My Consorts Are All Talented

I was born into this body and ascended the throne at five. At fifteen, I took up the reins of government. Now I am twenty-five.

During my reign, I made glass and soap, developed cement, and cultivated new strains of rice.

I taught the Empress Dowager to play mahjong to keep her occupied in retirement, led my soldiers on barbecue outings beyond the frontier, established the Imperial Bank, and repaired the highways in every province.

That is how the peaceful and prosperous age of the mighty Great Yue came to be!

But good times never last, and the world is hard to predict. Floods ravage the southeast, drought strikes the northwest, earthquakes occur one after another, and border incursions plague the land.

My ministers, accustomed to a long peace, ask me to issue an edict of self-reproach and pray sincerely to Heaven.

I chuckle. This is an alternate-history novel. Have you all wandered into the wrong channel?

So I issued four imperial edicts and dispatched three imperial envoys. In just over two months, not a single complaint could be heard in court.

An edict of self-reproach? What a joke. I still have to perform the Fengshan ceremony on Mount Tai and have a little chat with Heaven.

On an auspicious day, atop Mount Tai, the young emperor stood full of confidence and ambition.

Just then, holy light appeared, and a man who would change my view of the world came flying over the sea of clouds on a sword...