The Southern Seas Chinese Bastion

In the early years of the Chongzhen reign, the sea ban was ironclad, and the southeastern coast was strewn with starving corpses. Huo Guihai, a modern graduate student with expertise in both marine engineering and history, opened his eyes to find himself a kidnapped laborer in a Dutch rubber mine in the South Seas: shackles, whips, plague, and fellow countrymen waiting to die. The mine was a living hell.

There was no law in the South Seas, only sea winds, blades, guns, and the human heart. Huo Guihai had no System and no family connections. He relied solely on his knowledge of early modern basic industry, navigation, fortification, and disease prevention. Leading three hundred displaced people with nowhere else to turn, he sparked a revolt at the mine and seized a ship. They drifted to an unclaimed harbor, then began rebuilding their homeland in a foreign land, starting with an earthen fort, a shipload of fresh water, and half a storehouse of coarse grain.

He built sailing ships, smelted iron and made saltpeter, opened rice paddies, and established workshops. He negotiated with the Dutch East India Company, the Portuguese and Spanish colonists, native chieftains, and Qiongzhou pirates. He welcomed Han refugees and learned to coexist with the local peoples. From trading port to fleet, from stockade to nation, Huo Guihai would prove one thing: the sky may have fallen over the Ming, but the Han people still had a way forward. In the South Seas, they would build themselves a new home.