Keywords: bloody purges, power restructuring, military control in the capital, technological enlightenment
In the second year of Chongzhen's reign, before the rope on Meishan was put around his neck, he woke up.
The first sword struck Shanxi merchants, bloodbathed the capital, and burned the land deeds into ashes and spread them to the refugees. Military merit was awarded, beheadings were exchanged for ten acres of farmland, and the 30,000 empty spaces in the Beijing camp were filled with heads. The steam engine drawings were thrown in front of Xu Guangqi - instead of building a train, build a killing machine first.
Three years later, Liaodong was pacified, and Huang Taiji's heads were piled up in Beijing. In ten years, Mongolia was swept across, and the railway tracks were laid to Guihua City. Twenty years of Western Expedition, artillery bombarded the gate to the Caspian Sea. Thirty years ago, the Ming Dynasty Dragon Flag was planted on the banks of the Danube River. In fifty years, steam iron ships crossed the Atlantic and Aztec gold was transported back to the Forbidden City.
This is not salvation, but armed colonization. War is used to feed war, and the industrial revolution is fed with the blood and flesh of the enemy country; the military and the state are integrated, so that every village is forging swords and guns. Expand, divide the land, and expand again—until the end of the world, to the sea of stars.
The prosperous age was killed, and the Ming Dynasty was snatched away.
