After ten years of arduous study, Xie Zhaolin places first in the imperial examinations, only to be framed by a powerful eunuch. His honors are stripped away, and his entire family is exiled to the frontier. Blood staining his red robes, he cries into the desert night, “If Heaven is unjust, then I’ll bring Heaven down!” Three years later, a military order arrives like a bolt from the blue, and the frontier cavalry smashes through the vermilion gates of the imperial city. The scholar who was once disgraced now commands three hundred thousand troops and marches straight for the Forbidden City. Meanwhile, Gu Yunshu, the top scholar of that same examination who once looked on coldly from the sidelines, has secretly infiltrated the enemy camp. He stands before Xie Zhaolin’s horse with a sword in hand and asks with a smile, “Do you know who changed the exam questions that year?” This is no revenge plot. It is a reckoning.
