Three Kingdoms: From Black Mountain Bandit to Founding Emperor

This isn’t a brainless power fantasy. If that’s what you like, please move along. After waking up, Zhang Xiao finds himself a refugee in a ruined temple in Zhuo County at the end of the Han dynasty. He sets out to seek Liu Bei, full of grand strategies, only to be driven away in public because he has no official standing. Guan Yu remains indifferent, while Zhang Fei draws his blade. “So much for heroes sharing no table... I’m done serving this chaotic age.” Starting with the recruitment of Xu Huang and the seizure of Black Mountain, he uses modern thinking to transform a bandit stronghold: He establishes a system of fairness and introduces civil service examinations to deliver a face-slapping blow to the aristocratic clans. He trains an elite army and shocks the warlords with gunpowder. While Cao Cao is still locked in a bitter fight at Guandu, Zhang Xiao already rules Hebei. When Liu Bei makes three visits to the thatched cottage, Zhuge Liang is already serving under Zhang Xiao. Years later, atop the walls of Luoyang, Zhang Xiao, now the “Yan Emperor,” gazes upon the spectacle of nations paying tribute and quietly says to the crown prince: “What I won for you wasn’t just an empire. It was an age in which every poor scholar in the realm can stand tall.” This is the story of a transmigrator who uses institutions, the hearts of the people, and firearms to redefine what it means to be a hero.