[Alternate History] [Tragedy] [Dark Humor] [Historical Revelation] This story is entirely fictional and means nothing beyond that.
The so-called "entry through the passes" was really the beginning of a gluttonous feast.
The rulers beyond the passes were not the Jurchen warriors of the stories, but a cannibal tribe from the frozen wastelands, still living in the Stone Age. They knew nothing of guns or farming, but they did know this: promise enough profit, and the highly advanced Ming warlords would kill people on their behalf.
Eight pirate nations from the West donned the armor of the "Banner people" and willingly became the cannibals' "hounds" in their quest to seize the Ming dynasty's industrial secrets.
Beneath Yangzhou's walls, red-coat cannons thundered, but their technology came from the Ministry of Works in neighboring Nanjing. Shi Kefa watched as the city's people were penned up like livestock, sorted, and slaughtered. Among those waiting with knives and forks to divide up the Ming inheritance were both blue-eyed missionaries and former compatriots who had shaved their heads and changed their clothes.
In an age swallowed by darkness, the only rule is this: don't let yourself become "food."
