The Edict in the Sash from the Start: I Become a Powerful Minister in the Eastern Han

“I don’t want to be a loyal minister, and I don’t want to be a hero. I just want to stay alive, and while I’m at it, toss everyone who wants me dead into the stew pot of history.”

My name is Zang Yan. In my previous life, I was a Sichuan chef. When I opened my eyes, I’d become the only good-for-nothing son of the Marquis of Langling’s household in the Eastern Han dynasty.

I’d planned to eat, drink, and make merry until old age. Then a secret edict, hidden in a belt, suddenly landed in my hands.

The ten-year-old Emperor Liu Zhao had sent me a bloodstained secret decree from the depths of the palace:

“Loyal and worthy men must join forces and cleanse the court of those who surround the emperor.”

The imperial relative Dou Xian held power over the court. He had crushed the Xiongnu in the north and cowed the entire capital, basking in glory.

And I, a useless young lord who did nothing but race horses, watch cockfights, and secretly pick dogwood berries to make chili sauce, had become a pawn the emperor thought “might be useful.”

Accept the decree, and I die. Refuse it, and I die all the same.

I chose to play the fool, loudly calling the secret edict “a gift of Shu brocade,” while quietly weaving a web behind the scenes.

My shield was the circle of young nobles, my threads were veterans of the border army, and my eyes were the guards at the palace gates.

Under Dou Xian’s watchful gaze, I played at wrestling with the emperor, and in the great general’s game of strategy, I played the part of an obedient pawn.

Everyone laughed at me, saying I was ridiculous and knew nothing but pleasure.

None of them knew that what I’d brought from the modern age wasn’t just recipes, but a thousand years of strategic know-how that left them utterly outclassed.

Tags: #Transmigration #PowerStruggles #History #Survival #EnsembleCast #UnderlyingCurrents