Qian Duoduo, a modern Wall Street trader who controlled tens of billions, was betrayed by his closest friend and died in the East China Sea. When he opened his eyes, he had transmigrated into the Ming Dynasty during the Wanli reign, becoming Zheng Shou, a lecturer to the Crown Prince!
From the start, he was trapped in a deadly predicament: sleeping with a palace maid violated Ming law, the original owner’s suspicious death hinted at murder, and palace intrigue, factional strife among civil officials, border troubles in Liaodong, and an empty treasury threatened to bring the empire crashing down.
By chance, he inherited the original owner’s obsession and unlocked the secret legacy of the Zhengde Emperor: a double-headed serpent seal spanning land and sea, eighteen trading houses beyond the frontier, a smuggling network for Portuguese firearms, and a hidden empire worth trillions in silver!
Wolves closed in from the front: the Directorate of Ceremonial was watching him like a hawk, while the civil officials wanted him dead. Tigers lurked behind: a mysterious old faction sought the seal and his life, as shadows in the palace pressed in at every turn.
Armed with modern financial thinking, he broke through one crisis after another. He strategized with the Guanzi, traded with leverage, and built markets on credit. With three thousand taels, he took control of Baoding’s horse market; with a small effort, he crushed local magnates. He pioneered government-supervised private enterprise and the circulation of negotiable instruments, amassing five hundred thousand taels in just six months and securing the Crown Prince’s first real financial power!
His deep-sea blood feud remained unsettled, but the Ming’s game of power had begun. Hiding his edge behind the refined manners of an official, he waged commercial wars in court and across the realm. He broke factional strife, seized control of the treasury, opened sea routes, and unearthed hidden treasures. Rising from a minor official in the Eastern Palace, he built a financial empire spanning the Ming, the steppe, and lands overseas!
The double-headed serpent seal emerges, and Zhengde’s secret treasury is revealed. Watch as a modern magnate returns to the late Ming, uses finance to shape the empire and wealth to command power, saves a collapsing dynasty, and avenges a blood feud!
