Both in ASITP and Twin Dragons ("TD"), Huang Yi tried to weave his tales around historical facts, without changing history.
In TD, Kou Zhong declared that he wanted to be emperor, after he was hurt by Li SM's sister.
But we know history - KZ therefore did not end up as emperor. Question is what happened to his ambition: was he killed off...or...did he have a falling out with Xu Ziling (every few chapters we find XZ warning KZ about this or that), etc etc
[if the comics is true to the novel, then, like ASITP, it has an ending that I like...though I had hope more from the 2 of the 3 "most beautiful women of the world"]