The Radiance of the Southern Ming

On March 18, 1644, Li Zicheng's rebel forces breached Beijing. Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself on Coal Hill, bringing the 276-year-old Ming dynasty to its end. When the news reached Nanjing, Minister of War Shi Kefa, tasked with overseeing the southern capital, wavered between supporting Prince Lu or Prince Fu for the succession. In his indecision, Viceroy Ma Shiyin seized the initiative, rallying the four garrisons north of the Huai River to back Prince Fu and claim the credit for establishing the new regime. Shi Kefa was sidelined and sent to oversee military affairs north of the Yangtze. Yet the newly enthroned Hongguang Emperor gave no thought to the existential crisis facing his realm. His misrule proved disastrous: he allowed the Shun army to be crushed by the Manchu Qing forces, watched Li Zicheng fall in battle, and stood by as half of China was overrun by the invaders. The following year, the Qing armies ignored all offers of compromise and swept southward. Within a single month, Yangzhou fell, Nanjing capitulated, and most of the Hongguang court—emperor and ministers alike—were taken in chains. Amid this collapse, the sole son of Prince Lu—a man with no designs on the throne, living in quiet seclusion at Deshou Palace in Hangzhou—lost his footing while studying a chess endgame alone by the Cold Water Pavilion and tumbled into the emerald pool outside. When he was pulled from the water, another soul had taken residence in his body. Now, a young man from three hundred and sixty years in the future—one who sought only to preserve his own life—must find a way to salvage a shattered empire, restore order through strength, and reclaim the glory of Han civilization.