Steam Ming Dynasty: from Beijing to London

In the tenth year of Hongzhi, the first time traveler arrived. He presented steam engines and railway tracks to allow horseless carriages to gallop across the land of Yan and Zhao. The court was shocked and called "demon" or "god". He spent twenty years planting the seeds of industry in the cracks between the imperial power and the gentry. During the Zhengde period, the second time traveler arrived. He found that the Ming Dynasty, which had steam engines, was stuck in primitive finances. As a result, bonds, insurance, stocks... The magic of finance began to quietly erode the ancient money system. Merchants cheered, the court was alert, and a silent war about "money and power" began. At the end of Jiajing, the third time traveler opened his eyes. Faced with an empire that was technologically deformed and torn between the north and the south, he put down the drawings and picked up the planning book. His weapons are not machines, but systems and balance. Within the shell of the old empire, he tried to lay the track to the new world. In the middle of Wanli, the fourth time traveler wakes up. What he saw was a giant roaring with steel and steam, but the land was still barren. His battlefield is in the fields, and his weapons are seeds and fertilizer. A silent agricultural revolution finally gave this ripening empire a solid foundation. From Hongzhi to Yongli, it spanned one hundred and fifty years. The four time-travelers with different identities and ideas are not omniscient and omnipotent gods. With their own specialties and limitations, they struggle, cooperate, compete and inherit in the torrent of history. They lit the fire but could not control the direction in which the flames spread.