During the Republic of China, Ma Bangde (Ge You), who donated money to become the county magistrate, took his wife (Carina Lau) and his entourage to take office. Passing through a place in the south, he was ambushed by a gang of robbers Zhang Mazi (Jiang Wen). All his entourage died, and only the couple survived. In order to save his life, Ma lied that he was the county magistrate's master Tang. Moved by the wealth promised by Master Tang, Zhang Mazi suddenly transformed himself into the county magistrate and rushed to Echeng to take office with his men. As the saying goes, the emperor is far away, and Echeng is located in a remote area. The overlord Huang Silang (Chow Yun-fat) is so powerful that he doesn't take the new county magistrate seriously at all. Zhang Mazi beat Huang's martial arts coach (Jiang Wu), and Huang designed to kill Zhang's adopted son Xiaoliu (Zhang Mo). Ma Bangde, who originally only wanted to make money, never thought that he would be involved in this struggle between bandits and bullies. The sky over Goose City is covered with gloomy clouds, and bloody storms are inevitable... This film is adapted from Ma Shi Tu's novel "Ten Tales of Night" - "The Story of Stealing Officials".