Lu Chengfeng, a mechanical engineering PhD from a top-tier 985 university, is swept into a strange reaction between a fragment of a three-barreled musket inscribed “Made in the Twenty-Third Year of Jiajing” and a glass bead. He unexpectedly transmigrates into the body of the Jiajing Emperor, Ming Shizong, who is obsessed with cultivating immortality. Abandoning his absurd fixation on becoming an immortal, he takes modern engineering knowledge as a “blade of reform” and launches a sweeping transformation of the Ming dynasty. He upgrades matchlocks into rapid-fire flintlock guns, invents water-powered threshers and siphon irrigation pipes to relieve hunger and hardship, builds steam-powered warships to secure the coast, and establishes schools of engineering, military science, and agriculture. Breaking through the constraints of the “scholar, farmer, artisan, merchant” hierarchy, he trains practical talent in mechanical engineering, the military, and agriculture.
At court, he overcomes fierce opposition and defeats Yan Song’s faction, rooting out corruption with a new system for evaluating officials. On the battlefield, he personally leads Ming troops armed with new weapons to crush the Mongol leader Altan Khan, emulating Zhu Di’s campaign to Mount Langju Xu. At sea, he sends Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou to train the navy. They escort ocean-going fleets along Zheng He’s old routes and lead an expedition to pacify the Japanese pirates, wiping out their forces once and for all. Su Jin’s technical assistance, Hai Rui’s incorruptible administration, and Zhang Juzheng’s strategic support together paint a vivid portrait of the Ming reform movement. Meanwhile, Lu Chengfeng’s restrained feelings for Su Jin and his commitment to “giving the people a better life” lend his imperial image a touch of human warmth.
Just as foreign nations come to pay tribute and the Ming dynasty enters a golden age, the glass bead suddenly shines. Lu Chengfeng jolts awake in a laboratory at Yenching University. The three-barreled musket on the table is still mottled with copper rust. A dream that changed history comes to an end, leaving behind profound questions about ideals, inheritance, and the choices that shape history, all tangled between reality and illusion.
