People Suffer, Emperor Goes Undercover!

The emperor of Dacang has a daughter he lost years ago, and an empress who has not seen her since. An assassination attempt on him at Dingguo Temple brings out something else: from the man who attacked him he learns that in Nanzhou, where he is from, officials are grinding the population down. He travels there in disguise. People take him for nobody and treat him accordingly. In Nanzhou he finds bribery, offices being sold, and ordinary abuse of the people, so he declares who he is and puts the governor Wei Qin on trial. In Liangzhou three brothers of the Tao family have been keeping civilians in servitude. He gathers evidence against them and sentences them to death. Somewhere along the road he comes across the missing daughter and sends her back to the empress. What he has seen of his officials decides him on clearing out the court.