Everyone Wants Me to Be Emperor

The protagonist's decision to recognize a senior brother is truly off-putting. Even if you want to emulate Liu Bei, you have to consider the protagonist's and Liu Bei's circumstances at the time. Liu Bei was a nobody, and apart from forming sworn brotherhoods, he had no way to win over others to join him in building his empire. The protagonist, on the other hand, had thousands of subordinates.

Written like an imperial biography, with vivid characters, interesting plot, and a good balance of detail and summary, this is a masterpiece.

The protagonist, as a time traveler, has already caused a huge butterfly effect. Perhaps the later parts could deviate from the exact historical trajectory? For example, in most time-travel novels, Emperor Chongzhen is hung from a crooked tree.

Something doesn't feel right. Wasn't the reason the common people suffered so much at the end of the Ming Dynasty because of the exploitation by landlords, wealthy officials, and members of the imperial family? Yet, the protagonist conquers the country, but the people who govern it are still the same group? Does it mean only one emperor was changed? Everything else remained the same?

I suspect the argument with my wife was due to financial reasons, which explains why the book's sales weren't great. However, the book is truly well-written, innovative in historical fiction, and free of those cloying clichés—a breath of fresh air in the genre. It's clear the author put a lot of effort into its conception and writing; it would be a shame to abandon it.

No wonder this book didn't do well; the pacing was terrible. Whether it was Li Zicheng entering Luoyang or Zhang Xianzhong entering Wuchang, they rapidly expanded their power after capturing major cities. But with the protagonist, things got increasingly dangerous after capturing Luoyang, and he ended up getting his throat slit. What was the point of attacking Luoyang? It would have been better not to attack at all.

The author needs to understand why readers are reading this novel. People aren't here to read about the protagonist building a harem! The protagonist has already amassed so many women after just conquering Henan? Sleeping with every woman he sees—that's such a small-minded approach! Hasn't the author noticed how easily the protagonist's character breaks down when writing about women? The scenes of the protagonist in heat are absolutely off-putting!

This book is a slow burner, but I think it's pretty good. It's probably the best one I've read out of many late Ming Dynasty novels. To complain about other novels, the main characters and supporting characters are all just tools. Some might have some personality at the beginning, but they all become tools later on. This book handles this very well.

The author writes well about war. What I hate most in late Ming Dynasty novels is characters standing at attention, wielding long spears, and invincible. That kind of writing shows a complete lack of military common sense. Anyone who has played a game like Mount & Blade knows how terrifying cavalry is. No matter how elite the infantry is, they can only defend against cavalry.

The more I read, the more I felt that the author had read the History of Ming and studied the materials in detail. The names of the people mentioned, such as "fierce as a tiger," are all recorded in the History of Ming and are consistent with the background described by the author. I was particularly interested in the geography and specifically looked it up.