Southern Ming: Blood on the Long Blade, Destiny in My Hands

As rebel leader Li Zicheng’s troops captured Beijing, just as the dynasty was changing, the Qing suddenly entered the Shanhai Pass without warning. The great battle that would determine China’s fate for the next two centuries officially began.

Many heroic figures emerged, including Shi Kefa and Li Dingguo, who gave their lives for the cause of resistance.

Loyal ministers and able generals, traitors and villains, all took the stage.

This book mainly recounts how the Qing army wiped out the peasant rebel forces led by Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, and others, and how those rebel armies transformed themselves into anti-Qing forces.

How did the Southern Ming court, clinging to a corner of the realm, fight against the Qing? And how did that resistance ultimately fail?