On a typhoon night, a flash of blue light sent 54 people from a China Railway Seventh Group project team, along with their entire construction site, tumbling onto the shores of eastern Zhejiang in the thirty-fourth year of Jiajing's reign. The loaders were still running and the generators still lit, but when they looked up, Japanese pirates had come ashore to pillage. Manager Zheng Yan wiped the rain from his face. "We're here now, so we have to protect the people of this land."
Other transmigrators start from nothing. He has an entire construction crew at his back. The veteran chief engineer leads everyone in building blast furnaces, making cement, smelting iron, and improving equipment. They can make whatever is needed. The 54 team members bring 54 different trades: surveying, quality inspection, surgery, welding, cooking, and more. They each have a role to play. They also train the local craftsmen and refugees, bringing more and more people onto an ever-expanding construction site.
They dig trenches, build bastions, and train local militias. Every time the pirates attack, they are decisively driven back. From Longshan Garrison to Canggang and Taizhou, they win nine battles in a row. At last, coastal residents no longer have to hide from the pirates. When someone asks Zheng Yan what he's after, he points to the bustling construction site and says, "I want ordinary people to be able to eat in peace, and no one to dare bully this stretch of coastline again."
Many years later, railways cut through the mountains and mighty ships anchor by the shore, while blast furnaces stand in rows as far as the eye can see. Standing at the end of a road he built, Zheng Yan taps the ash from his cigarette and laughs, "Work's done."
Industrialization fans + ensemble cast + infrastructure building + passionate development. A technically grounded story, exciting all the way through, with no angst and no saintly protagonist.
