Three Kingdoms: I, Liu Qi, Refuse to Die Young

In the twelfth year of Jian'an, Liu Qi jolted awake in his sickbed and realized that not only was his life nearly over, but his stepmother Lady Cai and Cai Mao were conspiring to poison him. As a top crisis-management expert in his previous life, he knew that passive defense meant certain death. After thwarting the poisoning plot, Liu Qi proceeded cautiously, using retreat as a means to advance until he secured the post of Administrator of Jiangxia and escaped the cage of Xiangyang. In Jiangxia, he promoted the low-ranking officer Wei Yan, put the veteran Huang Zhong to good use, and allied with Wen Ping, a general guarding the frontier. To stand against Cao Cao, who would soon be marching south, he sent men to intercept Xu Shu's mother, freeing Xu Shu of his greatest concern. He even threw all decorum aside and sent soldiers to surround Longzhong, forcibly "inviting" Zhuge Liang and his family out of seclusion. When Liu Biao fell critically ill and Cai Mao tried to forge an imperial edict, Liu Qi marched his battle-hardened Jiangxia troops to Xiangyang and swept the poisonous elements out of Jingzhou with overwhelming force. Facing Cao Cao and his million-strong army marching south, a new Jingzhou, united as one, with strategists as numerous as clouds and fierce generals as numerous as rain, sent the course of the whole realm into uncharted territory.