Beiyang

Beiyang is a long historical military web novel by the author Jienian, serialized on Qidian Chinese Network from 2014 and completed in April 2024, totaling about 2.087 million Chinese characters over 411 chapters (including notes and the finale). Set in the late Qing dynasty, the story follows Feng Wenyu, who transmigrates back to 1891 and takes over the body of Tan Yankai, a descendant of a prominent Hunan family. He enters officialdom through the orthodox examination route, passing the county exam and placing first in the provincial exam, all the way to becoming a top scholar in Empress Dowager Cixi's special examination, and then joins a governor-general's staff as an advisor. Drawing on modern medical and scientific knowledge, he seeks a way forward in the cracks of the old system: he develops a multi-course "anti-opium pill" to meet the demand for smoking bans and to earn capital, founds the Qiangxue Publishing House, and translates Western scientific and technical books to promote intellectual awakening; he then moves into industry, trains a new army, and builds up the navy, gradually accumulating power and influence through a series of great upheavals from the First Sino-Japanese War, the Hundred Days' Reform, and the Boxer Uprising to World War I, ultimately promoting the establishment of a republican system along a path similar to Yuan Shikai's, and after the war engaging in diplomacy and territorial disputes. The book champions a "top-down reform" line, weaving late Qing officialdom, the literati, the self-strengthening movement, and maritime power building into a coming-of-age arc, with elements of passion, darkness, and management/development, in a somber yet idealistic tone. In the preface the author dedicates the book to his lover and their unborn child, and to the forebears who sacrificed over the past century for national independence and the country's prosperity. Note that this is a web-serialized work, and no formally published Chinese print edition has been found.