The Tang Dynasty Chess Player

In the late Tianbao era, on the eve of the An Lushan Rebellion, storm clouds gathered over the Tang Dynasty's border towns. Chen Buyi, a low-level scout of the Tiance Guard, accidentally uncovered a massive arms smuggling case involving multiple factions. With his comrades all dead, he clutched a blood-stained ledger and desperately knocked on the door of General Lin Zhen, the town's defender. To avoid being crushed by the vast forces of the court and the martial world, Chen Buyi volunteered to act as bait and was thrown into the Western Suburb Death Row Prison for serious criminals. In the court, Chief Clerk Pei Ju subtly manipulated events, using a cart of white-flour buns to incite a wave of murder by proxy within the prison. In the muddy depths, the blind man of Poison Dragon Fort and the bandits of Black Wind Stronghold schemed and fought over survival resources. In this game of hidden currents, Chen Buyi rose from a pawn that could be crushed at any moment to a player who could move the entire Tang Dynasty. — Description from novelcodex.org