In the autumn of the first year of Jianxing, seventeen-year-old Liu Chan woke up from a fright in the Chengdu palace.
He was supposed to be the subjugated king who "didn't want to miss Shu". He cried to Zhuge Liang and asked for advice, entrusted the government to the prime minister, and then left the word "dark and weak" in the history books.
But the one who occupies this body at this moment is Zhao Kuangyin, who just died with hatred in the "Candle Shadow and Ax Sound" - the Song Taizu who conquered the world on horseback, released his military power with a glass of wine, and determined to unify the world.
What kind of mess did you inherit?
Jingzhou was lost, Yiling was defeated, Nanzhong rebelled, and the five armies of Cao and Wei pressed on the border.
All civil and military officials in the dynasty were sizing up this new king: How long can he last? How long can the Prime Minister protect him?
Zhao Kuangyin touched this frail body and smiled.
He saw Empress Li's tears at the top of Bianliang City, and heard the soldiers wearing yellow robes at Chenqiaoyi.
He knows what it means to "cannot help", and even more what it means to "lift".
In the next twenty-two years, the history of the Three Kingdoms was quietly bent by a pair of unfamiliar hands - he said to Zhuge Liang in the court: "Even if my father-in-law goes on the northern expedition, I will guard your home for you, but half of the military power must remain in my hands."
He personally beat the drum in front of the battle elephant formation in Nanzhong. The drumsticks were stained with blood and the drum head was broken. From then on, "Adou Beating the Drum" spread throughout the three armies.
He set up an ambush by the Wei River, and sent five thousand elite cavalry straight into the hinterland of Cao Wei, leaving Sima Yi in a daze looking at the map all night after the war.
He set up a "full array of soldiers and soldiers" outside Tongguan, but was shot in the arm by a stray arrow. He broke the arrow and fought again, tearing open the Wei army's defense line.
This is the story of a founding king on horseback who was stuffed into the shell of a conservative king and spent half his life reshuffling the bad cards of the Three Kingdoms.
