Great Song: Zhao Kuangyin Exposes My Identity as the Crown Prince

In 959 AD, one year before Zhao Kuangyin's Chenqiao mutiny, he feared that if the mutiny failed, the Zhao family would have no heir. He entrusted his eldest legitimate son, Zhao Dexiu, to Liu Qingyi, one of the Ten Brothers of the Society of Righteousness, to be secretly raised in their hometown of Zhuozhou.

In 960, the Chenqiao mutiny took place and Zhao Kuangyin ascended the throne. His first act was to go to Zhuozhou to fetch his eldest legitimate son, but he found no trace of him. The history books declared that Zhao Dexiu had died young.

In the seventh year of the Kaibao era, Zhao Kuangyin unified the south and turned his attention north to the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun. But then his health took a turn for the worse. Realizing he did not have much time left, Zhao Kuangyin began paving the way for his successors.

Yet his second son, Zhao Defang, was taciturn, while his fourth son, Zhao Defang, was kind and righteous. Just as the empire seemed destined to fall into the hands of his younger brother Zhao Guangyi, a young man named Zhao Ce appeared in Zhao Kuangyin's sight in an alley of taverns north of Bianjing.

Zhao Ce: "There are only two conditions for changing the Great Song: it must be in the early years of the Northern Song, and I must be the emperor!"

Zhao Kuangyin: "I've waited so long to hear those words from you, my son!"

Zhao Ce: "???"

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any similarities are purely coincidental. Do not imitate.