The turmoil of Tieshuo beyond the frontier, the History of Yan says, was "a stubborn skin disease."
A stubborn skin disease is an affliction of the flesh. The Imperial Medical Academy records that it can be cured by cutting away the flesh and applying medicine. The homeless were the piece of flesh the Great Yan Empire cut away. But if it cut away all that flesh, how did the empire still fall?
(Alternate history / war / ensemble cast / not a power fantasy)
