Chapter 1704: A Study of Zhao Jin, Great Ancestor of Great Han (5) (Final Volume, with Completion Thoughts and New Book Plans)

Almost every article that studies Zhao Jin's inner journey ultimately devolves into a showcase of his accomplishments, and this essay, it seems, has not been able to avoid that cliché either.

A ten-year-old boy, a ten-year-old boy who had suffered a terrible fright, growing up thereafter only in the impoverished and desolate city of Xuzhou, his sphere of activity never leaving the few streets where he lived, his father and uncle having received a limited education, one that leaned toward that of a professional soldier — how could Zhao Jin have developed the vision he later possessed?

Many people attribute the reason to Wang Youshan, the father of Great Han Empire's Chief Civil Official Wang Zhaojing. Wang Youshan was a Presented Scholar of the Ming Empire and had served as a Censor, making him a member of the Ming Empire's upper-class intelligentsia. This seems to be the only explanation; in Xuzhou, a place devoid of any cultural atmosphere, Wang Youshan was the sole man of profound learning who was close to Zhao Jin and could possibly have imparted knowledge to him.

Yet according to the recollections of Wang Youshan's former colleagues in the Ming Empire, Wang Youshan was an upright man, but like many upper-class intellectuals of the time, he was very loyal to the Ming Empire, and in that era, there seemed to be no reason for disloyalty.

A beneficiary of the Ming Empire's civil official system could not, by any stretch, have had any special influence on Zhao Jin. And judging from Zhao Jin's developmental path, he regarded the Ming Empire as an adversary from a very early age, or, to borrow a phrase from certain literary works, he viewed the Ming Empire as prey.

In recent years, another theory has gained traction. It portrays Zhao Jin's father's generation — namely Zhao Zhentang and Zhao Zhenxing — as victims of the Ming Empire's hereditary military system, and that the Zhao family had always harbored deep hatred for the Great Ming. Perhaps Zhao Jin was influenced by such thinking, having been constantly exposed to it.

Some people even claim with great conviction that during his career as a professional soldier, Zhao Zhenxing achieved illustrious military merits but never received his due rewards. Over that long and eventful career, Zhao Zhenxing accumulated a wealth of insight and perhaps formed his own judgments, which he then passed on to Zhao Jin, and also influenced Chen Sheng, Wang Zhaojing, and the others who studied alongside Zhao Jin under him, thereby laying the ideological foundation for the founding heroes of the Great Han Empire.

This argument seems plausible on the surface, but in reality, it contains a heavy dose of legend. A professional soldier of low status, no matter how clear-headed, was unlikely to form such a systematic understanding. According to research on the Ming Empire's military circles, it is far more likely that Zhao Zhenxing taught Zhao Jin and the others loyalty to the sovereign and love for the nation.

We must take note of one thing: Zhao Jin had already seized the Ming Empire by his early thirties, after which came ceaseless expansion. By land and by sea, the Great Han Empire's hunger for territory and ports surpassed that of any era in the Huaxia world, even exceeding that of the Mongol Yuan Empire. Moreover, the Great Han Empire was so intensely mercantile and profit-driven. He encouraged his subjects to occupy lands beyond Huaxia, encouraged his subjects to go and earn profits, using a massive fleet and merchant marine that started late but quickly overtook all others to buy and sell across the globe, crushing local industries and extracting every bit of profit worth extracting from those places.

Such expansionism and profit-seeking are unlike anything seen in any era of the Huaxia world. Wang Youshan and Zhao Zhenxing, compared to their contemporaries, may have been broad in experience and rich in knowledge, but how could they possibly have possessed such vision and insight?

We should believe that there are geniuses in this world, people who absorb new knowledge faster than others and form their own judgments faster than others, weeding out the old to bring forth the new.

Some geniuses are arrogant about their talents; a higher tier of geniuses can lead other geniuses forward. Those one-in-a-million existences establish the rules and create new eras. Zhao Jin was perhaps a genius of this kind.

After laying out so many deeds and so much analysis, to arrive at such a conclusion in the end makes the deductions and analysis themselves seem absurd, but the facts can only point to this.

People are indeed all the same, yet some people are simply stronger than others — in physical strength, in intelligence, even in luck, they surpass their contemporaries. These people may seem far removed from us, but in terms of probability, they might just be our neighbors.

Speaking of this, everyone is surely reminded again of the theories of reincarnation or divine mandate propagated by certain religious groups. Yet what we also see is that from the very founding of the Great Han Empire, even though the Second Empress had a strong religious background, the Great Han Empire's overall religious policy was one of staunch atheism. The only religious organizations permitted to exist legally, merely to exist legally, were Buddhism, Daoism, and Huaxia New Religion (the reformed Incense-Smelling Sect). All other religions were suppressed harshly, even brutally. Even though people from Europe had a place within the Great Han Empire's system, their faith was strictly confined to the home. Even the few legally existing churches were closely monitored and heavily taxed.

If Zhao Jin and his family were anything like what underground public opinion claims, they would never have held such an attitude toward religious belief.

By now, we can draw a conclusion. The formation of Zhao Jin's grand ambition may have occurred very early, but there was absolutely no possibility of divine revelation. It was simply the result of a gifted youth, under the influence and edification of his elders and companions, analyzing the real environment around him. As for the adoption of new technologies, we can lend some credence to certain statements from the Jesuits — that there were once secret Western missionaries who traveled to Xuzhou, and that Zhao Jin had contact with them and learned of the world beyond Huaxia. After all, Zhao Jin's faction had a tradition of kidnapping missionaries and European technical professionals...

It is time for our concluding remarks. Zhao Jin and his empire were a tremendous stroke of fortune for every person in the Huaxia world, but for those outside the Huaxia world, they were a tragedy.

The moment I announced I would be finishing this book, my body knew it too. These past two weeks have largely been spent in discomfort, with a few minor troubles both mentally and physically.

As for how Great Ming Warlord is, you readers who have read this book, or read a part of it — your judgment is the only authority. I have no qualifications or standing to say anything.

From the initial planning of this book until now, it has been about three and a half years. During this period, I became a freelancer, got married and started a family, and then went back out to work. Zhao Jin was growing, and I was growing too. I've experienced a great many things. What I want to say is simply: thank you, thank you, thank you. If there were an image to accompany this, Old Bai should be bowing to you in gratitude.

Thank you to the readers who subscribed to this book, thank you to the readers who tipped this book, thank you to the readers who cast monthly votes, and thank you to the readers and editors who supported this book in every way.

Yes, just thank you.

The new book already has a rough framework. Through the experiments of this book, I've clarified what I'm good at and what I should avoid. Then I will write something I've always wanted to write — still set in the Ming Dynasty, of course, and still in Te Bie Bai's old style, but it absolutely will not be a repetition. I hope everyone will like it.

I will probably rest for two months, and the preparation for the new book will also take place during these two months. If the plans go smoothly, the new book will go online around mid-December or mid-January of next year.

From Evil Ming to Compliant Ming to Brocade Guard Rules the Country to Great Ming Warlord, I feel I have been improving all along. Please rest assured, I have also made up my mind that the next book will go a step further and be even better to read.

Alright, I've rambled on quite a bit. What should the very last line of Great Ming Warlord be?

Thank you, everyone. Thank you, everyone. We'll meet again in the next book.