The story takes place in the middle and late period of the "Dayong Dynasty" (similar to the late Tang Dynasty), a hundred and fifty years after the founding of the country. After three emperors, the current emperor Yongzhao, Li Yuan, was weak and sick, and the government was controlled by two factions: one was the eunuch group (leader Wei Chengye) based on the "Shen Ce Army", which controlled the palace guards and some local military supervisory powers; the other was the gentry group (represented by Liu Mingyuan) headed by the "Five Surnames and Seven Families", which monopolized the imperial examinations and local taxes. Locally, the separatist rule of the vassal towns was a foregone conclusion. The three towns in Heshuo (Chengde, Youzhou, and Weibo) supported their own troops. The vassal towns in the Central Plains (Huaixi and Xuanwu) sometimes surrendered and sometimes rebelled. The Jiangnan vassal towns (western Zhejiang and eastern Zhejiang) remained neutral due to their wealth. The dynasty was unified on the surface, but in fact there was an undercurrent.
