A modern military-industrial expert travels back in time to 1895, after China's crushing defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, and becomes a disillusioned Han Chinese technician at the Tianjin Machinery Bureau. Faced with tight surveillance in the capital region and the collapse of the Beiyang system, he chooses to put down roots in the most dangerous place of all. Starting in Tianjin, he nurtures the forces of a new era within the shell of the old empire.
