Iron-Blooded, Damaged Ming

In the late Ming dynasty, Spain and Japan gradually restricted the outflow of silver. The flow of capital into the Ming, which had continued since the early sixteenth century, was reversed, and both the commodity economy and the small-peasant economy that coexisted in the empire were hit by deflation. Combined with the impact of the Little Ice Age, one domino after another in this age of chaos began to fall.

In the eleventh month of Chongzhen year six, bandits crossed the south bank of the Mianchi River and surged out like a ruptured ulcer, sweeping across the Central Plains. In Chongzhen year seven, the Later Jin army, which had ravaged the north for more than ten years, swept through Xuanfu and Datong as if entering an unguarded land. The nearly three-hundred-year-old Great Ming dynasty stood on the brink of collapse.

The protagonist arrives at this moment, becoming a lowly yamen runner in Tongcheng County of Southern Zhili. The story begins with a dead rat suddenly thrown into the air.