[In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the Great Ming fell.]
Li Zicheng broke through Beijing, and Chongzhen hanged himself on Coal Hill.
When I opened my eyes, I had become the Ming Crown Prince, Zhu Cilang, who should have vanished amid the chaos.
I had no army of a million men, and no loyal ministers waiting on their knees to welcome me.
Beijing was already beyond saving, and the dynasty had rotted to its core.
Worse still, I soon realized that there was some history I simply could not change, not yet.
Li Zicheng would still enter Beijing, Dorgon would still march south, Wu Sangui would still open Shanhai Pass, and the Qing would ultimately rule the Central Plains.
If I couldn't save the Ming, already dead and gone, then I would first make sure I survived.
I would hide my identity, gather refugees, seize the grain routes, and build an army of my own. I would fight Li Zicheng, fight the Manchus, and fight those “loyal ministers of the Ming” who mouthed devotion to the throne while caring only for power.
Everyone believed the Chongzhen Emperor's Crown Prince had died long ago in the chaos of the Jiashen year.
Many years later, when Qing cavalry swept across the land and it seemed the Han realm would never rise again, a man they should have long forgotten raised the battered Sun-and-Moon Banner once more.
This time, I was fighting for more than the throne.
I would reclaim a fallen realm from the dead.
Finished, 💩💩💩💩💩