926 Years After Emperor Huizong’s Song Dynasty

I, Li Yuxuan, hold dual PhDs in history and literature from Renmin University of China. During summer vacation, I went to sweep the tomb of Emperor Huizong of Song. I took a tumble, and woke up as the newborn Zhao Ji. With a new chance at life, I decided to study hard and keep improving every day. After becoming emperor, I vigorously promoted vernacular writing and simplified characters, overhauled the tax code using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and improved military equipment with physics and chemistry. The Liao envoy stared at my new-style matchlock. "Th-this violates our ancestral traditions!" I set down my vernacular translation of "Ode to the Red Cliffs." "My dear minister, times have changed."