Bold and Unrestrained

(Overthrow the Qing Dynasty + Celestial Empire + Ruler of Blue Star)

By the first year of the Jiaqing reign (1796), the Qing Dynasty had long since lost the glory of the Kangxi-Qianlong Golden Age. Signs of decline seeped through it like the chill of spring in the Jing Mountains: its vast territory and strict rites could not hide the rot beneath the surface.

Qianlong had abdicated as Retired Emperor, yet clung tightly to power. Though Emperor Jiaqing had ascended the throne, he was little more than a figurehead. The court's “dual rule” kept the government in a stranglehold, leaving decrees in disarray and administration paralyzed.

The Heshen faction had held sway at the center for years, and corruption spread from top to bottom. Local officials squeezed the people through “fire-consumption fees,” “levies,” and “militia surcharges.” Even Green Standard Army soldiers faced withheld rations and wages, while their families were driven to desperation. Corruption had rotted the bureaucracy to its core.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, a new age had already begun. In the French First Republic, Napoleon was consolidating his rule and preparing to reshape Europe.

The Industrial Revolution was in full swing across the British Isles. Mechanization in the cotton industry was driving a leap in productivity, while the shadow of warships and cannon was quietly gathering across the ocean. The Opium War was only a little over forty years away.

An era of upheaval was approaching. Li Jimin, a scholar steeped in the classics and carrying memories from a later age, had only wanted to live in peace. But when militia surcharges drove his family to ruin, he became a rebel swept up among refugees and deserters.

At the crossroads of domestic turmoil, foreign threats, and the clash between past and present, this scholar, forced to take to the hills, will ultimately make choices amid blood and fire that shape both his own fate and the course of his age.