Ghostly Schemes of the Late Tang

In the second year of the Qianfu era, locusts ravaged Caozhou. Ten-year-old orphan Lin Fu witnessed the blood and fire of tyranny and rebellion, then joined Wang Xianzhi’s rebel army, carrying the bodies of those who had starved to death. In Yingzhou, he unexpectedly came into possession of Guo Jia’s Ten Victories and Ten Defeats and Xi Zhicai’s notes on astrology and poisoncraft, changing the course of his life. With his uncanny schemes and ingenious plans, Lin Fu rose from a nobody among the refugees to Huang Chao’s trusted confidant, taking part in the capture of Luoyang and Chang’an. But during the siege of Chenzhou, Huang Chao’s cruelty chilled him to the core. Pledging the lives of three thousand civilians as his price, Lin Fu broke with his former lord and secretly went over to Zhu Wen, taking the name “Guo Zhicai” to help bring Huang Chao down. After Zhu Wen declared himself emperor, his brutality gradually came to light. Lin Fu’s remonstrations fell on deaf ears, and he soon found himself in danger. While secretly supporting the righteous resistance of his old comrade Hong Xian in the Jianghuai region, he carefully arranged his own death and vanished from the history books. Twenty years later, amid the misty rains of Jiangnan, a white-haired old man teaches children to read from a yellowed manuscript, calmly facing the storms of his past. History may be rewritten, and the name “Ghost Strategist” may fade away, but the heart that struggled to survive in an age of chaos, yearned to turn the tide, and ultimately returned to dust, along with half a rice cake symbolizing its original resolve, has left an indelible mark on people’s hearts.