Wrongly Offending the Unrivaled Minister

In Bianjing, the line most often used to pressure women into marriage was: “Even the bravest female general in the Yongliang Army has to lay down her armor and get married. What makes you think you don’t?” When those words reached Li Yuanying, she took off her wedding crown and robe on her wedding day and walked barefoot into the Wende Hall. One sentence, “Father, I’m not willing to accept this,” earned her more than a decade of exile to the frontier. On the eve of the emperor’s death, she led an army of two hundred thousand soldiers to lay siege to Bianjing. At the imperial bed, clad in silver armor, she stood cold and composed. “Father, you owe me this empire. It’s time you paid me back.”