Yang Chen, a modern graduate student in history, transmigrates into the chaotic Northern and Southern Dynasties, becoming a low-ranking personal guard under a frontier commander.
When he wakes, the commander has already been hacked to death by mutinous soldiers. Yang Chen soon realizes this is no ordinary mutiny. The ringleaders are mid- and high-ranking officers: the military secretary, staff officers, and battalion commanders. They killed the commander, but don't dare take his place, because whoever does could be the next one killed.
So they push forward Yang Chen, a lowborn personal guard with no connections who will be easy to control.
“Yang Chen, from now on, you're the commander.”
Looking at the officers' half-smiling faces, Yang Chen understands at once: he's their scapegoat. If he can't pay the troops, the soldiers will kill him. If he can't hold back the enemy, the enemy will kill him. And the people behind him who “elected” him are ready to hand him over as a scapegoat the moment he fails.
The only people by his side are three brothers who are just as lowborn as he is: a simple-minded veteran, a shrewd scout, and a down-on-his-luck scholar.
Three days. He has only three days to scrape together the soldiers' pay. Otherwise, he'll be the next one to die by the sword.
