The Ming dynasty, in the final years of the Chongzhen reign. The land is ravaged by war, and corpses of the starving lie everywhere.
Zhu Youjian cries out, “I am not a ruler destined to lose his country!”
The Later Jin invaders: “Slaughter the city, loot its wealth, and seize its women!”
Li Zicheng: “We’re marching into the Forbidden City!”
Zhang Xianzhong: “Damn it! I want to try being an emperor too!”
Zhao Yiji, an ordinary man in troubled times, awakens memories of his previous life and gains a god-tier science System, giving him access to all the advanced scientific technologies of modern civilization.
“Could my grenade-making know-how get me a government job?”
“And with this flintlock, this Maxim machine gun, surely I could become a warlord, right?”
“And with mortars and Italian cannons, I call the shots in this world. Anyone object?”
“Oh, and there’s opium. I can sell it to the Western barbarians and plunder the wealth of the whole world. Am I being too kind?”
What?
The barbarians refuse to open their ports to trade?
No worries!
I still have warships, heavy artillery, an invincible fleet, and Gatling guns!
“Sorry, dear foreign friends, here’s an unequal treaty. Please sign here.”
“Heh, it doesn’t say much. You’ll just pay several billion taels of silver, cede strategic locations, and lease us your port cities for 9,999 years!”
