Wu Shenwei, a scholar from a poor family, failed the exam three times in a row because of "slightly slanted handwriting." When he was frustrated, he unexpectedly awakened the "Tiangong Map" system and discovered that a dilapidated ink ingot passed down from his ancestors actually contained memory fragments of a mechanical engineer in his previous life.
He realized that in this world, eight-part essays could not save the people, and only steel and gunpowder could reshape the mountains and rivers. Wu Shenwei kept his name secretly, started by improving the hydraulic forging hammer, and secretly established the first "Moji Workshop" in the countryside.
When the imperial court was collecting copper and iron from the private sector to build royal gardens, Wu Shenwei had already built the first practical high-pressure steam engine. He did not choose rebellion, but chose "business war": using cheap steam engine textiles to defeat the weaving monopoly of the Jiangnan gentry and cutting off their financial resources; he used precision optical lenses to monopolize the supply of military telescopes and infiltrate the Ministry of War.
However, the explosion of technology attracted the royal family's covetous attention. When the eldest prince led his troops to surround the workshop and force him to hand over the "artifact", Wu Shenwei smiled and activated the blueprint hidden in the ink - it was a fully enclosed tracked armored steam tank.
"You talk about benevolence, justice, propriety, wisdom and trust," Wu Shenwei stood on the roaring steel beast, overlooking the panicked palace guards, "I talk about piston movement and rifling."
From a deposed scholar to an "underground king" who controls the economic lifeline of the empire, Wu Shenwei uses gears and bearings to redefine the rules of the world.
