Lone Moon over the Vast Sea

In the fifteenth year of the Tianbao era, Chang’an falls, and the splendor of the High Tang turns to ash overnight. Li Chengcai, great-grandson of Emperor Gaozong and Prince of Dunhuang, is a fallen kinsman who has always kept a low profile on the fringes of the imperial family. As the nation teeters on the brink, the newly enthroned emperor selects him for a hastily arranged, top-secret mission with almost no chance of survival: travel north to the Uyghurs, forge an alliance, and borrow troops to suppress the rebellion. Escaping the capital, where smoke and flames fill the streets, is only the first step. Ahead lie pursuing rebel cavalry, the watchful eyes of rival factions, and life-or-death trials in the vast Gobi Desert. His sole companion is a mysterious bodyguard named A Mang. A superb fighter with a shrewd mind, he is like a bottomless well, giving no hint of his origins or true feelings. Fate leads them to the “White Camel” caravan, whose members have complicated backgrounds. Beneath the tent of the wealthy merchant Sabir, whose apparent warmth conceals deadly traps at every turn, a covert battle over loyalty, betrayal, and profit has already begun. An assassin’s poisoned blade, mysterious notes, account books linked to military supplies... What they stumble upon is a vortex far deeper and more dangerous than the rebellion itself. This is a path to survival paved with blood, and a trial of human nature played out in an empire’s graveyard. Can a mild-mannered prince forge an iron will in the face of despair? Whom does the mysterious bodyguard truly serve? At the distant Uyghur royal encampment, will Li Chengcai find an ally’s embrace or another gilded cage? The Lonely Moon over the Vast Sea takes real historical events as its foundation and soars on the wings of literary imagination, bringing to life a gripping adventure set against the An Lushan Rebellion.