Three Kingdoms: Beheading the Chanyu from the Start, I Bring His Head to Become Defender of the North

The vanguard army was stranded beyond the frontier for seven years. Its commander, Du Mao, fell in battle, and Chen Mu inherited his seal of office. Leading the remnants of the army, he crossed three thousand li of grassland and fought his way through the Xianbei encirclement. On the day he returned to the Han, he brought back not only seven hundred lives, but also the heads of Tan Shihuai and Kebineng.

Luoyang was shaken. Liu Hong descended the steps to welcome him in person, ennobled and promoted him on the spot, and bestowed on him the title of Defender of the North. Yet even at the height of his success, the fire in Chen Mu's heart had not gone out. Why had the main force of the expedition suddenly collapsed? Why had tens of thousands of Han soldiers abandoned the isolated vanguard? These mysteries had to be answered in blood.

Returning to Bingzhou, he ruthlessly purged its nine commanderies. He confiscated the powerful clans' wealth, executed prefects, and saved four hundred thousand lives by paying them to work on relief projects, all while secretly investigating clues to the old case. Meanwhile, a million followers of the Way of Great Peace were stirring beneath the surface in eight provinces, and Liu Hong's secret edict was about to arrive. That order would decide whether the Defender of the North's iron cavalry rode beyond the frontier to settle old scores or marched south to crush the Yellow Turbans.

Lü Bu, Zhang Liao, Gao Shun, and Zhang He: one mighty general after another joined his ranks. The blade of Bingzhou, sharpened for seven years, was waiting for the moment it could be drawn.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.