In 1645, in the mountains of western Fujian, a bloody clan fight was coming to an end.
When You Guodong woke up from the pile of dead bodies, the memory of the scout crossing the sea of fire still remained in his mind. In front of us are the ruins of Hakka earthen buildings, surrounded by panicked tribesmen, and in the distance comes the sad news that the Qing army's cavalry has broken through the south of the Yangtze River - this year, on the 10th of Yangzhou, Nanjing fell, Longwu was in peace, and the world was in chaos.
He has only one identity: a martial arts scholar from the Hakka family in Yongding County. He has two women: his wife Liao, the daughter of a prominent family, who is the cornerstone of his local foothold; his concubine Su Minniang, a thin horse living in Yangzhou in western Fujian, whose eyes hide the rise and fall and secrets of the entire Jiangnan.
When the head of King Daxi hangs at the gate of Chengdu, when Zheng Chenggong's fleet cruises on the shores of the Fujian Sea, when the Qing court's surrender envoy and the Nanming envoy knock on the door of the Tulou at the same time - the Hakka trapped in the mountains knows that he must make a choice.
Starting from a pillar of saltpeter and an earthen cannon, from a false surrender and a backstab, he weaved the foundation with the tenacity of the Hakka people and glimpsed the changes with the eyes of modern people. Thirty years of blood and fire, 80,000 miles of mountains and rivers, when the San Francisco Rebellion swept across the north and south, when the last Eight Banners cavalry was torn into pieces by the red cannon he forged on the North China Plain - he finally stood in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City.
