A Substitute Bride from the Start? Empress Ma's Soul Takes Over and Sets the Ming Dynasty Straight

[Ensemble Cast and Political Intrigue + Ancestors Descend + Overwhelming Advantage + Empowering Female Lead] In the final years of the Great Ming, warfires blazed across the land. (In this parallel version of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang and Ma Xiuying founded the empire together.) General Xu Zheng, the empire’s defender, died a wrongful death. Before his body had even grown cold, the emperor issued an edict betrothing the six orphaned Xu sisters to six of the capital’s most notorious and troublesome power brokers. The treacherous ministers sneered, the emperor looked on indifferently, and everyone waited to see the daughters of a military house reduced to playthings in the inner quarters, wishing they were dead. Yet on the eve of her wedding, the spirit of Ma Dafujiao, the founding empress known as the “Empress on Horseback,” awoke within the eldest daughter, Xu Yunhua. Looking upon the Great Ming, battered by storms and ravaged into ruin, the old ancestor laughed in outrage. “Is this what you unworthy descendants have done with the empire that Chongba and I fought tooth and nail to build?” On the day of the weddings, six red bridal palanquins left the Xu residence, and the vast web Xu Yunhua had secretly spun was finally cast. Steadfast eldest sister, the founding empress, versus the scheming grand secretary Dashing second sister, commander of the frontier army, versus the brutal warlord Calculating third sister, head of the God of Wealth sect, versus the playboy tycoon While the treacherous ministers still congratulated themselves over petty gains in their households, they had no idea that the six Xu sisters had already seized control of the Great Ming’s money, grain, military power, and very lifeline. “I built this empire with my own hands. Today, I’ll conquer it all over again!”