Reborn as a Warlord in the Late Qing Dynasty

In the twenty-sixth year of Guangxu, the Gengzi Incident erupted. The Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, Empress Dowager Cixi fled, and the Qing dynasty was stripped bare.

I opened my eyes and found myself the spoiled eldest son of a wealthy family in Tai’an, Shandong. First, I shot the county magistrate’s only son at the Zuixian Tower. Then, before I knew it, my whole family, all thirty-eight of us, were being hunted as we fled north. We hadn’t even crossed the Shandong border when my parents died in my arms under the guns of bandits.

The original owner’s spark went out, and I took over: a veteran with half a graduate degree in history, who knew the next thirty years by heart.

But knowing what fate had in store was no use. All I had was a Mauser with five rounds left, a couple dozen battered soldiers, two carts of provisions, and a mountain of blood debts. Behind me was the county magistrate’s wanted notice and bounty. Ahead lay the bandits and outlaws who roamed beyond the passes.

What was I supposed to do?

Gather refugees, absorb scattered bandits, kill traitors, and lay down the rules. In two months, I went from a commander with no troops to leading hundreds of men, hundreds of horses, and dozens of guns. In a wasteland filled with refugees and corpses, I pulled together a force from nothing: the Migration Protection Corps. We would protect the people, defend our land, and secure our own survival. Anyone who touched my people would see their whole family buried with them.

There would be Zhang Zongchang, White Russian armored trains, Prince Su, and a tsar’s princess. But that’s for later.

Right now, the most important thing is to make it alive beyond the passes. First, I’ll collect the blood debt owed by Liu the Big Beard of Hushantang. The rest can wait.

I got this life back by sheer luck. I can’t afford to waste it.

In a word: I know the history of the Republic of China by heart, I have a gun, and I have a score to settle. In this chaotic age, I call the shots.