During the Daoguang period, the Qing Dynasty came to an end amidst the illusion of frugality and the mist of opium.
Wen Yan and Hu Hua, a pair of brothers with different surnames who have already seen through the system, are determined to save the world in a "powerful and traitorous" way. Wenyan plays the role of "Qingliu" in the court, paralyzing the conservative emperor with patches and tears; Huhua runs the "underground household department" in the dark, using smuggling profits in exchange for British machine tools to build a materialistic steel army.
Faced with the encirclement and suppression of Kulilin and the suspicion of the imperial power, they are each other's light and shadow, one bright and one dark, relying on each other for life and death. When the artillery fire opened the country in 1840, they no longer knelt down, but used capital and muskets to evade imperial power and complete a silent coup.
"Everyone says that there are two masters in the Qing Dynasty. One is weeping in the court, and the other is casting iron in the dark."
