In the first month of the second year of Kangding (1041), deep in Liupan Mountain.
Li Yuanhao, Emperor Jingzong of the Western Xia Dynasty, led an army of 100,000 troops to invade the border area. The deputy commander of Jingyuan Road in the Northern Song Dynasty deployed Ren Fu to lead 70,000 soldiers to meet the enemy. After six days of pursuit, they were victorious all the way, but were trapped in a tight siege at Haoshuichuan. The arrows rained like locusts, the cavalry came like a tide, and the 70,000-strong army was wiped out. Ren Fu was hit by more than ten arrows and died on the battlefield; his son Ren Huailiang, Geng Fu who joined the army, Wang Gui, Wu Ying, Zhao Jin and other generals all died for their country.
Shen Qingya, a staff member under Ren Fu's tent, was one of the few survivors.
He took Ren Fu's tiger charm, climbed out of the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, and walked back to the world. The court's determination was quickly issued: Ren Fu underestimated the enemy and advanced rashly, and went out without authorization, causing the entire army to be annihilated. The guilty minister, the scapegoat, the stain on history.
But Shen Qingya knew the truth - Ren Fu was guilty, but the crime did not stop at Ren Fu. The system of civilian military control, the shortcomings of more garrison laws, and the absurdity of remote control command were the real causes of death of 70,000 soldiers. He decided to write a book to remember it all.
This writing means twenty-five years.
From Kangding to Qingli, and from Qingli to Xining, he witnessed Fan Zhongyan's "Qingli New Deal", Han Qi's military reform, Wang Anshi's opening of the Xihe River, and the repeated tragedies of the defeat of Dingchuan Village and the Battle of Xihe. He teaches martial arts, prepares military training, and raises students, waiting for an "opportunity" that will never come.
Until he was sixty-eight years old, he traveled westward alone and returned to Haoshuichuan. At the burial place of Ren Fu and his son, he completed the final draft and buried it together with the ashes in the blood-stained land.
"Haoshuichuan War Chronicles", 150,000 words, has been circulated for 800 years from a banned book to a secret history, and from a secret history to an official history.
