Great Ming: Reborn in the Hongwu Era, I Give Biao a Hundred More Years to Live

[Genre: historical rebirth] + [Theme: making up for past regrets] + [Character: reborn emperor] + [Style: wish-fulfillment political intrigue] + [Twist: Lands can be reclaimed, but the human heart is hard to guard against]

In the thirty-first year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang, founding emperor of the Great Ming, died in solitude. As he lay dying, he clutched the back scratcher left by Empress Ma, which he had lovingly handled for decades. His gaze fell on a world in ruins: his eldest son had died young, his beloved wife had passed before him, and the court had run red with blood. In the end, he had become an emperor all alone.

But when he opened his eyes again, the sound in his ears was not a funeral bell, but the crack of Mongol soldiers’ whips.

He had returned to the outskirts of Haozhou in the twelfth year of Zhizheng. He was dressed in rags, surrounded by the starving dead. Before him stood the young Ma, who had not yet married him but already looked at him with nothing but love. She pressed a warm sesame cake and a rough back scratcher into his arms. “Chongba, stay alive!”

Old Zhu wept, but in his eyes was once again the Hongwu Emperor, whose ambition encompassed all under heaven.

Reborn in this life, I will make sure the Great Ming has no more regrets!

Biao’er, this time your father will protect you and see you live to a ripe old age. My dear, I will make you the happiest woman in the world.

As for Liu Bowen, Li Shanchang, Lan Yu, and the rest... I have returned with thirty-one years of an emperor’s statecraft and a god’s-eye view of history. This time, my back scratcher will not be stained with blood. But if anyone dares lay a hand on my family, I’ll show him what a true imperial wrath looks like!