Xiao Che, a graduate student in the Department of Modern History, accidentally transformed into the shortest-lived puppet emperor of the Dajing Dynasty, Emperor Yuan Qi, while staying up late to check historical materials. At that time, the imperial power was emptied out by his cousin Li Song and the powerful minister Wang Yan. The treasury was empty, refugees were everywhere, and the barbarians in the north were eyeing him. He, the sixteen-year-old emperor who had only ascended the throne for half a year, was just a chess piece that could be discarded at any time.
Without the blessing of the system and no superpowers around him, all Xiao Che has is the laws of the rise and fall of Chinese history that are filled in his mind.
He used the strategy of "Emperor Han Wen showed weakness and killed Lu", hid his talents in calligraphy and painting, and secretly observed the factions in the court; he used the "double-entry accounting method" to uncover corruption in the household department and broke the first stumbling block; he used the strategy of "relief with work" to not only solve the famine in the south of the Yangtze River, but also took the opportunity to place confidants; he imitated the "name-aliasing method of the Song Dynasty" "Reform the imperial examination and break the family's monopoly on the selection of officials; combine the advantages of the "mansion army system" and the "recruitment system" to train an iron army loyal to oneself; introduce "sweet potatoes, corn" and other high-yielding crops to alleviate the food shortage; follow the example of "Zheng He's voyages to the West", open up sea trade, connect the Western Regions, and fill the national treasury...
From surviving in the palace to purging the court, from stabilizing internal affairs to fighting barbarians externally, from recovering lost territory to opening up sea frontiers, Xiao Che turned historical experience into sharp blades and good remedies step by step, tearing a bloody path in a desperate situation surrounded by powerful officials and full of foreign invasions.
