The Song Dynasty Reversed

The brilliant lawyer Yu Zhu transmigrated into a book and became Yulan, a maid in the household of Zhang Duanjian from Water Margin. Yulan had a sweet voice, a delicate figure, and stunning looks, but she wasn't very bright. At the Mid-Autumn banquet not long ago, she and her master had framed Wu Song and sent him to prison. Yu Zhu: I can already picture Wu Song sharpening his blade... Fortunately, Yu Zhu had bound herself to a so-called Famous General System. To escape the fate of dying in the Mandarin Duck Tower, she launched a grand campaign of self-rescue. Become an outlaw or enter government service? Do I even get to choose? Don't be afraid of the Four Great Treacherous Ministers. I'm just here to join you. Wanyan Gou? Why not take my surname, Yu? The System felt as if the hair it didn't actually have was about to fall out. It had clearly trained countless famous generals before. Why was this one refusing to follow the script? Yu Zhu spread her hands innocently. "Following the script won't get us anywhere. Just look at the situation we're in now." System: "Let me check. Later generations summed it up as political corruption, bitter factional infighting, a weak military, and social unrest." Yu Zhu: "Good, you know that. So what's the use of a famous general? Even Bai Qi reincarnated couldn't do a thing." System: "Then what do you want?" Yu Zhu: "The throne!" Additional notes: 1. This story is based on the 100-chapter and 120-chapter editions of Water Margin. It takes place in the late Northern Song as depicted in Water Margin, not the actual historical Northern Song. There are many original elements, so please don't nitpick the history. 2. The supernatural elements from the original novel are not included, and the protagonist does not become an outlaw. 3. The romance serves the plot and is just a bit of seasoning. There is no single male lead. 4. The female lead is no moral paragon. She is forever ambitious and forever hungry for power. She won't have children or marry, but she will have an heir. [Coming soon: When Empress Wu Is Reborn as Xuan Jiang] After the Shenlong Coup, Wu Zhao was stripped of all her power by the people closest to her. With only an honorific title left to her, she spent her final days in Shangyang Palace. As she lay dying, she made a wish. "If there is another life..." She hadn't even finished speaking when she really was reborn. In her new life, she had a face that could make fish sink and geese fall, beautiful enough to topple kingdoms. Wu Zhao laughed, thinking Heaven had finally rewarded her, only to realize that something about her situation was strange. She was supposed to marry the crown prince, so why had the old king stolen her away? She had meant to kill her political rival, so how had she ended up killing her own son? How was it that even after becoming empress dowager, she had to marry her stepson? Oh, she's Xuan Jiang. That explains it. Wu Zhao: "Heh. This plot is right in my comfort zone." Watch me maneuver through the court and dominate the Spring and Autumn era! (A max-level powerhouse massacres the beginner village.) Theme: Women need to hold power