Chen Muyuan woke up to find himself the Marquis of Jinghai in the dying days of the Great Ming.
The day a blade was held to his throat, his seventeen starving men asked him, "Are you giving us food, or are we disbanding?"
The storehouse held only thirty taels of broken silver. The dock had silted up into a muddy wasteland, and the farmland was so barren that not even grass would grow.
Everyone was waiting to see how this useless marquis would die.
Chen Muyuan crouched and grabbed a handful of dirt. A line of text appeared before his eyes, visible only to him:
"Iron content: forty percent. The vein extends in the direction of the dock."
He stood up and dusted the mud from his hands. "Before we disband, let's dig up that mine."
He improved farming tools, tested soil and fertilizer, smelted steel with primitive methods, and built ships to sail the seas. Starting from a dilapidated fortress, he transformed Jinghai Guard into the Ming's most dazzling free port for technology.
When the realm fell into chaos and the dynasty collapsed, everyone looked back and realized that the forgotten marquis on the edge of the sea already commanded an invincible fleet, watching the fires of war engulf the Central Plains with cold eyes.
It's well written and interesting.