In the fifth year of Yonghui, Qiuci, Anxi.
A child of the border army was born on the eve of his father's death in battle. His mother named him "Qianli" - thousands of miles away is Chang'an, his hometown, and a road he will never finish in his life.
At the age of twelve, he went to Chang'an alone and worked as an apprentice in the Western Market. He was beaten with a stick by Su Dingfang's grandson and was awakened from his dream of the art of war.
At the age of seventeen, he was recruited back to Anxi and became the lowest-level scout. He learned his first lesson in the mountains of corpses and seas of blood in Dafeichuan: Only by surviving can you have a future.
In the next sixty years, he walked from the Western Regions to Chang'an, climbed from the bottom to the court, experienced the five dynasties of Gaozong, Wuzhou, Zhongzong, Ruizong, and Xuanzong, witnessed the Shenlong Coup, Tang Long Coup, and Xiantian Coup, and witnessed a great empire falling from its peak and struggling to rise again.
He had seen Di Renjie's character, received favors from Shangguan Wan'er, persuaded Princess Taiping's generals to surrender, and declined Li Longji's offer to stay.
He loved two women in his life - one died for him and the other waited for him until death.
He never took sides, never formed a party, and never sent his daughter to the palace to change her future. He spent sixty years learning three things: stay alive, hold on to the bottom line, and then go home.
In the first year of Kaiyuan, he resigned and returned to the west, returned to Qiuci and opened a private school.
The last light was still on.
The world is a long road, and the way home is behind you.
