Gu Zhi, a graduate student in military campaign studies, wakes up as a scout squad leader in the Northern Border Army, accused of treason. The evidence: a secret letter whose wax seal he has never even broken. At noon tomorrow, he will be beheaded in public.
On a stormy night, a prison riot breaks out. He kills the guards, seizes a saber, and leads twelve deserters to defend the north gate. He destroys the bridge, sets the formation ablaze, and kills Commandant Han's three hundred cavalrymen in a counterattack. From condemned prisoner to hero who saves the city, all in one night.
But this is only the beginning.
Behind Commandant Han lies a network of spies planted by the Northern Di royal court. Blackstone Fort is stocked with three years' worth of grain and weapons. Five Northern Di agents hide within the Northern Border Army. And Tuoba Ye's three hundred thousand cavalry will march south in a month.
Thirty deserters, a half-ruined isolated fort, and a poisoned wound. Gu Zhi has a military strategy sandbox that can simulate the course of the world, but it provides simulations, not resources. He must train soldiers, farm, mine, and cast cannons with his own hands, feeding his troops with the enemy's grain and arming his battalion with the enemy's weapons.
From condemned prisoner to commander of a thousand, from an isolated fort to three provinces, from a frontier warlord to the founding ruler of an empire.
