The Great Emperor Liu Hong

The Great Emperor Liu Hong is an alternate-history web novel set in the Eastern Han dynasty, written by Daigou Qiangren and serialized on Qidian, spanning roughly 1.07 million Chinese characters. It is complete, and a carefully proofread full text circulates online. The protagonist is a modern web novelist who happens to share the name Liu Hong; he unexpectedly travels back to the Eastern Han and becomes the historical figure of the same name who would later ascend the throne as Emperor Ling of Han. He arrives at the age of three, gifted with two special abilities: a photographic memory and a physique approaching the strength of a hegemon. Starting as a small child in a marquis's household, he first manages the family estate, improves tools, and accumulates wealth, then builds an intelligence network, recruits followers, and establishes his own power base. After taking the throne, he must maneuver against the old court officials, the consort clans, and the eunuchs, gradually seizing control of the imperial guard and the treasury, implementing new policies such as currency reform and state monopolies, restoring the Hundred Schools of Thought, and controlling public opinion, trying to prolong the life of a Han dynasty sick to its bones. The work is a straightforward power-fantasy alternate history: the protagonist levels up step by step, reforms internally, and expands externally, ultimately remaking the Han house in the guise of a "Great Emperor." The author also has the protagonist drive inventions, develop industry and trade, and even expand abroad in the name of the Han, while harem subplots occupy considerable space. Overall, its biggest selling points are wish fulfillment, exhilaration, and bulldozer-style conquest. Note that this is an early web novel: the romance and character development are relatively rough, and some plot elements are controversial by today's standards, so it is best read for entertainment.