In the final years of the Great Qin, Zhao Gao usurps power and frames loyal ministers. The Chen Sheng and Wu Guang uprising is in truth a plot by treacherous officials. As the realm falls into chaos, the Xiongnu eye the northern frontier, and the flames of the Chu-Han conflict are about to spread. The First Emperor’s dying wish still burns, and the Meng clan’s commitment to “unifying Huaxia” becomes the only light in this turbulent age.
The Black-Armored General Meng Yi has laid down his armor, but not his responsibility. He leads the Black-Armored Cavalry north to repel the Xiongnu, building an unbreakable frontier defense with the people and the army united. Then he heads south to Shouchun, rallying forces for justice, including Ying Bu, King of Jiujiang, to check the schemes of the ambitious Liu Bang and withstand Xiang Yu’s brutal assault. From the bloody resistance against the Xiongnu at Yanmen Pass to the defense of the people atop Shouchun’s walls, a lifetime of war teaches him that the division and unification of the realm have never been about the ambitions of princes and kings, but about the people’s well-being.
Ying Bu, the tattooed king, rises from a convict at Mount Li to become the guardian of Huainan. After witnessing Xiang Yu’s brutal slaughter of civilians, he awakens to his true purpose and turns Huainan into a refuge for displaced people. Guided at last by Meng Yi’s vision of “a unified Huaxia,” he defects from Chu to Han and becomes a decisive force in Chu’s defeat at the Battle of Gaixia. Han Xin possesses unparalleled military genius, yet despises the Xiang clan’s brutality and Liu Bang’s deceit. In the end, Meng Yi’s principle of “putting the people first” wins him over, and his Ten Ambushes bring the era of division to an end.
In the pastoral songs of the northern frontier, Black-Armored Cavalrymen and herders till the grasslands together. In the streets and lanes of Shouchun, soldiers and civilians build their defenses side by side. Amid the ruins of Xianyang, the people of Qin keep watch for a new beginning among the crumbling walls. This is an epic spanning the Chu-Han era, filled with the heroic clash of armies and the heartfelt resolve of soldiers and civilians standing together. More than that, it reveals the truth behind “Black armor guards Huaxia; the people’s hearts forge peace”: the realm belongs not to one ruler or one surname, but to the people. Only by putting them first can division end and the flame of a unified Huaxia burn on without end.
