In the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, the Ming Dynasty was on the verge of collapse under the double attack of peasant uprisings and Qing cavalry. Li Chongyan, the commander-in-chief of Jiliao, defended Shanhaiguan, but discovered a shocking shady scene on the Songjin battlefield where military rations were mixed with sand and firearms exploded; in the Forbidden City, Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian held the seventh memorial for paying wages, digging his nails into his palms; and outside Xi'an City, a postman was born Li Zicheng swung his sword to cut off the flag of the Ming army commander, and behind him the big banner with the word "Chuang" was buzzing... In the gears of power change, some people burned their livers and gallbladders for loyalty, some betrayed their oaths because of ambition, beauty withered in the flames of war, and scholars wrote in desperate situations. When the twilight of Beijing swallows up Chongzhen's figure hanging in the old locust tree, Li Chongyan's choice will open the last tragic chapter of a dynasty - will it turn the tide? Or burn with the mountains and rivers?
