Shen Yan, a minor official who died in an accident in his previous life, and Qin Zhen, a discharged security company platoon leader, awaken together in the turbulent late Ming dynasty.
With no household registration, no money, and no one to rely on, the saltworks’ death ledger nearly sends them both into the sea.
Shen Yan understands every rule of officialdom and sees the root causes of the broken salt laws, the gentry’s stranglehold on power, and the rampant sea bandits. Qin excels at squad tactics and training rank-and-file troops, able to hold an entire stretch of salt flats with only a handful of salt workers.
Starting at the salt flats, the two use the Zhou family’s maritime trade network to build an intelligence network at sea, take control of the Dongjiang supply route, and foresee national calamities such as the Jisi Incident and the Wuqiao Mutiny.
With suspicion at court, the burdens of the imperial clan, tax exemptions for the gentry, and powerful enemies beyond the passes closing in on all sides, they refuse to take the dead-end route of changing dynasties. Instead, they repair the rotting dynasty with one legitimate document after another.
They do not seize the throne, only uphold the state. One document at a time, they prop up the storm-tossed Great Ming.
