From the Start, I Set the Rhine Ablaze and Terrify the Entire Papacy

Official records state: In the fourteenth year of the Zhengtong era, the Ming army suffered a crushing defeat on the Rhine, Emperor Yingzong was captured, and the Great Ming withdrew from Europe. This came to be known as the Tumu Crisis.

My name is Jing Yi. I'm a modern artifact restorer. I touched a Jinyiwei waist token amid the ashes of Notre-Dame de Paris, and when I opened my eyes again, I was in the hell of the Rhine Valley in the fourteenth year of the Zhengtong era.

Before me was the Ming Emperor Yingzong, Zhu Qizhen, trapped and on the verge of capture. Behind me, the combined forces of the Church and the Oirat auxiliaries had us surrounded like an iron wall. The history books call this "the end of the Great Ming's imperial ambitions in Europe."

But history has always been written by the victors.

This time, I am the one holding the pen.

True conquest does not happen on the battlefield, but in every corner of civilization.

I will shape the course of technological development, make art sing the praises of the Great Ming, and turn religion into a tool of domestication. I will make the Chinese language ring across Europe and ensure the sun-and-moon banner never falls.

From Jinyiwei thousand-household commander to Governor-General of the Great Ming in Europe, every step I take grinds the carefully fabricated "false history" of the West into dust.

The glory of the so-called Renaissance and the grandeur of Gothic castles were all the work of Great Ming artisans.

And this is the true history that has been buried for five hundred years.

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