From 1985 to 1992, smuggling thrived in Guangdong's Chaoshan region, where clan networks held great power. Lin Haisheng and his cousin Chen Yongqiang grew up together in the Chaoshan countryside, as close as brothers. Chen Yongqiang trained in martial arts and was the toughest young man in the village; Lin Haisheng was a bookworm, one of the few clever people in the village to finish high school. After reform and opening up, smuggling took off along the Chaoshan coast. Chen Yongqiang persuaded Lin Haisheng to join him in business. With a gang of brothers, Chen took delivery of goods at sea and seized territory on land, carving out a place for himself through force. Flashy, generous, and loyal, he was the very picture of a Chaoshan gang boss. Lin Haisheng worked behind the scenes. Drawing on his deep understanding of clan rules, he united villages with different surnames and established the Clan Alliance Chamber of Commerce, consolidating scattered smuggling operations into a coalition of shared interests.
The two brothers, one a strategist and the other a fighter, gradually came to control the largest smuggling network along the Chaoshan coast. But cracks began to form. Chen Yongqiang felt Lin Haisheng was becoming less and less like a brother, calculating everything. Lin Haisheng felt...
