In the first year of the Taichang reign (1620), the Ming Dynasty entered one of the darkest years in its history. First, Emperor Shenzong died. A month later, Emperor Guangzong passed away suddenly as well.
The entire Ming Empire was riddled with problems.
The treasury had collapsed, and rebellions broke out everywhere. Fighting in Liaodong sent military expenses soaring, so the court imposed an additional "Liaodong levy" on the people, extorting roughly 5.2 million taels of silver.
Liaodong was in peril, with a powerful enemy at the border. Nurhaci of the Later Jin had become a grave threat there.
When Zhu Wenyao woke up, he found he had transmigrated from the twenty-first century to the Ming Dynasty of more than four hundred years ago, becoming the Tianqi Emperor Zhu Youxiao, remembered in the history books as nothing more than a carpenter.
The late emperor had just died, and Li Xuanshi wanted to rule from behind the curtain?
Being emperor wasn't enough.
I was going to become the founding master of Ming industry.
So what if I was a carpenter? The firearms I built could shoot farther than the mouths of you factional squabblers.
Zhu Youxiao kicked open the doors of the Palace of Heavenly Purity.
And so, a brand-new Ming Dynasty slowly began to take shape.
