The Great Ming Emperor Chengtian: The Story of Zhu Xiongying

In the fifteenth year of the Hongwu reign, eight-year-old Zhu Xiongying, the emperor’s legitimate eldest grandson, “died of illness.” A modern business executive transmigrated into his body and escaped using a death-feigning drug. During ten years of lying low, he improved firearms and built up the southwest, all while treading carefully under Zhu Yuanzhang’s watchful eye. When Zhu Biao died suddenly and the Jianwen Emperor began stripping the vassal princes of their power, the “resurrected” Prince Yu wielded the Imperial Ancestral Instructions like a sword, exposed Empress Ma’s poisoning by the Lü clan, rallied Lan Yu’s former troops, and entered a breathtaking struggle for imperial power with Zhu Di.

During the northern campaign against the Mongols, he invented the “thunderclap cart.” On his eastern expedition against Japan, he set off Mount Fuji. Advancing west to Rome, he engineered a schism in the Church. He lifted the maritime ban and built ironclad warships, planting the dragon banners of the Ming across the world. And it all began with the small hand that pushed open a coffin in the mausoleum at Mount Zhong…