Record of Beacon Smoke in the Late Ming Dynasty

In the first month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the remaining snow on Meishan could not cover the scorch marks of the Forbidden City, let alone the cracks in the Ming Dynasty. Li Zicheng's beacon burned through Taiyuan and Datong, Dorgon's cavalry was watching outside the pass, and the nobles from Jiangnan lay drunk in the gentle countryside of Qinhuai. Only Emperor Chongzhen held the silver hairpin left by his mother and looked out to the horizon from the Shouhuang Pavilion. The hoofbeats of Guan Ning's cavalry are approaching, but Wu Sangui's sword hangs between "loyalty" and "sheng" - is this snow burying the old dynasty, or is it waiting for a fire to change the day?