The Late Qing Steam Bureau

Chen Mingxia, a modern mechanical engineer, accidentally transmigrates to the Hanyang Ironworks in 1889 while repairing a late Qing steam locomotive. Faced with the ironworks' poor steelmaking efficiency, he uses his advanced mechanical knowledge to find a way forward and helps Zhang Zhidong establish the “Steam Bureau,” developing key equipment such as steam warships and locomotives in an effort to breathe new life into the Self-Strengthening Movement. But conservative factions' overt and covert attacks, the foreign powers' technological blockade, and the infiltration of spies soon follow. On the eve of the First Sino-Japanese War, the plan to mass-produce steam warships is thwarted, and the Beiyang Fleet suffers a crushing defeat. With no way to serve his country, Chen Mingxia takes the blueprints for the core technologies into seclusion in Jiangnan, waiting for the dawn of industrial salvation.