I am Zhu Yunwen! I am the Son of Heaven of Great Ming!

The wind howled and the rain lashed down beneath the vast darkness of night.

A bolt of lightning descended like an azure dragon baring its fangs and brandishing its claws, shattering the void. Beneath that awesome heavenly might, all creation trembled.

Su Changhe felt himself falling and jolted awake from his dream. He was about to climb up, brush the rainwater off himself, and continue touring the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum when he realized that he no longer seemed to be on the mausoleum steps.

"He's awake, he's awake! His Majesty is awake! Summon the imperial physician! Heaven has blessed us..."

A eunuch wearing a three-peaked hat, a strip of white cloth around his forehead, and a blue-gray python robe cried out in an androgynous voice.

Su Changhe froze.

His Majesty?

Had I somehow gone from Nanjing to Hengdian?

Which production crew was this?

He turned to look. The hall was brightly lit, and lifelike coiled dragons were carved into the ceiling.

Two dragons chased a pearl above the golden doors.

At the very center stood a square platform bearing a gilded dragon-carved throne and a gilded dragon-carved screen.

Before the throne stood a luduan beast, cranes, incense holders, and other objects.

In front of the platform were four copper-bodied cloisonné incense burners. Sandalwood incense burned within them, sending up curling wisps of smoke.

Farther away stood a large dragon-decorated cabinet.

"Why does this arrangement look so much like the Palace of Heavenly Purity in the old Ming imperial palace?"

Su Changhe muttered to himself. His head felt itchy, so he raised a hand to touch it. Pain pierced him to the marrow, and at the same time, a flood of unfamiliar memories poured into his mind.

The owner of those memories was named Zhu Yunwen!

Zhu Yunwen?

Su Changhe's eyes widened. No matter how he thought about it, he could not understand why he had Zhu Yunwen's memories.

Transmigration?

Rebirth?

Had I already died once?

Su Changhe could not make sense of any of it. It all felt absurd.

"Your Majesty, how do you feel? Has your health improved at all?"

A gentle, dignified woman dressed in white approached. After a slight bow, she knelt beside the bed and looked at him with deep concern, her eyes full of worry and care.

Su Changhe looked away and surveyed the room. He got out of bed and, without even putting on his shoes, walked to the doorway and opened the door.

A bolt of lightning split the dark night sky, revealing rows of magnificent palaces for a fleeting instant.

"Your Majesty, the wind and rain are fierce outside. Please take care of your imperial person."

Ma Enhui followed him and pleaded with him.

Su Changhe turned around and looked at Ma Enhui, his face full of confusion. "What happened? Why am I here?"

Ma Enhui hurriedly answered, "Have you forgotten, Your Majesty? Ever since your enthronement ceremony, when you took charge of state affairs, you have constantly thought of the founding emperor and often visited the Xiaoling Mausoleum. This morning, you accidentally fell there and injured your head."

"The Xiaoling Mausoleum?"

Su Changhe remembered that he had been touring the mausoleum and had also taken a fall.

Different times!

The same place, the same event!

A bolt of lightning had stirred the wind and rain of six hundred years ago...

Su Changhe felt those unfamiliar memories becoming familiar. It seemed that he himself was Zhu Yunwen, the emperor of the Great Ming Empire!

Yet in those memories, Su Changhe saw neither grand talent and vision nor imposing majesty. Instead, there was weakness and timidity, caution and restraint.

"Is this real?"

Su Changhe paced as the memories overlapped and took shape. A clear picture of the era and his reality gradually emerged in his mind.

It was now the tenth day of the sixth month in the thirty-first year of Hongwu!

A month earlier, the great Hongwu Emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang, had passed away.

Since the era name could not be changed until the following year, this could not yet be called the first year of Jianwen. They still had to use the Hongwu era name.

The hundred-day period of deep mourning, during which meat, ceremonial music, sexual relations, and fine clothing were forbidden, had only just begun. Not even a month had passed.

At this point, Zhu Yunwen had only just taken power.

"Of course it is real. Your Majesty lost consciousness at the time..."

Ma Enhui hurriedly explained.

"Lost consciousness? Then wouldn't word have spread?"

Su Changhe knew very well that although Zhu Yuanzhang had passed the throne down to Zhu Yunwen, skipping a generation, there were far more than one or two people coveting that supreme seat.

Especially Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan!

He was the very man who would later raise the banner of "clearing the emperor's side and quelling the realm's troubles" and drive the Jianwen Emperor, Zhu Yunwen, from his throne.

"Please rest assured, Your Majesty. This servant has already issued orders. Not a soul would dare breathe a word of it outside."

The eunuch beside him spoke, and the imperial physician arrived as well.

Su Changhe sat down and gently closed his eyes. He had no idea why Heaven had made him Zhu Yunwen. This was one of the Ming dynasty's famously tragic emperors, a man whose reign lasted only four years.

In the end, he had vanished, while his wife and children had died.

Well, there had also been a two-year-old child who was imprisoned for more than fifty years and died not long after his release.

The imperial physician said something beside him, but Su Changhe did not hear it.

The bewildering sweep of history and the merging memories left Su Changhe struggling to distinguish whether he was a graduate student from a later age or truly Zhu Yunwen!

Lightning illuminated the room. An instant later, thunder came surging in like a roaring tide.

Farewell, Su Changhe!

I am Zhu Yunwen now!

I am the Jianwen Emperor, the one and only ruler of the Great Ming Empire!

Zhu Di?

Whatever you can do, I can do too!

I will overturn the heavens and achieve greatness beyond compare!

I will become an emperor without equal through the ages and make Great Ming another golden age to follow the Han and Tang!

I am Zhu Yunwen!

I, the emperor, am Zhu Yunwen!

I am the Son of Heaven of Great Ming!

Zhu Yunwen slowly opened his eyes. No trace of timidity or weakness remained in them, only unwavering resolve and fearlessness!

"Your Majesty, Qi Tai, the left vice minister of war, and Huang Zicheng, the Hanlin compiler, request an audience."

An attendant announced their arrival loudly.

Ma Enhui was about to rebuke him. His Majesty needed quiet rest; why were they requesting an audience on such a rainy night?

But Zhu Yunwen waved a hand to stop Ma Enhui and said calmly, "It is all right. Let them in."

Zhu Yunwen very much wanted to meet these two men, not because they were close to him, but because they were so foolish. The pit that swallowed the Jianwen reign bore traces of their diligent digging as well.

As the key figures assisting Zhu Yunwen, they had not produced a single workable suggestion. That was quite an achievement in itself.

Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng entered the hall, knelt, and bowed. "Your servant Qi Tai (Huang Zicheng) pays respects to Your Majesty and wishes your imperial person peace and health."

Zhu Yunwen searched his memories. The man on the left, with a thin face and a graying beard, nearing fifty, was Huang Zicheng. The comparatively sturdy, vigorous man on the right was Qi Tai.

"Rise."

Zhu Yunwen spoke in a low voice.

After expressing their concern with a few words, Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng exchanged a glance. Qi Tai then began offering counsel. "Your Majesty, the princes now command powerful armies. From Gansu to Liaodong, nine frontier princes stand guard, with a combined force of two hundred and ten thousand soldiers. There are also one hundred and sixty thousand garrison troops in Mobei."

"Among them, the forces of the Princes of Yan and Ning are the strongest. The Prince of Ning commands eighty thousand bowmen and six thousand war chariots. The Doyan Three Guards under him are fierce and all but unstoppable."

"Although the Prince of Yan has only a little over forty thousand officers and soldiers, they are all veterans of a hundred battles. Moreover, he loves his soldiers as his own sons and repeatedly bestows favors upon them. His army knows only the Prince of Yan, not Your Majesty. This could spell disaster."

"We, your servants, are troubled day and night. We beseech Your Majesty to decide swiftly, abolish the princely fiefs, and bring military authority under the Five Army Commandery. Only then will the troops be subject to Your Majesty's control. This is the path to peace throughout the realm..."

Zhu Yunwen nodded repeatedly as he listened. What a waste that these two old men weren't running a pyramid scheme...

"Where is the Prince of Yan at present?"

Zhu Yunwen did not respond directly to Qi Tai's proposal.

Qi Tai paused, then said, "He should still be in Huai'an."

"Huai'an?"

A faint smile appeared at the corners of Zhu Yunwen's mouth.

In history, after hearing of Zhu Yuanzhang's death, Zhu Di had traveled day and night to attend the funeral, only to be stopped at Huai'an. Even his tearful pleas failed to gain him permission to enter the capital. He could only entrust Zhu Gaochi, Zhu Gaoxu, and Zhu Gaosui with going there to observe mourning on his behalf.

Now that he had come here, the great ship of Great Ming could not be allowed to strike the reef again.

"Summon the Prince of Yan to the capital."

Zhu Yunwen spoke softly.

Those few simple words sent a shudder through Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng. They stared at Zhu Yunwen, utterly bewildered.