Late Song: Starting the Industrial Revolution at Age Eight

Yashan, 1279. A hundred thousand soldiers and civilians plunge into the sea, and the Song dynasty falls. A month earlier, he had died of overwork. He opens his eyes as eight-year-old Zhao Bing, the last emperor of the Southern Song, a child surrounded on all sides by Mongol cavalry, cut off from food and water, and destined to sink along with his dynasty. But he refuses to accept his fate. In his previous life, he read countless books and amassed a thousand years of knowledge in agriculture, ironmaking, chemistry, physics, and military affairs. On history's sheer cliff, he will carve out a path to survival by sheer force: One decree can change the world: He persuades Lu Xiufu and Zhang Shijie to abandon their doomed defense and lead the soldiers and civilians south, away from the brink. Tempered in the South Seas: In Borneo's tropical rainforests, they smelt steel in clay furnaces, make granular gunpowder, fishing nets, farm tools, and naval warships. Brick by brick, they rekindle the flame. Five years in hiding: Steam engines roar on an isolated island. Rifled guns line the training grounds. A new generation of hardened commanders emerges from the military academy, while a spy network quietly spreads across the Central Plains. The eight-year-old boy grows into a sixteen-year-old emperor. The northern campaign begins: Fifty thousand elite troops and three hundred steam warships cross the vast sea. Volley fire holds back the Mongol cavalry, and heavy cannons blast open the gates of Dadu. A civilization that had already sunk fights its way back to its homeland through fire and blood. He establishes the capital at Nanjing, introduces constitutional government and equal land distribution, abolishes hereditary servile status, promotes education, reopens the Silk Road, and welcomes envoys from every nation.