The Ming Zheng, 1652

It's ridiculous that these real Manchu bannermen all like to read anti-Japanese war novels, while some low-class bannermen are constantly nagging online.

Pirates guard the nation's gates, while bandits perish for the country.

Historically, after an army suffers a major defeat, it is often impossible for them to fight again; the defeat is almost always resolved with a simple proclamation. Examples include Fu Jian after the Battle of Fei River and Zhao Guangyi, the legendary general who became famous for his chariots at Gaoliang River.

Yesterday, a reader suggested creating a reader group. I initially thought it was fine, but when I got home and was about to create it, I suddenly remembered how empty the reader group was when I was writing on this site two years ago. So I wanted to see what everyone thought, to avoid the awkward situation of no one talking in the group.

I believe, and this is the opinion of many, including myself, that the Ming Dynasty did not consciously foster the emergence of capitalism or a relatively mature market economy, but rather that the Ming system provided certain prerequisites for the growth of a market economy, while the gradual decline of government power facilitated the growth of nascent capitalism.

Zheng Chenggong was actually somewhat inferior to Li Dingguo. His deification was largely due to his recapture of Taiwan, a feat largely achieved by contrasting it with the later Qing dynasty. Li Dingguo, on the other hand, was nearly driven to desperation but still managed to defeat the Dutch and reclaim Taiwan.

In my view, to accomplish the historical mission of saving the people from the Qing and preventing the decline of the Ming dynasty, there were roughly two paths to take at the end of the Ming dynasty. One was to seize Zheng Zhilong's niche, or even to travel back in time and become Zheng Chenggong himself, unifying the maritime forces in Southeast Asia and Japan, achieving internal integration…

Everything else is fine, except there's too much street fighting. Generally, once a city gate is breached, the overall situation is basically settled, and the remaining Green Standard Army soldiers should surrender en masse, not engage in street battles with the protagonist's forces. With only a few taels of silver a month, would they risk their lives like that?

Why do I feel like the books on Qidian are getting weirder and weirder? A lot of good themes from before have been banned, and the ones being written now seem to have a template feel to them. Fortunately, there aren't many yet; only this one and another historical novel are still pretty good.

The failure of the Mingzheng Group is the most regrettable. The opportunity for maritime power and to become a mainstream force in the world was thus lost—truly lamentable!