The Officialdom Under Zhu Yuanzhang, Not Even a Dog Would Take the Job

Zhu Yuanzhang was not a man who truly loved the people; he simply didn't treat his officials as human beings. In his mind, only the descendants of the Zhu family were superior, while officials and military officers were their slaves, working hard and eating little, yet they were still worthy of living. Anyone who tried to take food from his descendants had to be killed. As for the people, they are those who eat.

They all ran off to find Zhu Chongba! Was he the kind of person who would tolerate such behavior?

It was Li Shanchang who discovered it. How will you hide from the three major cases that followed? Old Zhu won't kill you unless you're a genius; the more outstanding you are, the faster you'll die later.

If you were to travel back to the early Ming Dynasty, you'd only have three choices, okay? First, serve Zhu Yuanzhang as an official, achieve great merit and become a threat to the emperor, and be killed. No doubt about it, that's how it happened in history. Second, kill Zhu Yuanzhang and become emperor yourself. Third, live a peaceful life as a small landowner or commoner. If you were to travel back in time as a relative of Zhu Yuanzhang, then disregard what I said.

If you travel back to ancient times and have cheat codes, you're a god-like person who can either rebel or not. But if you have cheat codes, who can stand having someone above you who might kill you depending on their mood?

During the early Ming Dynasty, survival depended entirely on luck; both honest and corrupt officials could die.

Becoming an official is possible in any dynasty, but not during Zhu Yuanzhang's reign. Many Ming Dynasty novels know that the salary, if not embezzled, wouldn't even be enough to feed a family of 3.5. They often skimmed off wages and replaced them with inedible food, which was then sold for grain at a drastically reduced price. The worst part was that those without ability were likely to die, while those with ability were sent to keep Zhu Biao company.

There was once a novel that opposed Zhu Yuanzhang. The protagonist, equipped with modern gear and dressed in the back garden of Nanjing's imperial city, initially wanted a mutually beneficial partnership. However, Zhu Yuanzhang coveted what the protagonist offered, isolated him from his scientific knowledge, and relentlessly pursued him. Eventually, the story turned chaotic, leading to his escape to Yunnan, where he farmed, raised an army, and slew the emperor.

This synopsis definitely portrays the protagonist as a thug; what scholar would speak like that?

If the protagonist doesn't become emperor, then he will definitely carry out a comprehensive reform to limit the emperor's power. It's useless if the protagonist simply copies technology from later generations and adds a few reforms. If a country wants to produce a large number of original inventions, it must undergo systematic changes in many aspects, including its ideological foundation…