The good news: Li Jinyue was reborn as a descendant of her idol, Li Shimin.
The bad news: Her idol had been dead for ages.
The even worse news: She wasn't descended from Li Zhi, but from the deposed Crown Prince Li Chengqian. Her family had fallen into decline and was now just an ordinary wealthy household.
Of course, that wasn't the end of it. There was something even more despairing: she was born in the nineteenth year of the Kaiyuan era, and in twenty-five years, the An Lushan Rebellion would break out. Her family was bound to get caught up in it.
With all those factors in mind, Li Jinyue had no choice but to consider her future from a young age. Should she rebel, rebel, or rebel? It seemed there was only one option.
So when Li Jinyue met with her "guards" and a group of "loyal ministers" from Chang'an, they actually tried to get her to put down her weapons and become a docile subject.
They wouldn't even give her any real power, just the nice-sounding honorary title of Grand Princess.
Were they trying to fob her off like a beggar?
But the group argued their case with great conviction, saying to Li Jinyue's father, "In the past, Crown Prince Chengqian rebelled, and His Majesty Taizong demoted him to a commoner. General, you are not a member of the Tang imperial family. How can you hope to go any further?
"Even if the country was in peril and the general raised an army to defend it, which was truly righteous, that crisis has now passed. Though the emperor is dead, the crown prince still lives, and he is benevolent and kind, a true image of an enlightened ruler.
"Why not accept the offer and become a regional military governor, preserving your good name in the history books? The young lady could also be granted the title of Grand Princess. What more could you ask for? Why force the issue and make things difficult for everyone?"
Li Jinyue thought these people hadn't been beaten badly enough by An Lushan, and they were still terribly naive.
What a joke. She had been the one to send the emperor to his death at An Lushan's hands. She had spent all this time planning to take the Tang empire. Was she some kind of bodhisattva, ready to hand it over to someone else now?
So she stepped past her father and took the seat of honor, making sure they knew who was really in charge.
"If you are willing to acknowledge our ancestor, Crown Prince Chengqian, my father will be the second Emperor Guangwu. If you insist on your position, my father has no objection to becoming a second Gaozu. Think carefully: will you serve the Tang dynasty or the dynasty that came before it?"
Li Jinyue delivered the words nonchalantly. Her poor father, standing off to one side and silently bearing it all, was left in tears.
That rebellious daughter! He was being forced into this. He'd been perfectly happy as a wealthy landowner and had never wanted to rebel. He didn't want to be Gaozu or Guangwu. He just wanted to go home and farm.
Theme: Make up for some lingering regrets
