This work is strictly based on the historical facts of "Historical Records: Biographies of Nanyue", with a total of twenty volumes and two thousand chapters, completely telling the century-old legend of Zhao Tuo, a man from Zhending, Hebei, who spanned the Qin and Han Dynasties. The young Zhao Tuo participated in Qin Shihuang's first southern expedition to Baiyue with the army, and witnessed the disastrous defeat of the entire army in Tusui, and showed his military management skills in the miasma mountains and forests; later he followed Ren Xiao for the second time to conquer Lingnan, and after the Lingqu Canal was opened to navigation, he completely conquered Lingnan, and became the first magistrate of Longchuan County, exploring the way of governance by "harmonizing Baiyue".
At the end of the Qin Dynasty, the world was in chaos. Ren Xiao was left alone on his deathbed. Zhao Tuo blocked the Five Ridges and Three Passes, annexed Guilin and Xiangjun, and established the Nanyue Kingdom in Panyu to establish himself as King Wu. After Liu Bang unified the world, Lu Jia sent envoys and ennobled him, and trade between the north and the south was integrated. Empress Lu's iron-breaking trade intensified conflicts, and Zhao Tuo proclaimed himself emperor and went north to Changsha, which shocked the south of the Yangtze River. Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty repaired the Zhao family's ancestral graves with virtue and gentleness. Zhao Tuo went to the emperor for the second time and became a vassal, insisting on peace between the north and the south.
For hundreds of years, he reconciled immigrants from the Central Plains with the Xiou and Luoyue tribes, developed the Maritime Silk Road, and created a prosperous age in Lingnan. However, he experienced the pain of losing his son and took charge of state affairs alone in his later years. After the death of the hundred-year-old Zhao Tuo, his grandchildren succeeded to the throne one after another. The powerful minister Lu Jia rebelled and split Han and Yue. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent troops to pacify Lingnan, and the Nanyue Kingdom returned to the Han and established nine counties. The whole book takes Zhao Tuo's life as the main line. It not only describes the dynastic plots and border wars, but also depicts the integration of the Han and Yue ethnic groups. It focuses on the core theme of "separation is only for the peace of the people, and returns to the Han to eventually unite", and completely presents the thousand-year process of the Chineseization of Lingnan.
