Sui Dynasty’s Last Ember: The Mo Dao Revives the Nation

In the fifth year of Daye, the Sui Dynasty is still powerful, but preparations for a campaign against Liao are already underway. The protagonist transmigrates into Yang Chen, son of Yang Zhao and a distant member of the imperial Yang clan whose family has fallen on hard times. Back in the day, Yang Zhao used his distant kinship with the current emperor, Yang Guang, to secure a modest post at court. Then he was implicated in a case, stripped of his position, and forced to give up most of the family fortune. Furious, the old man fell ill and never recovered. He passed away last winter. While Yang Zhao was alive, he arranged a marriage between Yang Chen and Li Xiuning, the future Princess Pingyang, daughter of Li Yuan. With the Yang family in decline, Li Yuan seeks to ally himself with another powerful clan and comes to demand that the engagement be annulled. Yang Chen readily agrees and receives a sum of money to get started. Rather than rush into government service, Yang Chen uses modern knowledge to make high-purity liquor, earns his first fortune among impoverished scholars and merchants, and builds a private army. In 612 CE, the eighth year of Daye, the Sui Dynasty’s first campaign against Liao ends in defeat. The realm seems peaceful on the surface, but undercurrents are stirring. Yang Chen seizes the opportunity to form a “New Army,” equipped with Mo Dao swords. Along the way, Yang Chen uses his modern charisma to win over promising figures who have yet to make their names: Changsun Wuji, Qin Qiong, Cheng Yaojin, Li Jing, and others. A coup takes place at Jiangdu Palace, and Yang Guang is killed. At a moment of crisis, the protagonist steps forward to save some of the Sui Dynasty’s surviving imperial heirs, rallying under the slogan: “Punish the rebels and revive the Great Sui!”