Late Ming: The Voice of the People

[A people-centered historical perspective + Farming + Rural life + Economics + Technology + Power struggles + Rebellion + Slow burn] Zhang Qimin used to run a rural resort. In the eleventh year of the Chongzhen reign, he transmigrates to a small mountain village in Dengfeng, Henan. There, in the late Ming dynasty, he begins building up the village step by step. Alongside a group of like-minded villagers, he fights rent and taxes, improves the village wells, forms a militia, and opens five small village factories. He improves people’s lives, builds bridges and roads, and establishes a maternity and children’s home, freeing up labor. Village life keeps changing as the peasant association grows. The association’s members come from the people and serve the people. They lead the villagers in distributing land and finding paid work, while businesses of every kind spring up in the village and bring variety to daily life. They set up markets and gathering halls, put on operas for the villagers, and help poor farm girls find their dreams. They launch a people’s newspaper to promote a simple vision: everyone should have enough to eat, warm clothes to wear, land to farm, a full store of grain, money to earn, and a new home to live in. Even the poorest villagers get a voice of their own. From village children and unmarried girls to married women and the elderly, everyone has their own journey and growth arc. In short, this is a story about ordinary people in the late Ming dynasty.