Zheng Guan was the only top scholar in Chinese history to achieve the highest honors in both the civil and military examinations. He passed the civil examination in the third year of Changqing, then made a name for himself by winning the military examination in the second year of Taihe. He could write statecraft that changed the world and command frontier armies in battle. He should have been lost to the chaos of the late Tang, but his soul traveled back to the thirteenth year of Tianbao and entered the body of a young man named Zheng Guan. Chang’an seemed peaceful, with the spring banquets at Qujiang, tavern banners in the market districts, and bustling Hu women’s taverns. But the northern military governors were watching hungrily, An Lushan was quietly plotting, and the three frontier commands of Tong Pass, Hebei, and Fanyang were on the brink of crisis. History’s gears had not yet turned toward disaster. Before An Lushan raised his banner of rebellion, Zheng Guan had to use the literary talent and military strategy of his previous life to safeguard the foundations of the Tang and rewrite the fate of a flourishing empire on the verge of collapse. This is the defiant path of a double top scholar in the civil and military examinations, and a tale of salvation set amid the brutal history of the late Tang. This time, before Fanyang’s banner of rebellion is raised, he will keep the Tang alive.
