Better to Be Empress Than County Magistrate

(System + Strong Female Lead + Disguised as a Man + Infrastructure + Empress + No Romance) Lu Xingchen transmigrates to a parallel world in the midst of turmoil, where warlords vie for power and bandits run rampant. Disguised as a man, she inherits her father’s position and becomes the county magistrate of Xing County. At the time, Xing County is easy pickings for the surrounding bandits. Lu Xingchen wipes out the bandits and annexes the neighboring counties, becoming a regional power. Later, she decides to go all the way, expands her territory, and becomes an empress. The heroine initially disguises herself as a man, but soon resumes her identity as a woman and competes for the realm as one. There is a System in the story, but this is not an invincible-protagonist novel. The System is based on territory and life points. The heroine must keep expanding her territory to increase her life points. (This story is set in a fictional world, so please don’t read it as a portrayal of real history. If you must compare it to a historical period, imagine the chaos of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Strong female lead. Don’t judge the heroine by the standards of women in the Qing dynasty, who had bound feet and never left their homes. She can’t live that way.)