In the fourth year of the Xuanhe era under Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song (1122), a crushing defeat on the banks of the Baigou River in Yan territory heralded the empire's downfall.
Chen Yan, a low-ranking provisional officer under Zhong Shidao, had once been a junior officer in the Western Army. He set out on the northern campaign with the modest dream of earning honors for his family. But the brutal rearguard action at Baigou, the desperate relief effort during the siege of Taiyuan, and the bloody struggle to defend Bianjing gradually revealed the truth of the rotten empire: Tong Guan's seizure of power, Liang Fangping's obstruction, factional infighting at court, and the peace faction's ruinous policies.
From Xuanhe to Jingkang, from the northern campaign to the retreat south, Chen Yan witnessed the entire fall of the Northern Song. He was no hero capable of turning the tide, and he could not change the historical course of the Jingkang Catastrophe. He was merely a nobody trying to survive in troubled times, a low-ranking officer who wanted to protect the three hundred men under his command.
When Bianjing fell and the two emperors were captured, when the Zhong family army was wiped out and the Central Plains descended into chaos, Chen Yan led the remnants south. Between the Yangtze and Huai Rivers, he built a fortified settlement, gathered refugees, and pursued his goal of protecting the region and keeping its people safe. He was no longer the idealistic young officer he had once been. He had seen through the system and now sought only to carve out a safe haven for the innocent amid the cracks.
