A 21st-Century Banker Transmigrates to Ancient Times and Becomes Emperor

Shen Yan, a modern investment banking tycoon, survives an air disaster only to transmigrate with a memento from his past life, a solid-gold abacus, into the body of Xiao Yan, the eighteen-year-old new emperor of the Great Yan dynasty. Great Yan appears to be an intact empire, but in truth it is a bankrupt mess: the treasury holds just thirty thousand taels of silver, the annual budget shortfall is eleven million eight hundred thousand taels, salt licenses are being issued recklessly, the grain transport system is riddled with corruption, the Imperial Guard is packed with soldiers on the payroll who never show up, and the court is controlled by entrenched forces such as the Empress Dowager, the Grand Secretariat, and the Duke of Wei. Treating the country like a company on the verge of bankruptcy, Xiao Yan uses modern finance and business management principles to save the empire step by step and carry out institutional reforms.