Lu Chuan died. An out-of-control heavy truck ended his mediocre life at the age of twenty-seven. When he opened his eyes again, he had become the son of a military household in Yan’an Prefecture during the Chongzhen reign, a young man on the verge of starving to death. His rewards rose with each passing day, location, and opportunity: silver, grain, refined steel... elite troops, famous generals, civil officials, beauties, cities. In the seventeenth year of the Chongzhen reign, Beijing fell, the emperor hanged himself on Coal Hill, and the land of China was lost, its vast territory turned into pasture for foreign tribes. The ending was clear as day. Before that cataclysm arrived, he would train his troops and fight his way through. He would crush the rebels, kill the powerful, wipe out the Japanese pirates, and drive out the northern barbarians. With the blade he earned through sign-ins, he would hack a rotten world back into Han hands, one cut at a time. Anyone who stood in his way would die. Anyone who thwarted him would die. Anyone who disrespected his blade would die. He would stand tall and survive in an age of chaos, taking command wherever the realm was in turmoil.
