Black Iron’s Glory

One of the best novels out there. War themed with some irl references. The beginning is somewhat tedious - the world building and character building takes a whole arc worth of 100 chapters, but trust me it's all worth it for the plot twist later on. After that, in general, it's an adventure of a transmigrated man who is thrown into wars and conflicts between the nobles and the rich. He climbs the ladder from a war pawn to an army commander who governs 'his own' autonomous region (you can think of US colonies). There's no plot armor. If the novel had braindead plot he'd long become a ruler of the whole land, unfortunately even if he's pretty much unrivaled in the art of war itself due to the knowledge of our world, he is having serious problems with all the political games and mindsets changing of other people. Like in the tales of reincarnated lord, there is magic in the background (most mages went to another dimension never to return, so mages are few and far between and not that dangerous; a stronger country has maybe one elite assassin squad of them and that's it). He is a talented mage as well, well maybe not anymore because he is constantly busy with wars so even his sister outgrew him at it (he doesn't value it that much anyway, for him it's mainly useful in life-threatening situations now that he wields more power). What is bad about the novel? The nobles are corrupted and one-dimensional. They never give a help (they send you to death) but want your whole body in return (your riches, your new gun production, your loyalty, your servitude). MC has to deal with his mother country's atrocious demands all the time. Another bad thing is the harem (MC has a wife and child with her; but due to the stress from war he also f*cked one depressed(?) noblewoman during one of the first wars and later on he found out she has his child, they are business partners now only and the child doesn't know he's the father, also he has a mage lover (no child yet) and he also f*cked another village girl who was pretty much lecherous slut when he lived at her parents' house after war when he attended college, there was no mention of her again yet but I bet she has his child as well). What's good? The character development over time. Everything passes, time's never a constant and the novel shows it perfectly. E.g. a woman who once was MC tutor, you'd think she'll forever be on MC side. Well no, her daughter becomes antagonist to MC later on and her mother is the only reason why MC doesn't beat the shit out of her daughter. He's also disappointed in his tutor's demands and pleads. Same with MC's wife - a woman he once loved, now he sees her as a parasite and narrow-minded stupid folk and has regrets marrying her. He was also very caring for his mother, but the mother showed her ugly side once he became a famous man too and he, his sister and one of his brothers couldn't endure the mother anymore and cut off contact with her.