[Historical setting] [AI] [Fictional dynasty]
When he transmigrates and first arrives in Great Jing, the protagonist’s original identity puts him in the Chancellor’s crosshairs!
To stay alive, he first studies the intricate web of power, then proceeds cautiously, calculating the hearts and minds behind every factional struggle. In the end, he topples the Chancellor and takes a lofty position at court.
But before he can settle down and plan for the future, he discovers that this dynasty is already in its final years:
At court, the imperial clan, the Chancellor’s faction, the reformists, the in-laws of the imperial family, and the regional princes all vie against one another. They hide behind the ancestral laws while pursuing factional interests, and “debate without deciding, decide without acting” has become an unspoken rule.
In the provinces, each official may nominally govern an entire province, but power is actually divided among the Administration Commissioner, who oversees civil affairs; the Surveillance Commissioner, who oversees the courts; the Military Commissioner; and local gentry and powerful families. There are countless cases of officials and local elites colluding.
In the prefectural cities, “guild monopolies and burdensome, complicated commercial taxes” have long plagued small merchants and workshops. The prefects collude with the guilds, monopolizing resources and creating a web of official-business collusion, while “commercial tax rules” keep small traders and workshops under their thumb.
In the counties and villages, the magistrate is a puppet, while the local gentry and clans rule like kings.
Tenant farmers, independent farmers, boat trackers, and refugees are abandoned and exploited, treated like ants.
As this dynasty reaches its final years and the cycle of history nears its turning point, a person from the 21st century and a Doubao AI hatch a world-shaking plot of treason: “reforms” in name, regime change in reality!
