Beijing's Caishikou Execution Ground, in the eighteenth year of the Shunzhi reign. Bound in shackles on the execution platform, with a blade at his neck, Beijing office worker Yang Zilong finds his soul transported into the body of Zheng Zhilong, who is about to be executed.
The agony of impending death and the despair of his family's slaughter have barely faded when his consciousness travels through time to the eighteenth day of the eighth month in the second year of the Longwu reign.
By then, Xianguan Pass has fallen, Qing cavalry is closing in, the Longwu Emperor has fled Yanping, and panic grips Fujian. Zheng Zhilong's forces are wavering, and the Ming dynasty hangs by a thread. Yang Zilong, armed with the clear-eyed perspective of a modern soul and Zheng Zhilong's seething hatred for his enemies, takes over the body of this ruthless warlord and shoulders the immense burden of protecting China.
He is no longer the Zheng Zhilong who wavered between sides and put profit before loyalty.
A warlord's path through chaos, a chance to defy fate.
He will avenge the massacre at Caishikou, wash away the shame of China's fallen lands, cure the rotting ills of the Ming court, bring order to the realm, conquer Japan, and colonize Southeast Asia. Above all, on this ravaged land, he will build a new Ming where the country is at peace, the people live in safety, and history's mistakes are never repeated!
In the autumn of the second year of the Longwu reign, Zheng Zhilong stands atop Anping's city wall, his gaze blazing. “The Tartars invade our borders? They must be slain! China has fallen? Then it must be saved!”
Okay, this book is reasonable