Lin Bei, a military-industry PhD, transmigrates overnight into the body of a death-row convict exiled to the Western Regions.
The Gobi’s yellow sands stretch out beneath a knife-cold wind. Behind him are thirty-seven ragged refugees; before him, the bloodthirsty curved blades of Turkic horsemen.
Just when all hope seems lost, a cold voice rings out in his mind:
**[Great Power Military Industry and Infrastructure System activated.]**
**[Starting reward: 1 M134 Minigun, 5,000 rounds of ammunition.]**
**[Tip: Gather people of Chinese heritage and grow your population to unlock higher-tier branches of the technology tree.]**
And so
On a snowy night, the Turks escort a princess sent west to marry.
Lin Bei sets up his minigun, and a fiery serpent of bullets rips through the night sky.
Spent casings litter the ground. Corpses lie everywhere.
He takes off his military coat and wraps it around the Tang princess, proud to the bone yet trembling all over. His voice is cold:
**“The Tang Empire can’t protect you. I will.”**
From then on, a city of steel rises from the Western Regions’ Gobi Desert.
Compressed rations feed the refugees, antibiotics save the orphaned heirs of great ministers, and concrete walls stop the barbarian cavalry.
While the Central Plains still fight with swords, spears, and halberds, his flintlocks fire in volleys;
while the Turkic khagan still struts and boasts, his steam-powered armored vehicles are already thundering across the grasslands.
**“If the Tang Empire has failed the people, then I’ll claim this world for myself.”**
