Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty, who worked diligently throughout his life, suddenly passed away, and his soul traveled to the body of Li Yan, Emperor Wuzong of the Tang Dynasty who was ridden with pills and was in a desperate situation. An epic plot spanning two emperors of the two dynasties unfolded. It combines hard-core court games, original suspense investigation, martial arts, and secret espionage fronts. The foreshadowing runs through the entire story, and the logic is complete and closed-loop. It is worth reading for fans of historical intrigues.
Chaos abounded in the late Tang Dynasty: the eunuch Qiu Shiliang controlled the Shence Army and monopolized the power of the government, the Heshuo vassal town was separatist and refused to obey orders, aristocratic families hid their land and monopolized official careers, the Niu and Li clans were fighting for trouble, and there was also a century-old secret sect that had been dormant since the early Tang Dynasty, secretly controlling the chaos between the government and the public. Yinzhen, who had experience in rectifying the government and centralizing power reforms, was trapped in a weak body due to erysipelas. He could only pretend to be mediocre and dormant, secretly awakening the top-secret spy organization "Twelve Shadows" left by the late emperor, and work step by step to reverse the crisis.
The characters in the book are three-dimensional and vivid: Di Lan, a descendant of Di Renjie, is both civil and military, specializing in solving mysterious cases of poisoning in secret chambers, corruption in water transportation, and murders in feudal towns; Su Qingyuan, a twelve-shadow rabbit with extraordinary light skills, travels around the feudal towns to explore intelligence. The two of them are both civil and military, and they are the emperor's confidants. The famous prime minister Li Deyu and the loyal servant Xiao Luzi are fully assisted. The villains are layered in layers. The eunuchs, vassal towns, Taoist sects, and behind-the-scenes secret sects appear one after another. Each has its own attitude and motivation, and there is no one who is the target of intelligence.
The plot has clear levels, from protecting the inner palace, quelling the eunuchs, implementing the New Deal, to cutting down the vassal step by step, resisting foreign enemies, and encircling and suppressing the secret sect. The Twelve Shadows has a reserve system, and there are undercover agents deployed by the enemy hidden within the organization, and hundreds of long-term foreshadowings have been fully recovered. The intrigues and calculations are interlocking, and the investigation and reasoning are rigorous.