Far East 1628

Far East 1628 is a historical time-travel novel by web author Chatou. It began serialization on Qidian in 2018 and was completed in 2023, running to roughly 1,600 chapters. The story opens with a question: if you went back to the late Ming in 1628, what would you do? That year the Jurchens beyond the pass had already risen, and twenty years later they would sweep through the pass, followed by the Yangzhou Massacre, the Jiading Massacres, the hair-cutting decree, literary inquisitions, and nearly two centuries of closed-door isolation. The protagonist, Li Ming, unexpectedly obtains a wormhole connecting the modern era with the late Ming, allowing him to travel between the two times. Using this passage, he procures arms and industrial supplies, organizes a group time-travel of more than two thousand people, and establishes an armed force called the "Far East Company" based in the Far East region (around present-day Vladivostok), equipped with modern gear such as armored vehicles and trucks. Modern industry and technology drive local development as he gradually expands his army and builds up industry, fighting battles including the Ningguta bombing and the Liaoluo Bay naval battle. The work belongs to the "group time-travel + farming" genre; beyond the main team's management and warfare, it also depicts the circumstances and reactions of minor characters from different classes amid dramatic historical change, presenting a path of developing industry, reorganizing social order, and rewriting the course of history in the chaotic late Ming.