Li Ming, a modern history enthusiast, twice traveled through the late Ming Dynasty and became the Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian.
During his first time travel, he was full of passion, but he recreated the tragedy of history: his eagerness to eradicate Wei Zhongxian led to the dominance of the Donglin Party and financial collapse; he mistakenly believed in slander and killed Yuan Chonghuan, destroying the Liaodong Great Wall; he blindly encircled and suppressed the peasant army, and finally Li Zicheng broke the capital and committed suicide in Meishan. As he lay dying, what was buried in the wind and snow of Meishan was his endless regret for being "powerless to save the day".
Fate gave him a chance to come back. In the second time travel, he returned to the beginning of the seventh year of Apocalypse. This time, with the memory of his past life, he suppressed his hatred for the eunuch party and chose to temporarily retain Wei Zhongxian - this powerful eunuch who was nailed to the pillar of shame by history became his "sharp blade" to check and balance the Donglin party and plunder Jiangnan's wealth. He worked step by step, using the yoke of factory guards to tame Wei Zhongxian, while secretly making plans: appointing Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting in advance, revising the appointment of Yuan Chonghuan, strictly guarding against Hong Chengchou's betrayal, and even trying to recruit "thief generals" such as Li Dingguo.
In the court, he moved between Donglin, the Eunuch Party and the Pragmatic Party, rectifying the government with iron and blood; in finance, he reopened mining taxes and commercial taxes to shake up the gentry class; on the border, he used firearms to strengthen the army, reconstructed the Liaodong defense line, and reversed the decline in the battles of Songjin and Jisi; in civil strife, he suppressed and divided the peasant army to extend the life of the Ming Dynasty.
From Meishan's despair of hanging himself, to Long Qian's forbearance in the deep palace, to ZTE's denouncement of Fang Qiu, the struggles and breakthroughs of the two Chongzhens will eventually write a different ending to the Ming Dynasty in the blood and fire of the late Ming Dynasty.
