The Mo Dao: The Tang Dynasty’s Last Cry

At the end of the Kaiyuan Golden Age, Li Chengyue, a farmer from Longyou, enlisted in Hexi. He first made his mark during a night raid by the Tibetans, as fifty Mo Dao blades shattered the armor of Qiang cavalry in a downpour, staining the beacon tower with blood.

Ten years of campaigns took him across the glaciers of Anxi, where he slew elephant troops, and the snowy plains of Youzhou, where he defeated the Khitans. With his Mo Dao leading the way, he rose from squad leader to military governor of Longyou.

In the fourteenth year of Tianbao, An Lushan's iron hooves shattered the age of prosperity. Li Chengyue led three thousand Mo Dao soldiers in the defense of Tong Pass. Their wall of blades tore apart the Yan army's armored cavalry, but eunuch interference forced them to retreat and hold Jianmen Pass.

In the alley battles at Suiyang, with supplies exhausted, Mo Dao blades chopped bones for firewood. In the muddy downpour at Xiangzhou, gravely wounded, he still raised his blade and cut down the enemy banner. After the new emperor ascended the throne, Li Chengyue was appointed Chancellor of the Great Xingyuan Command of Shandong.

In the decisive battle at Luoyang in the first year of Baoying, he personally led eight hundred Mo Dao soldiers to breach the false dynasty's palace gates. A long spear pierced Li Chengyue's ribs, but his chipped Mo Dao still stood amid a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. The enemy troops surrendered at the mere mention of his name.

He returned to the capital with one arm and a broken blade. The emperor wept bitterly and ennobled him as the Martial God King Who Guards the Nation and Supreme General of the Celestial Strategy, granting him every honor.

A Mo Dao career tempered by thirty years of blood and fire, a pillar of the nation who charged into battle for decades: all that remained was half a broken blade, bearing the iron and bone of the Tang dynasty's final days.