The Last Emperor suicide, but is quickly revived and told he must stand trial. 42 years earlier, in 1908, a toddler Puyi is summoned to the Forbidden City by the dying Empress Dowager Cixi. After telling him that the previous emperor had died earlier that day, with her last words, Cixi tells Puyi that he will be the next emperor. After his coronation, Puyi, frightened by his new surroundings, repeatedly expresses his wish to go home, which is denied. Despite having scores of palace eunuchs and maids to wait on him, his only real friend is his wet nurse, Ar Mo, who accompanied
Emperor Taizong of Tang was no longer able to protect the last late-Sui rebel ruler who alone remained standing against Tang pressure – Liang Shidu the Emperor of Liang, and in summer 628, with the Tang generals Chai Shao and Xue Wanjun () sieging the Liang capital Shuofang (in modern Yulin, Shaanxi), Liang Shidu's cousin Liang Luoren () killed Liang Shidu and surrendered, finally uniting China. With the Eastern Turkish state weakened, their vassal Xueyantuo also broke away and formed its own khanate, and Emperor Taizong entered into an alliance with Xueyantuo's leader Yinan, creating Yinan the Zhenzhupiqie Khan (or Zhenzhu Khan in short).