Border Pass Laborer: The Court Abandoned the City, So I Built the World’s Number One Pass

The day the court abandoned the city, Cheng Ye, a laborer repairing the city wall, was beaten to death by the foreman with a pole. When he opened his eyes again, a modern engineer who built roads and bridges had taken over his body.

Before the garrison commander withdrew, he pressed a bronze seal into Cheng Ye's hand. "The court doesn't want this city anymore. Do you?"

"If the court doesn't want it, then I do."

The Yan cavalry chase him to the river? He hangs beneath the bridge and breaks its central span. The Yan cavalry and their horses tumble into the river.

Eight thousand Yan soldiers spend seven days putting the bridge back together? They take seven days to rebuild it; he takes half a day to break it.

The city runs out of salt? He scrapes the salty earth from the base of the walls and boils it down to make salt.

The breach on the western slope collapses every time it's tamped down? He blocks it with water and lets it freeze overnight into an icy slope. When the Yan cavalry charge up, their horses' hooves slip and they all fall to their knees.

By the time everyone along the river calls this city the greatest pass in the world, the court crosses four counties west of the river off its map, intending to trade them to Yan for peace.

Cheng Ye gives them one answer: "The territory is on the Ministry of War's records. The people are on my census."