Strong Han

Strong Han is a historical military web novel by the author "Honor and Loyalty." It began serialization on Qidian on May 1, 2008, and concluded on December 22, 2016, totaling roughly 1.22 million Chinese characters. The story is set in the third year after Emperor Jing of Han (141 BCE), on the eve of Emperor Wu Liu Che's accession: the Xiongnu Chanyu Junchen raises troops to invade the border, and Yanmen Pass falls. Lin Bin, a paratrooper of the Republic, is transported back to this moment and witnesses the Xiongnu massacre of Han civilians, resolving to resist. He gathers the captured Han people, drills those willing to follow him into an army, and first breaks out deep into the steppe to survive; en route he encounters a small Han unit that has marched beyond the frontier, rescues them, and returns with them to the Han border. After returning to Han territory, he is squeezed out by the scions of powerful clans within the Han army and is forced to lead his troops away again, establishing himself on the western frontier, gathering displaced Han people and those with deep grudges against foreign tribes, and sustaining war with war—annexing small steppe tribes not belonging to the Xiongnu while rescuing captured Han people, gradually growing stronger. He subsequently cooperates with the Han army several times to deal heavy blows to the Xiongnu, drawing the attention of Emperor Wu and the noble clans. After foiling several plots and gaining the support of remnants of the pre-Qin peoples, Lin Bin attains moral legitimacy; to reassure his followers and demonstrate his resolve to avenge them all, he finally raises the banner of "Han." The novel is divided into eight volumes, including The Law of the Jungle, Bloodbath at the Fortress, and Spirit Soaring over Rivers and Mountains, with "sharpening my spears and halberds" and "guarding the border" as its through-lines; its grand battle scenes make it a relatively representative work of alternate-history fiction set in the Western Han.