The AI short dramas that were once criticized for "dumbing down audiences" have staged a strong comeback with the hit drama *Entering the Song Dynasty Armed*, which has garnered 4 billion views.

"Armed March into Song" may become another milestone work in the AI short drama circle.

Recently, this AI historical short drama that tells the story of a five-person modern team traveling back to the end of the Northern Song Dynasty to rewrite history has quickly gone viral across multiple social platforms.

As of press time, "Armed March into Song", which has been updated to 10 seasons, has gained 10.98 million favorites on Hongguo alone, with its first season ranking 5th on the Hongguo AI drama favorites list. According to the data released by the publishing account "Old Eleven Theater", as early as October 8, the total cross-platform views of "Armed March into Song" had exceeded 4 billion.

While its view count has stepped into the first echelon of AI short dramas, "Armed March into Song" also enjoys a very good reputation. Well-known KOLs "Liu Shen Leilei Reads Jin Yong" and "Mantoushuo" have successively published articles to recommend it, taking "Armed March into Song" as one of the examples of high-quality refined AI short dramas.

"Liu Shen Leilei Reads Jin Yong" wrote in the article: "Now when I watch short dramas, I find my knowledge reserve is not enough. I just watched "Armed March into Song" and realized I know nothing about the military system of the Song Dynasty." Many netizens also gave it the praise of "the ceiling of AI short dramas".

Almost at the same time when "Armed March into Song" was launched, the topic #HongguoShortDramasAreLow-IQ hit the hot search lists on multiple platforms, triggering public discussions on whether short dramas, especially AI short dramas, are just computing power garbage. In contrast, "Armed March into Song" which has received a lot of praise appears particularly rare.

Indeed, although it has the bold setting of modern people traveling through with firearms, the depiction of the complex game of the Song-Jin war, as well as the household registration, travel permits, etiquette and social identity rules of the Northern Song Dynasty in "Armed March into Song" is quite restored, and it is not a simple mindless pleasure drama.

"Armed March into Song" is not an isolated case.

Recently, a batch of AI historical short dramas have been launched intensively, such as "The Black Sheep of the Wei Family Becomes the Grand Secretary" which tells the story of a rebellious son of the Wei family rising to become a powerful minister of the Great Zhou, and "The Extraordinary Life of Li Jinglong in the Ming Dynasty" which tells the story of the "mediocre god of war" Li Jinglong stirring up the situation in the early Ming Dynasty, breaking the public's stereotype of AI short dramas as "tyrant president and god of war, rich family romance, dramatic ethical plots".

On October 27, Li Liang, Vice President of Douyin, even specially posted on Weibo to recommend three AI historical short dramas: "Armed March into Song", "The Black Sheep of the Wei Family Becomes the Grand Secretary" and "The Extraordinary Life of Li Jinglong in the Ming Dynasty".

While history has become a dark horse theme for AI short dramas, it also brings some new possibilities to AI short dramas.

The total views of "Armed March into Song" exceed 4 billion, AI historical short dramas are on fire

The story of "Armed March into Song" is not complicated to explain.

A modern five-person combat team accidentally travels through to the fourth year of Xuanhe in the Northern Song Dynasty while carrying out a mission. Then they start from Qinghe Village on the border of the Northern Song Dynasty, and use modern knowledge to start the story of developing farmland, training troops, resisting enemies and getting promoted.

Among the five-person team, sniper Xie Changfeng provides force guarantee for the team, armorer Ma Zhenbang makes recliners, crossbows, bombs and other items to provide financial resources and weapons for the team, signal soldier Wang Haochuan takes the imperial examination and becomes the core support of the team in the imperial court, medical officer Chen Su is the core medical guarantee of the team, and captain Lin Zhao is the core brain of the team, responsible for overall planning.

In this process, Lin Zhao and others successively got acquainted with important figures such as Di Shen (descendant of Di Qing) and Zhong Shizhong (general of the Northern Song Dynasty), gradually integrated into the Northern Song Dynasty, and gained the ability to change history. For example, in the third season, Lin Zhao and others took the initiative to attack, led the team deep into the grassland, relied on modern tactical knowledge and advanced weapons to seize a large number of cattle, sheep and warhorses, greatly easing the frontline crisis of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Different from the strong emotion and strong entertainment of other short dramas, "Armed March into Song" focuses more on telling a new possibility of history. At that time, the Song, Liao and Xia were in a state of complex confrontation, and the Jin Dynasty rose strongly, which was the culprit of the Jingkang Humiliation five years later. However, the weapons and equipment brought by Lin Zhao and others when they traveled through were limited in quantity, making it difficult to make great achievements. How to change history and save China from the crisis of collapse is exactly the core main line of "Armed March into Song".

The empowerment of AI adds a lot of highlights to "Armed March into Song".

In terms of scenes, due to the low-cost advantage of AI, the grand scenes of thousands of troops and horses in "Armed March into Song" bring good visual shock to the audience. In the Qinghe Village battle in the first season, "Armed March into Song" also showed quite professional street battle scenes between the two armies.

In terms of characters, "Armed March into Song" greatly improves the problem of character homogenization of AI short dramas, not only the five protagonists in the group have their own characteristics and are very lifelike, but also many popular characters are created, such as Zhao Jiu, the prince of the Great Song Dynasty (prototype: Zhao Gou), Zhao Yining, the imperial princess of the Great Song Dynasty (prototype: Maode Imperial Princess), Qin Hongying (Lin Zhao's confidante), Yue Wu (prototype: Yue Fei), Li Qingtang (prototype: Li Qingzhao) and so on.

Since the characters are generated based on ancient paintings, many netizens left messages saying that Li Qingtang is almost exactly Li Qingzhao herself.

Because of the beautiful but tragic love storyline, many netizens are keen on the CP of Wang Haochuan and Zhao Yining, and even make AI secondary creations of the two.

Even the controversial character Zhao Jiu has gained some fans for his handsome character modeling, and has become the overbearing prince in "Armed March into Song".

The brainstorming deduction of new historical possibilities, the grand scenes empowered by AI, and the popular characters with excellent modeling jointly push "Armed March into Song" to the top of the most popular AI historical short dramas at present.

Apart from "Armed March into Song", other AI historical short dramas also attract audiences with their distinctive stories.

Some protagonists appear as top nobles at the beginning, which reduces the pleasure of counterattack from the bottom, but adds the ease of stirring up the overall situation.

For example, the protagonist of "Fake Imperial Relative" travels through to become Ma Xun, the younger brother of Empress Ma of the Ming Dynasty. With this identity, he changes the fate of early death of Chang Yuchun and other people, imparts modern advanced knowledge such as medicine and agronomy, and finally not only becomes the influential "number one imperial relative" of the Ming Dynasty, but also makes up for many regrets of the Ming Dynasty.

There are multiple versions of "Fake Imperial Relative" at present, among which the version released by the Douyin account "Yingshuo" has gained 85.81 million views with only 64 episodes.

Some protagonists take the imperial examination and enter the imperial court as literati, realizing the ultimate dream of thousands of scholars.

For example, the protagonist of "The Black Sheep of the Wei Family Becomes the Grand Secretary" is originally a doctor of modern Chinese language and literature, but travels through to become the "unlucky star" abused by his family. However, the protagonist does not abandon himself. In the early stage, he kills evil servants, worships famous teachers, suppresses his legitimate elder brother, and successfully defies fate; in the later stage, when he holds great power, he begins to practice the belief of "establishing the heart for heaven and earth, establishing the destiny for the people, inheriting the lost knowledge for the past sages, and creating peace for all generations", and is determined to become a virtuous minister like the Duke of Zhou.

Douyin account "Wei Nisheng" shows that as early as October 3, the total cross-platform views of "The Black Sheep of the Wei Family Becomes the Grand Secretary" had exceeded 1.1 billion. At present, 7 different versions of AI short dramas of "The Black Sheep of the Wei Family Becomes the Grand Secretary" have been launched.

Some focus on brainstorming, and the protagonist changes the fate of ancient people on a large scale with various super golden fingers.

"Sky Live Broadcast: Ancient People Come to My House Every Week" tells that after the protagonist activates the plane visitor system, he can not only receive ancient figures in modern times, but also project the sky screen to ancient times to reveal the future history to the ancients.

The protagonist of "First Emperor of Qin: I Have an All-Star Chinese Lineup" can summon historical celebrities such as Zhuge Liang and Huo Qubing in the Qin Dynasty to help the First Emperor of Qin build his great cause together.

Some make a new interpretation of history by skillfully filling the historical gaps.

"Green Plum by the Inkstone" is created based on Yan Zhenqing's "Eulogy to My Nephew". Starting from Yan Jiming, the protagonist of "Eulogy to My Nephew", it tells the story of the female protagonist Li Youwei traveling from modern times to the Tang Dynasty, and starting a story with the doomed-to-die male protagonist Yan Jiming that cannot change the trend of history.

As of press time, the 3 seasons of "Green Plum by the Inkstone" have gained 36.73 million views on Douyin alone.

It is worth noting that in addition to long AI historical short dramas such as "Armed March into Song", AI short films telling ancient Chinese stories have also become dark horses in the AIGC circle.

A video of "Director Li Rang" that tells the moments when five poets, Li Bai, Du Fu, Han Yu, Liu Yuxi and Su Shi, were demoted, makes people feel the powerful power contained in their poems, and has received 6.68 million likes on Douyin.