The Northern Guardian General: I’ll Bring Peace to the Realm for the Grand Princess

In the final years of the Dayin dynasty, warlords carved up the land and corrupt ministers held power within, while the northern Di cavalry watched hungrily from beyond the borders. Xiao Han, a lone daughter of a military family and the general guarding the north, joined the army at fifteen and fought her way up from the ranks. After seven straight victories, she guarded the northern frontier for ten years, becoming the only female God of War in Dayin. Taciturn and decisive in battle, she had just one weakness: the lofty eldest princess in the capital. Princess Zhaoyang, Zhao Lingyan, the emperor’s eldest legitimate daughter, held the six ministries in her grasp and was known across the court as the “uncrowned empress.” Brilliant and politically adroit, she outmaneuvered wolves in a treacherous court to protect her younger brother’s throne. She could read everyone’s heart, yet gave her only trust to the woman holding a spear thousands of miles away. They first met at a palace banquet ten years ago. The princess told her, “A general with your bearing has no need to kneel.” A young soldier remembered those words for the rest of her life. For ten years, one guarded the borders while the other secured the realm. Three hundred letters from home never spoke of love, yet every word was filled with concern. When the princess was framed, the general risked the grave charge of treason, leading three thousand light cavalry on a thousand-mile ride to the capital in just three days to protect her. When the general was trapped in a besieged city, the princess defied all objections, led reinforcements through the snowy pass, and rode a thousand miles to face death at her side. One, who never spoke of love, guarded the other with her life for ten years. The other, who never admitted defeat, learned to bow her head for her. They gazed at each other across mountains and rivers, and stood by each other across those same mountains and rivers. In the end, one became an empress, and the other wielded her sword to keep the court in check. She said, “From now on, you protect the realm, and I’ll protect you.”