In 196 AD, Cao Cao has yet to pacify the Central Plains, Liu Bei is still struggling in Xu Province, and the fifteen-year-old Sun Quan has only just taken office in Yangxian. No one can predict where the tottering Eastern Han dynasty is headed.
Xu Province, a prosperous land north of the Huai River, south of Mount Tai, and west of the Yellow Sea, is inevitably caught in the sights of the various warlords. One battle after another sweeps across the lands of Qi and Lu.
But behind all these wars, who is quietly influencing, or even deciding, their outcome? And which ordinary people will rise to prominence and grow amid the fighting?
