I Am No Prime Minister, but a Regent

He transmigrates to the eighth year of the Wanli reign as Zhang Juzheng’s third son, and has just come first in the imperial examination for the Gengchen year. Zhang Maoxiu can only cry out that this is bad news. He must not become the chief grand secretary’s son, must not become a top-ranked scholar, and absolutely must not become an official of the Great Ming! As the dynasty undergoes upheaval, Zhang Maoxiu walks on eggshells. But when he looks back thirty years later, he discovers that the road he has taken is a broad highway. Now, turn the pages of history, and this is what the world sees: the founder of Ming’s Second Empire, the chief grand secretary’s pride and joy, the person the Ming imperial house trusts most. A liberator of traditional Central Plains thought, the last Confucian sage, mentor to the entire Hanlin Academy, and patron of officials throughout the realm. The interpreter of the Ming founding fathers’ laws and institutions, the invincible enemy of the Donglin, Qi, Zhejiang, Chu, and Jin factions, and the eunuch faction’s “godfather.” Thirty years later, Zhang Maoxiu cries out once more: “This is bad news! I only ever wanted to be a corrupt official!”