In the early years of the Republic of China, warlords carved up the country. Beneath Shanghai's glittering lights lay blood, tears, and bones. Fleeing famine, young Yan Man wandered from the Central Plains to this "Eastern Devil City." At the docks, he saw foreigners bullying the locals, gangs running rampant, and impoverished laborers treated like weeds, while the foreign concessions drowned in luxury and excess. A heart unwilling to accept its lot was kindled.
From dockworker to rickshaw puller, Yan Man rose to prominence through extraordinary courage and an old Mauser pistol he came by by chance, surviving one bloody fight after another. He maneuvered among the Green Gang, the Hongmen, warlords, and foreigners, earning respect through ruthlessness, loyalty through brotherhood, and affection through genuine feeling. Five women of very different temperaments entered his life in turn. More than his lovers, they became the most dependable pillars of his business empire and his underworld domain. Yan Man made his name with a pistol hailed as the "best in the world," then built a vast enterprise spanning five major cities: Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Wuhan, and Chongqing. Behind it all lay countless hair-raising plots, betrayals, and gunfights.
But as he reached the summit, danger quietly closed in from within and without. This is an epic of one man's rise, and a sweeping portrait of human nature, desire, and justice colliding amid the turmoil of Republican-era China.
A very good novel
Terrible, utterly tasteless!