The Legend of Haolan

The Legend of Haolan () is a 2019 Chinese television series starring Wu Jinyan, Mao Zijun and Nie Yuan. The series is broadcast on iQiyi on January 19 to March 24, 2019. It is one of the most highly anticipated television dramas of 2019.
But despite the show's good viewership ratings, it failed to live up to the success of the "Story of Yanxi Palace".
Synopsis.
The series is set during the Warring States period (3th century BC), and chronicles the rise of Li Haolan to become the Empress Dowager.
Betrayed by her family and her first love, Li Haolan finds herself in desperate circumstances at the start of the series. Her father, State Censor Li He, arranges marriage between her and the far-older Yu Ping, who treats his other wives brutally. When she tries to circumvent this fate by begging her first love, Prince Jiao, ask to marry her, Li Haolan's stepmother, Gao Min, orders her killed and thrown into the river. Surviving only by chance, Li Haolan crawls back from the brink of death to discover her reputation in tatters, as Gao Min spread the rumor that Li Haolan shamed the family by eloping with a stranger to explain the girl's disappearance. Li Haolan's mother, Wang Wan'er, a lowly concubine, has gone mad with grief over her daughter's unknown fate. Gao Min orders the murder of Li Haolan's mother and sells Li Haolan into slavery, just as Li Haolan watches her sweetheart marrying her little sister, Li Xiuyu.
Stricken with the knowledge of everyone's complicity, and unable to return home, Li Haolan vows she will never beg for another thing in her life as she tries to claw her way out of her fallen circumstances and avenge the death of her mother and the wrongs done to her. The scheming merchant Lü Buwei purchases Li Haolan and takes interest in the fate of this intelligent, unusual girl. Together, they form an unlikely partnership as they both begin to climb the ladders of power.
Through Lü Buwei's influence, Li Haolan enters Zhao's imperial court and makes a match with Ying Yiren, the captive prince of Qin. As Qin and Zhao fall into war, the balance of power may find itself upended, with Li Haolan on top.
Production.
The series was filmed from December 20, 2017 to April 8, 2018.
The series was originally slated to have 63 episodes, but the 63rd and final episode was cut due to historical inaccuracies. The new finale is a narrated voiceover at the conclusion of Episode 62.