Chronicles of the Waning Ming

In the second year of the Chongzhen reign, the Ji Si Incident erupted. The northern cavalry broke through the passes, shaking the capital region as flames lit up half the sky. Lin Yan, the second son of a small landowner, had only wanted to spend the winter preserving what little dignity remained in his family's dilapidated courtyard. But when the sound of hooves thundered into the village, he fled into the snowy night with his mother, nephew, cousin, and hired hand. Fragments he couldn't explain kept surfacing in his mind: sweet potatoes, ways to stop bleeding, scraps from some battered old book. He trusted the inexplicable chill they brought, so he loaded the grain onto the cart early and stayed dressed and ready. This is not a story about being reborn as a prince or minister and single-handedly saving the world. There is no overpowered hero, only a group of ordinary people in a time of chaos: people who might be trampled to death on a village road, plunge through the ice, or give their lives to protect those behind them. They never asked for much. Surviving was victory enough.