Great Ming: Raising a Child by Imperial Decree, Making Zhang Juzheng Cry from the Start

[Historical Intrigue] + [Coming of Age] + [Master Schemer] + [No System] + [Unexpected Contrasts]

After transmigrating to the final years of the Jiajing era, Gao Yao'en becomes the emperor’s sharpest attack dog: a fake eunuch infiltrating the Directorate of Ceremonial.

Emperor Jiajing, seated on the dragon throne and consumed by suspicion, issues him a secret decree: utterly ruin seven members of the imperial clan born under the ill-starred sign of the Lone Star of Calamity. Crush their ambitions and turn them into laughingstocks, eliminating any future threat.

The officials of the court wait to see how he’ll turn the imperial bloodline into dandies, fools, and misers.

Gao Yao'en acts meek and obedient to their faces, but laughs himself silly behind their backs.

Ruin them? Sure thing!

He teaches one prince business, and turns him into a tycoon wealthier than the nation. He teaches another to fight, and turns him into a peerless general, braver than all three armies. Even the future Wanli Emperor is “led astray” into becoming a hands-on ruler obsessed with “curious inventions and clever contraptions”...

When the empire is on the brink of collapse, beset by factional strife within and powerful enemies without, the assembled officials are horrified to discover that the imperial clansmen Gao Yao'en “ruined” have become the pillars holding up the empire!