Li Shimin was reborn after his death.
When he opened his eyes, he had become Ying Che, the eighteenth son of Qin Shi Huang: young, powerless, and born to a mother of low rank.
Worse still, he retained all his memories as an emperor and knew exactly what was coming: Qin Shi Huang would soon die, Zhao Gao and Li Si would forge an edict ordering Fusu to commit suicide and put the foolish Hu Hai on the throne, and the Great Qin would fall within just three years!
He had to save himself, and more importantly, save the Great Qin.
Under Qin Shi Huang’s iron-fisted rule, he kept a low profile and pretended to be weak, quietly winning over Meng Tian and Meng Yi, distancing himself from Zhao Gao, and gathering evidence against corrupt officials.
When the order to burn books and bury scholars alive was issued, he risked his life to remonstrate, saving the classics on statecraft and preventing the court from alienating all the scholars in the realm.
When Qin Shi Huang died at Shaqiu and Zhao Gao and Li Si kept the news secret, he learned of it immediately. He sent a swift message to Fusu, joined forces with the northern army, took control of the imperial guards, and exposed the forged edict on the spot!
Zhao Gao and Li Si were arrested, and the remnants of Hu Hai’s faction were eliminated.
He ascended the throne without a hitch, inheriting the Great Qin empire and ushering in a new era of governance modeled on the Zhenguan reign: abolishing cruel laws, reducing taxes and corvee labor, and halting the construction of Epang Palace and the Lishan Mausoleum so the people could recover.
He put down the restorationist forces of the former Six Kingdoms one by one, guiding the Great Qin from tyranny into a golden age and completely rewriting its fate of falling after only two generations!
**Rebirth + political intrigue + changing history + wish fulfillment**
