Reborn as a Tyrant, All I Want Is to Survive

Honestly, she’d just thought being a foolish emperor would be a blast, so she’d bragged about it on a whim.

For the first time in her life, she got exactly what she wished for.

But by the time she transmigrated into the foolish emperor, the fun part of being foolish was already over.

In the palace, the senior eunuch Cao Yu had served three emperors and was looking to abandon her and find a new patron. The civil officials had Chancellor Zhang, who held all the power and was waiting for Empress Zhang to give birth to a prince so he could get rid of her. On the military side, General Zhao commanded a hundred thousand troops on the northern frontier and held the army’s power in his hands. He, too, was waiting for Consort Zhao to give birth to a prince so he could overthrow her. She couldn’t bring herself to desire any of the thousands of beautiful women in the palace, and she didn’t feel like making a move either. She was attracted to men, but couldn’t make a move on them. Chancellor Zhang’s principles were wisdom, trustworthiness, benevolence, courage, and discipline. Wisdom meant knowing yourself and your opponent, and understanding the situation. She used her opponents’ confidence in their own knowledge of her to strike swiftly and gradually undermine them, taking control of the military one step at a time. Then she exploited human nature, using low-ranking officials, soldiers, and commoners to break up the nobles’ land hoarding, redistribute the land to the people, and increase taxes to strengthen the state. After an assassination attempt, she became a ruthless ruler, turning the novel’s title, Transmigrated as a Foolish Emperor, I Just Want to Survive, on its head.