After Becoming a Bandit Chief, I Reestablished My Mountain Stronghold in Troubled Times

In the final years of the dynasty, the court is in disarray, taxes are crushing, powerful families are seizing farmland, and the people are driven from their homes. After transmigrating, Gu Chengyuan nominally commands a mountain stronghold of nearly a thousand displaced peasants and desperate outlaws. In reality, power within the group is fragmented, his former subordinates are divided between loyal and treacherous, supplies are running low, and the authorities, local officials, gentry, and neighboring bandit groups all watch them like hawks. Starting from the stronghold, Gu Chengyuan gradually transforms his band of outlaws, who were merely struggling to survive, into a local power capable of shaking the balance of a chaotic age. He does so by putting the camp in order, redistributing authority to win people’s loyalty, protecting the people from harm, expanding his network of informants, developing strongholds, and absorbing neighboring factions.