The Dawn of All Under Heaven follows Lin Che, a graduate student in history who transmigrates into the Great Zhou dynasty. From the start, he seeks justice for his father and faces a terrifying ordeal at the execution ground, only to be saved by the top scholar, Gu Yanxi.
Using his modern way of thinking, he rises through the cracks of a corrupt dynasty: investigating the Jiangnan white-salt case, reorganizing the northern frontier's firearms battalion, and reforming the military farming tax system. He climbs from county magistrate of Lingnan to Grand Marshal Who Pacifies the North. But every step is taken on a knife's edge: the regent holds sway over the court, and powerful noble families are deeply entrenched. He repeatedly faces assassination attempts, false accusations, and betrayal.
Fortunately, Su Qingyue, a brilliant merchant who disguises herself as a man, gives him her full support with intelligence and provisions. Gu Yanxi, a leader of the upright officials, also endures humiliation while protecting him from the shadows.
But when bloody street fighting engulfs the capital and four hundred thousand Oirat cavalry lay siege to the pass, the cruelest moral dilemma confronts them: firing the cannons means slaughtering civilians, while retreating means losing everything they have fought for. From the tears of a lone loyal official to sweeping reform decrees, from idealism to bearing the blame, the novel uses three generations of political intrigue as its backbone and the struggle of human nature as its soul. It paints a magnificent portrait of an empire stumbling toward the dawn of the modern age on the brink of collapse. Between the flash of blades and the glow of candlelight, a glimmer never goes out: finding a way forward for the people of the realm.
