Making the Eastern Han Great Again, Starting in Youzhou

Liu Xiu transmigrates and becomes Liu Yu’s legitimate eldest son.

The good news: he remembers every major event of the next thirty years in perfect detail.

The bad news: it is 184, the very day the Yellow Turban Rebellion breaks out.

But his father, Liu Yu, is only the governor of Ganling, with no troops and no power at his disposal. The imperial court can barely look after itself, so in these chaotic times, he can only rely on himself.

Liu Xiu grits his teeth and gets to work: recruiting soldiers, fighting battles, and earning military merit.

While others gamble their lives in troubled times, he has a cheat code.

He knows where the Yellow Turban Army will come from, when the rebels will rise up, and when Dong Zhuo will enter the capital. He knows every step.

At the Battle of Jieqiao, he wipes out Gongsun Zan’s White Horse Volunteers. Beneath Yijing, he drives the warlord who dominates Youzhou to set fire to his own tower and die in the flames.

Zhao Yun is his cavalry commander, and Tian Yu his chief strategist.

Liu Bei raises his wine bowl and tells him, “Xianzhi, your words speak straight to my heart.”

From Ganling to Ji County, from five hundred displaced refugees to ten thousand ironclad cavalrymen.

From Cavalry Commandant to lord of Youzhou.

While the warlords of Guandong are still arguing over who should lead the alliance, Liu Xiu has already claimed Youzhou for himself.