The Great Sui Heavenly Emperor

A graduate student researching Sui and Tang history stays up all night writing a thesis titled “Emperor Yang of Sui’s Reforms and the Power Struggle with the Guanlong Aristocracy.” When he opens his eyes, he has become Yang Guang, Prince of Jin, in the seventh year of Kaihuang.

With seven years of research behind him and a thorough understanding of what lies ahead, he knows the future better than anyone:

He will conquer Chen and unify the realm, seize the throne, build the Grand Canal, establish the imperial examinations, and launch three campaigns against Goguryeo. Then will come the coup at Jiangdu Palace, where his own guards will strangle him, bringing the Sui dynasty to an end after just two generations. Li Yuan will usurp the throne and found the Tang. Those born heroes will either die on the battlefield or become founding heroes of the Li family. The deeply entrenched Guanlong aristocracy will trample over his corpse and nail him to history’s pillar of shame as a tyrant.

This time, he refuses to repeat the same mistakes.

He will seize command of the campaign to conquer Chen, recruit the legendary general Li Jing ahead of time, protect Yuwen Chengdu, who was born with superhuman strength, and bring future Tang generals Qin Qiong, Luo Shixin, and Cheng Yaojin into his service.

He will snuff out Li Yuan’s ambitions before they can grow, nip the threat of Li Xuanba in the bud, and systematically sweep away the deeply entrenched Guanlong aristocracy.

He will build the Grand Canal, establish the imperial examinations, conquer Goguryeo, and open up the routes to the Western Regions. What was once reckless haste, he will turn into a steady, step-by-step plan.

He will rewrite this distorted history and restore the Sui dynasty’s vast realm.

He will ensure that the Sui does not fall after just two generations, that the heroes who were destined for tragic deaths all meet a good end, and that the world enters an age of prosperity surpassing even the reign of Zhenguan. He will transform himself from a tyrant cursed for a thousand years into a true emperor for the ages.

In the seventh year of Kaihuang, on an autumn night, Yang Guang, Prince of Jin, wakes from a drunken dream. From that moment on, the fate of the realm is changed.