In the final years of the Great Yong Dynasty, natural disasters struck one after another, warlords rose across the land, and the realm plunged into decades of bloody conflict. In his previous life, Xiao Yi, a common-born young man, rose through the ranks on the strength of his military achievements, eventually unifying the realm and ascending the throne. Yet the benevolent policies he devoted his life to implementing, including equal land distribution, lighter taxes and labor duties, and the development of waterworks, stalled when they threatened the foundations of the great clans and his own powerful supporters. In his later years, his trusted general and favored consort betrayed him together, ending his life with a cup of poison. He could only watch as the dynasty he had built plunged back toward the abyss.
When he opened his eyes again, Xiao Yi had returned to twenty years earlier, to the moment when he had just been forced to join the Red Eyebrow Army and was struggling to survive. Memories of his previous life came flooding back, bringing with them not only his unfulfilled ambitions, but also the searing pain of betrayal and the suffering of the people.
