Ten years into his PhD, and still nowhere near graduating. Then, in a single day, he transmigrated into a “reserve member” of Liangshan.
Lu Shen, an engineering PhD student, had been kept from graduating for ten years by his vindictive advisor. After dying suddenly in the lab, he woke up in the late Northern Song. No System, no golden finger, just a heart hardened by ten years of academic torment and a mind full of modern engineering knowledge.
Newly arrived, he saved Lin Wanqing, the county magistrate’s daughter, and established himself in Dong’e County by improving farm tools. In just six months, he turned a poor county into a prosperous one, but in doing so offended his superiors and was forced to flee to Liangshan.
Liangshan had 108 heroes. He became the 109th: no seat, no rank. But he had what the others did not: repeating crossbows, gunpowder, new farm tools, and modern management.
He built weapons, trained elite troops, and raised a navy. Leading the Liangshan heroes, he punched corrupt officials and kicked the Jin invaders, turning a ragtag outfit into an iron army that dominated the north.
When Song Jiang came to Liangshan, he was the first to object. It wasn’t personal: he was against “amnesty.” He had read Water Margin and knew that accepting amnesty ended with a cup of poisoned wine. So he would rewrite the script: no amnesty, no surrender. He would become emperor himself!
From Liangshan’s 109th hero to founding emperor of the Hua Dynasty, this is an engineer’s entrepreneurial saga in the Northern Song. “Becoming emperor is much easier than getting a PhD. At least nobody makes you extend your graduation date.”
