Late Ming: The Gentry Beg Me to Stop Killing

In the winter of Chongzhen's second year, at a military outpost in Gansu, the soul of a man from a later age awakened inside the body of Guo Xiao, an eighteen-year-old foot soldier. There was only one path before him: kill the company commander and raise the banner of rebellion. From that moment on, the world had one fewer soldier at the mercy of others and gained a name that would make the whole realm tremble. He killed corrupt officials and rebel bandits alike; he slaughtered the Manchus and the Japanese pirates. To his enemies, he was the "Blood Butcher," an underworld judge who left no survivors. To the people, he was their savior, dividing the land and abolishing grain taxes, the only source of justice in a chaotic age. When Chongzhen hanged himself at Coal Hill, when Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were both put to death, and when Huang Taiji's cavalry was beaten back before him, he ascended the throne atop mountains of corpses and rivers of blood, founding the Han dynasty. But he did not stop there: he marched west into Central Asia, conquered Tianzhu to the south, destroyed Fusang to the east, and pacified the snowy north. The Han dragon banner flew across the Eurasian continent.