When modern engineer Li Zhaobai transmigrates to the banks of the Wei River in the ninth year of Wude after a laboratory explosion, a quiet reconstruction of civilization begins, with a thousand years as its game board. The clash between his metal left arm and the Xuanjia cavalry is only the beginning: he will use fluid mechanics to break the Tang army’s arrow formations, statistics to root out corruption in the tax system, and, amid the bloodshed at Xuanwu Gate, present the Iron Token of the Directorate of Military Equipment, the key to controlling the realm. Blending historical research with science-fictional imagination, this epic reimagining takes its structure from the Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government and combines mortise-and-tenon mechanisms with steampunk to create a distinctive “Tang Mechanical Civilization.” Water-powered blast furnaces forge Mo Dao swords that cut down Turkic cavalry; an improved Rainbow Bridge connects northern and southern trade routes; and glass windows reflect the technological revels of Daming Palace.
At court, Changsun Wuji’s jade tablet and Li Zhaobai’s bronze crucible clash in a battle beneath the surface. Along the Silk Road, Nestorian monks question his steam-engine blueprints, while the jeweled necklaces of Persian dancers catch the faint glimmer of future technology. Five exotic beauties wield love as a blade: a foreign dancer hides poison in a watertight compartment, a princess plants a trap in a mechanical crossbow cart, and someone else alters the star charts using Euclid’s Elements. When a gunpowder formula sparks a war among the regional governors and a prophecy about “Lady Wu, the future ruler” shakes Zichen Hall, Li Zhaobai realizes that every technological innovation is rewriting the threads of history. A vanished portrait of an empress, a blood-sweating steed on the Turkic grasslands, and an unfamiliar face in a tomb mural all weave together into a shocking mystery.
