Chapter 1: Dreaming Back to the Ming Dynasty

  There? I've seen you there before.

  Like a dream, like an illusion, like reality, like madness, where are you? Have you been there before? Who are you?

  A bright yellow dragon robe? Acting? Can't see the face clearly, but there is a pair of eyes that seem to be staring at oneself all the time.

  Dreaming? My body feels so heavy. The figure in the bright yellow dragon robe gradually retreated and dissipated. I feel myself slowly returning to my body.

  Yang struggled to open his eyes, but they were too heavy, and before he could make out the scene in front of him, they closed again.

  All I felt was a buzzing noise in my ears, and my head was filled with a dull haze. Some fragmented memories that seemed to be there but not quite there slowly flowed into my mind.

  Yeah, what's up, the emperor, surname Zhu, of the Great Ming Dynasty, also known as Chongzhen, sells rice cakes. Yang Reform feels like he won a 50 million jackpot, but knows that the person who claims the prize will starve to death in a few years.

  Accept the award? This Chongzhen is destined to hang himself on Coal Mountain, not accepting it would mean giving up 50 million. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! How many people dream of this, and it's even the emperor now letting me have it, I should thank so many angels, gods, and Buddha! There's no reason not to accept the award.

  Yes, I am a traverser. Traversers are destined to change the course of time and fate. If I didn't come to change my fate, then what's the point of me coming here? The reputation of traversers can't be ruined by my hands.

  Yang reformed his determination and immediately felt that his soul was much clearer, and his physical sensation also became much clearer. He could lift his hand now, this was good, he could open his eyelids now.

  In front of him, the first thing that entered Yang's mind was a beautiful girl's face, a lovely young lady, with greenness being her characteristic, and then it was the bright yellow clothes she wore. The Queen? A fragment of memory floated out from his brain.

  "Queen..."

  Yang's lips, which had been tightly pursed in reform efforts, finally spat out two words. His throat was too dry for too long, so his voice became distorted.

  "Your Majesty, Your Majesty has woken up... Hurry and get someone over here! Bring a bowl of water, waaah... Your Majesty, you've woken up..." A beautiful young girl in bright yellow clothing with tears in her eyes looked at Yang Reform with concern.

  Yes.

  The collarbone and chest were a snowy white, very delicate... Yang Gao saw only this.

  The pretty sister in the bright yellow dress felt the scorching gaze of Yang Reform, subconsciously blushing for a moment. Suddenly, she discovered that Yang Reform's head was still wrapped in white cloth, and he was a seriously ill patient, his face suddenly turned pale again. Just then, the palace maid brought over water, and the pretty sister picked up the teacup to feed water to Yang Reform.

  Yang Reform snuggled into Pretty Sister's arms, enjoying the warmth of Pretty Sister, and forcefully buried his head in Pretty Sister's chest. Pretty Sister had no choice but to let Yang Reform rest his head on her lap. She picked up a cup of water and fed it to Yang Reform mouthful by mouthful, and his face, which had turned pale earlier, was now flushed red.

  Yang reformed took a few sips of water, feeling more energetic. The dry sensation in his throat also disappeared. So he asked: "Empress, where is this? I don't remember anything."

  The pretty sister's voice was pleasant to hear, and it was true that she spoke as melodiously as the oriole: "Your Majesty, don't you remember? This is the Palace of Heavenly Purity!"

  Qianqing Palace? I'm still in the Forbidden City Museum! Yang Reform fundamentally doesn't know what Qianqing Palace is for! Although there are some fragmented memories, they're too scattered. Only pretending to have amnesia.

  "Ah! How could I forget everything? I only remember that you're the queen and I'm the emperor, but why is everything else so fuzzy? Ah! My head hurts." Yang reform said he only remembered some things, which would be beneficial for the future, but didn't know what happened and just said he forgot.

  The queen's heart was still joyful, hearing the emperor say that he still remembered her. This shows that she still has a high status in the emperor's mind, but this emperor really is a bit different, feeling not like the one from before. Specifically where it comes from, she can't think of it, thinking and thinking, only feels there's a possibility, which is that he hit his head badly, got brain damage.

  She also thought that if the emperor were to pass away, she would have to spend her whole life in widowhood. She was only in her teens and the thought of spending her entire life in widowhood was unbearable. Thinking this, she pulled the emperor closer to herself, making his head lean even closer to hers.

  "Empress? Empress... are you listening to me?" Yang Reform looked at the empress's gaze, which was distant and seemed to be distracted, not responding to him for half a moment, and hastily asked about the situation.

  "Your Majesty, haha, it's nothing. I just thought of Your Majesty's recent recovery from illness, which is a joyful thing, so I was a bit distracted. Does Your Majesty want to drink some water? I'll feed you."

  Yang thought he was going to die from pleasure, being gently held in the arms of such a beautiful younger sister, if this were to happen in the 21st century, how many otaku would be green with envy!

  I don't know if it was because the beauty held him too tightly, or if Yang felt too sensitive, but anyway, Yang felt that he actually had a reaction, and Yang was greatly embarrassed.

  "This..." Yang Gao felt utterly humiliated, actually making a big fool of himself in front of the beauty.

  "Hmm, Your Majesty, tell me what's going on here? How did I end up here? I don't remember anything else." Yang Reform immediately used the Transfer Technique to shift the beautiful Queen's attention.

  "Alas... Your Majesty, have you really forgotten? The other day, you accidentally fell on the steps of the Taiji Temple and fainted for many days, worrying me to death. By the way, the ministers are all waiting outside. Do you want to see them?"

  Yang thought it was great to be with the beautiful girl at this moment, why bother seeing those ministers? So he said: "Empress, I...this, I have forgotten many things, let's just stay here, you tell me about them, otherwise others will laugh at me."

  The queen rarely met Yang's reform at this time, feeling that it was the right moment to cultivate feelings with the emperor. As for those ministers, let them go on their own. So she said: "En, good, what does the emperor want to know?..."

  The queen told Yang about the current situation roughly.

  Originally, now is the famous Chinese emperor Chongzhen's debut, also his most glorious moment, just after overthrowing Wei Zhongxian, who was known as the "Nine Thousand Year Old", earning him a reputation as a wise and virtuous emperor. It can be said that this was the peak of the Chongzhen era, when people's hearts were most united, and Chongzhen was happiest, most glorious and most proud. However, from then on, Chongzhen's good days came to an end, starting a decline where each day was worse than the last, each year worse than the previous one, ultimately ending with him hanging himself at Coal Hill, along with his trusted eunuch Wang Cheng'en who hanged himself alongside him.

  It is now the seventh year of Tianqi, Yang Reformation estimated that it was around 1627 AD, in November. Originally, at this time, Wei Zhongxian should have been given a death sentence, but unfortunately, due to Chongzhen's fall, he couldn't handle affairs, so the imperial edict to execute Wei Zhongxian wasn't issued. Wei Zhongxian was also waiting for his death.

  Upon hearing this, Yang Reform felt a bit interested. To say that Wei Zhongxian was known as the "Nine Thousand Year Old", it's really not something to brag about. Thinking about it, I'm the one who should be called the "Ten Thousand Year Old". You're just a eunuch and you dare to call yourself the "Nine Thousand Year Old"? That makes me, the "Ten Thousand Year Old", feel quite humiliated! It's unbearable if nothing is done about you.

  But then I thought again, Wei Zhongxian is indeed not a good thing, but compared to him, those Ming Dynasty elites and scholars are even more unreliable, they are not anything good. As the saying goes: Elites are reliable, mother pigs can climb trees.

  Yang Reform remembers that there was such a thing in history. A famous tea-producing area, every year, would give Chongzhen only a few taels of tea tax, relying on this group of Ming dynasty elites to resist the wild boar skin, it's probably not as reliable as relying on Wei Zhongxian.

  Thinking of this, Yang Reform smiled with relish, feeling that Wei Zhongxian couldn't be settled so easily. It would be better to leave him there and watch those scholar-officials being outsmarted, which would definitely be hilarious. To say that Li Zicheng and the Wild Boar Skin brought down the Ming Dynasty is not as convincing as saying that it was the Ming Dynasty's own scholar-officials who brought it down. The scholar-officials were the greatest enemies of the Ming Dynasty.

  It can be seen from the hatred of the literati at the time of Chongzhen's death by hanging.

  In addition, there were the cabinet members of the Chongzhen court, who had connections with Wei Zhongxian and were waiting for an opportunity to rise up and get rid of Wei's followers. There were also several hundred people waiting for the emperor's decision on their fate. Executions, exile, military service, confiscation of property - a major reshuffle of power in the Ming dynasty was waiting for Emperor Chongzhen to give the signal.

  What a coincidence, at this critical moment, Chongzhen dropped the chain, fell and fainted for a month, from October to November. When Chongzhen woke up, he was no longer the original Chongzhen. Wei Zhongxian and Yang Reform decided not to kill him, but to raise him as a captive, using him as a sharp sword hanging over the heads of Ming Dynasty scholars.

  Since I've crossed over and become Chongzhen, then let me do a good job as this Chongzhen! It won't be in vain that I crossed over this once. Yang thought to himself silently.

  Chongzhen rested for a few days and was urged by the ministers to get up and handle affairs, no longer having the relaxed mood of flirting with the beautiful young empress.

  "Tai Bo, how much silver and money do we still have in the palace? You have time to carefully check it out, prepare for future use. Also, count all the calligraphy, jade stones, precious treasures and rare things collected in the palace, I need them."

  Since it was decided to work hard as Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Yang Guifei's reform also changed quickly. She started calling him "Zhen" (Your Majesty) whenever she spoke.

  Yang's reform was said to Wang Chengen, for Yang's reform, the most trustworthy person in this world is probably himself and then Wang Chengen. As for the empress, she might be a bit later. When the Ming Empire was destroyed, the empress was buried with the country, and only Wang Chengen hanged himself on Coal Mountain with him.

  Yang's reform partner is actually referring to Wang Chengen.

  At that time, Chongzhen was just a young man who had not yet turned 18 years old, and suddenly the empire was handed over to him. To say that he was confident and able to bring peace to the world would be false.

  Wang Chengen was delighted when the emperor called himself a big companion, saying that it showed the emperor's trust in him. What is the greatest reliance of an eunuch? It is the emperor's trust.

  Wang Chengen said: "Back to His Majesty, I will go now." Then he happily went to count the silver and inspect the precious treasures.

  The time traveler came to Chongzhen, definitely to deal with the wild boar skin and Li Zicheng. Dealing with them requires troops, and having troops requires money, so the first thing is to grasp how much silver you have. As for those calligraphy and paintings, rare treasures, and precious items, Yang is preparing to sell them off, exchange for some money, and arm his new army.

  These antiques, treasures and collections, in Yang's eyes, are just collectibles no matter where they are stored, as long as they don't leave the country. It's better to sell them to other collectors for some silver coins to spend than to let Zhang Mei have them at home.

  What if the things in the Forbidden City are sold out? That's impossible, think about it, the accumulation of several hundred years of the Ming Dynasty, you say that a few years can sell them out, I have to say, how talented you are.

  Yang's reform also prepared to deal with the scholar-official class of the Ming dynasty, this scholar-official class has become rotten and unreliable, relying on them and the likes of Li Zicheng is a hopeless cause. As the saying goes: "Don't fear an opponent like a god, but fear teammates like pigs."

  Wild boar skin is not a god, but it's even more terrifying than pigs when compared to the Ming dynasty scholars. Being in the same team as them, Yang Reform feels that being in a team with a group of wild boars might be more reliable.