The Hostage Prince

After transmigrating into the discarded prince of Southern Chu, Ji Yue found himself in a living hell from the start as a hostage in Northern Yan: his brothers poisoned him, the people of Yan tormented him, and everyone around him was an enemy. But within him was the soul of an engineer and soldier from another life. His past experience was the sharpest blade of all. When the Princess of the Cang Wolves blockaded the capital and humiliated Northern Yan with three challenges, Ji Yue made a sudden entrance and publicly face-slapped her: “A marriage alliance? You’re not worth three thousand warhorses.” From prisoner in the stocks to honored courtier, from teacher at the Hongwen Academy to the “Master Artisan” of the Works Directorate. He brewed wine to amass wealth, spun a web of influence through the Listening Rain Tower, and used advanced knowledge to revolutionize the realm’s military technology, making Northern Yan’s cavalry the finest in all directions. The princes saw him as a pawn. The Yan emperor initially treated him with cold indifference, while his homeland of Southern Chu repeatedly sent assassins after him. Then, when war flared again on the northern frontier, two hundred thousand Cang Wolf cavalry came for him alone. Newly married, Ji Yue took up his longsword and smiled at the empress beside him: “Don’t be afraid. I’ll be right back.” This time, he would show the world what it meant to crush an opponent with a higher dimension of technology. “Strategy for the bones, iron and blood for the edge. See how modern engineering overwhelms ancient battlefields, as a hostage prince becomes ruler of the realm.”