In the 26th year of the Jingtai era, all but the Mu family army’s seventh and eighth sons, Mu Zheng and Mu An, were killed in battle. Seventeen-year-old Mu Zheng took up the mantle and carried on the family’s tradition, leading hundreds of thousands of troops to defend Lingnan. He loved his people like his own children and cherished his soldiers. Shrewd and highly skilled in martial arts, he wielded a red-tasseled spear to fight a hundred foes at once, driving the barbarians out of Dashuo territory. With strength in his hands, he showed compassion: opening the granaries to feed the hungry, sheltering the people, and personally helping control the floods. The people privately called him the Prince of Lingnan.
The Prince of Chen, who had been held hostage in Xishu, returned to the capital one day, and Mu Qi was ordered to escort him along the way. The two spent their days and nights together, and Mu Qi repeatedly saved the prince from peril, risking his life as bait and trading his own life for the prince’s. Before long, the Prince of Chen began to feel something more for him. The capital was rife with intrigue, and a rumor spread: Whoever wins Mu Qi wins the realm! With the country and the people at stake, the former court and inner palace in turmoil, fourteen tribes in the northern frontier and Xishu lying in wait, and the Huangfu brothers of Nanyu harboring sinister ambitions, what will Mu Qi choose? Will the Prince of Chen uncover the truth behind his mother’s sudden death years ago and see his wish fulfilled? And what path will the princes choose?
