[A refreshing historical power fantasy, no womanizing, no humiliation, snatching the throne from Zhao Kuangyin, reclaiming the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, founding a golden age]
Zhao Desheng, a sixty-year-old retired civil servant and military history enthusiast, wakes up in the sixth year of Xiande under the Later Zhou and finds himself the sixty-year-old distant clansman of Zhao Kuangyin, a cook who has spent thirty years in the imperial guard.
The Chenqiao Mutiny is only three months away.
Thinking of how Zhao Kuangyin will take the throne, establish the weak Song Dynasty, favor civil officials over military ones, fail to reclaim the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, and ultimately suffer the Jingkang Humiliation and the fall of the dynasty at Yashan, Zhao Desheng slams the table in fury.
“You’re not fit to be emperor, Zhao Kuangyin!”
He brews ginger soup to cure an epidemic, and his prestige in the army surpasses Zhao Kuangyin’s.
He improves the troops’ meals and trains them into an elite force, turning the imperial guard into his own army.
At Chenqiao Station, he leads his crack troops to block the central command tent and, in front of tens of thousands of soldiers, puts the imperial yellow robe on himself.
Zhao Kuangyin: “Uncle, I’m the Inspector General!”
Zhao Desheng: “Nephew, your policy of favoring civil officials over the military won’t work. Watch your uncle build a Great China that surpasses the Han and Tang!”
He destroys Later Shu, pacifies Southern Han, and conquers Southern Tang, sweeping across the south in sixty-six days.
He campaigns against Northern Han, reclaims Yanyun, and thrashes the Khitan, making the four surrounding peoples submit and bringing all nations to court.
In thirty years, Zhao Desheng builds an empire of unmatched strength, one the world has never seen before, planting the flag of Huaxia across all of Asia!
Many years later, Zhao Desheng, now an emperor for the ages, stands atop the walls of Chang’an, gazing at the spectacle of all nations paying tribute. He claps Zhao Kuangyin, now Grand Marshal of the Armies, on the shoulder and laughs:
“See? I’m a better emperor than you, aren’t I?”
It makes up for the gap in changing history through the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.