During the Zhenyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, after the Anshi Rebellion, Longyou in Hexi Province fell to Tubo. The four towns in Anxi were completely isolated from Chang'an, and Shazhou became the last enclave of the Tang Dynasty in the Western Regions.
The white-haired general Guo Xin led the remnant army and the people to defend the country for more than fifty years in a desperate situation without aid and food. He declared the legal authority of the Tang Dynasty with the self-built "Jianzhong Tongbao" and withstood the Tibetan siege for decades with his own flesh and blood. After half a lifetime of fighting, he hid the survivor's guilt deep in his bones. He guarded the lonely city and the obsession of thousands of deceased people to "go home".
17-Year-old Zhang Chengxun was born in an isolated city and grew up in war. Because his father died in the war, he questioned the meaning of "defending", but in the baptism of blood and fire, he understood the weight of "living is more than just living". On the eve of the fall of Shazhou, Guo Xin and all the soldiers and civilians who defended the city died. Only Cheng Xun survived.
The rust on the copper ring around his waist faded away, and he finally knew his real name was Zhang Yichao. Carrying the loyal souls and expectations of all the deceased, he hid his name for forty years and finally fulfilled his promise throughout his life, returning Shazhou to the Tang Dynasty and writing an epic of loyalty that spanned half a century on the lonely land of the Western Regions.
