From Peasant to Founding Emperor

History master's student Shen Yan is transported into a fictional power fantasy, becoming a minor character in a poor farming family in the southwest who shares his name and won't survive three chapters. His family has nothing, his parents are gravely ill, his little sister still needs feeding, and the local gentry are demanding rent as if they mean to kill them. A death sentence from the start? With modern knowledge and meticulous reasoning, Shen Yan begins by improving farming tools and organizing a cooperative, earning his first fortune in the barren mountains. On the road to the imperial examinations, he gathers scholars from humble families and stands against powerful clans. In business, he rides the waves, forging alliances with Jiangnan and opening routes to the four seas. At court, he outmaneuvers the powerful and upholds imperial authority. At his side are five exceptionally capable, like-minded women: a gentle and supportive wife, a cold-faced female general, a wily business prodigy, a cool and reserved physician-strategist, and a bold princess of a foreign tribe. Watch as a poor scholar from a humble family wields the people's livelihood as his sword and strategy as his shield, plotting for the dynasty and striving for dominion over the realm in the deeply corrupt Great Yong Dynasty, until he ushers in a golden age when all four seas pay homage!