Transmigrate to the Seventeenth Year of Chongzhen

In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, atop Coal Hill, he watched Beijing burn and calmly went to his death. The world would remember him only as the ruler who lost his country.

But no one would know that, during the seventeen years before that, he had done something else.

He had tried to save the dynasty. He had also personally executed his own student. He watched starving people resort to cannibalism, watched officials and gentry exploit the people at every turn, and watched the system devour every effort. In the end, he gave up on “saving the Ming.”

Instead, in the darkness, he kindled a faint but dangerous flame. Using his imperial status as cover, he sheltered the sprouting of a seed destined to change history.

He failed.

But that failure changed everything.