After Li Yunlong commits suicide in 1969, he transmigrates to the nineteenth year of the Daoguang reign and possesses Lin Zexu just as he is about to head south to ban the opium trade. He rewrites nearly a century of Chinese history, erasing the humiliation that would otherwise follow.
When he wakes, the refined exterior of a civil official falls away. Carrying the iron will of a battle-hardened soldier, he stands on the crumbling edge of the Qing Empire. Everyone knows Lin Zexu as an incorruptible and upright official, but no one knows that within this body lies an unparalleled general who dares to fight hard battles, excels at unconventional tactics, defies fate, and trusts only the blade.
He strengthens coastal defenses, executes corrupt parasites, improves firearms, and trains a powerful army. With modern tactics a century ahead of their time, he faces the British Far East Fleet head-on. In the First Opium War, he turns the tide against all odds, refusing to pay reparations or cede territory and keeping the invaders beyond the nation's borders.
He launches the modern Self-Strengthening Movement ahead of schedule, casting cannons, building ships, and reforming the military and government as he prepares for a decade. When the Anglo-French forces return, he defends Beijing and Tianjin, fighting in blood-soaked battles and winning the Second Opium War, preserving the Garden of Perfect Brightness.
Japan's wolfish ambitions remain undiminished, and it schemes to repeat the humiliation of the First Sino-Japanese War. He asserts China's might in the Yellow Sea, destroys the Japanese Combined Fleet, and secures East Asia's coastal waters.
The armies of the Eight-Nation Alliance descend upon China, intent on carving it up. Li Yunlong commands the defense of the capital, laying a vast web of iron-willed soldiers. He repels foreign enemies at the borders, routs the great powers at the gates, and finally ends a century of foreign aggression.
With the spirit of the unsheathed sword taking root in the late Qing, China will suffer no more humiliation for a hundred years. Instead, the giant dragon raises its head and shakes the four seas and eight directions!
