I Became a Courier in Great Ming

In the final years of the Hongwu reign, Chen Yuan, a transmigrator, is reduced to a disgraced postal courier on the remote frontier of Yongchang. But with his modern economic thinking, he spots a vast smuggling network hidden in the gaps in the account books. Winning the favor of a staff adviser, he uses ingenious strategies such as “frontier bonds” and “exclusive trade permits” to resolve the border crisis. He rises from disgraced clerk to the official in charge of finance and trade. But his ambitious reforms soon touch a nerve. After bringing down the wealthy merchant Yang Chongyi, he finds himself caught in a web of the shadowy “Blackstone,” foreign powers pulling strings, attacks from the scholarly elite, and hidden blades within the local government. Chen Yuan uses business acumen far ahead of his time to overhaul taxes and put frontier trade in order, all while contending with enemies at home and abroad through the fog of intrigue. Between the frontier markets and the streets of Yongchang, he lays a dangerous trap, determined to carve out a path of destruction and renewal for this land beset by war, in a deadly game that blends business rivalry, espionage, and political scheming.