I Start an Industrial Revolution in the Late Ming Dynasty

In the fifteenth year of the Chongzhen reign, the Ming Dynasty was on its last legs. The Jianzhou cavalry beyond the passes watched like hungry tigers, while rebel bands swarmed through the lands within like locusts. Factions fought endlessly at court, and local strongmen carved up the provinces. The common people resorted to eating their own children, while the gentry drank and dreamed their lives away.

Chen Yuanzhou, a modern industrial designer, transmigrates into the body of a destitute young man on the brink of starvation. He has no System, no old master to guide him, only the chemistry he learned in middle school, the physics he studied in high school, the mechanical drafting he learned at university, and more than a decade of hands-on factory experience from his previous life.

While others transmigrate to become officials or generals, he starts with a cooking pot and a furnace for smelting steel.

When rebels besiege a village, he builds a repeating crossbow that can hit a target a hundred paces away. When the Qing army invades, he casts cannons that shatter the Eight Banners' myth. When a landlord tries to swallow his factory, a single shareholding contract turns the whole village into shareholders.

On the eve of Emperor Chongzhen's suicide on Coal Hill, Chen Yuanzhou stands atop Shanhai Pass. Behind him, a steam engine belches black smoke. Beneath his feet, railway tracks stretch into the distance. Before him stands a new army of three hundred thousand.

"Your Majesty, I'll keep the Ming alive."

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