Impostor County Magistrate: From a Lonely City to a Crowned Prince

[Alternate History + Survive a Siege + Build and Develop + No System]

In the chaos of the late Tang, the county magistrate absconds with the relief silver and abandons the city, while Han Du’s sister and more than a dozen other lives remain locked inside the government granary.

Han Du is merely a junior granary clerk who keeps the grain accounts. He has no System, cannot make gunpowder, and possesses only the official robe and seal left behind by the fleeing magistrate. To open the granary and save the people inside, he dons the robe, stamps the seal, and orders the doors smashed open.

But once the granary doors open, he can no longer take off that robe. The books claim there are two thousand shi of grain, but less than half is fit to cook. Rebel troops are closing in from outside the city, while powerful clans inside use grain contracts to seal the stores. Then the real magistrate returns with soldiers, intent on branding every person who took grain a rebel.

Investigating grain stores, defending the city, resettling refugees, allotting fields to soldiers’ families, and joining forces with neighboring counties to repair roads: every group of people Han Du saves adds another layer to the crime of impersonating an official.

Until one isolated city becomes five counties pledged to mutual defense, and the imperial court and regional warlords both come asking: should this counterfeit magistrate be executed, or given a title?