Looking Toward the Tang Dynasty

Li Tai died while trying to help someone in danger. His soul transmigrated into Li Tai, Prince of Shunwei, a great schemer who truly had the "beloved son of his parents" role, came within a step of the throne, and then crashed and burned. He searched through everything he could remember and communicated with the original Li Tai, whose soul hadn't dispersed yet and who was busy making his escape. He discovered, to his despair, that he had no other path to take. The "second legitimate son" phenomenon, which had persisted since the Three Kingdoms and Northern and Southern Dynasties, was still at work... Take Yang Guang, the so-called "Great Emperor of All Ages" from the previous dynasty, a classic example of an illegitimate son seizing the succession. Yang Guang's eldest son was raised by his parents, and so was Li Tai's eldest son; Yang Guang had his own faction, and Li Tai had his Literary Academy; Yang Guang courted court officials, and Li Tai did too; Yang Guang was his parents' beloved son, and Li Tai was as well. Li Tai sighed. So, in the eyes of the ministers in the Zhenguan era, Prince Wei Li Tai was basically a potential Yang Guang! Li Tai chuckled. He was leaving anyway, so Li Tai could deal with this mess himself. [How to be the Emperor and Empress's beloved son and the Crown Prince's thorn in his side, while successfully shaking off suspicion of scheming for the succession and ultimately taking the throne? Now that's a worthy challenge.] But this empress looked so much like his own mother... Li Tai froze in place. Zhenguan: an era that elevated a dynasty to unprecedented heights. How could those who came after preserve this legacy? Content warnings: The male lead was an orphan in his previous life, with few family ties. This time around, there will be a lot of family drama. A spiritual older-woman-younger-man romance. The Guanlong, Jiangnan, Hebei, and Shandong aristocratic clans clash. Reforms to the Tang dynasty's estate and slave system. Li Shimin gets hit with his own boomerang. Li Chengqian's heterodox-practices case. Theme: Being a father is hard. Being the father of an entire nation is even harder.