A Desperate Rescue at the End of the Ming Dynasty

A Man Sui fan work, with no Liang, an original protagonist, and an original plot that diverges considerably from the source material. Please read at your discretion.

This is a semi-fanwork spin-off of The Starved: A Thousand-Mile Journey in Late Ming.

The wheat is not yet ripe, but the taxes are already being collected. The old ox is led away without mercy. The roots are dug up and the bark stripped bare. When next year comes, who will bury the dried bones?

In the final years of the Tianqi era, the fighting in Liaodong had yet to cease, and the imperial treasury was empty. As if that were not enough, northern Shaanxi was struck by another severe drought that year. The land cracked, the crops failed, and grain taxes grew heavier by the day. The people had nothing to eat, sparking rebellions. For a thousand miles, the land lay barren, all vegetation withered, and starving corpses littered the fields. People even resorted to eating one another.