The Mastermind: Stirring Up Storms in Republican-Era China

In 1937, the artillery of the Battle of Shanghai tears through the night sky. Ling Yun, an industrialist devoted to national enterprise, is forced to leave Shanghai and head south. Using Hong Kong as his chessboard, he launches a silent war over the lifeblood of the national economy. Outwardly, he is an urbane overseas Chinese merchant from Southeast Asia; in secret, he is the core of an anti-Japanese economic network codenamed Pangu. Facing the financial strangulation of the Japanese army's Shadow Warrior system and the relentless pressure of the Special Higher Police, Ling Yun wields the principle of “saving the nation through industry” as his blade, uniting Chinese merchants in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Yunnan to counterattack on three fronts: finance, supplies, and technology.

Financial warfare: Working with overseas Chinese and covert allies, he uses cross-border capital operations to cut off the Japanese army's strategic funds and safeguard the nation's gold reserves.

The struggle for supplies: Engineers from his Shennong Hall and operatives from the Black Tortoise Guard open a secret route through Yunnan and Burma, hiding medicine and weapons components in cotton yarn and mineral ore to get them through the blockade and deliver them to the front.

A technological breakthrough: Zhao Shichen, an engineer at the Jiangnan factory, gives his life to protect naval vessel blueprints. In a Kunming laboratory, Ye Zhiqiu, who has returned from studying in France, leads students in deciphering alloy-making techniques by lamplight, helping damaged guns and cannons roar once more.

Meanwhile, in the shadows, the Japanese military economic advisor Nakamura Yuichi's “Fang Plan” is drawing near. British and American capital wavers between profit and principle, and even former colleagues may turn into venomous snakes... On a besieged island, Ling Yun must use strategy as his rope and conviction as his sail to protect the nation's last lifeline at its darkest hour.

This is an epic song of sacrifice, wisdom, and steadfast resolve amid the flames of war:

“The merchant's way is the soldier's way; silence speaks louder than words. A fortune may be spent, but our land must never be invaded!”