His name was Liu Yu, and his childhood name was Jinu.
His mother died the day he was born. His father threw him into a mass grave, calling him an accursed child who had killed his mother. His widowed aunt took him in, and he survived by selling straw sandals. At the market, people called him a pauper. After getting into debt at a gambling den, he was tied to a hitching post and beaten until his skin split. Everyone thought the boy's life was over.
But they didn't know that a coiling-dragon birthmark lay on his back.
At Zhulin Temple, a dragon-shaped omen appeared. At Xinzhou, he shot a snake and obtained a divine medicine. At Mount Hou, he read a tomb's location and identified it as a kingly burial site. Heaven's will demanded that he carve his way up from the bottom. He joined the Northern Army and defeated ten thousand enemies with a hundred men; raised an army at Jingkou and executed Huan Xuan to restore the Jin court; launched a northern campaign against Southern Yan and captured Murong Chao alive; marched west against Qiao Zong and conquered Shu; then reached the gates of Chang'an and reclaimed the old capital. Stepping over countless corpses, he rose from a straw-sandal stall all the way to the dragon throne.
Even someone born to a humble family can turn the world upside down. That's how you show the poor and powerless of the realm what's possible!
(Disclaimer: This historical novel is an artistic work based on records in official histories such as the Book of Song and the Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance, and also draws on classical historical romances such as Cai Dongfan's Popular Romance of China's Dynasties. It tells the legendary life of Liu Yu, founding emperor of the Liu Song dynasty, from abandoned child of humble birth to emperor, and covers major historical events including the uprising at Jingkou, the suppression of Sun En, the destruction of Huan Xuan, the northern campaign against Southern Yan, the suppression of Lu Xun, the western campaign against Qiao Zong, the northern campaign against Later Qin, and the replacement of Jin with Song. As the work is based on real history, its characters, events, and plot framework all come from public historical sources. It may therefore bear some similarities to other publicly released literary, film, television, or audio works about historical subjects. Such similarities result from drawing on the same historical material and are a normal part of historical fiction, not plagiarism.)
"A poor family can turn the world upside down", this slogan is exciting. But the most cruel thing about this work is that it makes no secret of the "sky-breaking" cost. From the straw sandal stall to the dragon chair, Liu Yu stepped on not auspicious clouds, but "countless corpses" - those of his enemies, his colleagues, and even innocent people. The work does not avoid the bloody cost behind success: every victory (a hundred men defeat ten thousand enemies, capture Murong Chao alive, recapture Chang'an) is accompanied by multiple deaths. The so-called "setting an example for the poor people in the world" is not to set an inspirational example, but to tell you: the road to counterattack at the bottom is paved with life. The author uses Liu Yu's life to answer a cruel question: How many people must be killed and how many cities must be leveled by an abandoned child who was thrown into a mass grave by his father before the world can change their name to "Your Majesty"? The answer lies in these hundreds of thousands of words of swords and swords.
This novel is based on official historical records, adding artistic techniques to depict the inner world of historical figures. It is a secondary creation on the basis of respecting history without being similar to other public second works, allowing readers to deepen their understanding of this period of history while reading the novel.