Dai Ming: 1631

In the summer of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Jixi County, Huizhou Prefecture. The river rushed past carrying the sand and washed a pale body onto the river beach. When Chen Zheng woke up from a violent cough and found that he had become the drowned boy with the same name, what greeted him was not the joy of a time traveler, but the bloody reality of the late Ming Dynasty. The dilapidated thatched hut was barely sheltered from the wind and rain, the sick grandmother was coughing blood, and the faces of the parents were etched with despair under the squeeze of taxes. On the official road outside the village, hungry corpses lay everywhere, and crows pecked at the bodies that were not yet cold. The head of the village led the yamen servants from house to house to collect food, and the whip crackled on the skinny back - this was the way of the world during the Chongzhen period. He soon discovered that he was not simply occupying this body. The memories of the original owner came flooding back: the attachment to his family, the anguish of failing in the imperial examination, and the cold despair when he fell into the river. These emotions were torn and entangled with his soul from the afterlife, keeping him awake at night. What's even more frightening is his knowledge of history. Fourteen years later, this land will sink deeper into purgatory. In order to survive, he had to put away his scholarly dignity and struggle in the cracks of taxes. Improving farm tools and purifying mineral salt, every step is like walking on thin ice. The local warriors training in the middle of the night, the hidden workshops in the mountains, all have sharp swords hanging above their heads - once something happens, they will be executed. However, the torrent of troubled times is never controlled by anyone. When Chongzhen's fifteen-year war raged across the Central Plains, and when the Ming Dynasty's rule collapsed under internal and external attack, Chen Zheng knew that the days of lurking were over.