The Great Unity of Mountains and Rivers: Ode to Quicksand

In 2035, Li Ming, commander of the Second Division of the Border Construction Corps, transmigrates in body and soul amid a desert storm into the era of the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Five Liang states, inhabiting the body of Li Hao’s grandson and heir of Western Liang. After his body and soul are transformed and empowered by the Myriad Treasures Ring, Li Ming, now Li Chonghua, abolishes slavery and redistributes farmland on the western frontier, establishes military farming colonies, and combines agriculture with warfare. He promotes Han learning and customs, standardizes the written language and the width of cart axles, builds cities and fortresses, develops industry, and opens the Silk Road. Using beacon towers, military settlements, and fortified towns as stepping stones, he secures and develops each oasis. With the force of a thunderbolt, he defeats the Rouran, destroys the Duannu, weakens the Yuebai, drives back the Hephthalites, and brings the Thirty-Six Kingdoms of the Western Regions under his rule. He unifies the Hexi Corridor and establishes a Chinese regime stretching from Wushaoling in the east to Yibo Sea in the west, and from the Congling Mountains in the south to the Jinshan Mountains in the north. Its territory includes the former Great Shifting Sands, encompassing what are now the Taklamakan Desert, the Gurbantunggut Desert, and the desert and Gobi regions of the Hexi Corridor, on either side of the Tianshan Mountains. This lays the foundation for unifying the great desert, competing for supremacy in Transoxiana, vying for control of the Central Plains, and uniting all of China.