The young provincial governor Lin Chen travels to Jiangnan to reform the salt administration and establish a new bureau for industrial and commercial taxation, but faces united resistance from local wealthy merchants and powerful clans. Using the confiscation of workshops as his starting point, he improves textile machinery and revolutionizes silk-weaving techniques, successfully fulfilling a massive order for ten thousand bolts of silk on schedule and winning over Eunuch Cao of the Maritime Trade Office. He then implements new policies and increases commercial taxes, forcing the powerful clans to bow and submit. After completing his plans, he returns triumphantly to the capital, where he faces heated debates in the imperial court over his new policies.