Planting a Tech Tree in the Tang Dynasty

Programmer Li Mubai dies of overwork and wakes up as a dying young landowner in Lantian County. With powerful clans eyeing him hungrily, he has The Exploitation of the Works of Nature in one hand and The Complete Tang Poems in the other, using soap and liquor to pave his way and poetry to win hearts.

He only wants to earn five hundred strings of cash and retire to the south. But then:

✔ A waterwheel design he sketches on a whim is hailed by Di Renjie as a miraculous solution to flood control

✔ The Drunken Song of the Eight Immortals, copied down while tipsy, brings Chu Suiliang to his door to ask for lessons

✔ The perfume he develops for the woman he loves becomes an auspicious omen heralding Wu Zetian’s ascension to the throne

When Chang’an lights its first biogas lamp, Tibetan spies, the Five Great Clans, and the clash between Buddhism and Daoism all descend upon him. Li Mubai rubs the chip glowing beneath his skin and smiles bitterly. “I just wanted to be a couch potato. Why are you all making me climb the tech tree!”