I am Zhu Zhanji, the fifth emperor of the Great Ming, a wise ruler who ushered in the Ren and Xuan reigns.
Reborn in the modern age after my death, I could only watch as my Great Ming fell in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen's reign.
I died in a fit of rage and was reborn at the end of the Ming dynasty as a beggar.
This time, I won't just save the Great Ming. I'll make sure it never falls.
When the civil officials opposed reform in the name of our ancestors' laws, I laughed:
“I am the ancestor. If I say we change things, then change them!”
When Li Zicheng's million-strong army besieged the city, I built barbed wire and trenches.
When Huang Taiji's cavalry rode south, my steam tanks crushed their way through Shanhai Pass.
When the Dutch fleet ruled the seas, my ironclads bombarded Batavia.
And all of that was just the beginning.
One day, the Imperial Astronomical Bureau sent an urgent report: an unknown star chart had been discovered, pointing to ruins beyond the heavens.
The court was bewildered. I alone trembled with excitement.
“Convey my decree.” I rose, gazing through the great hall toward the stars.
“From this day forward, the dynasty's name shall remain unchanged, but it shall bear an additional title: the Great Interstellar Empire.”
This is the story of an ancestor returning to personally keep civilization alive.
From the crooked tree on Coal Hill to the heights of the Milky Way's spiral arm.
The sun and moon shall never set; civilization shall live forever.
