• Protagonist: Shen Wanchuan (formerly known as Shen Qing) was a tea farmer in Huizhou who moved north to avoid the war.
◦ Personality: He has the tenacity and patience like you grow strawberries, understands the soil and weather, and grows from a farmer to the helmsman of a canal gang.
• Main line: from the settlement in the Yellow River Basin to the protection of merchants along the canal. It writes about how he found new farming methods on barren land, and how he protected a piece of water and soil in the turbulent water transportation to protect the safety of the people.
• Research points: Immigration policy in the early Ming Dynasty, canal digging technology, and the differences between dry farming in the north and paddy fields in the south.
The second generation: Trendsetters and prosperous times (middle Ming Dynasty, Chenghua to Hongzhi years)
• Protagonist: Shen Kaiyuan, grandson of Shen Wanchuan. He has been smart since he was a child, wandering around the scholarly world of Jiangnan and the canal business world.
◦ Personality: Ambition and conscience coexist, he understands management and is good at communication. He is a typical "Ming Dynasty good businessman".
