Ming Dynasty: Qingjin Enters the Palace

In the twenty-ninth year of Hongwu, the prosperous Ming Dynasty came into being, the smoke of the troubled times cleared, and the four seas were unified. But in the prosperous age, there is no peace for commoners. The law is like a net, the corvee is like a yoke, taxes are piled on top of each other, the gentry exploits, the officials make profits, and the shackles of the armor are tens of millions. Lin Shen was born in a poor family on the west bank of Taihu Lake. He farmed at the age of seven and studied at the age of ten. At the age of seventeen, he lived in the waning years of Hongwu. He saw the truth of the world: the prosperous age was never a pure land where all living beings were equal. Without power, he could only be manipulated by others. He struggled for a living year after year, and was bound by fate from generation to generation. Everyone in the world says that poor families have no fortune, farmers have no future, and rural youths can only plow the fields and live their lives resigned to their fate. But he decided to go against fate. During the day, he worked hard to support his family and endure hardships; at night, he studied hard by himself, breaking through walls to find a way out. In the Hongwu world where officials protected each other and the people at the bottom were struggling, Lin Shen used books as a blade and his heart as a shield. Starting from the countryside, he broke through the constraints of household registration, escaped from the shackles of a poor family, and escaped from the dangers of the world. He personally experienced the harsh governance of the countryside and the suffering of the people, saw through the regulations of the court and the chaos at the grassroots level, and walked step by step through the dangerous road of the imperial examination and the ups and downs of the officialdom. He does not seek to dominate the world at one time, but only seeks to establish himself and his life, to guard one side of the fireworks and to help the people of one side. The commoner hides the blue clouds, and the green crotch enters the emperor's palace. This book runs from Hongwu to Yongle, from a commoner in the fields to a good minister in the court, and counterattacks the power of official history. It tells how a rural scholar, in the aftermath of troubled times and the torrent of the prosperous times, walked through the mud and walked out of the poor family's road to heaven.