促织 (Cuzhi)

From BoardGameGeek:

(Cuzhi) is a competitive game that transports players back to the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty of China, where a palace entertainment named Cuzhi (cricket fighting) was popular among the royal family. Every year, the cabinet collected crickets from the provinces, a time when generals would crouch on the ground shouting the names of crickets, merchants would focus on appreciating the jars, and farmers, while busy harvesting grain, would not forget to bring along some dogtails for cricket fighting. Players will take on the role of a town mayor, the subordinate of officials in various counties and townships, and in this era where the emperor's interests influenced the country, they must find their own way to survive and thrive, while also finding entertainment for themselves. (Cuzhi) is a board game that combines the ancient Chinese cricket fighting culture with the German worker placement mechanism. In the game, players need to use their own workers to work in different areas to obtain various effects. You can do a series of interesting activities in this board game: collecting crickets, harvesting fodder, manipulating the market, hiring village heads, cultivating crickets, etc. In addition, you can also pay tribute to the dignitaries in different regions to obtain salaries and other rewards, and strive to become the most respected player in this game after five rounds of games. -description from the publisher -description from the publisher (Chinese)