[Single female lead]
The emperor has lost the deer. Let all the heroes of the realm compete to chase it.
And so the heroes rose up in rebellion, with countless others joining their ranks.
Jiang Heng, courtesy name Huaiting, was born in the twenty-ninth year of Anping. He was the adopted son of the Hebei Military Governor.
As a boy, Heng was renowned throughout the region for his handsome looks and bearing, as radiant as the morning sun.
As he grew older, the emperor lost the deer, and his father, Yong, raised the standard of rebellion and proclaimed himself King of Hebei. Heng followed his father into the army. At seventeen, he led troops to seize Henan Circuit and Huainan Circuit, expanding their territory by a thousand li.
At eighteen, he seized Jiangnan Circuit and brought the power of all four circuits together, setting his sights on the capital. That same year, his elder brother Cheng fell from a horse and died in the capital, his other elder brother Qi hanged himself in camp, his father Yong was assassinated, his mother Xiu was imprisoned, and his younger sister Fu vanished without a trace. On a rainy night, Heng made a thousand-li dash home and quelled the Jiang clan's rebellion in Hebei with just two thousand men.
At nineteen, he inherited his father's cause and proclaimed himself King of Liaodong. He gathered talented people from far and wide, and at the age of twenty, entered the contest for the realm.
At twenty-one, he seized Lingnan in the south and returned just three months later with little more than a thousand light cavalrymen. At twenty-two, he marched west against the wicked state of Chu, carrying his father's and brothers' swords. He personally slew his enemies and returned victorious.
At twenty-three, he headed north to the Central Plains to restore the imperial house. In the name of Imperial Tutor, he installed the young emperor on the throne. Three months later, the emperor, overcome with shame, abdicated in favor of the King of Liaodong.
In the first year of Heng's reign, Heng declared himself emperor in Chang'an, changed the dynasty's name to Yan, and moved the capital to Pingbei. History would remember him as Emperor Taizu of Yan.
Reading guide:
1. Inspired by the Tang dynasty system.
2. The protagonist's mother is a transmigrator.
Theme: In the end, you have to rely on yourself.
