The Grandmaster Strategist

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This is an alternate history. Decades after the fall of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the world is still in chaos, although there is hope for reunification.

Of poor background, Jiang Zhe, styled Suiyun, has finally, after ten years of hard work, passed the imperial examinations and become a scholar within Hanlin Academy. Unwittingly, he becomes involved in the succession dispute of the Great Yong Dynasty. He faces conspiracies and machinations and countless battles of strength and wits. Intending to avoid court politics, he ultimately has no choice but to become involved. With no alternative, Jiang Zhe can only follow the crowd, joining the chaotic political turmoil. In this conniving world, he uses his intelligence and knowledge to provide for himself and his companions a stable environment to survive.

Watch nations fall, great men rise, and supreme martial artists kneel before the quiet whispers of a frail, unassuming scholar.

Associated Names
One entry per line
TGS
一代军师
随波逐流之一代军师
Related Series
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Latest Release

Date Group Release
11/28/16 Wuxiaworld v1c20
11/27/16 Wuxiaworld v1c19
11/27/16 Wuxiaworld v1c18
11/23/16 Wuxiaworld v1c17
11/22/16 Wuxiaworld v1c16
11/29/16 Wuxiaworld v1c15
11/22/16 Wuxiaworld v1c14
11/22/16 Wuxiaworld v1c13
11/18/16 Wuxiaworld v1c12
11/17/16 Wuxiaworld v1c11
11/17/16 Wuxiaworld v1c10
11/15/16 Wuxiaworld v1c9
11/13/16 Wuxiaworld v1c8
11/13/16 Wuxiaworld v1c7
11/12/16 Wuxiaworld v1c6
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67 Reviews sorted by


Trent
Trent rated it
December 7, 2017
Status: v3c17
Very different from the usual fare, given how the MC is unable to cultivate at all, even being weak and sickly. All he has are his mind and medical skills, which he uses to great effect. Rather than being a physically powerful MC, he is able to influence the courses of nations with his words, which makes him more powerful than nearly any wuxia martial artist could be.

It might seem to be a slow-moving novel, but that’s not really the case. Every chapter progresses the plot, and time continuously moves forward in a very natural manner, largely thanks to the biographical excerpts at the beginnings of chapters. These also provide interesting limited perspectives into what future generations will know about what occurred.

It’s also nice that the MC actually gets recognized for his successes (the ones he doesn’t keep hidden, that is).

The story’s biggest weakness is that the author, who’s not a genius himself, makes nearly every character unintelligent so that the MC can actually advise and devise effective stratagems. This even and especially applies to princes, who, despite their royal educations, cannot come up with anything on their own, relying upon their advisers for even the simplest ideas. How are these guys famous generals, again? At the same time, the MC often shouldn’t be able to come up with the right answer with the limited information he’d seemed to have, but easily does so anyway. These issues aside, the characters and interactions are very well done.

The second noticeable weakness: The martial experts are common as clouds. It’s as if, because the MC himself can’t be a super talented fighter, the author bestows that honor upon his supporting martial artists. Their training and epiphanies are accelerated, letting them become experts in much shorter periods of time than everyone else seems to need. This is doubly the case for the MC’s right-hand man (and when does the guy even train, given how he’s shadowing the MC all day long?). While this helps protect the MC’s life and lets his plans come to fruition faster, it’s an annoying piece of a usually realistic story.

In conclusion, it’s an interesting and unusual story which gives characters solid personalities, but it falls short in establishing a believable system for the fighters and realistic levels of intelligence for the noncombatants.

And though we shouldn’t bring the translator and editor into this, their skill and effort are very evident in every chapter, and they convey authorial intentions remarkably well.
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Privatejoker
Privatejoker rated it
June 25, 2017
Status: c177
Since this is my first review I may as well give it a decent shot.

Ill start with stating that The Grandmaster Strategist is NOT your usual Qidian CN.

As many other reviewers have stated this novel is amazing, Rather than the overly cliché plot settings that are typically found, The Grandmaster Strategist reads like a piece of historical fiction. With highly detailed world settings involving a mixture of politics, military strategy, personal intrigue, betrayal and more. There are many characters introduced and a complex series of relationships and personalities are developed... more>> which ensures that even when chapters focus on side characters rather than the main character, they remain significant and enjoyable.

One of the aspects that I like the most about this novel is the fact that the main character, Jiang Zhe's isn't a overbearing, excessively powerful martial cultivator, he is a scholar and a strategist. Cultivators exist in the story that is portrayed, but the focus of the novel isn't about a MC who works at becoming increasingly powerful, instead it details how Jiang Zhe uses his powerful intellect to manipulate the world around him in an effort to achieve his objectives. The presence of powerful martial cultivators add an additional layer without overpowering the actions of a single person, portraying the cultivators as humans capable of mistakes, in spite of their power.

I highly recommend this novel for people looking for a more serious read. The Grandmaster Strategist requires the reader to pay attention, there are so many disparate elements that missing can be effected by missing small amounts of text, often seemingly minor events play a significant role in future events.

In my opinion reading this novel and actually enjoying it would be difficult for the causal reader. Plot elements are often small details that are easy to miss and understanding their importance requires patience and comprehension. I must applaud the work of the translation team who is working on this team, the amount of poetry and references that they research must be significant.

All in all I find The Grandmaster Strategist to be a highly enjoyable read that I would suggest to anyone who is looking for a break from the more mainstream novels available. Additionally I would suggest that readers be prepared for some large info dumps that are really required to build the complex setting of the novel. In my opinion, reserve judgment until finishing at least the first book (ch 30), and the chapters are long. If you are able to, I believe that our patience will be rewarded.

If the pace seems to slow, or the amount of information overwhelming, by all means put it aside and spend your time elsewhere, what you read is for you own enjoyment. But do not forget of its existence! I think that at some point you as a reader will become excessively familiar to the typical plots and characters provided in a large majority of the novels here. When that time comes The Grandmaster Strategist will definitely be a refreshing change. <<less
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Linbe
Linbe rated it
May 17, 2017
Status: v4c28
This novel is amazing. Almost all the popular novels in NU have a great start which will pull in readers with it's originality and other noteworthy things. The authors of these novels start off with huge enthusiasm with the stories of novels mapped out for like 300 chapters or with a rough story outline for the whole series and then they lose momentum. They either lose the enthusiasm they had in the beginning or run out of juice and start repeating tropes.

All these novels will get a 5 star rating... more>> in the beginning and slowly people will rate it less and less. Then there are novels where the start is slow because the author wants to give us an introduction or for building up and then all the elements in the story comes together and the story falls into place. These novels get better and better ratings as the story progresses and are usually the better read.

But The Grandmaster Strategist is one such rare novel where the author not only had the whole story mapped out in his mind before starting the story but also the little details were also thought about well so that we wouldn't be that bored as we read the story. The MC is OP in one sense of the word but weak in another way. The side characters are given full attention with them even getting character development. The romance is pretty minimal but this was never supposed to be a romance novel. But I'm not saying that this novel is perfect. It also has problems but the thing is that most of these problems are not because of the author or the story, but because the story is a translation. People seem to forget that this story was never meant for the audience outside of China.

It gives a large amount of information and has a great deal of customs that we might feel are ridiculous. But the Chinese audience for which the story was meant to from the start will relate (I think). The only real problem I found was the sudden shift in PoV which may be a problem if you were not paying attention to the story. But TGS is not one of those brain off stories that we see in NU which we just read to have fun without having to think or make sense of. But this is a story which uses clever strategies and wordings which we have to pay attention to and apply our brain to to fully appreciate.

Tl;dr: TGS is a great story which is too under appreciated mainly because the audience in NU consists of people meaning to have a light read who may get bored from the ancient way of talking customs or large descriptions. But if fully appreciated is a gem which becomes more shiny the more you look at it. <<less
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Boon
Boon rated it
April 23, 2017
Status: v5c29
5/5. This might be the best novel on novelupdates. In sheer entertainment value it might fall behind only word of cultivation in my opinion, but I think it's a stronger novel overall.

This is nothing short of a webnovel masterpiece, hitting every high note that I enjoy in my CN action novels, and avoiding all the tropes and pitfalls. There is great characterization of the supporting allies and enemies, drawing a distinct and memorable picture of their personalities. The strategies are complex and well thought out, as you would hope from... more>> a novel with such a title. The enemies are strong and intelligent, giving anticipation to the coming conflicts; yet with his gentle character and as the novel starts with him recalling his past, it is still a relaxing and generally peaceful read.

A very intelligent MC with a iron will, gifted in every art but martial arts, gentle and merciful, but also decisive. Viewed by others as extraordinarily sinister for his methods. Since he has extraordinarily strong followers, there is always the satisfaction that he is a force to be reckoned with, despite his constantly poor health and frail body.

Great humor. Great Action. Great romance. Great intelligence. Great characters. Great plot. Great camaraderie.

This review really doesn't do it justice, and I'll have to properly review it later. 5/5 <<less
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happysheep
happysheep rated it
July 24, 2022
Status: v6c1
this is a strategy novel with lots of info dumping to show how smart our MC is, if you don't like reading walls of text bewarned this is not for you. the first couple of novel are very well done and very smart, I was able to get through them while marveling at the political intrigue despite not having the best attention span.

But as many other "smart" novels do, I feel like it starts to drag on and the plots and strategies start to get increasingly forced. in addition the... more>> one major weakness of the writer- relationships, be it romantic or platonic really start degrading..... the personalities of many side character seem like dolls, relationships are formed at the drop of a hat and baffles the viewer.

to summarize: the novel focuses on strategy and warfare to the detriment of character development which tires you out after a length of time. it would probably be best to be adapted to a drama to humanize the characters more <<less
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ammmi6
ammmi6 rated it
March 13, 2021
Status: --
A truly hidden gem, I normally don't read these type of things cause I often find it too boring, but I decided to give this a go, wasn't disappointed at all, you will find this quite funny sometimes. It is also not those type of novels where the main character is so powerful in the beginning of the story, you can see him working his way up to the person he is and all the things he learned throughout his journey. When I was reading this I often marveled at... more>> Jian Zhe's intelligence, he really is very good at scheming. <<less
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Gsichtselfmeter
Gsichtselfmeter rated it
November 22, 2020
Status: v6c28
If you like your MC smart, childish and cruel, then this is the novel for you. It features a tale of kings and kingdoms, war, blood, sweat and poetry. The schemes are deep, the brotherhood strong and the poetry complex. 5*
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Hawk73
Hawk73 rated it
August 7, 2020
Status: v2c4
Sadly, I have to give this only 4 stars, mainly because although there are things I really like about it, there are certain aspects that are not to my taste.

The biggest strength of this novel are the characters and their motivations. Because his motivations are quite different to the majority of novels, it proceeds at a different pace, and explores different situations that other novels would rarely see otherwise.

However, there are also weaknesses. Without spoilers, I can say there are parts where it seems like all the other characters are... more>> incompentent, as how else could he be the only one to be such a great strategist? It is mainly because other characters are not as ruthless as him. However, he will disdain other characters that are similarly ruthless at times, so I don't enjoy that inconsistency.

In that regard it feels sometimes as though he expects different rules to apply to him, in how others should treat him, when compared to everyone else, and that is the thing that doesn't allow me to give it 5 stars.

If you have read it and don't mind my additional criticisms which contain spoilers;

Spoiler

The way he builds up a fortune instantaneously is pretty illogical, as the fact was his designs is unlikely to be as good as someone who has been doing it for decades, and the fact he can build an organisation from the ground up in such a short period of time are illogical, especially seeing he does it without anyone knowing. He didn't have much access to martial knowledge when compared to other officials, so the fact his organisation is so powerful is quite illogical.

His romance lacks depth, and feels like it is used more as a plot device for him to get revenge, than anything that deserves to be that sincere. I suppose as a 'tragedy' it is supposed to be somewhat expected, but there is not much regret because the main character has not yet made a substantial mistake, at least not one that has been punished.

The way he repeatedly declines to become an official shows double standards, as he is quite willing to be ruthless in his own plans.

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c888
c888 rated it
February 21, 2018
Status: v6c7
You'll love the characters in this story, the characters are so well developed in all their strengths and weakness that you'll root for them, rather they are the MC or the enemies of the MC. Another reason why you'll like this story is that even when you want the MC to win, you'll also empathize with the MC's enemies who have their own motivations. I usually drop stories because the characters are so 2D but here the characteristics are richly developed and layered.
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Victor DoUrden
Victor DoUrden
August 29, 2017
Status: --
No where as good as people make it out to be. It reads quite dryly and lack of detail if any to who looks like what aside from a name. Like a boring history book. The chauvinism typical in many chinese works is also fairly prevalent here. There is no draw or reason to give a f*ck about anyone really. Some parts that could possibly be interesting are totally skipped

eg. He was going over there bam he arrived! Or some objective he is going to____ he did it

Also some parts... more>> are just total bullsh*t in regards to his blind luck. I haven't even gotten fair and there are parts where it's 10% his wits 90% pure blind luck. <<less
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DatRandomperson
DatRandomperson rated it
July 3, 2017
Status: --
To be honest, just the description got me fired up, and I was. It was a great novel, very different from the others and gave a sense of originality that many people would appreciate, BUT. And only because of this, I gave a 4/5 and not a full mark was because that sense of detachment in the novel. Only that turned me off, but maybe this novelty in perspective is a selling point to others.
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sibyl97
sibyl97 rated it
June 4, 2017
Status: v6c4
I stumbled onto this amazing piece few days ago.

All that I could say is that it deserve it reputation as the best fictional history novel in Qidian's History All Time ranking.

I really liked the fact that the author fleshed out side characters by using different POV and still felt natural, not confusing. Also, I love the little transcript of the biographies in the opening of most of the chapter, the difference between the one written and what had happened fascinates me and made me think that things are more complicated... more>> in real life than the actual result written in the history books.

The MC, Jiang Zhe is absolutely my favourite character. The world might describe him as one of the most dangerous person as he is a genius and resourceful, his plots exploits others' shortcomings and he is a master in understanding human nature. However, in reality, he himself is quite lazy and carefree, he is not greedy for gold or silver nor fame, all he wanted to do is drinking a good wine, reading books silently and appreciating nature leisurely. But with the twist of fate and his unique talents, he was dragged into political turmoil. What can he do as he is just a frail scholar? Later, along his journey of life, he met a lot of talented people, both allies and foes.

Spoiler

There is 6 volumes and each have their own focus of struggle. First volume is about his early life (15-24 ish) as zhuangyuan (rank number one in the imperial examination) in the Southern Chu Kingdom. Funny story is that he actually took the test because he was robbed along the way and he needed the money reward from the exam not because he want to serve the country or anything like that (he is quite low key or just too lazy). Second Volume is when thing got heated up as he was held captive in Great Yong and many people wanted his loyalty or his life. Third volume is about the power struggle between princes factions, this is one of my favourite arc, Jiang Zhe finally fully unleashed his talents while sowing discord here and there, trapping those poor souls into his web and slowly suffocated them. Muahahahahhh... anyway it was quite a long arc and just so beautifully done, I don't have any complains.

While the focus of the previous arcs are more on on Jiang Zhe's life and also Prince Yong's faction. The next two volume were about war between the Great Yong and Northern Han. Jiang Zhe was dragged out of his seclusion but he was more mature at that time (about 30 ish). This arc was very heavy on the battle strategy and focus less on Jiang zhe but more on the development other characters. Compared to the previous arcs where the enemies were hateful and evil, these arc were more heartbreaking since the war, the killings and the betrayal were not actually their 'fault'. I could not hate them because they did what they had to do to protect their countries. Their story, loyalty and valiance made me think about why do people go to war and hurt each other? On the other hand, Jiang zhe was amazing and savage as usual.

The last arc and the last volume which is volume 6. Since it has not completed yet, I am not sure but I think the focus would be more on the next generation as in the kids on the main and side characters. Also, the conclusion of uniting the world.

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Furthemore, the translator and the editor did a really good job. I could tell from the poems, idoms and the information in the footnotes, they did their research and put a lot of thought and consideration into their work. <<less
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Rudeus30
Rudeus30 rated it
May 18, 2017
Status: v2c18
Kind of hard to say what I think of this one. It is an example of masterful writing for sure, but I have had the feeling that there is something sort of rotten in this book. The author is amazing at evoking emotion in the reader, but some events in the story that were supposed to evoke emotion were kind of forced.
Spoiler

For one, the romance between Jiang Zhe and his wife took place over one night. Jiang Zhe, for whatever reason, felt such a huge connection towards her despite the short time span and although I understand that Suiyun is compelled to get revenge for her, I cannot really reconcile my rationale to recognize this cause as reasonable.

[collapse]
Possibly, the author never wanted us to focus on the heartbreak and tragedy, but it downplays Suiyun's motivation for doing what he is. It just makes this story seem more like Suiyun's adventure rather than the biography of Suiyun due to the lack of introspection on his goals, morals, and motivations.
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Garlicbread
Garlicbread rated it
April 25, 2017
Status: c128
This novel really deserves more readers, it is simply breathtaking! I couldn't stop reading this at all.

To be fair, I am very interested in history, military, politics and war stuff so this novel naturally fits perfectly. For people that do not like such a genre, then perhaps this is not for you or else you will get bored by information. Also, those people that prefers epic fight scenes with magic and all, then maybe this novel is not for you (although it does contain a tiny amount of that).

I love... more>> this kind of genuinely genius MC because they truly use their mind, to scheme and so on. Those who like intelligent, china history, military warfare, battle of wits kinda stuff should definitely read this.

Lastly, the translator is simply amazing, the quality is superb. Thank you translator! And thank you author for delivering such a masterpiece. <<less
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xianxia_reader
xianxia_reader rated it
March 9, 2017
Status: v5c1
Before writing a review about the novel, let me first get around one of the criticism this novel might get/is getting. One of the noticeable things about Chinese LNs is that instead of taking the slow approach, they rather do an information dump. For example a typical xianxia novel will talk about the levels of cultivation or the place MC belongs to in detail, only to make the information moot later when you find that MC is somehow cultivation understanding was lowest of the low and the place he belongs... more>> was literally a village in the corner of the world, even if it is called "city" earlier. Second thing noticeable is paragraphs tend to be super long. For example, if talking about a "sect" everything is dumped within a single paragraph - location, halls, master, master's appearance etc etc. While it could actually make information easily digestible by breaking it down to what, who and why. Maybe that is because of the Chinese grammar rules. For people not into reading Chinese literature a lot, this comes off as info being a "wall of text". Now as for the novel, from my limited knowledge I can think of three levels of Chinese LNs - one the xianxia types where there is an information dump but then it has some excitement added in, then there is stuff written by Fengling Tianxia - Transcending the Nine Heavens etc, which tend to get talky a bit but also have the typical xianxia stuff added. So before reading this give Transcending the Nine Heavens etc a try, specially the first world arc. If you can stand the amount of talking spent on strategies, then this might be for you. If not, skip it.

The annoying thing about this novel is narrative - lot of time it is a first person, grandmaster's, narrative and everything is "I" and "me" but it will change the flow mid-paragraphs to third person narrative. If you are a speed reader like me you will be frequently confused and have to re-read what you just read. Still a 4 because of the story. It doesn't get talky a lot but that's how I guess how wuxia's are supposed to be. <<less
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orchid5642
orchid5642 rated it
May 16, 2023
Status: v5c33
It's good. It deserve 5 stars. How MC make strategies to fck up his opponent's life is amazing. But I dont really recommend this one UNLESS you are good with LITERATURE/POEMS.

when I first saw recomendation abou this novel which say " this is not for everyone", I scoff at that. But I understand now. Im literally include in that major fraction who can enjoy this novel fully because I'M ILLATERATE. :"
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Queen_of_Chaos000
Queen_of_Chaos000 rated it
May 2, 2023
Status: Completed
Wonderful! Wonderful!

This is a story filled with a lot of tales of different characters. Their achievements, sadness, happiness as well as some of their deaths.

The MC is the coolest. I love him!

This is simply simply wonderful beyond words!!!
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kurousagi4242
kurousagi4242 rated it
June 16, 2020
Status: c14
Though it was intriguing the Achilles heel of this story is the romance. The initial female lead was only seen twice and after that from what I've read from spoilers, the next romance (at least to me) doesn't seem to have good prospects either.

Aside from these points, the plotting is quite genuinely interesting it's just that it's hard to connect to any character besides the MC and his eunuch BG.
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SassyCanoeWizard
SassyCanoeWizard rated it
December 3, 2019
Status: --
Story has a lot of poetry which doesn't sound all that great in English. Too much info dumps. For some reason I cannot bring myself to enjoy too much characters, places and so on bearing Chinese names. New century books are notable for their relative shortness. They don't usually start to seriously tell us a story about that random character's old closet or another one's shirt's buttons. This story gives an old classic vibe that might be enjoyable for older generation readers but might not be that appealing to those... more>> who prefer short novels that are binge readable. <<less
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Ghettoe
Ghettoe rated it
November 1, 2019
Status: --
This is a complex and woven tale that is unfortunately marred by the little things. The selling point of this story isn’t so much the story but the translation. While this should have no bearing on the story, the richly woven scenes and sublime descriptions lend themselves to what would otherwise be just another scheming novel. I assume the story is probably even better in Chinese.

The main MC is gifted with impeccable intelligence but his physical constitution is such that he wouldn’t be able to truss a chicken as we... more>> are reminded constantly. His physical weakness is rather poorly explained and poorly developed but it’s not something you find fault in as he is the beacon of intelligence. He is spoken of in sacred fashion as the sole person needed to conquer the world. I will admit, some of the strategies are convoluted but the results are underwhelming. The novel is so detailed and weaves breath taking scenery yet is heavily lacking when it comes to fleshing out characters. A lot of the characters in this novel meet and have incredibly deep connections in about two chapters yet you will plough through about three hundred pages of just one battle. There are times you don’t really know much about relatively significant characters.

There is also a bit of a protagonist halo effect in that the MC seems to do no wrong in his planning and should it come to that, there aren’t many losses there. Nonetheless, the story was a joy to read. It does not dumb anything down and it does not need any action to be interesting. I have to give a rave review because a lot of authors when writing similar novels fluff it up with other plot points that take aware from what is the meat of the plot. The story is heavily steeped in politics and strategy and that is interesting. I love that the author never took away from the story he was trying to build. It would be great if other characters were more fleshed out so you could understand the protagonists reasoning in choosing his course of action, but I think one weakness to this novel is that I personally remained very detached from the characters. Watching scenarios unravel was fascinating but I am not sure I cared who died. However, there are no true villains in the story. Everyone here is swept by the circumstances. War is inevitable, people die, peace is ephemeral. The MC has to find who will unite the world because perhaps, there may be peace after. <<less
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