Chongzhen: I Rule the World with Mechs

[Alternate History + Ming Dynasty + Mecha + Myriad Worlds]

In the seventeenth year of the Chongzhen reign, beneath an old locust tree on Coal Hill.

Faced with Li Zicheng's army and the betrayal of his court, Zhu Youjian does not choose the white silk for hanging himself. Instead, he opens the “Gate to Guixu” beneath the Imperial Ancestral Temple.

As steam and gears grind together and black smoke veils the setting sun, the Great Ming gains its true master.

“My Great Ming has no need for upright civil officials. It needs only a torrent of steel!”

From the first “Iron Pagoda” on Coal Hill to the steam cannons that rout the Eight Banners at Xifengkou;

from the “Shadow Warriors” that cover eight hundred li in a day to steel airships that blot out the sky.

Zhu Youjian stands atop a towering foundry, gazing down at the kneeling masses and blazing furnaces below.

“Li Zicheng? Hong Taiji? Before my mechanized legions, they are nothing but ants!”

This is a story of steel, blood, and conquest.

I am Heaven's Mandate. I am industry. I am... the Mechanical Tyrant!