Everyone Wants Me to Kill Wei Zhongxian, but I Refuse

In the seventh year of the Tianqi reign, Zhu Ming transmigrates into the Chongzhen Emperor. On the first day of his reign, all the court officials kneel and weep, demanding that Wei Zhongxian be executed.

He refuses.

The treasury is empty, but Wei Zhongxian can collect taxes. The border troops have no pay, but the Eastern Depot can investigate corruption. The gentry monopolize the land, but the eunuch faction can break their grip. The people of the realm call him a foolish ruler. He doesn't care. He only knows that in his previous life, Chongzhen killed Wei Zhongxian, then seventeen years later hanged himself from that crooked tree on Coal Hill.

"After I die, what face will I have to meet my imperial brother in the underworld?" The original Chongzhen in his head is at it again.

"You were way too eager to see him in your last life. How about we hold off on that this time?"

One transmigrant who clawed his way up from the mud, and one idealist raised in the imperial palace. He grumbles, "The treasury's so empty a horse could run through it, the border troops are so hungry they're ready to mutiny, and the gentry are dodging taxes more outrageously than my sales figures in my previous life." From mutual hostility, they come to share one pair of hands and rewrite the fate of a fallen dynasty. No System, no golden finger. Just a transmigrant crouching outside a blacksmith's shop, watching people work the forge; crouching on the dragon throne in court, arguing with officials until they shut up; and crouching beneath that crooked tree on Coal Hill, waiting for it to grow new branches.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.