Back to the Tang Dynasty: Living Another Five Hundred Years

In the fourteenth year of Tianbao, the people of the world were all intoxicated by the Tang Empire's unmatched splendor, with every nation coming to pay tribute and the four seas submitting to its rule. No one could see that beneath the skin of this golden age, a century-old illness had already rotted to the bone.

The An Lushan Rebellion was about to tear apart the glory of the High Tang, ushering in more than two centuries of fractured lands, unending warfare, and a dying world, trapping the magnificent Tang in a three-hundred-year dynastic cycle.

Li Shen transmigrates into this era, standing at the threshold of the coming chaos.

He has witnessed the High Tang at the height of its glory, and knows all too well the endless sorrow of the Late Tang.

Unlike the common men who know only how to quell rebellions, restore order, and fight for the throne, he understands that a wise ruler can bring prosperity for a time, but only sound institutions can sustain an empire for generations.

While everyone else struggles to delay the Tang's inevitable collapse, Li Shen chooses to completely overturn the decaying old order and rebuild the foundations of the dynasty.

Establishing ironclad rules for the Three Departments, locking down power at court, and preventing ministers from seizing control;

Separating military and civil authority, reclaiming the armies throughout the realm, and eliminating the threat of warlord separatism;

Reforming taxes and land policy, securing the people's livelihood, and cutting off the roots of chaos;

Promoting the imperial examinations for humble families, renewing the ranks of the educated, and ensuring a lasting supply of talent;

Securing the frontiers and Silk Road, stabilizing the tributary states across the seas, and forging a realm for the ages.

He will not build a fleeting golden age for one emperor and one dynasty, but establish laws that endure for thousands of years. He will cast aside the High Tang's momentary splendor and break the cycle of dynastic rise and fall. With the work of one lifetime, he will reform a thousand years of accumulated ills.

Establish five hundred years of lasting peace. Tell the story across seven hundred chapters. Rebuild the Tang Empire for all eternity!