In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the calamity of 1644 struck.
A silk cord hung from Coal Hill, and history reached its verdict: the Ming Dynasty fell.
Only Zhu Youjian did not die.
Lin Yue, a transmigrated infantry squad leader with real battlefield command experience, has read the Twenty-Four Histories and the military treatises of every dynasty. He knows that victory comes from seeing the whole picture and uniting people’s hearts.
He inherits a Ming Dynasty rotten to the core.
Factional strife rages at court, and officials switch sides at the first sign of trouble. The capital garrison is in shambles, its soldiers unfit to fight. The rebels storm the capital, and people flee across the land. Beyond the passes, enemy cavalry wait like tigers. The realm is shattered, surrounded by dead ends.
The original emperor governed diligently and suspected everyone, striving to restore order, yet only brought the empire closer to ruin.
Everyone believes the situation is beyond saving. Lin Yue alone knows the truth: fate is never ordained by Heaven. It is forged by people.
No elite troops? He’ll drill the surviving soldiers on the spot, rebuilding Ming discipline through squad-and-platoon organization.
No popular support? He’ll roll back damaging policies and gather the displaced, reclaiming the foundation of the throne.
No way out? He’ll set priorities, forge alliances, end factional strife, crush the roving rebels, and repel foreign invaders.
Starting with five hundred survivors on Coal Hill, he lays a foundation in desperation and restores order amid chaos.
As the officials prepare to welcome a new dynasty and accept new appointments, a transformed Chongzhen applies modern military principles to rebuild the Ming army and draws on a thousand years of history to tackle a century of accumulated ills.
The Ming survives 1644 and rises again.
I will not abdicate. The Han lineage shall never end!
Ai The prince, the queen, and the princess seemed not to exist, not even a word was mentioned.