The Memoirs of the Hongwu Emperor

[Overthrowing Zhu and Claiming the Throne] In the seventh year of Zhizheng, the Yellow River had been flooding for three years. Four years remained until the One-Eyed Stone Man would appear and plunge the realm into chaos. Cheng Yuan transmigrates from the peaceful twenty-first century into an era strewn with bones and littered with the starving dead. From the start, he falls into a bandit den where people are eaten down to the bone. His fellow prisoner is a monk named Jueyuan, whose lay name is Zhu Chongba. Cheng Yuan is overjoyed. He starts building goodwill with nineteen-year-old Zhu Chongba, hoping to become an early investor in the Ming dynasty. But reality doesn’t go as he hoped. … Zhu Chongba, I’ve got money and status. The people currying favor with me are lined up all the way to Dadu. I’m risking my life to play along with you, and you treat me like I’m invisible? You’d rather go back to that rundown temple and be a monk! Don’t blame me for being ruthless. If I can’t have you, Zhu Chongba, then why shouldn’t I rebel myself? Cheng Yuan’s blade flashed, and a fine head hit the ground. After killing Zhu Chongba, Cheng Yuan felt the world open before him. He had great things to accomplish. He would recruit soldiers and horses, sweep aside his rivals, march north, and reclaim his homeland. Wherever his blade pointed, there was only one word: kill! Zhu Chongba, rest easy. I’ll take your place as the Hongwu Emperor!