AleksandraSucur

amanah was talking about the bro, Ping Wen.
His purpose is to offer some distraction and comic relief to lower the tension. Which is so high scene after scene that no comic relief helps to distend, lol

right!
Maybe he'll pop up later, when ML's mother push him to marry Yu'er...

"I'm usually clever" - such a fitting words for Gu Pingwen's epitaph. 🙄

He is my fav in this drama, every scene in which he appears, I am at the edge of my seat without moving, without breathing or blinking, just not to miss any word or microexpression.
Ofc. you've noticed it, too, my friend, there's a connection 👍

They (prince Gong's people) were trying to buy them legaly but the demand was too high and the "preferential lane" to get them was reserved for the imperial guards in the capital (who ordered them first and would be privileged anyways, even if they didn't order them first). That's why they've turned to "private merchants" knowing their origin may have been an illegal importation. This fact actually didn't bother them, prince Gong is a member of the imperial family and may ignore the law if needs smth badly.

me too

invoking his good luck isn't fair... 😂
He is too kind-hearted, he is like his mom and his teacher. I don't want his (accumulated) good luck constantly returning to save him, I want his father's genes to wake up in him! He must start to differentiate friends from foes asap. I can understand he had no choice back in Wang's pawnshop in Shanxi, but now he is attracting troubles, he even told prince Gong about his missing father, asking him to investigate, knowing prince Gong "befriended" him only because of Cixi and isn't really friendly...

Only the first one, but the scene was too dark to descern the details and be 100% sure. People responsible for props in this drama really did a great job in terms of accuracy, we've also seen a beautiful artisan-made handgun of Ms. Sun, very realistic-like.
I think this people opted for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharps_rifle You see it was in service in China, too, Taiping rebellion included, as well as in the American Civil War (and in western movies, although westerns mainly used Winchesters, M1873, a "model that conquered the West").
As for the second one... it's truly difficult to say, because of its bolt action, the first war which employed this type of rifle was Prussian-Austrian 1866 war, won big by Prussians thanks to their Dreyse bolt rifle, which was more precise for long-distance shots. While the first rifle is ideal for cavalry (one hand is enough to open the barrel and get rid of the used cartridge, lets' remember how cool this was done by John Wayne, lol) and standing or horse-mounting position, bolt action rifles are ideal for entranched infantry shooting in lying position. In mid-19 century, their (experimental) production was limited to European continental countries like Prussia, France, Belgium... so, USA and Russia are ruled out.
I think the creators - despite the effort to be as historically realistic as possible - didn't want to deepen the origin of these weapons, the whole "Russian arc" looked more like a funny circus or a spinning carousel aiming to entertain the audience. Even the wrong colour of Russian uniforms (black double breasted uniforms were in use only by the navy), totally unfit for the snowy forest environment (black makes you a perfect target) may have been used just for fun.

Taiping leader is funny, surreal.
The rebellion itself isn't at all, it ended with a tremendous number of casualties (20-30M)

I don't like GPY gave the receipe for the Orchid Snow production to the Anhui Tea Association. They will just screw him up, but maybe... he'll learn a thing or two from that experience.

Eeeh, easy peasy when we know how it ended 😂
But GPY has no clue of what is happening around him. In the moment they've taken separate roads, the capital of Anhui, Hefei, is under Li Cheng's (military) command. He can't know the future. Even later, when he learnt Hefei is under siege, he still enters the city convinced Li Cheng has a chance to retreat to another Taiping city/lord, lol.
His naivety, kindness and humanity are very similar to his mother's (the story of her wedding dress, omg)... I'd like him to act more like his f....., hm, like a person who gave a sound lesson to his gentle scholarly view of the world regarding money, persons and... power, ofc. But we have to patiently await for that jump and watch the next eps.
As for your friend... I totally understand why she laughed. I've almost lost my life 25-30 y ago, in a CAR with a front-wheel drive (comparable to the horse anterior drive but much more powerful and with better, larger wheels) despite winter tires! The wind and fresh snow were so strong, only the reverse gear saved me. When I've seen the carriage (with wooden wheels) which brought GPY to that desolate hut I've started to feel uncomfortable. The same for the carriage transporting rifles: being heavier, it won't be blown away but it will remain stuck in the snow. Finally, I never tried dog sledding at Harbin (and envy a lot that experience), but I've tried horse sledding at Kitzbühel and have an idea why dogs are better than shod horses.
But the story is too gripping and I am willing to suspend my beliefs...

Definitely perfect for this role

It isn't explained in detail in the drama but it is largely implied the Qing rule is highly corrupted, unjust and generally unfit/careless to address even more basic problems of the people... and these are more or less sufficient reasons for a rebellion (actually, almost all rebellions in history and in the present of humankind start or started for the very same reasons).
If you want to know more about the real historical rebellion, it is sufficient to google "Taiping rebellion", it has its own peculiarities, you won't be annoyed reading about it. 😂

yup

you mean "gone with him" to Beijing or to Anhui? Bc, these are 2 different things. They came to Beijing to transport smth, it would be a waste of time going back there again. Going with him to Anhui wouldn't be smart, there's still a civil war in the region... Although his village is more or less "safe", it is still exposed to all sorts of troubles connected with the war (refuges, shortages of food and medicines, diseases...). The best (=safest) thing would be HIM returning with them to Shanxi, but he has his mother, dumb bro, other villagers... So, it's not just drama for the sake of drama, imo.
But I agree with you that the latest arc was different, with a lot of dramatic exaggerations replacing the "realistic" vibe of previous arcs... Ningguta in particular was... surreal but - for some reason - I've found this change of vibe... hilarious. Even the real life has a few surrealistic episodes, lol

😂😂👍 Having smth in common with Miao Renfeng makes him instantly more likeable, lol

I think that, too.
Besides, he doesn't want to drag her (or her dad) down, He didn't want that when they were in Shanxi (and he was still a fugitive), then he wasn't "brave enough" to make his own choice, going against the marriage arrangement (as he confessed to Yu'er) and now wants closure of other open issues before "coming to find her". It is not reluctance... it is prioritisation... first things first

Indeed

From his pov, it's probably better to die fighting Qing's corrupted officials/generals who only work for their own interest and profit and are totally unconcerned about the common people's sufferings.
Persons like him didn't rebel to be "princes" or gain profits (or for the ideas of the "heavenly king"), it was the injustice they've suffered and sheer desperation to push them to rebel and fight. When you are out of options to live a normal life, then fighting against people who left you with no options is a wortwhile fight.

from the trailers, it looks like she will be saved by GPY. She's pregnant