Li Mo is a history graduate student whose thesis is on the Reign of Zhenguan.
When he wakes up, he has become a failed scholar who tried to drown himself outside Chang'an. It is the first year of Zhenguan. The Tang dynasty is newly established, 200,000 Turkic troops are massing at the border, undercurrents swirl at court, and the great clans all have their own agendas. As for him, he doesn't even know where tomorrow's breakfast will come from.
This isn't the prosperous Tang dynasty he knows. It's a mess that could collapse at any moment.
Fortunately, he brings with him 1,400 years of knowledge. Paper-making, waterwheels, weapons, irrigation, civil-service exam reforms... While others still fight for power with swords, he is already using his mind to set the entire empire in motion.
Li Shimin: “When I appoint people, I choose them solely for their talent. Li Mo is talented, so I will put him to use.”
Zhangsun Wuji: “This man's mind is even more frightening than his background.”
Fang Xuanling: “At court, moving fast doesn't necessarily get you far. The real skill is moving steadily.”
Cheng Yaojin: “Young man, you're an interesting one.”
Starting as a minor official of the eighth rank, he rose to Right Assistant Minister of State and Duke of Wei in fifteen years. Those same fifteen years were when the Tang dynasty went from humiliation to glory.
He personally avenged the humiliation of the Treaty of the Wei River, and laid the foundations of the Zhenguan Golden Age with his own hands.
This is no one man's legend. It is the epic of an era.
