The Steam-Powered Ming Dynasty: Ingenious Mechanisms

During the Wanli reign of the Great Ming, the maritime ban is lifted for the first time, and Western inventions pour into the Central Plains.

Li Hua, chief craftsman of the Institute of Heavenly Crafts, has studied Lu Ban's construction techniques since childhood. He excels at surveying and geomancy, and has the extraordinary skill of taking machines apart and putting them back together. People call him "the one who finds gold in a pile of scrap." After the Battle of Dagu Kou, he digs a signal beacon of extraterrestrial origin out of the wreckage of a warship belonging to the Azure Alliance. From that moment on, the fate of the Great Ming and the vast sea of stars is changed forever.

On the surface, the Azure Alliance trades and maintains friendly relations with the Great Ming. In secret, however, it sends its covert organization, the "Azure Eye," to steal the source of the Great Ming's ley lines, while plotting a catastrophe at the International Exposition. Joining forces with Lu Yuan, a hundred-household commander of the Imperial Guards, Li Hua uses Lu Ban's wooden puppets to scout ahead and a construction-survey abacus to calculate the hidden dangers. He pilots the giant subterranean beast "Pangolin," modified from a Western drilling machine, into the heart of the earth and blows up the energy core. Then, at the International Exposition, he engages in a thrilling game of cat and mouse with seven infiltrators prepared to die.

But the real crisis is only just beginning.

In the ancient ruins deep within the Abyssal Reef Archipelago lie shipbuilding techniques and secret star charts far beyond their time. Using the source of the ley lines as fuel and Lu Ban's ingenious mechanisms as its bones, Li Hua builds the Great Ming's first starship, the "Chasing the Sun," and sets sail into deep space. There, he encounters the Reaper fleet, which survives by plundering civilizations, and meets the last guardian spirit of the Titan civilization. He inherits the primordial flame and gains the power to survey and navigate across the sea of stars.

From steam-powered mechs to interstellar warships, from the docks of Tianjin Guard to the star ring of Alpha Centauri, the legend of a craftsman begins.

[Tags] Steampunk / Alternate History