The protagonist Lin Canglan is in a desperate situation in Western Xinjiang in the thirteenth year of the Apocalypse. The supervisor Wang Huaian collaborated with the enemy, resulting in a lack of pay for the garrison soldiers. Facing the rebel raid, Lin Canglan led his troops to defend, but the granary was destroyed. In anger, he beheaded Wang Huaian and got away with it by outsmarting him. He then gathered the remaining soldiers to resist the barbarians, and skillfully used the "pocket formation" to defeat the enemy. This made him famous and gradually gained control of the military power in Western Xinjiang.
Since then, Lin Canglan used barbarians to harass the border, vassal kings fight for power, as well as official struggles within the court, and conflicts between eunuchs and civil servant groups, to control the situation. He designed to trigger a civil war between King Jing and King Chu, and he reaped the benefits, expanding his power from Western Xinjiang to North China and Northwest China. In the end, Lin Canglan entered the court and became an official. He overthrew the Prime Minister Zhang Jingzhi and eliminated the eunuch Wei Zhongxian.
