[Hardcore Political Intrigue]+ [No System]+ [Ensemble Cast]+ [Slow Burn]
On the thirteenth day of the second month of the seventeenth year of the Chongzhen reign, he transmigrated into a world where news of Taiyuan's fall had been suppressed for five days. It would erupt at court that very morning. Before long, Zhou Yuji would die fighting for his country, Datong would surrender its city, and the Ming dynasty would be just thirty-seven days from collapse.
The treasury held a mere four thousand taels, while the Inner Treasury had no more than eighty thousand silver taels. Grain prices in the capital were soaring, plague was spreading, and the people were suffering terribly.
Faced with an inescapable historical dead end, Chongzhen first sent trusted aides to stabilize the front lines. As for the court officials? Why kill a hen that lays golden eggs? He would sit firmly in the Qianqing Palace and scheme against every last one of them!
Grand Secretary Chen Yan had concealed the news of Taiyuan's fall, hoping to escape unscathed? Chongzhen sent assassins to cripple him, then exiled him a thousand li away, half-dead.
The officials clamored day after day for a southern relocation? Anyone who could make it out of Beijing would prove him wrong. When the rebel bandit arrives, we all die together!
No money? No money? No men?
The money will come! So will the grain!
After being outmaneuvered again and again and stripped of their fortunes, the assembled nobles and ministers wailed in despair: “The Emperor's run out of money! Truly, there's nothing left!”
With the capital region in crisis, local commanders were entrenched in their own territories and refused to come to the dynasty's aid? Then there was no need for them. Who said you needed a huge army to win a war?
The generals stared at the new weapon's two-li range and hurried to dissuade him: “Your Majesty, please don't...”
Li Zicheng, bent on marching east and claiming the realm, fought for three months before staring at his own territory in confusion. “Wait, how did I get trapped here?”
The Manchus were even mired in a crisis over their own bloodline!
