The First Emperor Says the Great Ming Will Never Fall

In the first year of the Hongguang reign, the last lamps of Jinling flicker. Ma Shiying wields power, Shi Kefa holds Yangzhou alone, Qing cavalry tramples across the Central Plains, remnants of the Dashun and Daxi armies fight separately, and warlords such as Zuo Liangyu command their troops as they please. The Southern Ming's remaining territory is already on the verge of collapse amid warfare and famine. Worse still, a plague born from a mutated strain of the bubonic plague turns the land into a living hell: by day, zombies devour the common people; by night, "night stalkers" attack military camps. They even become "living weapons" used by the Manchus to break through defenses.

At this moment of life and death, eleven emperors spanning a thousand years suddenly fall into this chaotic game of power.

Outside Jizhou, Qin Shi Huang builds earthen walls and gathers refugees with an iron fist, erecting defenses between Qing cavalry scouts and hordes of corpses. On Yangzhou's walls, Emperor Taizong of Tang helps Shi Kefa train the battered troops, using the strategy of "guarding against the undead at night and fighting the Qing by day" to protect the Southern Ming's gateway. Before the Fengyang Mausoleum, Emperor Taizu of Ming raises his arms and cries, "Restore the Ming and defend the tombs!" Through farming and military training, he turns scattered refugees into a powerful army. In the Nanjing palace, Emperor Chongzhen of Ming, a ruler who lost his country, recounts the bitter consequences of factional strife in tears, hoping to awaken the pleasure-seeking Hongguang regime...

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual persons or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.