Zhao Hong transmigrates into an ancient prince, endures thirty years of hardship, and finally ascends the throne. He introduces new policies, lifts the ban on maritime trade, supports commerce and industry, and establishes new schools. But his reforms enrage the entire old vested-interest class, and he is poisoned and assassinated deep within the palace.
When he opens his eyes again, he has been reborn at the end of the dynasty as a street beggar with the same name.
The world before him is a living hell: people eat their own children to survive, women are forced to bind their feet, children study "preserve heavenly principles and extinguish human desires," clans run private torture chambers, and Western merchant ships flaunt their power at sea. Every reform he implemented in his previous life has been completely overturned, and history has plunged backward into an even darker abyss.
Zhao Hong smiles.
In his last life, he was too kind, believing that reform from the top down could save the country.
This time...
He takes in an orphan with a gift for mechanics from the slums and teaches him to build a steam engine;
He trades with Western merchants for banned books and opens an underground school in a ruined temple;
He saves a widow forced to die for her chastity and makes her one of the first female foremen;
He gathers a ragtag "beggar army" and uses gunpowder to blast open the landlords' granaries.
While the court still argues over "proper etiquette," smoke is already rising from his factories;
While the gentry compose poetry, his riflemen are already sweeping the bandits away;
While the emperor practices alchemy deep in the palace, his modern schools have spread across the south.
Then one day, when an army of one hundred thousand workers and peasants lays siege to the capital, the ministers discover in terror that...
Under that red flag stands the leader of the troops: the former emperor, who "died suddenly" thirty years ago.
Zhao Hong sits astride his tall horse, gazes down at the dragon throne he once occupied, and says softly:
"This time, I don't want reform."
"I want to flip the table."
The plot of the wits against the evil beggar is very exciting, the statues in the ruined temple stand up well, and the struggle of the refugees is very realistic.