Regret It! After the Hares Are Caught, the Hounds Are Killed, and the Female Emperor Is Hunted Like a Sheep by the Barbarians

Also known as:

After the empress cast me aside, the foreign tribes treated her like a sheep on a leash

Out with the old once the birds are gone? From the start, I emptied the empress’s treasury and took her lackeys’ fortunes

She’s eaten her heart out with regret! After the empress demoted me, the barbarians led her around like a sheep

Exiled to Lingnan? I emptied the imperial treasury and built a new dynasty

[Farming + Low-Profile Growth + Empress + Led Around Like a Sheep and Forced to Kneel + No Forgiveness + A New Emperor]

I am Zhao Qingli, empress of Great Zhao.

I was once a princess, a speck of dust in the cold palace, living from day to day and washing my face with tears.

It was Xiao Yan who raised me to the throne.

He led a palace coup, bathed the court in blood, brought peace to the people and stability to the realm, and drove back the foreign tribes.

He taught me the Four Classics and Five Books, the art of rulership, and the ways to govern wisely and keep the people safe.

My dragon throne was steeped in his blood and sweat.

But emperors grow paranoid: his achievements were so great they overshadowed his ruler, and his intentions must be suspect!

I grew afraid.

I instigated that frame-up and let it happen.

As I watched his own kin denounce him and heard the utterly absurd charges, a twisted sense of satisfaction rose in me.

See? You aren’t all-powerful after all!

He sat silent as the abyss in the Golden Throne Hall.

I hoped he would beg for mercy, admit his mistakes, or show weakness. Then I could take him in hand and make it all seem perfectly justified!

But he left without a moment’s hesitation.

The Northern Di’s iron hooves shattered Yanmen Pass, while the Western Rong’s curved blades stained the Hexi Road red!

The court officials were all vermin, too cowardly to face death!

The very ministers who once slandered him

turned around and offered me and the noblewomen of the imperial clan to the Northern Di court.

I, the empress of Great Zhao, lost my phoenix crown and had my dragon robe stripped away. They threw a sheepskin over me and chained my neck like a dog!

I was led on a leash, crawling on my knees through the foreign tribes’ jeers and curses, with the imperial women behind me, humiliated and wailing just the same!

At that moment, remorse pierced my heart, a regret that would haunt me to my bones!

As the dignity of the Han people was utterly trampled, the flames of war in Lingnan blazed across the sky!

He rode at the head of his army, trampling the barbarian dead beneath his horse, and asked, “Your Majesty, is this realm too hot to handle?”

So the foolish me was only ever good for crying.