Modern strategic consultant Li Ce’s soul is transported in an accident to a chaotic era resembling the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. He becomes an illegitimate son in the small state of Nanping, a country on the brink of destruction, unloved by both his father and mother. From the start, he is in a desperate predicament: powerful enemies besiege the city from outside, while his legitimate elder brother frames him from within, seeking to have him killed. With the seventy-two stratagems of Guiguzi committed to memory, Li Ce uses both open and covert schemes to find a way out of an apparently hopeless situation and turn the tide. From then on, he makes the world his chessboard and all living beings his pieces, embarking on a grand game of political intrigue. Against the arrogant northern cavalry, he “defeats them one by one,” shattering their alliance. Against treacherous political rivals at court, he “uses flattery and persuasion to defeat his enemies,” drawing them all into his trap. And for a realm that has lost the people’s support, he “wins both the soldiers and their hearts,” gathering talented people from across the land and winning the people over. Seventy-two stratagems, one chapter for each, and a new game in every chapter. Watch Li Ce rise from an obscure illegitimate son, advancing cautiously at every turn, to become a master strategist who stirs the whole realm and reshapes the order of the world!
