Lowly Servant, How Did I Become a Prince of the Ming Dynasty?

In the thirty-sixth year of the Wanli reign, Lin Mo, deputy head of the fast-response unit at the Huai'an County yamen, is put forward to take the death penalty for the theft of three thousand shi of grain intended for transport by canal.

A corrupt magistrate's secretary uses him as a pawn to kill, while local gentry hold sway over everything. Everyone thinks this low-ranking clerk from a military household is an easy target.

But Lin Mo insists on defying fate and turning the tables: he allies with the canal gangs, borrows the power of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and uncovers a major smuggling case involving illicit salt. Then he turns the tables and brings the corrupt officials down, transforming an inescapable death trap into a stairway to the heavens.

He endured three years before entering officialdom, determined to clear his father's name in the wrongful case over military pay in Liaodong. Yet step by step, he is dragged into the deadly court struggles between the Qi Party, the Zhe Party, and the Donglin Party.

From a petty county clerk to a mighty powerbroker of the Great Ming, he climbs to the summit one corpse at a time. In this game of empire, he will be the one moving the pieces!