The Battle of Xiangyang

In the final years of the Southern Song, the powerful minister Jia Sidao ruled the court, deceiving the emperor and bringing ruin to the country at home while seeking peace through humiliating concessions abroad. The Mongol emperor Kublai Khan sought to conquer the world. Abandoning the traditional strategy of making western Sichuan the main battlefield, he resolved to break through from the central front at Xiangyang. Beginning in 1262, the Mongols secretly laid plans around Xiangyang, while the Southern Song court remained completely unaware that its fall was imminent. In 1268, a murder took place at Laolong Dike in Xiangyang, bringing all manner of people onto the stage. A bewildering chain of traps, a bloody and merciless murder plot, and an elusive romance as dreamlike as an illusion. When the truth comes to light, so does the crisis...