Reborn as a Herd Boy, Zhu Chongba Helps Me Fulfill My Dream of Becoming Emperor

Zhu Jiuliu, 28 years old, unemployed, single, and three months behind on rent. His greatest achievement in life is memorizing every one of Zhu Yuanzhang’s cheat-code moves from the History of Ming.

He wakes up as Zhu Chongba, a young cowherd in Fengyang at the end of the Yuan dynasty. From the start, all he has is a bowl, two little companions, and a landlord named Liu De who wants to break his legs. The good news is that the historical script in his head is more useful than any golden finger. He recruits Xu Da and Tang He early, predicts the winds at Lake Poyang, and even beats Zhu Sheng to the punch with “Build high walls, stock up on provisions, and claim the throne late.”

In 25 years, he goes from beggar to emperor. But on his coronation day, Zhu Jiuliu looks at the trembling meritorious officials in the court and suddenly laughs. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you.”

He wants to change more than his own fate. He replaces skinning people alive with a public-service retirement fund, trades the chancellor system for cabinet voting, and turns Lan Yu from a death-row prisoner into the “Governor-General of the Pacific.” He takes the most tyrannical emperor in history and turns him into the Ming dynasty’s greatest reformer.

This is the rags-to-riches dream of a poor boy, and a modern soul’s gentle counterattack against the fate of a tyrant five hundred years in the making.

“When Zhu Chongba kills people, I, Zhu Jiuliu, only kill KPIs.”