Chapter 1: Murdering the Good and Usurping Merit

  Su Tiancheng slowly opened his eyes in a daze.

  The setting sun was like blood, and he saw a terrifying scene.

  Not far away, several men riding tawny war horses, wearing felt hats and brown clothes, with armor guards on their chests and backs, and a red scarf on top of the felt hat.

  These few people are wielding steel knives and chopping down at a group of shabbily dressed people with vegetable-like faces.

  A mournful wail came, waves of fresh blood, constantly surging towards the sky.

  The steel knives of these people chopped down on human bodies, and the fallen ones struggled for a while before becoming motionless.

  In just a few minutes, the slaughter was over, and the horsemen dismounted, beginning to behead people.

  These people, when beheading others, still have a smile on their faces, without any concern.

  The surrounding scenery is beautiful, with blue sky, sunset, green grass and green mountains, carrying an ancient atmosphere.

  Unfortunately, under such a beautiful scenery, there appeared such an inharmonious and even cruel scene.

  A waist-high thicket of grass hid Su Tiancheng well, he felt like vomiting, where had he ever seen such a bloody scene.

  His body began to tremble, but at this time, he had to try his best to suppress his emotions, otherwise, if someone found out, it would definitely not end well.

  Subconsciously reaching into his pocket, if he doesn't make a move now, when will he?

  His hands felt empty, and he was wearing a long gown with no trousers on.

  Su Tiancheng's forehead broke out in cold sweat, he had never worn a long gown in his life, what the hell.

  A mature and steady style formed through long-term tempering made him sober, the more critical the situation was, the calmer he needed to be, as impulsive behavior was devilish.

  What's happening before my eyes is too strange, even murder and robbery aren't done so openly, it can't be explained.

  At that moment, Su Tiancheng's mind began to ache severely, and some inexplicable thoughts kept entering his mind. These thoughts merged with his own thoughts, forming a whole between the sparks of flint.

  Su Tiancheng with his fast speed did not give him a chance to react and no time to resist.

  Enduring the intense pain in his head, he didn't have time to ponder and thought of a word: traverse.

  Having seen countless networks, he smiled at those miraculous traversals, but never thought that he would encounter such a thing himself.

  Time-traveled and arrived in October of the third year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty.

  I was just out hiking with a group of friends, accidentally slipped and fell down the valley. I was still very clear-headed when I fell. **Such a big thing, why would it trigger such a dramatic change.

  Before crossing over, I was a civil servant of the national government, with no worries about food and clothing. Although not wealthy, according to the standard of being young, rich and handsome, it's not comparable, but also doesn't belong to the type that is struggling to make ends meet, having many desires for life.

  The most crucial thing is that I am about to get promoted again soon. The organization department has just assessed and the results have been made public.

  Is it joy begets sorrow.

  Su Tiancheng felt a little unwilling, and he bit his arm fiercely. It hurt, it really hurt.

  Cold sweat broke out on his forehead again, this was not acting, nor was it a dream, it was real.

  In an instant, he had a thread of madness, and he couldn't help but stand up immediately, loudly cursing the heavens. Damn it, as a 21st-century national civil servant who has been reused by the organization, I should be crossing over to at least the Zhen Guan era or the Kaiyuan heyday, why did I end up in the Chongzhen year?

  A line of poetry floated into his mind: Looking back on the desolate journey, returning home, there is neither wind nor rain nor sunshine.

  I've seen many storms in official circles, and I've been through many ups and downs. This time, I don't know if it's a case of capsizing in a ditch.

  What a chaotic world! During Chongzhen's reign, it was truly a chaotic world, with turbulent and unpredictable changes.

  Everything has a reasonable explanation, why I wear a long gown, why those horsemen wear fur hats and armor, why those who were chopped wear tattered clothes.

  Such a scene before one's eyes, even in movies, is rarely seen, too violent and bloody. Is it possible that by the third year of Chongzhen of the Ming dynasty, things had degenerated to this extent?

  Su Tiancheng was momentarily terrified, and this didn't match his understanding of history. It's said that hearing is false, seeing is true. But what he saw with his own eyes couldn't possibly be fake.

  At least he has some basic historical knowledge.

  There is a saying that goes well, people who are not familiar with history cannot grasp the direction of the future. The leaders of any country at any time must be familiar with the past and predict the future based on the process of historical development.

  There are countless descriptions of events during the Chongzhen years in both official and unofficial histories, but a few points can be trusted.

  During the Chongzhen years, natural disasters continued unabated, and the global climate underwent a change. From 1600 to 1644, the global temperature dropped to its lowest point in a thousand years, a period known historically as an era of alternating warming and cooling, also commonly referred to as the Little Ice Age. And it was during this globally catastrophic and critical period that China's Ming dynasty suffered the most severe disasters.

  During the Chongzhen years, the Central Plains suffered from consecutive years of famine and disaster. The fields were barren without a single blade of green grass, nine out of ten homes were empty, and the common people had nothing to live on. They relied on eating tree roots and Guanyin clay to survive, and even tragic cases of cannibalism occurred.

  The peasant uprising surged, and the leaders of the rebel army, such as Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Ruijing, Ma Shiyong, etc., slowly developed and expanded, making it difficult for Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi and other places to have a peaceful moment.

  The threat of Houjin is even greater. In the 46th year of Wanli, Haerke declared "Seven Great Hatreds" with the Ming Dynasty and began to attack the Ming Dynasty. After Haerke's death, Heshuo Beile succeeded him and was called Huang Taiji, increasing his attacks on the Ming Dynasty. The battle between the Ming Dynasty and Houjin will become more and more intense, and in just a few years, the war will spread all over the land of Shenzhou.

  The situation was definitely bad and extremely terrible, but Su Tiancheng had no time to complain. He needed to think about how to respond to the current situation.

  The more you fear something, the more it comes.

  Su Tiancheng was still discovered by the horseback riders.

  No wonder he hid in the bushes and shivered for half a day. If others couldn't find him, they would be fools.

  "You bandits, aren't you going to come out and meet your death?"

  Two horsemen came over, but they didn't dare to get too close. There were only five people and five horses, if they encountered an ambush by a large group of people, it would be easy to turn around and run away without getting caught.

  No time for adjustments, Su Tiancheng faced a life-or-death situation.

  He slowly stood up from the grass, casually brushing off the grass roots on his long gown, with a nonchalant smile on his face, despite his tense legs cramping internally.

  Su Tiancheng wore a brocade long gown made of silk, with a height of seven feet, equivalent to 1.78 meters today, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, his whole body revealed the temperament of a scholar.

  "Gentlemen soldiers, I am not a bandit, I am a scholar."

  They call themselves luanzei, no need to say, these people are soldiers in the army, the headless corpses on the ground, wearing tattered clothes, can't see any weapons, absolutely not some bandits, saying they are refugees is more plausible.

  Kill good and usurp merit.

  Su Tiancheng quickly thought of this word.

  In the late years of the Ming dynasty, there were numerous cases of framing innocent people and taking credit for their achievements. Some soldiers, in order to obtain so-called rewards and avoid being punished by their superiors, indiscriminately slaughtered ordinary civilians, holding up the heads of the victims and claiming they were rebels.

  These soldiers really met the bandits and ran away faster than rabbits.

  My luck is really bad, I actually saw such a scene.

  At the end of the Ming Dynasty, human life was as worthless as straw. Looking at these soldiers, their movements in beheading people were so familiar, they must have been used to doing such things. If they discovered their own secrets, wouldn't they want to cut them off at the roots?

  He has reached an impasse.