Reviving the Tang Under Emperor Zhaozong

In the third year of the Guanghua era under the Tang, in the eleventh month, the eunuch Liu Jishu launches a coup and confines Emperor Zhaozong to the Shaoyang Court. After three hundred years, the Li Tang dynasty teeters on the brink of collapse. At the military governor’s residence of the Xuanwu Army in Bianzhou, the drunken Zhu A-San opens his eyes once more, but the person inside is now Wang Zuo, a Tang history graduate from a thousand years in the future. As the internet’s most infamous anti-fan of Zhu Wen, he knows better than anyone that this man will one day murder an emperor, usurp the Tang, slaughter the officials, and usher in the chaotic Five Dynasties period, before being murdered by his own son, his entire family wiped out, and his name cursed for all eternity. On one side lies the throne within his grasp, and the founding merit his subordinates eagerly hope he will claim; on the other lies the death of his family, a world so ravaged that no rooster crows for a thousand miles, and the humiliating, inevitable end of the Li Tang dynasty.

At history’s crossroads, Wang Zuo makes a decision no one has ever made before:

He will not usurp the throne or hold the emperor hostage. In this life, he will serve as a loyal subject and restore the Tang to greatness!

He marches west, brings order to Chang’an, restores Emperor Zhaozong to the throne, and ushers in the Yongxi era.

He sweeps across the realm, pacifies the powerful regional warlords, dismantles their fiefdoms and returns them to central control, ending the century-old affliction that began with the An Lushan Rebellion. He roots out eunuch abuses, reforms the court, improves the imperial examinations, and curbs land consolidation, allowing displaced people to return to their homes. Five times, he refuses the title of Prince of Liang and the honor of the Nine Bestowments, upholding throughout his life his promise: “I will not fail the Tang, nor will I fail Your Majesty.” As Zhaozong lies dying, he entrusts his heir to Wang Zuo and says, “The greatest good fortune of my life was not restoring the Tang. It was meeting you…”