Ti02

Okay the first part, I also have the same confusion despite reading the novel. But ig it was just a miscommunication on the part of the guy, Yan Zheng's name was registered, and maybe someone just put a tick mark or something.
Do you really want to know the angle of the Weis? No its not the swapping thing lol!

Right right.

Lord Wei is Wei Yan, prime minister, ML's uncle.
There is only one emperor, the one who is puppet, gets scared and is torn between Grand tutor Li and PM Wei Yan. He is a puppet, a little dumb, has no such power. We have to see what he does to understand him better, till now he seems okay.
Prince Changxin is a warlord, he is related to the royal family somehow, maybe cousin or something of the previous emperor. He has too sons, the Sui brothers, they are the Sui family. They are rebelling against royal regime. They first tried to incite people to barge into Linan town in lieu of being grain collection when ML failed their plan, they are now declaring a war.

We don't know the exact episode but it should be 22-24 something. Nope it doesn't happen like that but it would have been fun if that happened.

The current emperor is a young one, he doesn't have children, like even if he has, they are small. His wife, the empress is the grand daughter of Grand Tutor Lei, and sister to Li Hai An/Wenkan.
The previous emperor, current's emperor's dad had 16 children. The eldest was the crown prince. His title was Prince Chengde. He died in the battle 17 years back along with ML's father, due to troops not coming to help at the right time.
Emperor's favourite son was the 16th one, but he too died in that battle. Soon after emperor passed away in grief. Prime Minister Wei Yan supported one of the princes, and made him the emperor, who is now currently.
Prince Changxin, is someone from the royal family, but like a cousin or something, he and the previous emperor were cousins. He is a warlord now.He has no right on the throne. He has 2 children, Sui Yuanhuai (if I am not mistaking the name), and Sui Yuanqing. Elder Sui is Qi Min. Qi Min is not his son, but was swapped, Prince Changxin or his younger son and others are not aware of this fact. Yu Qian Qian was a concubine of Qi Min, and have a son Bao'er. Qi Min is actually the legitimate heir of the throne, he is the dead crown prince's son.
Qi Shu is a royal princess, step sister of Qi Min and current emperor, she is engaged to Li Huai An, but is in love with ML's friend/strategist Gongsun Yin, whose family do not hold any official power, but are just scholars.

No one is actually on anyone's side. Qi Min does seem to support his adoptive family, but has his own goals, wants to use ML to get back his throne and defeat Wei Yan, whom he considers responsible for the incident 17 years back. ML hates his uncle and cousin Wei Xuan and vice versa. He wants to know the truth. Sui Family want to create chaos so that people become against the royal regime. Li family want power, are opportunists. Wei Family is dangerous.
Li Huai An seemingly isn't bad, while he and ML might not be friends, they used to study together once, and did form alliance for saving Linan town.
He Jingyuan is the prefect of the town of Linan, he was an old acquaintance of FL's parents and hence wants to protect the sisters. But He Jingyuan also works under Wei family, and follows their orders.
Wei Xuan, Wei Yan's son wants to control Xie Army, after ML's apparent death and wants to defeat Prince Changxin and Sui Family to achieve military success.

Here the politics is difficult. There are good people and bad people. But it does not necessarily mean that good people have formed alliance together, or bad people have formed alliance together. Everyone have their own objectives to fulfill.

Yesss

Yeah same I don't like the trope as well. But when I read the novel, it felt very natural, so I am seated for the angst as well.

No no never. He never blamed her. In fact in the novel, during the breakup, he cried, held her, told her how much he loves her. Then told her that despite that love, how could he date the girl whose parents killed his. It would be unbearable and he couldn't face his parents. But no he never blamed her not for once, he was way mature than that.
She told him, she doesn't believe her parents could do something like that, so she will fight for the truth to give justice to both his and her parents. That was a pretty well done emotional breakup.
If they keep this in the drama it should be good.

Lol! Yeah yeah, there will be a lot of romance, its just the times would be of political games and war, in midst of them romance. Till now it was basically happy times, comedy, romance, village, so yeah! That's changing!

Well she was the only woman in the army. She protected two cities, gained up power pretty soon. Doesn't make a lot sense, but yeah it is how it is.
LHA, lets see.

She saved him too. He saved his wife, the girl he loves. She saved him when he was a complete stranger, gave a roof over his head.
No ML and FL are on the same side, just different camps. Yes LHA in the novel also had a crush on her, not something very huge.

When his identity was revealed, FL told him their marriage is void, because his name isn't what it was in the marriage. So they don't need a divorce, they are not considered married. Yes they are in love, and in a relationship later, but she its not a marriage anymore.

But yes the third one was an actual breakup. Honestly from my perspective, this is easier said than done. If I am in love with a person, and I come to know that the person's family was responsible for killing mine deliberately, I wouldn't want to stay as well. We as an audience feel differently, but the character feeling that isn't wrong. While FL grew up with love, pampering with her parents, for 18 years, ML struggled, saw his dad never returning, saw his dad's body on the city gate tied down, saw his mother's suicide. Its really difficult.
I love the way they patch up though. He tries to forget her, not think about her. But he cries, fails, can no longer live without her. So he goes to his Xie family mansion. They had a concept that if you do something wrong, take 108 lashes, for it. So he takes 108 lashes, kneels and apologizes to his parents' tablets, tells them that FL is not at fault for what her family did, apologizes for falling for their killer's daughter, tells them that he wants to still be with her. He goes apologizes to FL, tells her regardless of everything he wants to be with her. He needed that break, honestly if he heard about it, and became that understanding within one second, it would have been weird. I am glad he didn't require FL's parents innocence to get back with her.

The Romcom era ends today!
Am I excited for the plot, war, political games, angst? YES.
Am I crying that happy times are over? ABSOLUTELY.

Nope. Her father had a good business, that's her father's house, inherited by her. She was struggling only for sometime, when the house could be taken any moment from her, when she did not re start the business. Now she is not struggling. She even helped Zhao uncle and aunt by paying for them in the last episode, buying things in the market. She is doing fairly well now, after doing business with Qian Qian.

1. ML left Linan. (a forced kiss, FL hit him as well. ML saves her few chapters later, but she doesn't know she was unconscious, they met few weeks later, not very long separation)
2. FL got angry after his identity reveal (very short separation, they make up very soon)
3. This is a breakup. ML leaves FL after the truth about her identity is revealed ( this was pretty long, but there were time skips in the novel as well so)

No. He was a puppet king who wants power to finally lead his own future. He was not kind at all.

LHA met FL for the first time, when she saved him during attack by the Sui. Like LHA gave a lift to FL, while she was fleeing, and both got attacked, FL saved him, because in the novel, he was just a scholar with no martial arts capability. Here lets see, they changed his character arc in the novel.
No they don't as such meet. FL would tell them later about his identity. FL lives in the camp to take care of him, but after his identity reveal, she joins a different camp. She wants to succeed on her own, to become something, so that she can marry him.

If I married a guy, saved him, loved him, spent time with him, and he lied to me about his disguise for 2 months, I would have hit him as well. He got countless opportunities to tell her the truth, but he didn't, maybe he is not wrong from his perspective, but she is also not wrong. But they make up soon. This isn't such a fight, she loves him too much to be upset on this lie for a long time. Yeah she gets some information about how her sister was rescued and her sister tells her that Jeifu saved her. No Zhao uncle was taken forcefully into army, all healthy males were taken, he was in ML's army. No worries, Uncle and Aunt Zhao make it to the end. Who RH?

Wei Yan, Emperor, Qi Min, Prince Changxin, his son Sui Yuanqing, Grand Chancellor Lei, no one is a friend of ML and FL but that doesn't mean they have allied together. All have their own objectives to gain. Li Huai An was a good person in the novel though was forced on a wrong path by his family and ended up poorly, hopefully with his character traits changed he might be different in the drama. ML, FL, Gongsun Yin, Princess Royal, QianQian, Prefect of the town, and a tutor of ML they all are good and have alliances with each other whenever required.

In today's episode when they all are in the Linan town, FL and ML try to protect the town, and FL and Sui has a fight, when ML comes and saves her, and then fights with him, was able to defeat him as well, but he then jumps to the river and gets saved. After ML leaves, Sui comes back destroys the village, kidnaps Changning, attacks FL, who runs away from him. ML finds her saves her, but after she woke up she doesn't know it was him who saved her, then she tries to find her sister. ML will save the sister, get injured, and FL will care for him, that's before the identity reveal. They later will defeat the Suis.
In the novel though Sui did not destroy the village.