The Political Marriage Princess Is Reborn and Wants the Throne

At first, Li Mingzhao took the place of her twin brother because she wanted to escape the fate of being sent away in a political marriage and gain a foothold in court.

In her previous life, Li Mingzhao spent twenty-two years in a political marriage beyond the frontier. But in the second year after returning to Chang'an, she fell gravely ill and died in despair.

On her deathbed, she gazed weakly at the unfinished manuscript of her book, Biographies of Remarkable Women, on the silk spread across her desk, and felt unwilling to let go.

She asked the transmigrated woman whose life she had once saved, "How will people a thousand years from now judge me?"

The woman stammered, "Your name is unknown, and the judgment is..."

She did not finish, but Li Mingzhao understood all too well.

And because she understood, she was even more unwilling to accept it.

She could ride and shoot arrows, and she had once studied beautiful works of literature. For over twenty years in a political marriage beyond the frontier, she had struggled to negotiate while her country declined. Yet after returning, her family and friends looked down on her, and now she discovered that even the history books had not recorded her name.

How ridiculous!

She envied the eagles soaring in the sky, but fate had made her a duckweed adrift in a troubled age all her life.

If she had another life, Li Mingzhao hoped she could defy fate and change her destiny.

For that, she was willing to pay any price.

*

When she opened her eyes again after death, Li Mingzhao had returned to the age of eleven, before she had ever entered the imperial palace.

Her twin brother, who in her previous life had eagerly pushed her toward a political marriage while preaching righteousness, now lay unconscious after being bitten by a venomous snake.

In her previous life, Li Mingzhao had spared no effort, traveling far and wide to gather herbs and save his life.

In this life, Li Mingzhao steeled herself and stood by, letting him die. Then, without hesitation, she took his identity and entered the palace.

The world was rotten. No one paid heed to the suffering of women abducted by foreign tribes. Behind the gates of the wealthy, wine and meat went to waste, while the frozen dead lay by the roadside.

Li Mingzhao despised this broken world.

So she would use the life she had taken for herself to fight and seize power, take revenge, and change this world that devoured its people.

Later, Li Mingzhao had become a prince regent with power in her hands. Yet she thought, "If foolish rulers and treacherous ministers can hold sway, why can't I ascend to the highest seat?"

--

Many years later, people would look back on the first year of Tianhua and say that the world changed when the sacred empress ascended the throne.

The foreign tribes who raided the borders were held back beyond the passes. The eunuchs who had thrown the previous court into turmoil were silenced. Corrupt officials who seized homes and farmland in the countryside died, one after another. Fewer frozen bodies lay by the roadside.

Women entered the civil service examinations and the imperial court, and even great talents with disabilities or disfigurements could fulfill their ambitions.

In less than eight years, the new maps drawn by the Ministry of Works' Surveying Bureau showed sea on three sides, and the country's territory was more extensive than ever before.

Ten years later, people watched Li Mingzhao stride into court in women's clothes, then turned to look at their fellow female officials, who now occupied half the court.

The veteran ministers: ...As long as Your Majesty is happy.

--

[Reader's Guide]

1. This is a fictional setting, not a historically researched work, and the heroine will have a golden finger.

The heroine's name comes from the Book of Songs, "Hymns of Zhou: Shi Mai": "Bright and illustrious is the Zhou, who set the ranks of office in order."

My goal is to ultimately write a heroine who is wise and perceptive.

2. The heroine is morally complex, not absolutely kind. She is not chaste, disguises herself as a man, and will stop at nothing to seize power and the throne. She will kill, and she is obsessed with power. If you can't stand this kind of character, please click the X. Let's respect each other.

3. There are male and female antagonists. The heroine is a political animal and will use anyone, whether ally or enemy, man or woman, young or old.

(My heroine is free. I won't place too many restrictions on her, so please don't label this story as misogynistic. Even if you do, it won't change my mind.)

4. There is a transmigrated female supporting character. She is an ally, not an enemy, and helps the heroine build up the country.

5. One more note: after the heroine's position as empress is secure, she will have consorts, but she will not have children. She establishes an imperial academy that admits students based on merit, and the next emperor will also be a woman.

With my friend's help, I streamlined the blurb. Thank you so much!

-- June 27, 2024

Theme: If you have a choice, be a towering tree that spreads its branches to shelter yourself beneath the sky. If you have no choice, create a new one.