I Conquer the World

I Conquer the World is a long historical alternate-history novel by the web author "Congxiao Bu Hui Pa," about 1.36 million Chinese characters, serialized and completed on Qidian.com starting in 2009 and classified under "Song, Yuan, Ming." The story is set in the Southern Song—the most militarily restrained dynasty in Chinese history, one that repeatedly yielded to foreign powers. The protagonist brings no anachronistic weapons or technology, and the enemies also grow, learn, and adjust as the war proceeds; almost starting from nothing, he relies on strategy, organization, and one hard-fought battle after another to move from holding a corner of the land to contending for the realm. The author describes the work as "military history combined with fantasy": the military part is written as realistically as readability allows—marching, formations, manpower, supply lines, morale, and the gamesmanship between commanders all receive attention; the fantasy element is used to strengthen the protagonist's personal growth arc and the reading thrill, giving events outside war more tension. The author also states specifically in the synopsis that if only a "time traveler" counts as a time-travel novel, then this book is not one—the protagonist does not come from the modern era and relies on judgment and skill that could grow in this age. The whole book takes the confrontation between the Southern Song and the powerful northern enemy as its skeleton, interweaving threads such as the demon sect, martial-world factions, and the wars in the South Seas and the northwest, ultimately pointing toward a grand vision of "conquering the world."