Prince Zhao of Great Ming: Hunted by Zhu Di from the Start

Chen Ye, a top student in the Military Command Department of the National Defense University, died in an accident during an exercise. When he woke up, he had become Zhu Qi, the Prince of Zhao and Zhu Yuanzhang’s eighth son.

According to history, this prince died shortly after birth. The moment Chen Ye opened his eyes, Zhu Di’s assassins had already slipped through the gates of his mansion.

“Fourth Brother, you’ve already sent people to kill me?”

At court, he was a ridiculous prince whom anyone could bully, drinking, gambling, and idling his days away. No influence at court? No problem. He had no intention of competing with his brothers for favor in Nanjing.

A secret memorial from the dying Crown Prince Zhu Biao revealed ironclad proof that Zhu Di was secretly expanding his army in Beiping. Holding the memorial, Chen Ye said to Zhu Yuanzhang, “Your son is willing to go to the frontier. The Son of Heaven guards the gates of the nation, and the ruler dies for his realm!”

At the border stronghold of Datong, a hundred thousand Oirat cavalrymen watched like hungry tigers. Zhu Qi led his troops into battle, wielding a long steel blade forged in a crucible, and routed them in a single strike.

Improved iron smelting, refined salt, soap made from Chinese honey locust pods, coal briquettes for heating, telescopes for reconnaissance, and Huihui cannons for sieges: modern military thinking crushed the cold-weapon battlefields of the fourteenth century.

Xu Miaojin, Xu Da’s youngest daughter and a valiant daughter of a military family, raised her blade against Zhu Qi. “You dare marry me?”

Saren, a princess of the Northern Yuan, faced him across the battlefield. “Prince of Zhao, what is it you really want?”

Zhu Yuanzhang stared at the victory reports in silence for a long time. “Of my eight sons, the one most like me is, unexpectedly, the one least like me.”

In Beiping, Zhu Di smashed his teacup. “I can’t sleep while the eighth is still alive!”

To survive, he had no choice but to grow stronger.

Watch as a modern commander rises from an overlooked, ridiculous prince to become the pillar of the Ming Dynasty’s northern frontier, tramples the Oirat royal encampment beneath his horse, and ushers in an age of Ming naval power!