Late Tang

The fourteenth year of the Xiantong era of the Tang Dynasty, 873 AD

The seventeenth emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Yizong, passed away, and the empire, bathed in the setting sun, welcomed the twelve-year-old new emperor, Emperor Xizong Li Xuan.

At this time, there were only a few months left before the salt smuggler Wang Xianzhi led ten banners to rise against the Tang Dynasty, and another salt smuggler, Huang Chao, who had a fondness for chrysanthemums, had long harbored resentment against the Tang Dynasty.

At this time, Prince Li Keyong of Jin was merely a minor military officer on the frontier, and the Thirteen Taibao had yet to gain fame across the land. The rogue and unscrupulous Emperor Zhu Wen of the Later Liang was feeding pigs at a landlord's home, while King Wang Jian of Shu was busy slaughtering donkeys. Xu Wen of the Southern Tang was engaged in smuggling salt, and Qian Liu, the King of Wu and Yue, was a henchman for salt smugglers. King Ma Yin of Chu was working as a carpenter, and the untrustworthy King Gao Jixing of Nanping was serving as a young servant in a merchant's household. The three brothers of the Wang family, known as the Three Kings of Fujian, were still minor officials in the county office, while Qi Wang Li Maozhen was a low-ranking soldier in the Chengde army, and Wu Wang Yang Xingmi had turned to banditry in Luzhou.

At this time, the Khitan people, who would later oppress the Han for hundreds of years, were still nomadic on the grasslands. The Dali, which would later establish its dominance in the southwest, had not yet been founded, and the Xi Xia Tanguts, who would later dominate the northwest, were still serving the Li Tang dynasty.

At that moment, Li Jing inadvertently stumbled into the Tang Empire bathed in the afterglow.