He Tianjun, a mechanical engineering student, opens his eyes and transmigrates to the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, where he becomes a low-ranking cannon fodder soldier waiting to die atop the walls of Xiangyang.
The good news: He's bound to a livestream System watched in real time by millions of modern viewers.
The bad news: Ancient China has no electricity or machine tools, even its iron is poor quality, and a hundred thousand Mongol troops are surrounding the city.
Netizens: "Hang in there, streamer! I sent you plans for a homemade cannon. Hurry up and build it! A rocket for the top donor, coming right up!"
He Tianjun grits his teeth. Fine, then. He'll use nine years of compulsory education to physically send the ancient strategists straight to the afterlife.
He builds homemade cannons to blow up siege ladders, smelts poor-quality iron in blast furnaces, and purifies gunpowder with crude methods. With the live chat directing him and the whole internet helping out, he wins the defense of Xiangyang.
But just after he takes Xiangyang, the Lin'an court tries to punish him for "using demonic weapons to build up his own forces."
He Tianjun burns the imperial edict on the spot. If the Southern Song doesn't want him, he'll head north and seize the Central Plains' mineral deposits, blasting a path to the Industrial Revolution.
From Xiangyang's regional commander to a warlord in control of his own territory, from musketeer squads to armored steam warships, he'll make the entire age of cold weapons see what it means to be outclassed by technology.
