After transmigrating into the Hongwu era as a low-ranking ninth-grade clerk who had fainted from hunger, Lin Nan laughed when he saw the thirty jin of modern seeds in his bag.
Potatoes yielding five thousand jin per mu? A salt-drying method that could make salt a hundred times cheaper? Steelmaking techniques, firearm blueprints, the theory of a world economy... This wasn't just transmigration. He'd come to give the Ming Dynasty a cheat code!
He had planned to quietly farm by the city wall, but an impoverished old man who called himself “Old Ma” kept pestering him for meals.
“Old Ma, these potatoes will keep you full, right?”
“Old Ma, this salt-drying method means your descendants will never have to worry about salt!”
“Old Ma, this steelmaking technique will make the Ming Dynasty's swords and blades invincible!”
As Zhu Yuanzhang wolfed down sweet potatoes, he frantically took notes. Every casual remark from this young man was a state secret that would shake the ages!
Then, one day, Lin Nan's influence grew so great that the entire court could no longer sit still.
“Your Majesty! The things Lin Nan has presented threaten the very foundations of the state, and his teachings overturn all accepted norms!”
“He's seized the profits from salt and iron, and the people across the realm know only Lord Lin!”
“If this man isn't eliminated, the Ming Dynasty is doomed!”
With a thousand fingers pointing at him, Lin Nan was about to turn and leave when Zhu Yuanzhang, dressed in his imperial robes, entered Nan's shop and publicly bowed to him as a disciple.
“From this day on, Lin Nan will join the deliberations at the Hall of Preserving Heaven. To see him is to see me!”
From then on, the Ming Dynasty took a fantastical turn.
The civil officials cursed his “heretical arts that bring calamity to the state” while secretly using the paper and pens Lin Nan made to write their impeachment memorials.
The generals mocked his “useless tricks and devices” while tearfully begging Lin Nan to upgrade their cannons.
Zhu Yuanzhang stayed up all night with Lin Nan, drawing a map of the world. “Master, do you think we should conquer Europe first, or pacify the north of the desert?”
