The Consort Is So Alluring (Love by Force)

The main story is complete, and the bonus chapters are updating. Please add it to your collection. My next novel will be The Great Family. [Warlord of a troubled age vs. a widowed noblewoman with a child] A domineering courtship and conquest, set in a fictional world inspired by the late Tang dynasty The sixth year of Yuanzhen under Emperor Yongshun. Zhao Zongkai launched a campaign in the northwest. Tens of thousands of troops swept across the north, eyeing their next conquest. That year, natural and man-made disasters followed one another. Rebels seized prefectures and counties one after another; famine ravaged the land, bandits rose up, and ambitious warlords made their moves. The realm was shattered, and the people suffered terribly. The Great Yong dynasty teetered on the brink of collapse. That year, Zhou Songyi took her son home to visit her parents. Passing through Hezhong, she encountered Zhao Zongkai. The Zhou clan of Ruzhou was a prestigious family with a history of a hundred years. Its women were famed for their beauty, and the women of the Sixth Branch were the most beautiful of all. Several years earlier, the Zhou clan had formed a marriage alliance with the Lu clan of Wujun. The woman’s beauty had become famous throughout the land, and none could forget that peerless beauty. At the time, Zhao Zongkai was making his third appeal to the throne and passing through Hezhong. Hezhong had once been prosperous, with abundant people and goods. Now, bones lay exposed in the wilderness, and no rooster crowed for a thousand miles. It was a heartbreaking sight. He noticed someone surrounded by attendants, adorned with jade and pearls, impossible to miss. He sent someone to ask about her. The reply came: She was a daughter of the Zhou clan, newly widowed and returning to her parents’ home, on her way to Ruzhou. Zhao Zongkai looked around at his followers. “I’ve heard the Zhou girl is peerlessly beautiful, the most captivating woman of her age. She’s here now. Can I see her?” * The northwest was swept by fierce northern winds, and its people were bold and unruly, utterly unlike those of Ruzhou and Liangzhou. Zhou Songyi could neither sit nor stand at ease. The first thing that caught Zhou Songyi’s attention when she saw Zhao Zongkai was the confidence and heroic spirit in his face. A murderous aura surrounded him, and his keen eyes fixed on her like she was prey, full of menace. Zhou Songyi knew he had killed many people. He was nothing like her late husband, who had taken her on spring outings and shared poems and books with her. Zhao Zongkai had lived his whole life for one purpose: to bring peace to the realm, govern it well, and make its people prosperous. He had lived for the hope of a peaceful world, until he met her again. According to The History of Jin, “Annals of Emperor Taizu”: In the sixth year of Yuanzhen, the emperor met his beloved consort in Hezhong. By a pond, he smiled, unable to forget the dream of his youth. In the depths of winter, he welcomed his consort to Linru. Note: Both leads are unmarried when they meet. Domineering courtship and conquest; fictional setting inspired by the late Tang dynasty. Theme: May the rivers run clear and the seas be calm, and may the realm know peace.