At fourteen, he loosed an arrow that would change the fate of Hexi.
In late Tang Shazhou, the region had been under Tubo rule for sixty-seven years. Beneath Mingsha Mountain, the young Zhang Yichao honed his skills with bow and horse, his heart burning with the desire to return to the Tang. When a Tubo chieftain’s executioner raised his blade against a Han family, he resolutely raised the banner of “Returning to Righteousness.”
This is the journey of a lone hero:
· Five hundred volunteers face three thousand armored cavalry, and Shazhou changes hands in a single night
· Six women of strikingly different personalities accompany him: a Tubo noblewoman’s dangerous tenderness, a Uyghur princess’s devotion in the saddle, and the sword-shadowed love of the legendary heroine Nie Yinniang
· Extraordinary figures from the martial world arrive one after another: an old mirror-polisher gives him a bronze mirror hiding Chang'an’s secret treasure, Master Wenhui guides him with Zen and martial arts, and a Kunlun slave holds up a thousand-pound gate
· The court’s covert struggles are treacherous and unpredictable, with eunuchs, factional strife, and suspicion. The Guiyi Army fights alone amid troubles within and threats without
From Shazhou to Liangzhou, flames of war engulf ten prefectures. From Hexi to Chang'an, a thousand miles of bloodshed pave the way back to the Tang.
Zhang Yichao lives by his vow: “Even if Chang'an betrays me, I will never betray the Great Tang.” This is a song of wandering heroes and warriors, a symphony of intrigue and fervor, and an epic about how a young man reforges the backbone of the Han people amid the desert sands.
Wherever the Guiyi Army’s banner points, there lies the border of the Great Tang.
