Alternate history + frontier army + wild ideas + commerce + satisfying political scheming.
The useless prince banished to the frontier gets dealt the worst hand in the Great Yu: thirteen old, weak, sick, and disabled soldiers, five hundred elite cavalry on the other side, and someone above him who wants his head at any moment.
But he knows things no one in this era has ever heard of.
A handful of sand and stones yield transparent glass. A pot of brine produces snow-white salt. A silver mirror wins him three hundred taels in military funds. A bowl of “immortal water” keeps smallpox from crossing the camp gates.
When the enemy’s iron hooves thunder across the frozen river, they won’t find refugees who fold at the first clash, but an iron army forged with modern military discipline.
No iron weapons? He uses bamboo arrows. No warhorses? He trades salt for them. No one’s loyalty? He earns it with fairness.
The poorest outpost on the northern frontier is becoming the hardest bone in the empire to break.
Watching the assembled court officials kneeling before him, Yang Jiu’an says coldly, “I have my sights set on the whole realm. I couldn’t care less about the throne of Great Yu!”
