I’m Building Beacon Towers in the Great Ming

The fourteenth year of the Zhengtong reign, on the eve of the Tumu Crisis.

Zhang Wang transmigrates to the border at Xuanfu and becomes a squad leader at Gushan Beacon Tower. He has five men under his command: three old and infirm, and one with connections. Half the beacon tower's east wall has collapsed, the company commander skims thirty percent off their monthly grain allowance, and a superior has traded away their padded winter coats for wine.

Other people who transmigrate to the Ming dynasty either give counsel from the imperial throne or sweep across the northern frontier with their cavalry. Zhang Wang's start is spent tamping earth against the north wind to patch the wall, demanding twenty jin of lime from the company commander, and using his skills to deal with a bunch of old hands.

He doesn't build cannons, train elite troops, or face Esen in a head-on fight.

He does only one thing: repair this ruined beacon tower until it's sturdy, and keep the five men under his command alive through the winter.

But the Tumu Crisis is looming, and the entire Xuanfu defense line is crumbling. How long can Gushan Beacon Tower hold?

A modern engineer, armed with a head full of impractical civil engineering knowledge, digs out a way to survive on the Ming dynasty's frontier walls and beacon towers, one shovelful of earth at a time.