Steam Three Kingdoms: Soochow Shimmer

The last thing Zhuge Liang gave before his death was not a military book or a memorial, but a steam engine. Twenty-four years later, the powerful minister Sun Wei monopolized steam technology and used giant steel ships to intimidate the government and the opposition. He deposed the emperor, thinking that the young man with a gentle smile all day long was just an obedient puppet. Sun Xiu, the third emperor of the Eastern Wu Dynasty, had no soldiers or power when he ascended the throne. His only weapon was a black jade finger ring left by his mother. He smiled in the court, but his eyes were like unsheathed swords; he inspected the workshop and saw fire in the eyes of the whipped poor craftsmen. While Sun Wei was still threatening everyone with black smoke, Sun Xiu was already weaving a net in secret - using a water pump to knock on the door of the noble family, and using the abandoned list of poor families to gather the hearts of craftsmen. This isn't steampunk. This is a plot of a puppet using technology and people's hearts to remap the entire Jiangdong.