The New Destiny of the Ming Dynasty

In the spring of the twelfth year of Chongzhen's reign, on the first day of the third month, three hundred li outside Shanhaiguan, the spring chill was still in the air, and heavy clouds hung in the sky.

Ningyuan City, a strategically important military town outside Shanhaiguan, stands like a black mountain range on the howling winds of western Liaoning.

The tall and sturdy city walls of Ningyuan are not far from the Liaodong Bay coast to the east. The cold sea wind, carrying a salty and fishy smell, makes the flags standing on the city walls rustle constantly.

It was past noon, but the leaden sky was low, making people feel depressed and unable to tell whether it was dawn or dusk.

On the small training ground inside the east gate of Ningyuan City, the sounds of ping-pong, gunfire, and cannons have been ringing out since early morning, intermittently for two or three hours now.

The soldiers on duty near the east gate of Ningyuan City were inwardly grumbling about this, wondering what had gotten into their superiors.

"Have you heard, brother? Yang Xiezhen fell off his horse last time and was unconscious for three days and three nights. But when he woke up, guess what? He was a completely different person! Oh my, he was so polite to the brothers! Yesterday, when I was serving him, even fetching him water to wash his feet, he kept saying thank you! It completely baffled me!"

A young soldier with a scarred face, seeing that no superiors were patrolling around, couldn't help but continue his rambling to an older soldier who was much older than him:

"I just don't know what's gotten into Yang Xiezhen today! Forget about Ningyuan City, in the whole of Liaodong, what musket, shotgun, or iron cannon isn't something we brothers have already played with? What's there to try? Picking and choosing, firing back and forth, it's all the same old thing!"

The old soldier, upon hearing this, looked displeased and impatient. He said angrily, "You gossipy Zhang, you really have a foul, gossipy mouth! If you keep talking behind Yang Xiezhen's back and say anything bad about him, I'll personally beat your mouth to a pulp! Yang Xiezhen is a decent man!"

The young soldier nicknamed "Chatterbox Zhang" wasn't afraid at all. He then grinned and said to the old soldier, "Brother Pan, don't be angry! I didn't say a bad word about Yang Xiezhen! It's just that in the past, Yang Xiezhen would curse and hit us brothers without hesitation, but he never treated us like outsiders. We're all used to it. Now that we're being polite, it feels like we're being distant!"

Before "Chatterbox Zhang" could finish saying "Brother Pan," Xiao Jun chimed in, "That's exactly right! Something's not right here!"

At this moment, another soldier also became interested and whispered, "Hey, tell me, what happened to Yang Xiezhen's chestnut horse that he'd ridden for so many years? It suddenly went crazy and threw him off!"

The soldiers on duty outside the small drill ground inside the East Gate were talking in hushed tones, some recounting how magnificent Yang Xiezhen's chestnut horse had been in the past, and others telling various stories and legends about Yang Xiezhen's past.

Just then, another four shots rang out from the small training ground behind them. The old soldier, called "Brother Pan," turned his head and looked in the direction from which the gunfire came.

Inside the small training ground, a small group of heavily armored men surrounded a strong young man with a red cloth wrapped around his head. The man held a black multi-barreled musket and was talking to the people around him.

"This so-called four-eyed iron spear has a rather imposing name! It's a pity it can't shoot very far and isn't very accurate! But the noise it makes is pretty damn loud! On the battlefield, it'd be good for intimidating people!"

"But its gunpowder is no good, its bullets are no good, and it's no good at long range. Even if it hits the Jurchen's cotton armor from a hundred paces away, it's useless! In Ningyuan City, are there any other muskets, firearms, or firearms? Quickly find them all that you think might be useful and let me see them first!"

The strong young man who spoke these words was none other than Yang Xiezhen, as mentioned by the soldiers on duty outside the drill ground, including "Chatty Zhang" and "Brother Pan".

Xiezhen is a title of respect.

In the late Ming Dynasty, the general was called "General Commander" or "Lord General Commander" in the army, while the deputy general who assisted the general in managing the army and commanding battles was respectfully called "Assistant Commander".

The deputy general was ranked below the general and was on par with the deputy general in the military system of the Ming Dynasty. Both were military positions between the general and the assistant general.

Of course, most of the time, the deputy commander-in-chief is the same as the deputy general, and the deputy general is the same as the deputy commander-in-chief.

However, the Ming Dynasty was an era that valued titles and status. Since the two terms were used differently, it meant that there were still some differences between them.

The term "deputy commander-in-chief" refers to the official rank, while "deputy general" refers to the rank or position.

Based on my observations and understanding of "Yang Xiezhen" over the past few days, the person who is below the General and above the Assistant General, who independently leads a branch of government troops and guards a city, is called the Deputy General.

Correspondingly, those who could not independently lead a contingent of government troops or independently defend a city were only called deputy generals.

In other words, the deputy general was merely the commander-in-chief's assistant. Apart from his own personal guards or soldiers, he did not have his own independent battalion or territory. His job was to assist the commander-in-chief in managing the army or commanding battles.

Ever since Yang Xiezhen woke up from his coma after falling from his horse, he has been nervous after going through many twists and turns and making inquiries from various sources, finally realizing the reality before him.

This Yang Xiezhen is a time traveler.

Indeed, the Yang Xiezhen in Ningyuan City on the first day of the third month of the twelfth year of Chongzhen's reign was no longer the Yang Xiezhen who fell from his horse and fell into a coma on the twenty-seventh day of the second month of the twelfth year of Chongzhen's reign.

The person was still the same, with a beard and scars all over his face. He was still tall, strong, and powerful, and looked just like a valiant warrior.

However, beneath that face, which was not exactly handsome but had thick eyebrows, big eyes, and a heroic air, and a strong body, there was an almost completely new soul.

His name was Yang Zhen. He never thought he could actually time travel. Before his soul left his body, or to put it simply, before he fell off the east gate of Xingcheng Ancient City, he was just an ordinary person who loved to read novels, fantasize, brag, and show off in his spare time.

That day, he, the office director, accompanied his department leaders and colleagues to Xingcheng Ancient City under the guise of team building. At that time, the city wall at the east gate of the ancient city was under repair, with a large number of construction workers preventing tourists from going up.

However, he loved to show off and wanted to stand out in front of his department leaders and colleagues. He insisted on going up to communicate and coordinate with people to get special treatment. As a result, he couldn't communicate and started arguing. In a moment of carelessness, he fell down a two- or three-meter-high step.

It's unclear whether it was because he was being arrogant and overbearing, accidentally slipping and falling, or because someone in the crowd pushed or kicked him out of pity. In any case, he fell down a mere two or three meters of steps and died.

As his soul left his body and slowly rose, he had only one thought—never again to show off his skills in his next life!

Immediately afterwards, everything went black before his eyes, and he completely lost consciousness.

However, to his utter surprise, after an unknown period of time, his consciousness gradually returned.

But when he struggled to wake up from the boundless darkness, the depths of his consciousness were filled with promotional videos of modern and period films, one after another.

In fact, Yang Xiezhen only remained unconscious for one day and one night before waking up.

However, the "Yang Xiezhen" who woke up was no longer the same Yang Xiezhen from the past, and he dared not let anyone know that he had woken up.

Therefore, for the rest of the time, Yang Zhen was confused about the situation and could only pretend to be unconscious.

During his "coma," many people came to visit him, one after another.

Some of these people came to take a look and left, while others rambled on and on about a lot of things that he didn't quite understand at the time.

Some people came more than once, sitting on his kang (heated brick bed) and rambling on about everyday life, including how naughty and mischievous he was as a child, and how daring and thrilling things he did as an adult.

Some people even knelt down by his bedside and wailed as soon as they came in.

The constant stream of visitors was incredibly bothersome to him, as he was already racking his brains trying to figure out what to do.

Of course, during this time, some people clumsily pried open his mouth to feed him water, and even fed him some millet porridge.

After lying in bed for two days and two nights, Yang Zhen roughly figured out what was going on and what kind of situation he was about to face. He felt that he could no longer pretend.

If they keep pretending, there's really no point in them waking up; they might as well just die.

Because during the time he pretended to remain unconscious, he heard the words "the second year of Chongzhen's reign," "the eleventh year of Chongzhen's reign," "the twelfth year of Chongzhen's reign," "Liaodong," "Ningyuan," "Tartars," "governor," and "general" from his visitors more than once.

These blood-stained words instantly extinguished his joy at being resurrected, turning him into a state of constant fear and unease.

Fortunately, after two days and two nights, he had figured it out.

In this time and space, the guy whose soul was possessed by him, or rather, the host of his soul in this time and space, shared the same name as him, Yang Zhen, and was also a deputy general.

Moreover, he happened to have seen the name Yang Zhen in a novel about the late Ming Dynasty and Emperor Chongzhen.

Because he shared the same name as Yang Zhen, he even looked up Yang Zhen's illustrious deeds on his phone.

Although historical records about Yang Zhen are very scarce, even pitifully scarce, the few records in official and unofficial histories are enough for him to recognize that this Ming Dynasty general with the same name was a hero, a loyal and patriotic anti-Qing hero who died for his country.

Just three days ago, Yang Zhen was riding back from outside the East Gate of Ningyuan when, at high speed, his horse suddenly stumbled and he fell off, landing headfirst and losing consciousness.

The spot where Yang Zhen, the deputy general of Ningyuan, fell from his horse and landed on his head in the twelfth year of the Chongzhen reign was exactly the same spot where Yang Zhen, the office director, landed on his head 380 years later.

And just like that, Yang Zhen unwittingly turned misfortune into blessing—he transmigrated.

He is still Yang Zhen, but now he no longer wants to play the role of Yang Zhen, the hero who was defeated and died tragically in the late Ming Dynasty.

He doesn't believe in fate; he wants to change things, he wants to reverse things, he wants to turn things around.

Because if things don't change, Yang Zhen will soon die a heroic death, but he absolutely doesn't want to become the most tragic time traveler in history.