Late Han: The Liangzhou Elegy

Liangzhou Elegy He transmigrates into a member of the Han imperial clan in Liangzhou at the end of the Han dynasty. From the start, all he has is a shabby mud hut, an ancestral spear, and a father with a bad leg. His identity sounds impressive: a kinsman of the Han imperial house and a descendant of one of the Twenty-Eight Generals of Yuntai. In reality, even a sheepdog from some Qiang tribe outside Guzang lives better than he does. The good news: the Yellow Turban Rebellion will break out in a year, plunging the realm into chaos. The bad news: he can barely afford to eat. Raising an army? He has a little over a hundred men. Half train on empty stomachs, and the other half want to run away. Ma Chao shows up on his own, knows nothing but how to charge into battle, and asks if there's any meat to eat as soon as he walks in. Starting with escorting merchant caravans, he fights the Qiang for water and the Yellow Turbans with blades, carving out a way to survive inch by inch among the warlords. Years later, someone asks how he managed to establish himself in Liangzhou. He says, “A son of the Liu family need not become a marquis or minister, but he must not be ignorant and unskilled.” That was what his father, the man with the bad leg, taught him. Ma Chao calls from a distance, “Put it in plain words!” “...Get so capable that nobody can take you down.” [Late Han homesteading + brotherhood with Ma Chao + no System + ruthless and decisive]