Saving My Wife from Peril

In the final years of the Ming Dynasty, government corruption was rampant, and corrupt officials colluded with unscrupulous gentry. Li Ling, the spoiled son of a powerful family in Tianjin Prefecture, threw his weight around in the countryside. When he saw that Ma Fangfang, the beautiful wife of pie seller Tan Zhen, had caught his eye, he joined forces with the county yamen runners to extort them with excessive taxes and levies, seize their pie stall, and take Ma Fangfang for himself. Tan Zhen begged on his knees, but to no avail. He could only watch helplessly as his family was torn apart. Under the oppression of harsh rule and local bullies, the people felt as if they had fallen into an abyss.