The Seventh Prince of Daqian: I Take Off in My Fief

Steelworks chief engineer Lin Ye opened his eyes and found himself the unwanted Seventh Prince of the Great Qian Dynasty.

On the table lay an imperial edict that might as well have been a death sentence: he was to be made Prince of Yan and sent to guard the northern frontier at once.

His third brother had "recommended a worthy candidate," pushing him forward to take the fall and die in his place.

But they had no idea...

What others saw as a death trap, he saw as Black Mountain's coal, Red Iron Ridge's iron, the nitrate lakes, and wool-bearing sheep roaming the vast grasslands.

He neither wept nor refused. Instead, right there before the emperor, he turned the suicide mission into a fiefdom with real power: full control over the military, government, and finances, no taxes owed for three years, and free pick of artisan households and death-row convicts.

Briquette stoves meant money, heated brick beds meant survival, and coke-fired blast furnaces meant weapons.

And the gunpowder no one in this world had ever seen was in his hands alone.

My royal brothers, take your time fighting over the capital.

This winter, I will guard it for you.

From now on, the northern frontier is mine.

And one day, the whole realm will be mine too.