On a snowy night in the fifth year of the Dahe era, the military governor of Youzhou suddenly dies. Rebels surround my courtyard, and at the very top of their purge list is me, a lowborn deputy general with no proper backing.
I pull out the half-piece of jade tucked against my chest. As a descendant of the Li Tang imperial house, it should have been a lifeline, but now it has become a death warrant.
On the night of the mutiny, my personal guards kneel throughout the courtyard. They don't know that the man before them isn't fighting to stay alive. He wants all of Lulong.
A modern man gets a second chance at life. With the perspective and military methods of a thousand years in the future, he carves his way out of the warlord strongholds of Hebei, then colonizes the northern frontier, the Western Regions, and the Southern Seas, planting the Li Tang banner at the very edge of the world.
In his previous life, he studied the history of the warlord strongholds of the late and middle Tang until he knew it by heart. He could have guessed with his eyes closed what chaos would follow Yang Zhicheng's death. Tonight, he is at the top of the purge list.
When the courtyard gate is smashed open, he doesn't panic. Ambushes, slick oil, and starving dogs are all in place. But the rebels still have the numbers, and only when he is driven into a corner does he pull out that piece of jade and raise it above his head...
Well written, immersive