A sudden earthquake sends a modern family of four hurtling into an unknown era: corporate executive Li Zhen, chief physician Su Wan, athletic son Li Xiao, and top-student daughter Li Yao become the last survivors of the borderland Li clan, wiped out in the final years of the Great Yong dynasty.
Bound to a “family space,” they find themselves from the start in the midst of blades and bloodshed: a ruined home, corpses of the starving everywhere, and enemies hunting them while bandits lurk at every turn.
Li Zhen breaks free of his modern mindset, using corporate management skills to gather refugees and assign responsibilities. With the precision of a surgeon, Su Wan uses medicinal herbs, acupuncture, and first-aid knowledge to contain epidemics and save lives. Li Xiao adapts his fighting skills to the ancient battlefield and forms a guard force ready to fight and die. Meanwhile, Li Yao draws on her knowledge of math and science to refine salt from the salt mines and grow high-yield crops in the rice paddies.
From scraping by in an abandoned village to making Ningyuan's fortified settlement impregnable; from their first foray into joint defense across three counties to carving out a place for themselves in an alliance of five provinces. They break up land monopolies with “land allotments and tax exemptions,” challenge the gentry's monopoly on power with “recruitment through the imperial examinations,” and lay the foundations of a powerful army with “cannons and railways.”
Court intrigues are fraught with danger, the princes' power plays are treacherous, and campaigns north and south stain their robes with blood. As modern people-centered ideals collide with the iron laws of ancient imperial rule, as steam-powered machine tools roar through the streets of Luoyang, and as schools for girls spread across the land...
Standing atop the Temple of Heaven and gazing at the subjects cheering like a crashing tide, Li Zhen finally understands: the mission of those who transmigrate has never been to claim the throne and rule the land, but to help a land ravaged by suffering give rise to a new dynasty that's fairer and full of hope.
This is a story about an entire family working together, rising from refugees to
