At the end of the Southern Song, only half the realm remains. Mongol cavalry tramples Shu, and Diaoyu Fortress stands isolated above the three rivers.
Yang Jun’s grandfather dies beneath an executioner’s blade, his home is reduced to ashes, and his life is split in two: the first half filled with the warmth of ordinary days, the second adrift in blood and flames.
He is no general, only a lowly clerk caught in the war. He wields his brush like a blade and turns paper into a memorial, recording every drop of blood on the city walls and every nameless person’s name.
His enemy is Hadaer, a Mongol centurion. He wields a blade to slaughter, yet hides a longing for his homeland and mother. Half a war machine, half an ordinary man yearning for peace.
Their hatred runs deep and their fates intertwine. At last, by Linqing Ravine, with a stream of clear water and a spring welling from stone, the two achieve the war’s most silent reconciliation.
Official memorials of merit can be erased, and the written record of history can be altered, but memory never truly fades.
Some stood firm and never retreated at Diaoyu Fortress. Others carved “Linqing” and “Shiquan” in a foreign land thousands of miles away. Some etched resistance into their bloodline, leaving behind an ancestral creed loyal not to any dynasty or family name, but only to their homeland and its people.
Their descendants resisted the Yuan, fought the Japanese, and came to the aid of the emperor... The spirit was passed down through generations for eight hundred years, never broken.
History books have always recorded heroes and generals, but have no room for ordinary people.
What gets recorded is half. The other half is buried.
This book seeks to restore the half that disappeared: to give the nameless a name, bring the erased back into view, and raise the wiped-away memorials of merit once more through words.
Half a realm, half a life; half of humanity, half of memory;
half a spirit, half of history; half heroes, half nameless souls.
A city, a people, and a story of perseverance sealed away by history.
