The autumn floods of the Dajing Dynasty were not over yet, and the smoke was rising again in Mobei.
Shen Yan stood at the top of Liangzhou City in a military robe, his blood-stained handkerchief hiding his unhealed illness, but the topographic map in his hand had already delineated the hiding place of the Mobei people. He was an iron-blooded servant who had guarded the border for eight years. He controlled floods and defended against enemies, interrogated prisoners and investigated traitors, and protected thousands of golden wheat fields with his lonesome courage.
Deep inside the palace wall, Xiao Che was fingering the border guard letter on the imperial case, his fingertips traced the three words "Black Wind Valley", and he immediately sent an order to adjust food and medicine. He is an emperor with a stature of ninety-five, but he is holding a box at the gate of the palace, waiting for his return, warming a bowl of lung-nourishing soup for the returnee, and trusting him for half his life to carry the heavy burden of the mountains and rivers.
From the fragrance of potato porridge in Liangzhou to the first blooming of chrysanthemums in the imperial garden, from the carefully crafted words in the defense manual to the gift of jade pendants of "the same bond between mountains and rivers", the monarch and his ministers looked at each other across thousands of miles of smoke and dust, but they shared the same original intention of protecting the people and the country.
The scouts in Mobei are still watching in the dark, and the court files are yet to be written. But when the red leaves spread over the hills and the returning queen passes by the imperial palace, they know that the most solid line of defense is never the city wall, but the agreement that the ministers can trust and the emperor can rely on, and the mountains and rivers will be safe together.
