In the thirty-third year of Qianlong's reign, Yangzhou.
Shen Shaotang was the only son of the Shen family, a large salt merchant in Yangzhou. When he first entered the business world, he was faced with a shocking storm in the Lianghuai Salt Administration that had not been seen in a century - corruption cases among successive salt administration officials, the salt administration system was on the verge of collapse, and the entire salt industry was undercurrent.
This is a family history of salt merchants and a social encyclopedia of the mid-Qing Dynasty. The story uses Yangzhou salt merchants as a window to show the subtle relationship between government and businessmen in the prosperous age of Qianlong, which was both dependent and competitive. Here there are wealthy businessmen spending huge sums of money, there are salt canal workers' difficult livelihood, there are literati and poets' poetry and wine, and there are ordinary people's daily necessities such as firewood, rice, oil and salt.
When the imperial envoys from the imperial court arrived in Yangzhou, when the salt transport envoy proposed a new salt distribution plan, when merchants from Hunan and Chu quietly broke into the hinterland of Huaihe River and Huaihe River with sea salt - a game about interests, power and morality quietly kicked off in the teahouses and restaurants of Yangzhou City, in the gardens and boats, and in the back halls of the yamen.
How will Shen Shaotang and his family maintain their true intentions as businessmen and the family's legacy in this turbulent era?
