dtriad

sigh, I can only say I hope someone makes 折棒-style commentary about this script

gotcha! I misunderstood your initial comment, b/c I was thinking "pretty sure he existed???" but yeah figures Li Yuanqing the drama character is basically 99% fictional and only 'real historical figure' in name only =__=; and uggghhh @ this last arc seriously??? The cast deserves a better script than this.

Li Yuanqing 李元清 is a real historical figure though?? (Or did you mean w/e subplot he's involved in? I've dropped the drama so idk the details but can't stop coming back to rubberneck /facepalm)

I like Bai Yu too but "this drama should not be about [Qian Hongchu]" +10000

yep it's about a guy who transmigrates to the Later Zhou (in Yanzhou 延州 within present-day Shaanxi province) and becomes a jiedushi, and as Skibbies said it was never finished.

checked in on the eps again once the plot shifted back to the Central Plains... and LOL turns out the scriptwriter copied stuff straight out of his own webnovel 北唐, which I've read—my deja vu was off the charts for Guo Wei & Wang Jun's late night convo (from 第2卷 第15章 in 北唐. like, we're talking literally the same dialogue).

but w/e I just want a Feng Dao (+ Guo Wei) cut of this drama

Glad this was helpful. The narration conveys some of this but not well-handled imo. I'm a history fan who's decently familiar with this period and even I'm still ??? about some of the choices made by the show producers. Setting aside what happened in actual history and keeping the scope to show-verse, I think it would've helped to at least say/show SOMETHING about how the first two campaigns were victories for Shi Chonggui (and sent Yelü Deguang packing, like legit fleeing for his life on a cart then camel), then transition to this third & last time, so it's more clearly an emotional 180 whiplash for him to learn the news that the army he dispatched to battle has 100% defected and he goes from riding the highs of victory to utter despair. Otherwise, based only on our earlier glimpses of his attitude, one might expect him to be more defiant if we simply know they have already clashed several times and welp betrayal he's in a tough spot now. (just my 2 cents)

The drama cut out a lot of material. So the "son emperor" was Shi Jingtang, not Shi Chonggui; Shi Chonggui was Shi Jingtang's nephew. Shi Chonggui's first two campaigns against the Khitan were very successful, but the third one went wrong because Du Chongwei—only ever mentioned in voiceover/dialogue in the drama =__=—defected to the Khitan with practically the whole army of 200k+ (Zhang Yanze was part of this surrender). This left the capital totally defenseless; in history they couldn't even put up a proper fight, having neither sufficient soldiers nor time, because they received the news of Du Chongwei's surrender literally the day before Zhang Yanze (serving as vanguard) made it to the capital.

I don't expect total historical accuracy from historical dramas so I'm fine with the fictional battle etc., but them cutting out the whole context around drama Shi Chonggui's breakdown is a terrible decision imo. But tbh I just think they went the wrong route with the drama's narrative framing.