Great Ming: Your Majesty, Please Just Dismiss Me Already

After transmigrating to the Hongwu era, Lin Chen becomes the chief examiner for the imperial examinations. He had planned to coast along as a corrupt official, but then he was bound to the “Reputation System.”

By collecting the “resentment points” of officials and scholars, he can exchange them for modern technology and a longer lifespan.

And so Lin Chen embarks on a reckless campaign of making enemies.

He adds bizarre trick questions to the imperial exams, driving Jiangnan’s talented scholars to the brink of madness;

he reforms the tax system and makes officials pay taxes, angering the ministers of the Six Ministries so much that they threaten to hang themselves at Meridian Gate;

he invents firearms to arm the army, crushing the arrogant generals of Huaixi.

The officials wail, “Your Majesty, Lin Chen has usurped all power and thrown the court into chaos! Have him executed by a thousand cuts at once!”

Scholars across the land roar, “If Lin Chen lives, the literary tradition of Great Ming will perish!”

But Zhu Yuanzhang is overjoyed. “The whole court hates him? Excellent! That proves he’s a loyal minister who belongs to no faction! Crown Prince, when you ascend the throne, Lin Chen will be your one and only trusted minister!”

Lin Chen: “??? Wait, I really was trying to ruin Great Ming and then resign. How did I end up leading the empire into an Industrial Revolution?”