Great Ming: Jiajing Is Broke, So I Raise an Army Through Corruption

[History + Political Intrigue + Subverting Expectations + Lighthearted Comedy + System + No Romance + Wish Fulfillment]

(The rating just came out, so please don't let it scare you away!)

In the thirty-eighth year of the Jiajing reign, after a palace maid strangled him with a cord around his neck, the Taoist emperor stopped attending court. He devoted himself to cultivating the Dao, yet still held the empire in his grasp.

Meanwhile, the Yan faction dominated the court, and Japanese pirates ravaged the coast.

The protagonist's System activates, launching him into a life of grand corruption:

As long as he embezzles legally and escapes the inspectors' notice, the stolen money automatically becomes his private property, and can even be converted into lifespan and attributes.

Using the embezzlement System, Lin Xuan makes a fortune of a million taels from nothing. Not only does he avoid being beheaded, he rises higher and higher in the ranks of corrupt officials, growing stronger with every tael he steals!

The Yan faction is furious: “That brat is building warships in secret and monopolizing maritime trade. He's taken all our silver! Let's accuse him of treason!”

Lin Xuan responds by waving the royal navy's banner and using the emperor's name to openly seize money at imperial checkpoints.

He also forces merchants to buy escort flags, raking in another eight hundred thousand taels!

The officials throughout the court all want him dead, but they discover they can't find where he's hidden his ill-gotten gains.

Hai Rui: “This man acts recklessly and skirts the law. I must keep a close eye on him!”

Eunuch Chen Hong: “Lord Lin gives out top-quality pearls and shares in merchant guilds. He's practically one of our own in the inner court!”

Jiajing: “Have the Embroidered Uniform Guard tell Lin Xuan to stop thinking only about building roads for the people. Now that he's rich, he should make offerings to the immortals in the palace too. That's how he'll ensure his safety for life...”

As factions across the realm spin wild fantasies about his motives, Lin Xuan sits in a Sumeru space piled high with silver and sneers:

Rules?

In this Ming dynasty, my cannons and my silver are the rules.