In the second year of Chongzhen, a severe drought struck northern Shaanxi. The land lay barren for a thousand li, and people resorted to cannibalism.
Li Xin had just transmigrated into the postmaster of Yinchuan Station in Mizhi County when he ran straight into the imperial edict abolishing the relay stations under the Chongzhen Emperor. Not only did he lose his livelihood, he was also swept into a deadly endgame of recurring natural disasters, corrupt officials squeezing the people, rebel armies rising everywhere, and the Later Jin knocking at the passes.
While others were trapped by famine, he used his Statecraft System to introduce new crops and build waterworks, turning Mizhi into a haven amid the chaos.
While others were trapped in the ravages of war, he trained a new army and built firearms, sweeping away the rebels and standing firm against the Eight Banners’ iron cavalry with elite troops.
As factional strife raged at court, he advanced step by step, rising from a borderland postmaster to a cabinet minister. He crushed the remnants of the eunuch faction, checked the Donglin scholars’ empty rhetoric, and reformed a century of abuses that had plagued the Ming dynasty.
When the Eight Banners’ iron cavalry was about to breach Shanhai Pass, when Li Zicheng’s army reached the walls of Beijing, and on the eve of the Chongzhen Emperor’s suicide at Coal Hill, Li Xin’s army already stood at the turning point where history could be rewritten.
With seventy percent historical research and detail, this story recreates the chaos of the late Ming as faithfully as possible. With thirty percent thrilling wish fulfillment, watch a modern soul save a collapsing dynasty, uphold the sun and moon, and rebuild a glorious Ming empire in its final years!
