Slealing the Ming

Slealing the Ming is a long historical time-travel novel by the online author Hui Xiongmao (real name Xie Xuwen, earlier pen name "Big Bang"). Serialization began on Qidian in May 2007 and was completed in January 2008. The simplified-Chinese mainland edition runs to six volumes, published successively by Nanhai Publishing House and Long March Publishing House; the traditional-Chinese edition, seven volumes, was published by Gaia Culture in Taiwan. The story follows Huang Shi, an ordinary modern office worker, who is thrown by an explosion back to the Liaodong region in the 46th year of the Wanli reign of the Ming (1618). Adrift in a time of chaos, he is taken in by a military household surnamed Zhang. Well versed in late-Ming history, he knows the present calm is only temporary: after the Battle of Sarhu, Ming and Later Jin forces clash repeatedly around Jianzhou and Liaodong, the factional strife between the Donglin Party and the eunuch faction intensifies at court, and the Liaodong frontier defense gradually loosens. To survive, Huang Shi joins the army and deals in turn with Sun Degong, who is about to defect, Hong Taiji of the Later Jin, and Mao Wenlong of the Dongjiang Garrison. Relying on foreknowledge and historical knowledge, he gains a foothold among the common soldiers, then builds up his strength through institutional reform, maritime trade, and troop training, and finally establishes his own base on Changsheng Island. The novel takes the late-Ming Liaodong wars as its main thread, with solid detail on military organization, logistics, firearms, and infantry tactics against cavalry, and offers interpretations of Yuan Chonghuan, late-Ming factional strife, and the civil-official bloc that diverge from mainstream accounts; its publication sparked historical debates that continued for years. About 1.5 million characters long, it is one of the representative early historical time-travel web novels, was named one of the top ten works in the "Ten-Year Survey of Online Literature," and ranked 36th on the 2017 Maopian Hurun Original Literary IP Value List.