The Broken Stele of the Northern Frontier

Twelve years ago, during Operation Northwind, three thousand Federation brothers were betrayed by their superiors and left to die in the northern wasteland.

Reconnaissance platoon leader Lu Chen crawled back to the land of the living from a pile of corpses, only to become an outlaw in a lawless gray zone.

Here, there is no law, only guns, black markets, and survival. Thirty-two-year-old Lu Chen carries the lives of eighty-seven of his brothers in his hands and guards a checkpoint on North Seventh Street. He has no golden finger and no miraculous windfall. He fights for every inch of ground with cunning, ruthlessness, and the bonds he builds with people.

He swallows up the black market, battles bureaucrats, crushes warlords, takes on regular troops, stirs up waves of public opinion, and answers the call in the midst of a national war. The truth from twelve years ago is hidden inside a set of dentures. An encrypted USB drive contains the unfinished blood debt of three thousand dead souls.

From a minor gang leader on the streets of the gray zone to the commander of a united army, Lu Chen refuses medals and the rank of general, even when power and high office are within easy reach.

He did not fight for glory or a crown, but to win long-overdue justice for the three thousand brothers buried in the wasteland.