In the tenth year of Chongzhen's reign, on a Jia Yin day, at the third quarter of the Yin hour.
Zhu Youjian wakes on the dragon throne and discovers that he has become the Chongzhen Emperor.
The scar on his left ring finger is gone. It was from a liquid nitrogen burn.
The eunuch Wang Cheng'en beside him was once his project manager. Bi Ziyan of the Ministry of Revenue was the sales director who took kickbacks. Wu Shen of the Censorate was the finance manager he'd argued with for three years.
Ten people, scattered throughout the heart of power in the Ming dynasty. He evaluates officials with KPIs, manages the cabinet with OKRs, rebuilds grain transport with supply chains, and wins over frontier generals with equity incentives. Who says saving the Ming dynasty has to mean fighting wars?
Then he discovers that a bunch of lunatics from cross-border e-commerce have joined Hong Taiji of Later Jin, while Li Zicheng of the Great Shun has recruited a gang of reckless express couriers.
And his most trusted operations director, now Wu Sangui, is getting awfully cozy with Later Jin.
"Boss, I'm not defecting. I'm assessing the risks."
Three modern companies wage a business war across four centuries in seventeenth-century China.
This isn't history. It's the ultimate test of management theory.
Yes, it's an ensemble novel, and the plot develops slowly, but the author did a lot of research, and most of the content is quite exciting. Personally, I found some parts very thrilling while writing it, and the writing technique is quite mature. Each character in the ensemble has a distinct personal arc and personality.
The novel is great, I'll keep listening.
Great! The writing is fluent, the plot is fresh and refreshing.