The Empire of the Great Ming was a giant with clay feet.
The Emperor chose Option B.
The Disappointed Scholars rose. They did not fight with swords. They fought with ink. They published seditious pamphlets. They called the Emperor a tyrant. Stability dropped by 2. The Mandate of Heaven began to decay. The final failure of the Examination System was its own success. It produced brilliant governors, but no loyal soldiers. Eu4 Examination System
But the tooltip did not tell the story of the blood. The Empire of the Great Ming was a giant with clay feet
The Emperor, more interested in his alchemy pots than statecraft, waved his hand. "Do it." They did not fight with swords
When the Jurchen tribes unified under a new Khan—a man who gave promotions based on who you killed, not what you read—the Ming border collapsed. The exam-passing generals had perfect supply lines, but they refused to die for a throne they considered corrupt. They surrendered. They switched tags.