Name: The Iron-Blooded Bandit King
Author: Interesting Plantain

Synopsis

He was once the most ordinary stable hand at Yinchuan Post Station, spending every day among relay horses and official documents. Then, in the first year of the Chongzhen reign, the order to abolish the post stations took away his last means of putting food on the table.

He remembered the torn straw mat beneath his mother when she starved to death. He remembered the landlord's cruel face as he demanded payment. He remembered the numbing shock in his palm when he raised his hoe and smashed it against the Ai family's gate. From that moment on, Li Zicheng knew he could never go back.

The flames of war spread behind him. The bloody battle atop Yichuan's walls, the fire at the imperial tombs in Fengyang, the trial in the streets of Luoyang, the arrows beneath Beijing's walls: every step struck at the sore spots of the Ming dynasty. When he finally took the dragon throne in the Forbidden City, he found the seat colder than the earthen bed back in northern Shaanxi.

The winds and sands of Shanhai Pass brought the Eight Banners cavalry, and swept away his imperial dream. From Beijing to Xi'an, from Xi'an to Jiugong Mountain, he completed a full cycle. As he fell at last, he seemed to see his younger self again at Yinchuan Post Station, carefully brushing the mane of a relay horse.

This is a story of resistance and losing one's way. When an ordinary man is forced down a dead-end path, how far can he go? And when he finally reaches the end, how can he face all the blood and fire along the way? The Rebel King Li Zicheng is not the legend of a hero, but the story of one man's struggles and choices amid the tide of his age.

Stats

56Chapters

691Reads · 30 days

12.3kReads · all time

642Listens

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