Meng Yin becomes the magistrate of Pei County! After awakening the Nation-Strengthening System, he starts by building eight roads, then a residential district. Crop yields double, the people live in peace, and Pei County grows wealthy beyond compare! But in the tenth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang travels incognito with Empress Ma, Crown Prince Zhu Biao, and Prince of Qin Zhu Shuang, following the trail back to his ancestral home. They quietly arrive in Pei County, and the moment they enter the city, the smooth roads leave the Zhu family speechless! Then the apartment buildings, the bustling night market where doors are left unlocked, and the astonishingly productive wheat fields shock them one after another. They think they have found a capable official who can bring peace to the realm, only to hear that Magistrate Meng Yin is a real “crook”: he treats court cases like a joke and even openly solicits bribes! Furious, Zhu Yuanzhang is ready to draw his saber and cut down the “corrupt official,” but then he witnesses firsthand the hardships behind an apparent miscarriage of justice and the people’s wholehearted support for Meng Yin. When Meng Yin casually sips iced fruit juice, looks down his nose at Old Zhu, and brazenly declares, “Even the Son of Heaven has to follow my rules in Pei County,” can Zhu Yuanzhang still bring himself to strike? See how this fabulously wealthy county, with its bizarre rules, leaves the Hongwu Emperor deeply torn and utterly astonished!
