I'm a Woman, and I'm Going to Be Emperor

As a woman, how will you survive in a time of chaos? Choose your identity.

A: Daughter of a noble family

B: Commoner

C: Outcast or entertainer

A:

You are the daughter of a noble family. If you're lucky, you'll marry a young man from an equally prestigious family, becoming a political asset that strengthens their power and a symbol of the alliance between two clans.

If you're unlucky, you may be given away as a gift when your father or brothers are defeated, or become the enemy's spoils of war when your country falls and your family is destroyed. The privilege you once enjoyed only deepens your humiliation.

B:

You are a commoner. Your father, husband, and sons will very likely be seized as conscripts. You'll face exorbitant taxes alone, and when your fields are destroyed, you'll take the old and young and set out as a refugee.

At the same time, as a woman, you'll face constant unwanted attention, and your status could change to C at any moment.

C:

You were born into the lowest social class. You can imagine what happens to you in an army: you're used to keep the soldiers content and reduce desertions. In wartime, you're made to do menial labor. When a city falls, you're forced to shield others from arrows or persuade them to surrender. When food runs short, you're treated as a two-legged sheep. With victory and defeat constantly changing hands, you are passed from one army to another as spoils of war.

Zhao Feng came from neither a particularly high nor a particularly low station. She was born into a commoner's family.

As a woman, she was not delicate. Her hands were hardened with calluses from years of wielding swords, and her body was marked with scars from fights.

That was why, in a time of chaos, she could protect herself, her family, and more of the displaced commoners just like her.

As a commoner, she knew neither reverence nor submission. When faced with oppression, she fought back.

So she reclaimed the family's possessions and took back the grain that had been seized from the county office in the name of taxes, giving more people a chance to eat.

Zhao Feng came from a matrilineal clan and had a hard time adjusting to feudal society. People kept telling her that women should be gentle, virtuous, chaste, and refined.

After thinking it over, she decided not to listen. Her experience living in the wilderness had taught her that the most important thing for a person was strength.

Another version of the blurb:

Zhao Feng, a vanguard hunter from a matrilineal clan, was one of the tribe's elite. Who would have thought that after transmigrating, she would become a peasant girl in feudal society? In theory, her life should have been like her mother's: marry a man, bear children, and serve her parents-in-law.

But would a hawk ever agree to break its wings and become a sparrow? And how could a sparrow survive in a time of chaos?

Then disaster struck her family overnight. Her father broke his leg, their possessions were plundered, and even the yellow ox they'd raised for over a decade was forcibly taken away.

Unable to endure it any longer, Zhao Feng beat up the government runners and was driven into banditry.

But being a bandit wasn't easy either. She had to deal with outside enemies and manage the stronghold. Juggling too much at once, Zhao Feng took to seizing what she wanted by force. If she came across someone with some skill, whether they wanted to or not, she would sweet-talk or trick them into coming back to the stronghold.

A blind fortune-teller who had failed the recommendation system, been thrown out of his home, and later became a charlatan to make ends meet;

A fraud who made a living by swindling people after his father stumbled upon a noble family's secret, bringing ruin to their household;

And a general with no firm loyalties, scorned as a three-surnamed slave, stripped of his martial arts and barely clinging to life...

She didn't discriminate. She rounded them all up as laborers.

She firmly believed that there were no useless bandits, only bandit chiefs who didn't know how to use them.

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At first, nobody took Zhao Feng seriously. They thought she was just an ordinary person of humble origins who had won some distinction by luck amid the upheaval.

But when the two armies finally faced each other, the lords and nobles were horrified to discover...

Those unremarkable oddballs under her command were all tough to deal with.

An obscure fortune-teller could calculate every move in advance. He knew about night raids before they happened and saw through every plan to attack the city.

A fraud skilled in disguise could always infiltrate the rear and lead their generals around by the nose.

And the three-surnamed slave, mocked by the whole world, ignored every olive branch they offered and showed no mercy on the battlefield, driving them back step by step.

But behind the scenes, in the territory she governed, there were no starving corpses strewn everywhere. As long as people were willing to work, everyone could get a bite to eat.

Regardless of their origins or gender, anyone with the ability could become an official through the selection process.

Even more remarkably, her army never plundered the common people, and never needed to seize conscripts. Every time they recruited soldiers, the number of eager applicants exceeded the quota.

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Theme: Self-reliance