Great Ming: One Person, One Tael of Silver a Day, Leaving Zhu Yuanzhang Stunned

Good news: Luo Yu transmigrates to the Ming Dynasty, becomes a county magistrate, and binds himself to the Population Prosperity System for His Domain.

Bad news: It is the thirteenth year of Hongwu, during the Hu Weiyong case, and he governs the poorest little border county, so poor that people can’t even afford rice porridge.

Even worse news: The System pays out based on population, at one tael of silver per person per day, while Old Zhu strictly forbids refugees from moving!

Luo Yu thought he’d spend this life quietly developing the borderlands, becoming a local rich man, and enjoying a lie-flat lifestyle.

Unfortunately, there are always people forcing him to spend money like crazy.

He wants to keep a low profile, but more than a hundred desperate refugees implicated in the case come running to his city.

Luo Yu has no choice but to throw the gates wide open and shower them with huge white buns and settlement money.

Refugees, weeping bitterly: “Your Excellency, you’re a just magistrate! We’re not Hu faction members!”

Luo Yu, looking thoroughly loaded: “Once you walk through that gate, you’re my people. Settlement payments start at ten taels!”

He wants to count his money, but the Embroidered Uniform Guard and corrupt officials from neighboring counties insist on causing trouble.

Luo Yu rolls his eyes: “Brothers, put on the full steel armor and load the repeating crossbows. Let’s give them a little shock at our ability to throw money around.”

Enemy militia: “Sorry, County Magistrate Luo is paying us way too much!”

The officials at court are reduced to eating chaff, while Old Zhu goes undercover to investigate the Hu faction. When he sees Pingyao County’s five-story buildings, eight cartloads of sweet potatoes, and residents eating meat at every meal, he completely loses it:

“Embezzling sixty taels gets you skinned and stuffed with straw. How is a petty official richer than the entire Ming treasury?!”

“Let me in on this money-making! I’ll even give you a princess. How about moving the Ming capital here?!”