Dire Situation: In the winter of Chongzhen's second year, Shen Li opens his eyes to find himself a low-ranking banner officer beneath the frontier wall at Jizhen, too poor to eat his fill. The officers above him have withheld three years of pay. His blade is chipped, his armor rotten. Beyond the wall, a hundred thousand Later Jin troops have already breached the pass, and their cavalry will reach Zunhua within three days. His fellow soldiers say, "Run. The Ming army is rotten to the core."
Golden Finger and Twist: Run? A blueprint for an entire industrial system glows in his mind. Give it raw materials and a goal, and it works out every step of the production chain. Other rebels rely on fervor. He'll rely on an assembly line. Chipped blades go onto the forge and come out as repeatedly refined steel. The furnaces never go cold: granular gunpowder, flintlock guns, and water-powered forging hammers all take shape inside a battered blockhouse beneath the frontier wall.
High-Stakes Teaser: In three months, the broken remnants of the army become a new force, and the blockhouse becomes an arsenal. When the Later Jin cavalry finally crashes into that low earthen wall, three volleys of fire await them. Huang Taiji thinks he has captured a ruined fort, until he sees row upon row of black muzzles along the walls, and, behind the fort, blast furnaces belching smoke day and night. "From this day on, I set the rules for firearms in this realm."
Anyone who specializes in flintlock guns will have at most three stars.