In the fourth year of the Xuanhe reign of Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty (1122), a tragic defeat on the banks of the Baigou River in Yandi opened the prelude to the empire's collapse.
Chen Yan, a ninth-grade "preparatory general" under the command of Zhongshi Dao, was originally a primary and secondary school in the Western Army. He embarked on the Northern Expedition with the simple ideal of "finding a wife and a shadow". However, the tragic aftermath of the Battle of Baigou, the desperate rush to rescue at the siege of Taiyuan, and the bloody battle to defend Bianjing made him gradually see the truth of this decadent empire - Tong Guan's manipulation of power, Liang Fangping's constraints, imperial party strife, and the peace faction harming the country.
From Xuanhe to Jingkang, from the Northern Expedition to the Southern Crossing, Chen Yan personally experienced the entire process of the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty. He was not a hero who turned the tide and could not change the historical trend of the Jingkang Incident; he was just a small person who wanted to survive in troubled times, a low-level military officer who wanted to protect the three hundred brothers under his command.
When Bianjing fell and the two emperors were captured, when the entire Zhong family army was annihilated and the Central Plains was devastated, Chen Yan fled south with his remnants, built a fortress between the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers, gathered the refugees, and fulfilled his ambition of "protecting the country and tranquilizing the people." He is no longer the young officer with ideals, but a man who has seen through the system and only wants to leave a place for innocent people to live in the cracks.
