Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 237 - 196: Movies and Dialogue (Grand - 9000 Requesting Monthly Tickets)_5

Chapter 237: Chapter 196: Movies and Dialogue (Grand Chapter 9000 Requesting Monthly Tickets)_5

Especially at the end, when he resolutely took twenty-four people with him and decided to carve out a world for himself, many viewers felt it was unexpected.

Although this is all recorded in the official history, it is indeed not commonly known by most ordinary people.

"Dark Sand" did not adopt the video of Yun Ying but another soldier player’s video.

This might be because, although Yun Ying’s video featured a fairly fast and smooth clearance, it didn’t closely resemble Emperor Taizu of Sheng’s image at the time.

In this player’s video, the complex emotions such as nervousness and awkwardness were shown when Emperor Taizu of Sheng first faced the battlefield, and it well demonstrated his rapid growth and emergence in the battlefield.

Moreover, the movie’s content didn’t stop there.

The role as the "Rebel Army" ended with Emperor Taizu of Sheng’s departure from Chuzhou City, but the movie continued.

After leaving Chuzhou City, relying on those twenty-four people, he continuously recruited nearby rebel forces and bandits, either through strategies, his charismatic personality, or direct assault... soon, he rallied an army of three thousand people.

From twenty-four captains to an army of three thousand, then to a regional power that dominated the region and finally unifying the Central Plains and starting the conquest of the north...

The movie doesn’t record all the details intricately but uses various war scenes to jump through and introduce the general process of Emperor Taizu of Sheng’s "driving out barbarians and rebuilding Huaxia."

Watching this rebel army continuously grow, players felt deeply stirred.

Notably, it also showed how Emperor Taizu of Sheng’s rebel army differed from others: strict military discipline, orderly rewards and punishments, perhaps what really set Emperor Taizu of Sheng apart from other peasant rebel leaders.

...

After a stirring surge of events, the scene returned to the battlefield near Wulan Tula Mountain.

A smile appeared on Emperor Taizu of Sheng’s face, as if reminiscing over his towering past years.

He nodded slightly and continued to ask, "Is there a second point?"

Meng Yuan immediately responded, "Of course, there is.

"This second point is naturally ’Establishing Standards and Relieving the People.’"

Compared to "driving out barbarians and rebuilding Huaxia," this second point obviously didn’t sound as impactful.

Emperor Taizu of Sheng slightly nodded, clearly agreeing with Meng Yuan’s words but still stated, "Reducing labor and taxes, allowing the people to recuperate has always been a duty of every founding emperor."

Meng Yuan nodded, "Indeed, but to say who could really understand the hardships of the people and recognize the ’multifaceted struggles of life,’ among the emperors, you, forebear, are truly unparalleled!

"During the previous dynasty, powerful clans ran rampant, tenant farmers were treated like pigs and dogs, the wealthy dared to kill outright. Landlords reduced sentences if they killed a tenant, and could even whip and drive them as slaves, extending this treatment to their children.

"If a tenant had a son, he was destined for servitude; if there were daughters, they were made into servants.

"In fact, before the Great Sheng Dynasty, the status of tenant farmers was no different from that of serfs!

"We are accustomed to a feudal society without serfdom, but in reality, we are the exception. Almost the entire feudal world had embarked on the path of serfdom, and the so-called civilized West was still reforming to abolish serfdom well into modern times.

"The early days of Great Sheng Dynasty were riddled with devastation; north of the Huai River, the Yellow River basin, Northeast, and Northwest were nearly barren lands, and north of the Yangtze River had scant population. The Luoyang Basin was even used to pasture military horses.

"The Yellow River flooded, the people could barely survive—under such circumstances where ’only one in a hundred survived,’ ordinary people couldn’t even speak of survival, let alone the rise and fall of dynasties.

"Yet thirty years after the founding of the Great Sheng Dynasty, the country had constructed over forty thousand ponds and weirs, dredged four thousand rivers, and repaired five thousand canals and riverbanks!

"The long-abandoned Dujiangyan came back to life, the Yellow River ceased its flooding for two hundred years, and River West, nearly obliterated by the Northern Barbarians, had less than eight hundred thousand people and barely a hundred thousand acres of fields. But thirty years after the founding of the Great Sheng Dynasty, the Northwest supported three years’ provisions for an eighty thousand strong army, and the registered arable land and population both exceeded the peaks of the Qi Dynasty!

"Tenant farmers in the Great Sheng Dynasty were not serfs, but free citizens with legal rights and personal liberties, no longer arbitrarily managed, not only breaking free from servitude to landlords but also able to terminate rental agreements at will.

"In the mid-early Great Sheng Dynasty, ’the wealthy dared not own too much property. At that time, scholars feared public scrutiny, returning with their official bags light. There were no mighty clans merging lands; people had limited fields, no extreme poverty, and grains were not excessively costly.’"

"Da Ming fought for the rights of tenant farmers, which continued for six hundred years!

"Even established a covenant, allowing virtuous and heroic men to bind and send evil officials and cunning and stubborn people from rural towns to the capital; if anyone dares to obstruct them along the way, decapitate them as a public warning!

"If viewed from the perspective of landlords and powerful officials, your majesty is certainly unforgivable, wishing to flay and devour you alive; but if viewed from the perspective of the common people and poor tenant farmers who have been oppressed for hundreds of years, what kind of feeling must it be to finally have such an emperor appear?"

...

Meng Yuan’s words once again evoked a burst of applause from the audience.

"You spoke very well! It truly gives a feeling of blood boiling!"

"Yes, everyone says Emperor Taizu of Sheng was a tyrant, but however brutal he was towards officials and powerful elites, to the ordinary people, he was a true savior!"

"Those who call him brutal are merely empathizing with the ’upper class’! Corrupt officials embezzling money meant for flood control, countless people downstream drowning; embezzling money intended for disaster relief, masses starving to death; cheating in the imperial examination preventing studious scholars from serving their country loyally... Aren’t the common people and diligent scholars pitiable?"

"Yes, think about what kind of life Emperor Taizu of Sheng had back then? Generations of his family were the lowest class of society, drifters and tenant farmers, without a roof over their heads or land to stand on, unable to afford even two pounds of pork to ask a scholar to name their child! Yet there are still people who pity the bureaucrats and landlords?"

"Ah, precisely because Emperor Taizu of Sheng started with nothing, he understood the hardships of the people all the more! He indeed showed no mercy when dealing with officials, but towards the common people, how many emperors could do better than him?"

"I used to think that light taxes and coexistence with the people were natural after the founding of a nation, but throughout the long history, how many dynasties have truly managed to achieve this?"

"Yes, Emperor Taizu of Sheng was also a feudal emperor bound by historical norms, but among the emperors, he is indeed one of the most outstanding."

...

The camera switches to a scene of an elderly Emperor Taizu of Sheng evaluating memorials at his desk.

This segment uses the perspective of Chuge.

Mountains of memorials, work that seemingly never ends...

An aged body stubbornly perseveres, perhaps one less memorial reviewed, one less issue dealt with wouldn’t cause this vast empire to collapse, but he persistently insists, refusing to relent.

The few critical cases encountered while playing the role of "emperor" were also well portrayed, allowing the audience to understand, from Chuge’s perspective, why some people had to be executed.

The previous portrayal of the "emperor" didn’t clearly explain the results of these hardships.

Players were busy for a long time, eventually only seeing the "extension of the dynasty’s lifespan" figures, earning the qualifications to pass the game.

But now, with Meng Yuan’s explanation, the changes in arable land, population, and water conservancy facilities are vividly displayed before all the viewers.

Finally, an aerial shot.

The originally barren, dilapidated mountain village becomes bustling with life again, displaced farmers either busy with spring plowing, diligently working, or experiencing the joy of a bountiful harvest...

A scene of prosperity.

...

Emperor Taizu of Sheng shows a hint of a smile on his face, seemingly more satisfied with Meng Yuan’s second point compared to the first.

It’s not to say the second achievement is greater than the first, but driving out barbarians and rebuilding Huaxia is surely Emperor Taizu of Sheng’s greatest accomplishment, yet sometimes such achievements can overshadow others.

Many overlook Emperor Taizu of Sheng’s exceptional ability to revive the economy and govern the nation.

Meng Yuan’s second point is a high acknowledgment of Emperor Taizu of Sheng’s excellent governance skills; the phrase "understanding the hardships of livelihood" is clearly a very high form of praise.

For Emperor Taizu of Sheng himself, he is obviously quite pleased with his achievements in other areas; Meng Yuan’s words clearly resonated with him deeply.

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