I am Zhu Youjian, the sixteenth emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
History says that I will hang myself on an old crooked neck tree in Meishan, the Ming Dynasty will perish, the Jianlu will invade the Pass, and China will sink for three hundred years.
But I didn't die.
A piece of white silk hangs out another soul - a soul from a later generation who is familiar with history and military affairs, and has the entire global chess game of the 17th century in his eyes. I have also been bound to a system, a system that feeds on the destiny of the country and forces me to lead the upgrading of civilization in a desperate situation.
Beijing fell, and Li Zicheng's army was outside the Meridian Gate. Outside the pass, Dorgon's Eight Banners were watching eagerly. In the south, warlords acted independently and stood by.
But what I saw was more than that.
I saw that the Spanish Armada was about to decline, the Dutch East India Company controlled the South China Sea, the Russian Cossacks were crossing Siberia, and the English Parliament was noisy and brewing revolution... This was an era of global hegemony, and Ming, who was supposed to be a chess player, almost became a pawn.
So, I decided to change my approach.
The first step was to defend the Forbidden City. Use hundreds of remaining soldiers, a few old cannons, and a modern soul. I let Liu Zongmin's corpse pile up in the Beijing Palace outside the Meridian Gate, and Li Zicheng's "million-strong army" smashed his head and blood under the palace wall.
In the second step, I want to slaughter the Qing Dynasty. Not revenge, but eradication. Line infantry, flintlocks, and granular gunpowder were used to perform a surgical and civilized excision of the Jurchens in Jianzhou. Plow the courtyard and sweep the holes to avoid future troubles forever. Liaodong will always have the surname Han.
