The Kaifeng main story unfolds against an economic crisis that most players struggle to parse on first encounter. Understanding the currency system of the era is essential to grasping why everyone acts the way they do.
[spoiler]In this period, a coin's value came from the metal it was made of, not the dynasty that minted it. Southern Tang, drained by constant wars and desperately short on copper, began producing nearly worthless iron coins. This was the ancient equivalent of printing money to cover war debt, and hyperinflation hit hard. So Southern Tang devised a plan: working with the Dao Lord, they smuggled worthless iron coins into Song territory, hoping the government would exchange them for valuable copper coins and drain its own war budget.
The Kaifeng prefect Zhao Guang Ying responded by simply confiscating all iron coins from the populace. From his perspective, unifying China justified the short-term pain. But from the common people's perspective, their property was being seized. The situation worsened when Lord Shu, the official carrying out the confiscation, was secretly replaced by an agent of the Aureate Pavilion, who deliberately brutalized the citizens to turn them against their own government.
Four key figures were drawn into the Ember of East's conspiracy against Song. A river boss whose northern trade routes were destroyed when commerce shifted south. A young man whose family was massacred by bandits, then had their land seized by the government and given to those very same bandits. A shipbuilder descended from Tang loyalists whose father was killed during a Song-backed crackdown. And the Dao Lord, actually three children whose names translate to fortune, prosperity, and longevity, who simply wanted to help the poor.
The Ember of East orchestrated everything. She created a fake gold-making vessel and used it at the Heroes Assembly to create the illusion that iron coins could be converted to gold. When the vessel was conveniently stolen, she had the perfect cover story for flooding the market with Southern Tang currency. The Dao Lord ran a black market where people could spend the money. Murong Yuan destroyed Song's war fleet. The entire scheme was designed to buy Southern Tang enough time to survive.
But the Ember of East undergoes a genuine change of heart. After witnessing the suffering of ordinary citizens firsthand, particularly through her bond with Granny Turtle, she turns against the Shimmer of South. She introduces the concept of paper money to Emperor Zhao, which would solve the copper shortage entirely. The emperor, moved by what he has seen, opens the treasury for the people. For the first time in the story, the interests of power and compassion align.[/spoiler]
*Based on analysis by [WWM Girl (Goose Girl Stories)](https://www.youtube.com/@GooseGirlStories).*
