Dawn of 1620

At Jiayuguan, sandstorms sweep across the pass. In the Tianqi era, the empire is beset by internal strife and external threats. The Later Jin cavalry watches hungrily, while factional disputes rage at court. Far to the west, the waves of exploration are already battering the edges of this ancient empire. A young man nearly beheaded as a spy, a youth who can barely draw a bow, carries in his mind the strategies, statecraft, and seeds of technology from several centuries in the future. Starting as a lowly clerk in a military camp, he plans every step, improving firearms, reforming military training, securing grain, and protecting the people. With nothing but his wits, he carves out a path through a storm of blades. From this northwestern frontier, he turns the nation's fate around, inch by inch. Some glories are meant to be reclaimed by our own hands. He will make the whole world remember: You are a contemptible people. Chinese civilization will rise from the flames, and its legacy of ten thousand years will begin here, at Jiayuguan beneath his feet, forged inch by inch into an iron realm that makes the world tremble.