In the thirty-first year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang was resting peacefully in the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum when a heart-rending wail suddenly jolted him awake. The wail carried the cries of hundreds of thousands of soldiers dying in agony, the blood-soaked grief of the Great Ming, and the pitiful sobs of a cowardly emperor begging for his life.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself amid the blood-red sunset at Tumu Fortress. He had not transmigrated into another body. He had been carried bodily from the Hongwu era into the age of Zhu Qizhen, when the empire's finest troops had been wiped out and its emperor taken prisoner.
Seeing the Great Ming he had founded in ruins, with Oirat hooves trampling the peace along the borders and corrupt eunuchs scheming while court officials bickered, Old Zhu flew into a rage. He drew the sword at his waist and prepared to fight his way through the enemy.
"How dare you wretches ruin my Great Ming!"
When the Hongwu Emperor's dragon banner flew once more, the officials in the imperial court finally realized: this "Zhu Chongba," who had appeared from nowhere and fought his way in, was none other than the founding emperor himself!
