Transmigrating to Guard the Frontier: From Cannon Fodder Auxiliary Soldier to King

The Great Yong dynasty has stood for centuries, but the splendor of its golden age is now little more than a rotten shell. Factions at court are locked in endless power struggles, the nobility devours the empire’s grain, and the local garrisons have fallen into disrepair. Year after year, the Black Jie cavalry from the northern frontier rides south, burning, slaughtering, and pillaging with no one able to stop them. Yanshuo Pass on the western frontier is the Great Yong’s last northern defense, as well as a hellish graveyard for countless low-ranking soldiers. Su Jin, a modern veteran, transmigrates into the body of a low-ranking auxiliary soldier at Blackstone Fort, the most remote and dilapidated outpost at Yanshuo Pass. He has barely enough food or clothing and is constantly bullied. No overpowered golden finger. No benefactor arriving out of nowhere to lift him up. All he has is the instinct to fight on the battlefield and the ruthless grit needed to survive in troubled times. The fort’s harsh policies are as cruel as tigers. Veteran soldiers prey on new recruits, officers embezzle military pay, allies turn a blind eye, and the enemy is bloodthirsty and brutal. A lowly soldier is no more than an insect, his life as fragile as grass, ready to be crushed by the wind. Su Jin refuses to accept his fate. If his blade isn’t sharp enough, he’ll hone it until it can cleave bone. If someone wrongs him, he’ll make them pay in blood. If the empire abandons its frontier troops, those troops will defend the realm themselves. Starting as a humble auxiliary soldier struggling to stay alive, he learns to kill amid mountains of corpses, breaks through deadlocks in a rotten military system, and finds a way to survive in a world torn apart by chaos. He executes deserters, cleans up corruption in the camp, defends an isolated city, crushes the Jie cavalry, and restores order amid the chaos. With a broken body, he guards a broken pass. With his humble strength, he stands against ten thousand foes. When the smoke of war finally clears and the cavalry is consigned to oblivion, the lowly border soldier of old has already secured half of the Great Yong realm.