A seventy-year-old emperor wakes one morning young again. Is it Heaven’s mercy, or has fate begun anew?
Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, ruled for more than fifty years. The Witchcraft Crisis took his son, Wei Zifu died by her own hand, and Huo Qubing passed away young. He had everything, and lost everything. As death approached, the Five Emperors granted him a new life in his twenty-year-old body. But beneath that youthful skin was an old soul, utterly ravaged by political schemes and betrayal.
With his first strike upon returning, he cut down the remnants of the Witchcraft Crisis. With his second, he rebuilt a powerful army: high-bridge saddles, fine iron blades, and an all-cavalry military system. With his third, he revived the poll and property taxes, emptying merchants’ pockets to fill the treasury.
Ren Qingyang was born to a family of hunters in Longxi. His thirty-year-old body held ten years of hard-won savagery from battling the Xiongnu. Liu Che saw a shadow of Huo Qubing in him, yet knew the man was no replacement. He was too clear-headed, too independent, and too difficult to control. “I’m not Huo Qubing. I’m Ren Qingyang.” In those words lay the diverging paths of two generations of legendary generals.
When the old banner of the Champion Marquis rose once more and an army of a hundred thousand marched beyond the northern frontier, Liu Che watched alone from the northern city wall. Twenty years ago, he had sent Huo Qubing away. Twenty years later, he sent Ren Qingyang away. The moonlight was the same, the wind was the same. The difference was that this time, he had learned to say, “I’ll wait for you to come back.”
History offers no second chances, but The Emperor Wu Returns gives Liu Che an opportunity to start over. This time, he will not make the same mistakes again. Or at least, that is what he believes...
