In the chaos of the late Qing, foreign merchants monopolize the market, traitors hold sway, and crushing taxes leave ordinary people unable to afford even a full meal!
Su Zhenbang, the young master of the Su family in Wuxi, is entrusted with his father’s small mill at a time of crisis. Guided by the family motto, “Be a good person before doing business, and uphold righteousness before taking action,” he ventures alone into the foreign concessions.
Foreign merchants join forces to crush him? He strikes back with affordable flour, breaks their monopoly, and becomes a legend overnight, the grain king of Jiangnan!
His traitorous brothers plot against him? He cuts off their backing at the source and severs all ties. He will never tolerate those who sell out their country for personal gain!
Japanese invaders trample the land? He blows up his own factories rather than supply the enemy, gives away his entire fortune to save the nation, and supports the resistance!
For sixty years, the Taihu Lake heroine Shen Qingshuang protects him through every storm, her weapon a willow-leaf saber.
With a single flour mill, he spends his life putting industrial strength at the service of the nation, protecting both the people’s food supply and the country’s principles.
From a tiny mill by Taihu Lake to shouldering half of China’s national industry;
from the long night of the national humiliation of 1901 to the flags flying at the founding ceremony.
For three generations, the Su family would rather die standing than live on their knees. They would rather sacrifice everything to save the nation than become slaves of a conquered country!
This is the stirring legend of a righteous Jiangnan merchant who saves his country through commerce and safeguards his home through honor amid a century of turmoil!
