The Chongzhen Emperor did not hang himself. After moving south, he established the Southern Ming Technological Court. By chance, he acquired a complete copy of The Exploitation of the Works of Nature and embarked on a comeback built around the idea of saving the nation through science and technology. This is a stirring tale of a civilization fighting to save itself, using the Ming dynasty’s hard-core technology tree to turn the tide. In the end, however, he discovers that saving the realm in a physical sense is far easier than saving its rotten institutions and people’s hearts.
