A lightning strike transmigrated Zu An into another world. In that world, he was known as the tr*sh of Brightmoon City, but for some reason, he was married to the gorgeous and highly talented daugh...
Upon hearing this voice, Zu'an was not surprised but delighted: "Empress, you've finally appeared! I thought you... I thought you..."
"You thought I was dead?" Mi Li's cold voice echoed in my mind.
“No, that’s not it,” Zuan chuckled awkwardly. “I thought you were asleep and had completely abandoned me.”
"You and that big-breasted girl have been all lovey-dovey the whole way here. What am I supposed to do here?" Mi Li snorted, and you could easily imagine her rolling her eyes.
"Big-breasted girl?" Zu An subconsciously glanced at Pei Mianman's chest and had to admit that she certainly deserved the title.
"What do you mean by 'lovey-dovey'? I was in danger several times along the way, and I almost lost my life, but you didn't come out to save me," Zu'an said with a hint of resentment.
"It wasn't you who was in danger, it was clearly that big-breasted girl who was in danger and you went to save her. It was the same with that mosquito before, and you risked your life to save that guy surnamed Zheng several times. And that saintess of the Demonic Sect, hmph, that big-breasted girl has a good saying: you really are risking your life to pick up girls. Even if I saved you, I couldn't stop you from risking your life like this, so why should I save you? I might as well just die sooner, so I won't have to worry about you later." Mi Li's voice was extremely cold.
Zu'an chuckled and said, "Empress, although you scold me fiercely, you still care about me deep down. Otherwise, you wouldn't know so much about what happened along the way."
"Hmph, stop joking around with me. I'm not as easily fooled as those young girls." Although Mi Li said this, her tone was noticeably softer. She looked at the mural beside her and said, "Let's talk about the mural."
Unless she so chooses, no one except Zaun will see her current appearance, she pointed to...
"What nonsense are you talking about? There is clearly a giant black bird spreading its wings in the air, and there is a bird's nest in a tree below with a nest of eggs. Then a girl climbed the tree, stole an egg, and swallowed it. Not long after, the girl turned into a pregnant woman and gave birth to a child... This is the legend of 'the daughter of the You Song clan named Jian Di, who swallowed the egg of the black bird and gave birth to Qi'."
Zu'an exclaimed in shock, "Your Majesty, you are so knowledgeable!"
He only learned about it from a documentary, yet she knew such obscure knowledge.
"Are you stupid? The Shang Dynasty isn't that far removed from my time," Mi Li snorted.
Zu'an smiled awkwardly, then remembered that she was from the Qin Dynasty, and the only difference between the Shang and Shang dynasties was the Zhou Dynasty.
Mi Li came to another set of murals next to her. This set of murals clearly depicted a battle scene, with both sides having a considerable number of chariots, and even more infantry behind them.
On one side, a tall, imposing figure stands atop one of the chariots. His imposing presence immediately identifies him as the main character of the mural. On the other side, a heavily painted figure stands on a chariot, clearly his opponent, but this man's expression appears more timid and sinister.
Mi Li looked at the inscriptions next to the mural, then pointed to the two men in the mural and said, "This is Cheng Tang, the founder of the Shang Dynasty. This battle was the Battle of Mingtiao, which destroyed the Xia Dynasty. The man opposite him was Jie, the last ruler of the Xia Dynasty. After his defeat in this battle, he fled to Nanchao and died. Cheng Tang returned to Bo, convened a meeting of the feudal lords, and formally established the Shang Dynasty, with its capital at Bo."
"Hao?" Zu'an was taken aback. "Shouldn't the capital of the Shang Dynasty be Yin?"
The term "Yin Shang" is already familiar to everyone. Of course, those who have read "Investiture of the Gods" will remember that the capital of Shang was Chaoge, but neither of them could have been Hao.
“You’re making a fuss over nothing. The Shang kings moved their capitals extremely frequently throughout history,” Mi Li explained, pointing to a set of murals behind her. “The reason for this was the Shang Dynasty’s succession mechanism. In ancient times, dangers lurked everywhere. Various hostile foreign tribes, as well as natural disasters and wild beasts, meant that everyone’s lifespan was not very long. Many people died in their prime, and the Shang kings were no exception. It was impossible for them to pass the throne to their young sons. After all, in those times, the key was whether they could lead their people to survival.”
"Therefore, the Shang Dynasty practiced the succession system of brother succeeding brother from the very beginning. After the death of the Shang king, his younger brother would succeed him, and so on."
"This also brings up a problem. Any branch of the royal family has the right to inherit the throne. Once the situation stabilizes and everyone's lifespan increases, the monarch will often have adult offspring. As a result, the princes will not want the throne to fall into the hands of their uncles, and the monarch will also want to pass it on to his own son. However, the other princes will certainly not agree, which will lead to a brutal power struggle among the royal families."
"After a new king ascends the throne, in order to eliminate the threat from other kings, he will usually choose to move the capital. In this way, the power that the other party has entrenched in the original capital will become meaningless."
“I understand!” Zu’an thought of a similar scene in the Song Dynasty. In the early days, Zhao Kuangyin usurped the power of the Later Zhou Dynasty and established the Northern Song Dynasty. In order to consolidate the Zhao family’s rule, he planned to pass the throne to his younger brother Zhao Guangyi. However, more than ten years later, he had completely secured the position of emperor and his young son had come of age. He then had the idea of passing the throne to his son.
However, the unspoken rule at the time was that the crown prince would concurrently serve as the prefect of Kaifeng, and Zhao Guangyi had been serving in that position for many years. Moreover, through his efforts over the years, his influence in Kaifeng had become extremely powerful.
Zhao Kuangyin planned to resolve the issue by moving the capital to Luoyang. Unfortunately, the proposal was met with fierce opposition from both the court and the public. Zhao Guangyi refuted the idea with the statement, "Virtue, not strategic location, is what matters." Seeing that his brother had gained sufficient power and was also kind-hearted, Zhao Kuangyin abandoned the idea of moving the capital.
Mi Li then pointed to the third set of murals and said, "The Shang Dynasty changed its capital frequently until King Pan Geng moved the capital to Yin, which finally brought it to a stable state. This mural tells the story of Pan Geng's move to Yin."
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