The General Star Stirs the Tides

Winter of the eighth year of Zhaode: beacon fires along the northern frontier lit up the skies over Qi. Two hundred thousand cavalry from the Great Tent Khanate swept south and broke through three passes in succession, leaving Prince of the North Qi Jingyuan and his eight thousand troops isolated in Heishui City. At the court of Longyuan, the power struggle between the Crown Prince and the Prince of the North had reached a breaking point, with the rift between reformers and traditionalists concealing deadly dangers.

Just as the realm teetered on the brink, deep in the snowstorms of Mount Langya, the Shen family's spear, silent for twenty years, stirred.

Nineteen-year-old Shen Jinglan was the supposedly frail only daughter of the Marquis of Jingbian. After ten years in disguise, she finally emerged. Under the alias Shen Yan, dressed in blue, she was accompanied by three thousand covert guards from Langya. She would clear her grandfather's name, restore the fading prestige of the Shen family, and show the world that a woman could command an army, lead troops, and make the decisive moves that turned the game around.

The first time Qi Jingyuan saw the young man in blue, he thought those eyes were too clear, too pure to belong to an ordinary person. She outmaneuvered rivals over the sand table, launched a surprise raid to burn enemy provisions on a snowy night, and turned the tide when all seemed lost. He went from being dazzled to feeling his heart stir, from testing her to falling for her. At last, amid the chaos of battle, he glimpsed the astonishing secret beneath her bloodstained blue robes.

From then on, the iron-blooded prince and the extraordinary female commander joined forces to make the first move on the chessboard of a warring age. Together they would hold back the Khanate in the north, quell factional strife at home, reform corrupt policies, and expand the realm by land and sea. From fighting shoulder to shoulder on the battlefield to working in harmony at court, from entrusting their lives to each other to pledging the realm as their wedding gift.

When they finally stood atop Longyuan, a vast realm stretched beneath their feet, and a new golden age lay ahead. The history books would record that in the Zhaode era, a brilliant general named Jinglan secured the northern frontier, brought peace to the realm, and paved the way for women to enter government, joining the enlightened ruler Qi Jingyuan to usher in a century of prosperity.

But the road from Mount Langya to the Golden Throne was stained with blood and fire at every step, and filled with hidden blades and schemes...