In the sixth year of Zhengtong, war broke out suddenly. 150,000 Ming troops marched to the southwest border, aiming at the unruly Luchuan chieftain. This is an expedition destined to be recorded in history, and it is also a purgatory from which no one can escape intact.
The veteran general Wang Ji struggled with the painful trade-off between loyalty to the emperor and the loss of his life; Si Renfa, the leader of the Dai nationality, did not hesitate to transform into Shura in order to protect his ancient homeland. Firearms and war elephants collided on the banks of the Nu River, and intrigues and ideals fought in the court hall. From the decision-making darkroom of the Forbidden City in Beijing to the bloody quagmire of the dense forests of western Yunnan, the will of the empire has turned into a giant wheel of war that has crushed thousands of lives.
However, is victory the end?
When good news arrives in Beijing, new rifts are caused by rewards; when the scorched earth is in urgent need of reconstruction, hatred grows in the hearts of the new generation. The victorious heroes were awakened by nightmares in the middle of the night, and the surviving soldiers died silently on the field ridges in a foreign land. And deep in the shadow of history, the fire of revenge has been rekindled.
This is a novel about the whole truth about the war.
It not only writes the grand narrative of the war, but also stares at the absurd price behind victory; it allows important officials of the imperial court, frontier generals, firearms experts, Dai youths, and unknown soldiers to jointly ask: Between maintaining unity and respecting heterogeneity, between the glory of the empire and the destiny of the individual, is there a third way?
The smoke of the beacon has dissipated, but the embers are hard to extinguish. The real war never ends.
