted Anhui hills, saw Hefei's fortification distruction, went to Beijing, crossed the border on Amur river and went to the Russian region some Chinese still consider "theirs" being this region "Manchurian homeland", ceded to the Russian empire under the "unequal treaties" and a slap to the Qing court. We've seen Shanghai's port when it started to take over the role Guangzhou had till the cession of Hong Kong to the UK (always under the unequal treaties) of the main export-import hub. And now we are on the boat on Yangtze river directed to Nanjing, another place of enormous historical and spacial importance.
- I love the seventh art (extended to dramaworld) in general but feel frustrated by the Western and in particular European incapacity to tell compelling, epic and - for humakind - truly important stories, independently of their genre. Asian movies and dramas also greatly fail to satisfy such a high requirement of mine but occasionally they succeed making me feel so... thrilled. 😌

complete anti-talent in "reading the room", lol

This drama is waaay more engaging and better paced than This Thriving Land. TTL initial eps were interesting and engaging as well, but at a certain point the pace was lost, I've put it on hold after 9 eps.
Tnx for giving us these infos

Ms Su is so arrogant that can't fall in love with anybody else but herself. Dangerous and vindictive, hardly any man will fall her, either (remember GPY-Li Qin guys' talk at Ningguta about her?). But we somehow like (or better, admire) her despite her being a b**ch, because she is smart, informed and... extremely intuitive (she even smelled smth fishy about LWT relationship with GPY), capable and committed to her goal of distrupting the imperial court/palace in every possible way.

Ms Su, talking about Marshal Jiu: "he isn't even qualified to wash my feet".
Now we know why she is so arrogant and so well informed about the politics: being "qualified" to enter the Palace at the age of 12 (destined to become a consort to the emperor) means she belongs to the Manchu's high nobility, as the emperor could marry (as consorts) only members of high (Manchu or integrated Mongol) noble clans. A marshal (being a Han, thus viewed as of "servile mentality" by the Manchus' nobility) is barely qualified to serve her, independantly of how powerful he is. And this marshal Jiu is really powerful: certainly not because he is showered with titles, privileges and important imperial tasks but because he possesses his own army of soldiers who serve under the principle "army belongs to a general" (a precursor to the later warlordism and fragmentation of the central power). The disruptive potential of decentralized powers is the reason why she supports him without joining "his forces" as she said to GPY.
Searching among possible persons who might have inspired Marshal Jiu's character, Li Hongchang matches fictional Jiu character the most, having Li HC been a stand-in for Zeng Guofan as provincial governor of Jiangsu and viceroy of Liangjiang in 1865-1866 period. The author split the historical character in two fictional: Marshal Jiu and Rui Lin (governor of Liangjiang in the drama). Although there was a real historical person (a minister of interior) at the time named Rui Lin, this real person had no connections with the area or with the administration of 7 provinces of Liangjiang devastated by the civil war with Taiping. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Hongzhang

Truly memorable

The key for understanding this whole tea sale is in GPY's first question to the captain of the warship: "do you sell this ship?"
Ofc he knew such a ship is not for sale, but he asked such an apparently stupid question (even his stupid bro understood it was stupid) to convey another meaning: "I am here to buy smth from you, captain". The things he "bought" from the captain are: 1. transportation service of tea to India 2. the persuasion power of the British flag and the dissuasion power of that big black cannon on the board. Why? Bc. these "suasion tools" are necessary and sufficient to put down the weakened power of the imperial court and Qing's institutions. In history, it was called "the gunpowder diplomacy". Prince Gong (who btw. personally signed the unequal treaties with Western powers + Japan representing the Qing during Xianfeng's reign) established that Foreign Trade Office in Shanghai in order to milk money from the export fee on goods traded towards these countries through LWT, appointed with exclusive right to negotiate tea export deals with foreign trade companies, such as East India Company (and LWT was concluding such deals with EIC agent Mr. Richard generously bribing the latter). But GPY is too smart not to understand that under the unequal treaties, no foreigner can be prosecuted by Qing's institutions. That's why he won the argument against Mr. Hart on the ship (a genial dialogue): "British captain bought privately the Anhui tea and will transport it privately to his home in India. If you think he violated the law, bring him to the court, I have nothing to do with it", knowing Mr Hart, as a head of customs office had no power to do such a thing.
Transaction papers in the deal were: purchase agreement between Anhui Tea Ass. and Shanxi Merchant Association (GPY is the nominal "head" of), which ceded it to Mr. Li (one of the 8 families and the biggest tea merchant in the North) who asked (pigeon message) his buddy Mr. Wu (silk merchant of 8 families) to pay Anhui Tea Ass. with "silver bullion" (ie., with legally issued money). As a tea merchant, experienced in selling it even abroad ("in the North" probably includes Qing's protectorate and tributary countries), Mr. Li then made a fictional "private" agreement with the captain making him a nominal owner to pass the costums controls and then embarked onto the ship in order to sell it in India. Once sold there, captain will receive a generous dividend deriving from much higher price there in comparison to the tea price in China and be a rich man.
The entire (brillianty written with brilliant details) scene at Foreign Trade Office was made to expose the weakness of the Qing institutions, not only in front of the foreigners (they can't prosecute) but also in front of the rising local (provincial) powers of the businessmen (able to buy the offices in order to enjoy official privileges and exemptions, like Mr. Wu).
And ofc. to show how GPY's brilliant idea to borrow the power of the "gunpowder diplomacy" (= "the foreigners") works in practice