Hey, Mom! What’s going on? I’ve got the starter pack a veteran player gave me, but I’m in hell from the start?!
[Dark political intrigue] [Eastern Han history] [Harem power struggles] [Female achievement] [Coming of age]
My name is Dou Ying. A lovely name, and it can be read as “fight to win.”
I fought and won against everyone.
They all said I was the daughter of Princess Nieyang, a criminal’s descendant, humiliated as soon as I entered the palace and demoted to a servant. No one knew my real mother was the Marquis of Biyang, the woman who stirred up the world. On the eve of my entering the palace, she gave me seven keys.
Three thousand taels of gold, hidden in seven secret places throughout Weiyang Palace. She told me this was the provisions I would need to survive in a place that devoured people.
I survived.
I crawled out of the stinking palace drains and walked out of the piles of corpses in the prison. I killed Liang Kun, Liang Du, Song Jingshu, Diwu Lun, Princess Xi, Empress Dowager Ma…
And in the end, I killed my husband, Liu Da.
Now I hold the Empress Dowager’s golden seal. The emperor is young, and as a woman ruler, I govern from behind the curtain.
I defeated the Xiongnu in the north and erected a stone monument at Mount Yanran. I restored the Western Regions, ushering in the prosperity of the Yongyuan era. Historians call me “the Han Wudi among women,” crediting me with founding a golden age. They also call me a demon empress who brought ruin to the country, ruthless and cruel. They’re all right.
But I’m not satisfied with being a woman ruler who governs from behind the curtain.
I want to be emperor.
