Conquering the Qing

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Word count: 2.7M words
Chapters: 7
Series: Following Stealing the Ming and Tiger and Wolf, Conquering the Qing is Hui Xiongmao's third full-length historical time-travel novel. It began serialization on Zongheng Chinese in November 2012, concluded in January 2014, and runs to roughly 2.66 million characters. The story is set in the winter of the twelfth year of the Yongli reign (the fifteenth year of the Shunzhi reign, 1658): the last Southern Ming court stands on the brink, Li Dingguo has died of grief and exhaustion, Zheng Chenggong has been defeated at Nanjing and is about to flee overseas, and Wu Sangui's army is marching through Sichuan toward Kunming—the tide of the realm seems unstoppable. At this moment Deng Ming, a modern art-school oil painting student raised in a parallel timeline, is accidentally teleported onto the battlefield below Chongqing when an observation station in that parallel universe shuts down and malfunctions; taken by Yuan Zongdi, a general of the Thirteen Kuidong Houses, for a lost Ming imperial kinsman, he becomes a banner for the anti-Qing resistance. Thereafter Deng Ming maneuvers and cooperates with the Thirteen Kuidong Houses, Zheng Chenggong's remnants, and other surviving Southern Ming forces, through episodes including a surprise raid on Kunming, the development of Sichuan, campaigns along the Yangtze, doing business with Qing local officials even while fighting them, and sending troops into Burma to rescue the Yongli Emperor. Departing from the gloom and indignation of Stealing the Ming, the author adopts a witty, humorous, and sardonic tone, using absurd plots to satirize the civil officials and generals who defected to foreign rulers in the late Ming and early Qing, the mutually encroaching military garrisons, and the profit-driven gentry class, writing a history of resistance in the key of black comedy against the backdrop of the Southern Ming tragedy. The book has no female lead, and female characters receive very little attention; the author, exhausted by long serialization, ends it hastily, which readers often call a "bad ending."

Summary

If your impression of late-Ming time-travel fiction is still one of grief, heaviness, and a protagonist steeped in bitterness day and night, Conquering the Qing will give you a rather unexpected reading experience. In his earlier Stealing the Ming, Hui Xiongmao had already made the Southern Ming sufficiently oppressive; this time he changes his approach: the tragic undertone remains, but the telling is thoroughly comic. The protagonist Deng Ming is no military genius and knows nothing of intrigue—he is merely a modern university student who studies oil painting, and even his identity as a Ming imperial kinsman is invented by others in their own heads. This mismatch itself generates a great deal of comedy.

What is truly worth reading is the historical understanding the author hides behind the banter. He knows Southern Ming historical sources well and is especially influenced by Gu Cheng's History of the Southern Ming; his portrayal of the tangled interests among Southern Ming military garrisons, the self-justification of surrendered officials, and the business calculations of local officials hedging on both sides does not rely on a "cheat" to force the plot forward, but strips back the rot of the system layer by layer through absurd detail. Cold humor and satire are the sharpest parts of this book, and readers often see it as a tribute to the kind of writing found in exposés of officialdom.

Of course, it has obvious shortcomings: the later technology thread is highly divisive, and the ending stops abruptly at around 2.66 million characters, which many longtime readers regard as a "bad ending." But as a work that writes the Southern Ming's desperate straits in a comic mode, Conquering the Qing is highly distinctive among online historical novels and deserves to be read with the mindset of "let's see how it turns despair into absurdity."

Editor's review

如果你对明末穿越文的印象还停留在“悲愤、沉重、主角日夜苦大仇深”，《伐清》会给你一个相当意外的阅读体验。灰熊猫在此前的《窃明》里已经把南明写得足够压抑，这一次他换了打法：悲剧的底色不变，讲法却彻底喜剧化。主角邓名不是军事天才，也不懂权谋，只是一个学油画的现代大学生，连“大明宗室”的身份都是别人脑补出来的——这种错位本身就制造了大量笑料。真正值得读的地方，是作者藏在戏谑背后的历史理解。他熟悉南明史料，尤其受顾诚《南明史》影响，写南明军镇之间盘根错节的利益关系、写投降官员的自我合理化、写地方官两面下注的生意经，都不靠“金手指”硬推，而是用荒诞细节把制度的溃烂一层层剥开。冷幽默与讽刺是这部书最锋利的部分，也常被读者看作对官场现形记式写作的致敬。当然，它也有明显短板：后期科技线争议较大，结尾在约266万字处戛然而止，被不少老读者视为“烂尾”。但作为一部用喜剧笔法写南明绝境的作品，《伐清》在网络历史小说里辨识度极高，值得带着“看它怎么把绝望写成荒诞”的心态去读。

Who it's for

A good fit for

喜欢明末清初、南明历史，愿意从小说反向查史料的读者。
读过《窃明》《虎狼》，想比较灰熊猫风格转变的老读者。
偏爱冷幽默、黑色讽刺与官场式荒诞情节的网文读者。
对“制度与治理”议题感兴趣，不只看打仗的穿越文爱好者。

Not a good fit for

希望看到严谨正统历史著作、排斥穿越设定的读者。
对主角开挂、科技树跳跃和仓促结尾容忍度很低的人。
偏好细腻情感线与女性角色塑造的读者。

Reading tips

先读第一至二卷（重庆起家到转战长江），能最快判断是否接受这种幽默笔调。
穿插顾诚《南明史》对照阅读，会更容易看懂书中对军镇、降臣的讽刺所指。
遇到大段议论和“生意经”不妨放慢，那些段落常是作者真正想说的部分。
对结尾仓促有心理准备，把它当作未竟之书，而非完整闭合的长篇。

Volume One: The Realm Is Settled but Shu Is Not (Chapters 1–60, including the preface, amnesia, tacit understanding, reinforcements, upheaval, and withdrawal)
Volume Two: Spring Wind Greens the Southern Bank Again (Chapters 61–120, including exchange, reward and punishment, ruler and minister, hints, secret letters, and doubt)
Volume Three: Eight Hundred Li of Roast Meat Shared Among the Troops
Volume Four: The Window Frames the Western Ridge's Thousand-Autumn Snow
Volume Five: A Body in Campaign Across a Thousand Li
Volume Six: Suddenly Hearing Footsteps and Song from the Shore
Volume Seven: Returning Your Bright Pearl, Both Tears Fall

FAQ

《伐清》适合从哪一本开始读？

《伐清》本身是独立故事，不必先读《窃明》《虎狼》。但如果想理解书中反复提到的黄石、许平等设定与作者的历史观，按《窃明》—《虎狼》—《伐清》的顺序阅读会更顺。

《伐清》有实体书吗？

目前未核实到权威出版信息记录的简体实体版本，市面上出现的“全套多册”多为印刷装订的网络版本，购买时需谨慎判断，本条目暂不填写出版社和ISBN。

为什么很多读者说它烂尾？

作者在约266万字后因连载疲惫主动收尾，自称“已表达了大部分想表达的东西”，因此主线收束仓促，部分支线和龙套未及展开，这一直是读者争议焦点。

书里有爱情线吗？

基本没有。《伐清》全书无女主角，女性角色着墨极少，重点在军事、财政与制度博弈，想看感情戏的读者可能会失望。

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About the author

灰熊猫 Author

Hui Xiongmao is a Chinese online author known mainly for war and military fiction. Public information about the author is limited: real name, place of origin, dates of birth and death, educational background, and English name are not clearly recorded. Three works are currently held in the collection, all belonging to the "Qie Ming" series, including Qie Ming (Part 2): Tiger and Wolf and its separate volumes and two-volume edition Qie Ming: Tiger and Wolf. The author's writing thus centers on military narrative set against the historical background of the Ming dynasty. Judging from the available titles, Hui Xiongmao is skilled at developing stories within the framework of specific campaigns and army life, with a focus on marches, battles, and how people fare in times of turmoil; the style is realistic and tightly paced. Because verifiable biographical material is very limited, a full account of the author's writing career and complete body of work is difficult to provide, and readers mainly come to know the works through the "Qie Ming" series.