At the end of the Great Jing Dynasty, there were three consecutive years of severe drought and locust plagues, leaving the fields starved to death. A businesswoman, Zhang Qingmei, made her fortune by hoarding food. She dealt ruthlessly among bandits, the court, and warlords, but she was sensitive and fragile because she was betrayed by her relatives in her childhood. On the way to collect grain, she met Li Ming, the pretending-to-be-innocent general of Zhenxi. He appeared to be innocent and harmless, but in fact he was planning to seize grain resources. The two make use of each other during the years of disaster. The heroine uses ruthless means to solve crises such as food shortages, robberies, and house confiscations (such as destroying bandit dens, trapping eunuchs, and rebel warlords).
