The Crouching Dragon Weeps Blood: Six Campaigns to Qishan for a Promise

On a frigid night at Wuzhang Plains, Zhuge Liang’s lamp is burning low and his life is nearly spent. He dreams of Longzhong. At twenty-seven, standing beneath the starry sky, he has already calculated that the Han dynasty has only thirty years left. Yet moved by Liu Bei’s sincerity in visiting him three times, he made a vow: “I will serve with all my strength until my dying breath.”

Amid the chaos of war, he outdebates the scholars to forge an alliance, defeats Cao’s army with fire at Red Cliffs, governs Shu so well that doors are left unlocked at night, and pacifies the southern tribes by winning their hearts. But the iron law that Wei is strong and Shu is weak looms over him like a mountain: Jingzhou falls, Guan Yu dies, Shu suffers a crushing defeat at Yiling, and the late emperor entrusts his son to Zhuge Liang at Yong’an. He knows that the northern campaigns are “like throwing an egg against a rock,” yet he still leads his troops on six expeditions to Qishan. He uses wooden oxen and gliding horses to solve the supply crisis, the Eight Trigrams Formation to hold off a hundred thousand Wei troops, and the Empty Fort Strategy to drive away Sima Yi’s mighty army.

Inside the tent, he is the Shu chancellor, poring over official documents through the night, his tears soaking his robe as he reads the Memorial on the Dispatch of the Troops. Outside, he is the Crouching Dragon bearing the hopes of an entire nation. Faced with Liu Shan’s incompetence and troubles both within and without, he shoulders the burden of restoring the Han alone. Huang Yueying’s technological assistance is his only comfort, Sima Yi’s respect for a worthy rival makes him a rare confidant, and Jiang Wei’s loyal succession is his final hope.

From the Crouching Dragon of Longzhong to the lone minister at Wuzhang Plains, he spends his life embodying the tragic resolve to do what he knows cannot be done. When his star falls over Wuzhang Plains, his feather fan slips from his hand, but he leaves behind the spark of an undying Han spirit. This is no tale of a sage turned into a legend, but a stirring epic about a man who uses his wisdom and integrity to defy fate and keep his promise. On the road against destiny, he would regret nothing, even if he had to die nine times over!