Late Ming Dynasty: Summoning players from Liaodong to support the Ming Dynasty

"General, will we...will we even live to see tomorrow?"

That desperate question, trembling in its voice, pierced Chu Ze's eardrums like an ice pick, dragging him back to reality from the boundless bloodshed outside the city. He turned his head and met the eyes of a sixteen-year-old boy named "Dog," eyes that had once held any light but were now completely extinguished by death.

Chu Ze silently rummaged through his pocket and pulled out half a dry, hard wheat cake that could be used as a rock, and stuffed it into his hand.

Eat sparingly, fill your stomach, and you'll have the strength to live until tomorrow.

The dog looked at the wheat cake, then at Chu Ze's chapped lips, and its eyes instantly turned red: "General..."

"Execute the order." Chu Ze patted him on the shoulder.

He stopped looking at the dog and instead turned his gaze back to the boundless blood-red twilight outside the city.

The setting sun, like blood, burned the sky above the entire city of Guangning into a bleak, dark red.

Outside the city, the Later Jin Eight Banners' military camps stretched endlessly, their black wolf-head banners fluttering wildly in the cold wind of Liaodong, like ferocious beasts with their jaws wide open, patiently waiting for their prey to exhaust its last bit of strength.

The siege has lasted for three months.

This once formidable city, which once stood proudly in Liaodong, is now surrounded by enemies on all sides, becoming a veritable island of death.

On the city wall, the crenellations had collapsed, and the bricks were stained a nauseating dark brown by congealed blood. Every step left a sticky feeling underfoot. The air was thick with the stench of blood, sweat, rotting wounds, and despair, all mingling together in a suffocating atmosphere.

Chu Ze took a deep breath, the cold air scraping his throat like a knife, slightly clearing his mind, which had been foggy from several days of sleeplessness.

He is a time traveler, a soul from a peaceful era, trapped in this body named "Chu Ze" for five years.

In five years, he rose from a lowly border soldier, bullied by everyone, to the high position of garrison commander of Guangning City, relying on his modern knowledge and a ruthless spirit. He thought he could change something, but reality dealt him the heaviest blow.

The wheels of history were so heavy that he could hardly breathe.

In the second year of the Tianqi reign, Guangning fell.

The few words recorded in history books represent the hellish experience he was going through.

"General!"

The signature rough voice of Wang Erniu, the captain of the personal guard, rang out behind him.

This burly man, with a full beard and an aura of menace, his armor still stained with undried blood, strode up to Chu Ze, his voice hushed as if afraid the wind would blow it away:

"The granary in the south of the city has run out of the last bit of moldy rice; it's only enough for the entire city's soldiers and civilians to last another day. The archery workshop says they have less than three hundred usable arrows left. None of the brothers we sent out to ask for reinforcements a few days ago have returned..."

Every word was like a heavy hammer, striking Chu Ze's heart hard.

They had no food supplies inside and no reinforcements outside.

Chu Ze felt a wave of suffocation.

What can we use to fight this battle?

He raised the badly worn monocular telescope hanging around his neck and looked towards the Later Jin camp outside the city. Through the telescope, several Manchu soldiers were tying a captured Ming spy to a wooden stake. Their faces were full of cruel smiles as they jokingly cut pieces of flesh from his body with knives, enjoying the entire process of the man going from cursing to wailing, and finally falling silent.

Further away, large numbers of captured Han Chinese civilians were being driven like livestock by the Later Jin soldiers to dig trenches. An old man was slow to move and was slashed down by the overseer, his body casually kicked into the pit he had dug himself.

In that instant, an indescribable rage surged from the depths of Chu Ze's heart to the top of his head! His knuckles, gripping the telescope, cracked from excessive force, and veins bulged.

Just as this extreme anger surged into his heart, the ancient family heirloom painting in his arms emitted a faint, almost imperceptible warmth, so fleeting that he thought it was an illusion.

But he had no time to think about it.

He cannot fall; he is the only spiritual pillar for tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in this city.

Chu Ze slowly lowered his telescope, forcibly suppressing all his rage and murderous intent deep within his heart, leaving only a frozen, deathly silence. He turned to face all the soldiers on the city wall who cast hopeful, fearful, and bewildered glances his way, and with all his might, he made his voice pierce the cold wind, reaching each person's ears clearly:

"I know what you're afraid of!"

"But look behind you! Your parents, wives, and children are here! Look at the Tartars outside the city; what they want to do is turn us all into meat under their knives, sheep in their pen!"

"I, Chu Ze, hereby swear that as long as I have a breath left, Guangning City will never fall!"

His voice wasn't loud, but it carried a resolute and unwavering determination. The soldiers' restless hearts miraculously calmed down a little. Yes, the general was still here, the general hadn't given up, so what right did they have to fall first?

Having calmed the troops, Chu Ze dragged his heavy steps down the city wall. His legs, feeling like lead, moved with each step as if treading on the edge of an abyss of despair. As the cold passageway swallowed his solitary figure, his steely resolve shattered, leaving only a weariness that stung even his breath.

Both jade and stone were destroyed.

This was the only ending he could think of that would be worthy of the soldiers and civilians of the entire city.

If history is destined to be irreversible, then on the day the city falls, I will personally set fire to the treasury, burying myself and the loyal souls of the city who refuse to be slaves in the flames.

This is his last bit of pride and perseverance as a modern man.

Back in the cold and empty garrison commander's mansion, Chu Ze practically threw himself into the cold, hard armchair, the heavy armor pressing down on him until his bones groaned.

There were no lights in the mansion, only a few pale moonlight rays filtering through the windowpanes, illuminating the dust motes dancing in the air.

All was silent, deathly still.

Perhaps dying for the Ming Dynasty would be a worthy death.

Chu Ze smiled bitterly.

This is probably the last bit of backbone a modern person can retain: the unwillingness to bow down.

Just when Chu Ze was feeling utterly hopeless, a burning pain suddenly shot through his chest without warning!

The feeling was as if someone had pressed a red-hot iron against his chest.

"hiss!"

Chu Ze sat bolt upright, his first thought being that he had been ambushed by an assassin. But when he looked down, his armor was intact, and the mansion was empty.

The burning sensation grew stronger and stronger, almost setting his skin on fire.

He frantically unfastened his breastplate and pulled out the culprit—the ancient painting—from the lining that clung tightly to his chest.

"Why is it so hot!"

The moment Chu Ze picked it up, he almost threw it away. This thing wasn't a painting at all; it was clearly a piece of charcoal just pulled from a fire!

This scroll painting, titled "The Map of Mountains and Rivers," was the only thing he brought with him when he transmigrated; it was said to be an ancestral treasure. However, for the past five years, it had been utterly useless except for taking up space, and Chu Ze had long since regarded it merely as a keepsake.

But what's wrong with it today? Has it come back to life?

He endured the heat and slammed the scroll onto the table in front of him.

What happened next made Chu Ze, a staunch materialist who had received Marxist philosophy education, nearly pop his eyes out.

The ancient painting, wrapped in yellowish-brown silk and with ebony scrolls at both ends, slowly and automatically unfurled without anyone touching it!

He had seen this painting countless times. The landscape was magnificent, the brushstrokes simple and ancient, yet it always exuded a lifeless, bleak atmosphere. But now, on this bleak scroll, a golden radiance, visible to the naked eye, flowed like ripples on water!

Immediately afterwards, a cold, emotionless mechanical voice exploded in his mind like a thunderclap.

[A strong protective will and remnant dragon energy have been detected in the host...]

[Conditions met, "Map of Mountains and Rivers" is activating... 10%... 30%... 70%... 100%!]

【Activation succeeded! 】

Chu Ze suddenly jumped up from his chair, his heart pounding like a drum. He stared intently at the painting in his hands, forgetting even to breathe.

This is... a cheat code?

In this world that had driven him to despair for five whole years, there really is a cheat code?!

Before he could recover from the shock, the cold, mechanical voice rang out again, every word crystal clear.

[With this map, the host can illuminate all the heavens and myriad realms, recruiting "chosen ones" from other worlds to descend upon this realm, turning them into their own, and reversing the course of fate!]

In an instant, Chu Ze's lifeless eyes, which had been filled with despair, burst forth with a fiery light like a volcanic eruption!

The Chosen One? A being from another world? An arrival?

Isn't that... a player?!

With trembling hands, he almost reverently unfurled the "Landscape of Mountains and Rivers" on the table. The mountains and rivers on the scroll remained the same, but a semi-transparent interface, full of futuristic technology, appeared out of thin air on the scroll.

[Landscape and State Map]

[Host: Chu Ze]

[Function: Chosen One Recruitment (Not Activated)]

[Spiritual Essence: 0]

In the corner of the interface, there was a small note that answered his question: [Generating a basic body for the first time as a "Chosen One" requires 1 point of Spirit Essence. Spirit Essence can be obtained by defeating hostile beings, acquiring special items, and completing historical events.]

Spiritual essence... slaying hostile beings...

Chu Ze forcibly suppressed the overwhelming joy and excitement surging within him. His gaze pierced through the window and once again fell upon the endless darkness outside the city.

That wasn't some Later Jin camp.

That's... endless spiritual energy! It's the experience points covering the mountains and plains outside the starting village!

A glimmer of hope is in sight.