Liu Hanzhe, a modern graduate student in history, transmigrates to the fifteenth year of the Chongzhen reign and becomes an obscure sixth-rank secretary in the Ministry of War. The Ming faces crises at home and abroad: Li Zicheng's forces are advancing straight toward the capital, the Manchu cavalry beyond the border is poised to strike, factional infighting rages at court, and the stubborn, suspicious Chongzhen Emperor has reached the point where he has no one he can rely on.
Drawing on his familiarity with late Ming history and modern military thinking, he takes “improving gunpowder” and “training a new army” as his starting points, gradually winning the emperor's trust. He joins forces with Sun Chuanting to reorganize the army, improves the border troops with Western firearms, and uses strategic diplomacy to drive a wedge between the Manchus and the Mongol tribes. Yet the weight of history is like a mountain: factional intrigue, Chongzhen's vacillation, deep-rooted problems among the people, and the troubled heart of the emperor who was supposed to hang himself at Coal Hill all make his path to changing fate against the odds a thorny one...
