Transmigrating to the Song Dynasty: Gazing Northwest

The shame of Jingkang remains unavenged. When will the hatred of the people finally end?

One day, Zhao Xian, a graduate student in history, was pulled into the river of time by a sorrowful sigh in his sleep. When he opened his eyes again, he had become Zhao Mao, Emperor Zhaohuai of the Song dynasty: a young emperor who was supposed to die in infancy, a tragic footnote remembered by only a few lines in the history books.

In this life, fate quietly changed amid his miraculous survival and the tearful prostrations of his ministers. He was the Song dynasty’s only hope, the great-grandson cherished by Empress Dowager Xiang, and the heaven-sent ruler whom the court had eagerly awaited.

He ascended the throne at two and took personal control of the government at eight.

Over the next ten years, he seized control of the military, sowed the seeds of science, won the hearts of the martial world, and married his childhood sweetheart.

In the autumn of his eighteenth year, he led his army north. Three hundred thousand soldiers, three thousand cannons, and four grandmasters stood behind him. After a year of bloody fighting, all sixteen prefectures of Yanyun were recovered. The Liao ceded territory, paid reparations, and knelt to sue for peace.

Over the next fifty years, he destroyed Western Xia, opened routes to the Western Regions, sailed across the seas, brought the Ryukyu Islands under control, and subdued Japan. He reshaped “Huaxia” into a shared civilizational identity, winning the allegiance of every people and bringing tribute from all nations.