After five years of aiding the needy, I claimed the throne

Pei Zhu, a modern engineering student with a congenital heart defect, awakens in the body of a nineteen-year-old county magistrate in the fictional Liang Kingdom after agreeing to a system’s poverty relief mission. Stranded in a desolate border town called Yongning County, he faces immediate hardship: penniless, mocked by locals, and burdened with a failing administration. The system, which binds him to complete nine main tasks including defense, irrigation, and commerce, vanishes after ensuring his basic survival, leaving Pei Zhu to navigate a world of political intrigue and ethnic conflict alone. His predecessor had committed suicide due to the county’s dire state, and Pei Zhu must now manage a garrison of dozens, a corrupt deputy, and a population on the brink of starvation.

Upon arrival, Pei Zhu confronts the reality of Yongning’s oppression. Local constables, led by the bully Sun Huan and overseen by Deputy Magistrate Zheng Xingcheng, are extorting grain from villagers under the guise of provincial levies. Pei Zhu uses his official decree to halt the collection, establishing immediate authority. He is aided by Wei Ping, a principled but powerless clerk, and Wang Chuo, a frail, cynical man Pei Zhu rescues from the river. Wang Chuo, a former tutor who has lost the will to live, becomes Pei Zhu’s scribe and advisor. Pei Zhu’s first major test arrives when the Eastern Hu tribes, driven by winter scarcity, invade the county with a thousand cavalry. While Zheng advocates for closing the city gates and abandoning the outer villagers, Pei Zhu insists on defending everyone, drawing on his system’s first task: “Impenetrable Fortress.”

Pei Zhu mobilizes the county’s limited resources, constructing pit traps and barricades with Wang Chuo’s tactical guidance. He discovers a petroleum deposit near the Yanshan Mountains, a resource unknown to the locals, which becomes the key to their defense. Before the battle, Pei Zhu stages a dramatic mobilization, carrying a coffin to the city gate to demonstrate his willingness to die for his people. This act of courage transforms the fearful villagers into determined defenders. When the Hu forces attack, they are slowed by traps and blinded by ash, but the true turning point comes when Pei Zhu pours petroleum over the scaling ladders and ignites it, creating a wall of fire that decimates the invaders. The villagers, fueled by years of suppressed rage, pursue the retreating enemy, securing a decisive victory.

Following the battle, Pei Zhu faces the aftermath: destroyed homes and a lack of winter seeds. He devises a bold scheme to embezzle the imperial tax grain and funds owed to the Youzhou governor, blaming the theft on the Hu. He blackmails Zheng Xingcheng with evidence of his corruption, forcing the deputy to cooperate in exchange for a clean record and future promotion. Zheng, though resentful, is trapped by Pei Zhu’s leverage and the threat of Pei’s noble family connections in the capital. The plan succeeds; the villagers receive seeds and repairs, and the local population’s loyalty to Pei Zhu solidifies. When Youzhou officials arrive to investigate the missing grain, Pei Zhu and Zheng present a unified, fabricated account that blames the Hu entirely. The locals, still angry from the battle, eagerly corroborate the story, leaving the Youzhou inspector, Du Liangchuan, with no choice but to accept the explanation.

With the immediate crisis resolved, Pei Zhu turns his attention to the second mission: constructing a reservoir to control the flooding Chaobai River within three months. He identifies a suitable site with Wang Chuo’s help but lacks the funds and manpower. Zheng, now coerced into service, attempts to sabotage the project by highlighting the financial impossibility, but Pei Zhu remains optimistic, planning to use the county’s newly discovered mineral wealth. The story concludes with Pei Zhu preparing to launch the ambitious infrastructure project, having transformed a failing border outpost into a community with a fragile but growing hope for stability and prosperity.