Usurping Han

"Dai Han" (Replacing the Han) is a web novel by Wangbuguoba set in the late Eastern Han and Three Kingdoms period. Completed on Qidian Chinese Network in July 2018, it comprises six volumes and 582 chapters, totaling approximately 1.626 million Chinese characters. The protagonist, Ye Zhao, was once a warlord in a post-apocalyptic world, surviving ten years amid zombies and mutants and building a base city, only to die at the hands of a trusted subordinate's betrayal. His consciousness transmigrates to the Guanghe era of the late Eastern Han, becoming the sickly only son of the declining Ye family in Henei Commandery. With his family estate coveted by local powers and no cheat-like abilities to rely on, he must depend solely on the calm temperament and insight into human nature honed in the apocalypse. He begins by defending himself in a courtroom dispute, then takes up a post in the frontier town of Macheng, where he reforms the military, restores trade routes, and clashes with nomadic tribes. Subsequently reassigned to Liang Kingdom, he engages in local fiscal and taxation affairs and is drawn into the battle of Wancheng. As the late Eastern Han court crumbles and the Way of Great Peace stirs beneath the surface, with the Yellow Turban Rebellion imminent, Ye Zhao rises from local posts to the imperial court in Luoyang. Amid the chaos of Dong Zhuo's usurpation and warlord fragmentation, he accumulates power, first seizing Yizhou as his base, then setting his sights on Guanzhong and the Western Regions, ultimately embarking on the path of "since the Han mandate is ending, then replace it." The novel eschews fantasy and power-ups, emphasizing realistic operations in institutions, military affairs, and governance. It is a hegemony-oriented historical novel centered on the question of how to rebuild order in a chaotic era.