After Tianjing is besieged by allied armies and the emperor abandons the city and flees, how can Lin Chen, the discarded “useless prince,” turn the tables despite having few troops and generals and facing threats from within and without? He becomes embroiled in an extremely complex game of interests and emotions with Xiao Yao, the empress of Liao; Xiao Lie, a Tatar prince; the Southern Barbarian forces; and trusted agents working undercover. The endgame: With the “Dynasty-Building System” as his driving force, Lin Chen uses marriage alliances, bonds, and coalitions to turn his enemies' daughters, their queens, and their allies behind enemy lines into sources of “combat power” for his side. He punches above his weight, strikes back against powerful foes, pacifies the Tatars, annexes Liao, and brings the Southern Barbarians into the fold, establishing a new Great Xia commonwealth: a new kind of dynasty driven by an “empress-and-consort cabinet” and founded on the legacy of its heirs.
When did Lin Chen meet the empress?