Dreaming of the Late Ming

The modern intellectual Zhu Yan transmigrates to the fifth year of the Chongzhen reign (1632), an age beset by internal and external crises. Within the country, peasant uprisings in northern Shaanxi have spread like wildfire, with Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong among their leaders. Factional strife between the remnants of the eunuch faction and the Donglin Party rages in court, while the Chongzhen Emperor is suspicious and impatient for results. Beyond the borders, Hong Taiji of Later Jin grows ever stronger. He has declared himself emperor and renamed his reign Qing, and his forces have bypassed the passes through Mongolia to raid the realm. The aftermath of the Jisi Incident has yet to fade.