I woke up to find that I, a high school dropout and street thug, had become the Chongzhen Emperor of the Ming dynasty. Before I could even celebrate, I wandered in a vision to Coal Hill and witnessed my own miserable end, hanging from a crooked tree.
Terror jolted me fully awake. Run a country? I can't! Play court politics? Not my thing!
But I had one way to survive: all the unofficial histories, novels, and gossip I'd read at internet cafes and street stalls in my previous life!
Hong Chengchou has six toes? Arrest him, he'll surrender one day!
Xu Guangqi is secretly working with foreigners? Raid his home, his books are all evidence of his crimes!
Hong Taiji was cuckolded by Dorgon? Excellent, turn it into a play and stage it across the country at once!
And so, in the eyes of my ministers, I became a mad emperor who put his faith in "unofficial history from Heaven." I slacked off, killed at random, and resorted to every shameless trick I could think of, all to fulfill the most solemn mission of all: keeping myself alive and saving the Ming dynasty.
It wasn't until one day, when I saw the Ming territories pacified by the "Unofficial History Dream Team" I'd built from scratch, and the faces of my ministers, shattered yet awestruck, that I finally understood.
It turned out that saving the nation with unofficial history was the fastest way...
