"Iron-Blooded Heart: Chronicle of the Ming Dynasty's Maritime Frontiers" tells the legendary story of Qi Jiguang's fight against Japanese pirates on the southeast coast during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. In the thirty-fourth year of Jiajing (1555), Japanese pirates ravaged the coasts of Zhejiang and Fujian. The young general Qi Jiguang was ordered to serve as the capital of Zhejiang. Faced with corrupt officialdom, ferocious Japanese pirates and a fragmented guard system, Qi Jiguang organized the Qi Family Army from scratch, innovated the "Mandarin Duck Formation" tactics, and launched a thrilling battle of wits and courage with the Japanese pirate leader Wang Zhi. Through the interaction between Qi Jiguang, his wife Wang, his staff Tan Lun, and the righteous Chen Dacheng, the novel shows the family and country feelings and military wisdom of a generation of famous generals, and reproduces the magnificent anti-Japanese history of the mid-Ming Dynasty.
