The Axe’s Echo and the Candle’s Shadow

A merchant caravan is ambushed by two groups of mysterious assassins at Bolangsha in Kaifeng Prefecture. Two founding generals die in separate locations on the same day. Is this a sinister plot by an enemy state, or a matter of personal grudges and vendettas? More than ten years after Emperor Taizu Zhao Kuangyin founded the Song Dynasty, the position of Crown Prince remains vacant. Will the future heir be his younger brother Guangyi, or his own sons Dezhao or Defang? The ancient rule of succession says that when a father dies, his son takes over; the Golden Coffer Covenant says that when an elder brother dies, his younger brother succeeds him. Court and palace, a crisis of succession; a thousand years later, the regret will still be too late. This age-old mystery will finally be revealed amid the shadows of axes and candlelight on a vast, snowy night...