Jingning: Beyond the Chessboard

Everyone in the world thinks that the world is a chess game for the interests of the rich and powerful. Only Shen Ning, who has traveled the deserted road, understands that most of the world is not on the chessboard. As the legitimate son of the Duke, he is well versed in checks and balances in the court, has money and connections at his disposal, and firmly believes that a balance of interests can resolve all suffering. Until his family was demoted to common people and forced to move to the north, he saw famine, land loss, and the collapse of officialdom along the way, which shattered all his cognition. Money cannot save the entire region from famine, connections cannot prevent land annexation, imperial power cannot correct bureaucratic abuses, and punishing corrupt generals cannot correct the imbalance in the distribution of the army. The choices of powerful men, officials, grain merchants, and emperors are all for self-preservation when viewed individually, but this repetitive old system eventually forces ordinary people into desperate situations. His father only knew how to destroy, and the prince was trapped in power. After witnessing the suffering of those without chess along the way, Shen Ning gave up on reconciling the old order and decided to go to the desolate north to build a new set of fair rules of survival from scratch.