My Embroidery Needle Cuts Through Ten Thousand Soldiers

Everyone knows that Xie Yunjin, the Xie family’s legitimate daughter, is the finest Suzhou embroiderer in the capital and a paragon among noble young ladies. But no one knows she is even more skilled at using a needle as a brush and silk as a canvas to map the movements of armies across the realm. War breaks out on the northern frontier, and her father and brothers are trapped in a besieged city. As the court officials argue endlessly, she kneels outside the palace gates and presents three volumes of her Embroidered Map of the Northern Frontier. The emperor unfolds them to reveal a thousand-mile defense line, enemy and allied positions, and supply routes, all rendered in exquisite detail with fine threads. “This map is worth a hundred thousand soldiers.” She bows, her voice clear and bright. “Your Majesty, I, Xie Yunjin, request permission to take my father’s place at the front.” The court erupts in uproar. Then she uses three thousand battered troops to follow the map’s formations and crush the enemy vanguard, silencing every critic. The enemy nation’s youngest god of war, Wanyan Ce, sneers from the battlefield: “Has the Southern Dynasty no men left? They send an embroiderer to face us.” Xie Yunjin rides out, holding not a spear but an unfinished piece of embroidery. She unfurls it from afar and smiles calmly. “General, do you know that the supply routes and loyalties of the thirteen tribes under your command are already at the mercy of my ‘Embroidered Blade’?”