Smuggling in the Great Ming

During the Zhengde era of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Houzhao is having the time of his life on the imperial throne, while the Eight Tigers and the officials are locked in fierce power struggles at court. Disasters plague the country, leaving countless refugees homeless. The Ming sea ban is all but meaningless, and officials and merchants in the southern coastal regions collude in rampant smuggling. The seas are a patchwork of competing forces, with no order to speak of. Pirates and maritime merchants are two sides of the same coin, locked in fierce and ruthless competition. Japan is in the thick of its Warring States period, as the shogun and local daimyo wage constant war. Large numbers of impoverished Japanese take to the sea, becoming wokou pirates who harass the Ming coast. Spain is colonizing the Americas while desperately trying to open a sea route from east to west to reach the Ming. Portuguese ships have already reached Malacca and are about to make their first close contact with the Ming. In this era poised to determine the course of history, Zhou Zhong transmigrates into the body of an impoverished young master on the southern coast. To secure a better life for himself and his family, he has no choice but to ride the tide of the times and throw himself into the sweeping wave of smuggling.