I Took the Throne Before the Spoilers

[You can read this as alternate history. Although the sky screen offers spoilers, there’s plenty of action in the real world; at heart, this is still a tale of seizing power and vying for supremacy in a time of chaos! Updates daily at noon, with at least six thousand words a day.]

Wang Shenai transmigrates.

She finds herself in an extraordinarily noble position. Her father is a dashing member of the Langya Wang clan, her mother is a princess, and she herself has already become Crown Princess.

Unfortunately, the Crown Prince is an idiot, the emperor is useless, and the government is already in the hands of powerful ministers.

No servants at her beck and call, no riches and treasures as far as the eye can see.

No emperor and empress standing together through thick and thin, sipping wine and discussing the world with a smile.

Just one enormous mess.

And that’s not all. One day, a sky screen hangs over the capital, opening with these words:

[Hello, everyone. Today we’re talking about Emperor Yong’an, who usurped the throne and ended the chaos between the North and South.]

[People in later generations said that after Emperor Xiaowu of the Eastern Jin died, the accession of an idiot emperor who couldn’t tell winter from summer marked the beginning of the chaos. But they also said it was an opportunity for a wise ruler to emerge from troubled times, because the one who did was a truly ruthless force to be reckoned with.]

[For over a decade, Emperor Yong’an was condemned for using the emperor as a puppet to control the court. Yet for more than a thousand years, he has also been praised for recognizing talent, leading his armies well, unifying the North and South, allowing the people to recover, and ushering in a golden age.]

[…]

So when did you start wanting to conquer the world?

When I realized that the Emperor Yong’an described by the sky screen wasn’t the powerful minister Huan Xuan, the famous general Liu Yu, or some rising noble of the Northern Dynasties. It was me, the unlucky Crown Princess.

This is an age of chaos.

If you don’t fight for power, you die.

If you don’t go mad, you’re at the mercy of others.

If you don’t bring change, history repeats itself.

…

When no one answers the people’s cries and human lives are worth no more than weeds, there is only one way to find a glimmer of hope: go against the current.

The sky screen is mainly there to make the story easier to follow and add twists to the plot. This isn’t a brainless power fantasy, so give it a try. The heroine’s ascension to the throne and her political ambitions move faster than the sky screen’s predictions. She’s a highly proactive protagonist.

Some characters’ backstories have been changed! Changed! Changed! This is to help readers unfamiliar with the Wei and Jin periods follow along.

This is a no-romance story, and the next generation won’t get much page time. The focus is on the heroine’s own struggles and her female successor.

Theme: Even in adversity, find another way forward.