Shen Lie, a modern graduate student of Ming history, opens his eyes to find himself transmigrated into the body of an orphan from the Jingnan campaign.
Nanjing has fallen, his family has been wiped out, and the cold System panel displays:
[Your entire family will be executed in three days.]
To stay alive, he risks everything to enter Prince Yan’s residence and pinpoints Zhu Gaochi’s succession crisis with a single remark.
Zhu Di holds a sword to his neck, but Shen Lie remains calm and offers three strategies for capturing Jianwen’s guilty ministers.
From a condemned prisoner awaiting execution, he rises step by step to become the imperial tutor Yongle cannot do without.
He compiles the Yongle Encyclopedia, helps establish Beijing as the capital, takes five campaigns beyond the northern frontier, and sends seven voyages to the Western Ocean.
Using his medical skills, he wins Zhu Gaochi five extra years of life, helps the Hongxi and Xuande emperors ascend the throne, and establishes the Great Ming Charter.
People say he holds immense power at court and intends to reduce the emperor to a figurehead.
Standing atop the city wall, Shen Lie gazes across the vast realm:
“I just don’t want the Tumu Crisis to happen again. I don’t want the Great Ming to be trapped in a three-hundred-year cycle.”
In this life, he will make the Great Ming shine alongside the sun and moon, and keep the realm secure forever.
