(No harem, no cookie-cutter plot, no invincibility, no System, no brainless protagonist, and no wish-fulfillment. Read with caution if any of that bothers you.)
The snow had yet to melt in Bianjing. Zhao Huan stood on the city wall with his hands behind his back. The Jin cavalry had reached the far bank of the Yellow River, their banners looming like dark clouds. Clutched in his hand was a newly devised gunpowder formula, yet reflected in his eyes was a war-game simulation from a thousand years in the future. “Your Majesty, the peace envoy has been waiting for three days,” an old minister urged, his voice trembling. Zhao Huan suddenly threw back his head and laughed, shaking the snow from the eaves. “When have the sons of Han ever knelt to beg for their lives?” That night, thunder cracked along the banks of the Yellow River, and flames lit half the sky. The Jin army retreated three hundred li. On the walls of Bianjing, a black banner rose, its fourteen characters blazing like fire in the wind: “Those who dare invade the mighty Han shall be slain, no matter how far they come!” The bells on merchants’ camels in the Western Regions fell silent. Envoys from the southern seas turned their ships around. The whole world was asking: Why had the sleeping dragon of the East suddenly opened its eyes?
