In 1644, the Jia-Shen Disaster shatters the land.
Lu Mingyuan, a Jinyiwei commander, flees to Europe with a secret volume from the Yongle Encyclopedia.
Everyone thinks he is merely an Eastern man fleeing for his life.
Until he uses lost mathematical works from the Song and Yuan dynasties to solve a problem that has baffled the French Academy of Sciences for ten years.
He uses The Secret Record of Firearms to help the Habsburgs build an invincible artillery line and crush 100,000 Ottoman cavalry.
He uses the Complete Treatise on Agriculture to turn impoverished Prussia into Europe’s breadbasket.
He uses The Essentials of Military Strategy to quell the Rebellion of the Seven States for the Holy Roman Empire.
The Pope begs him to become a cardinal, the Sun King makes him his chief advisor, and England offers him a dukedom.
The European powers scramble to win over this “sage” from the East.
Then, when the Qing delegation strides arrogantly into the Palace of Versailles, they see an Eastern face seated beside the French throne, and every one of them turns ashen.
At last, they remember:
When the Yongle Emperor compiled tens of thousands of volumes, the Jianzhou Jurchens were still living like savages.
