The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms: a century of chaos, when human lives were worth less than grass.
In the third year of the Tianfu era, an orphan with no name and no known origins was abandoned in a freezing, snowbound hut outside Bianliang. His life hung by a thread. An old woodcutter found him and gave him a name: Chen Fusheng.
After that, he lost his only source of support twice, and twice he rose alone from blood and fire. He wandered through the chaos, joined the army, and fought his way from a lowly auxiliary soldier to a veteran of countless battles. He witnessed the rise and fall of Later Zhou, the Chenqiao Mutiny, and the founding of the Great Song. He fought across the land, campaigning thousands of miles from home, and bore the scars of a lifetime as witness to the end of an era.
In all that turmoil, he loved only one person: Zhao Jingniang, Zhao Kuangyin's younger sister. He protected her with his life, but rank kept them apart and their different origins stood between them. In the end, he went alone to the frontier and never looked back. He kept the plain silk handkerchief embroidered with peach blossoms close to his heart for the rest of his life, and carried it with him into the earth.
When victory finally came and peace settled over the land, he declined his rewards before the court, took off his armor, and returned to the countryside. He spent his final days in a thatched cottage beneath a peach tree.
The history books did not spare him a single word.
But he protected the woman he loved, saved an emperor, pacified the realm, and never failed the people.
