Pawn

Pawn is an alternate-history web novel by Gunner No. 1, a writer from Yichang, Hubei. It began serialization on Qidian on March 20, 2016, and concluded on February 12, 2019, totaling about 6.472 million Chinese characters. The story is set a thousand years after the fall of the Great Tang Empire founded by the legendary Emperor Li Qing: the realm is divided into Eastern Qi, Southern Chu, Western Qin, and Northern Yue, four states that check one another, with unending border wars that never break the balance of power. The protagonist, Qin Feng, has practiced the "Chaos Primordial Art" created by Li Qing since childhood. Because the technique backfires and his inner energy runs wild, only constant fighting can barely suppress it, so he willingly joins Southern Chu's suicide squad, a unit with a nine-in-ten death rate; fierce and decisive, he rises to the rank of captain amid days lived at the edge of a blade. The squad is made up of condemned prisoners and troublemakers and has an extremely low survival rate; its only physician, Shu Chang, becomes a special presence at his side. Southern Chu's internal struggle over the succession embroils the court and the country, and Qin Feng is swept into the vortex by his brilliant military record. In a battle where death is almost certain, sixty thousand comrades in the west are betrayed and annihilated; to preserve the royal family's reputation, this "hero" is pushed forward to take the blame, and overnight he falls from hero to traitor—his brothers' blood spilled on the battlefield, his subordinates turning against him, the situation desperate on all sides. Before his execution he unexpectedly escapes death, swears at the graves of his slaughtered brothers to uncover the truth and kill his enemies, and thus turns from a "pawn" driven by others into a man who lives for himself. Fighting his way through the states, he ultimately ends the division and founds a new dynasty, and with his own knowledge promotes technological innovations such as the steam engine and institutional change. The work centers on military warfare and patriotic devotion, blends in the high-martial-arts setting of wuxia, and also conveys a reflection on war.