During the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Tang dynasty, the Turks invade the borderlands. Li Shimin sends Xue Li west to lead the campaign, but his army is held up at Hanjiang Pass.
Just then, Xue Li's long-lost son, Xue Dingshan, returns and rides out to face the enemy. He takes Fan Lihua, daughter of Fan Hong, the lord of Hanjiang Pass, as his wife. Fan Lihua had already been promised by her father to the foreign general Yang Fan. When Xue Dingshan learns this, he grows resentful and drives her away again and again. Putting the greater cause first and setting aside personal grievances, Fan Lihua repeatedly saves her husband from danger, allowing the Tang army to conquer Qinglong, Yuxia, Jiepai, Heifeng, Chihu, Suoyang, and other passes in succession.
The story also features Xue Dingshan taking a wife, Dou Xiantong fighting her way through four gates, Fan Lihua adopting a sworn son, Luo Tong's battle while disemboweled, Cheng Yaojin being executed three times, Xue Li rescuing the emperor on Panlong Island, and the distinctly immortal and Buddhist episodes of Helian Ying stealing the Dragon-Subduing Sword three times, monks and Daoists dying in their struggle over the sword, and the Eight Holy Matriarchs battling the Golden Flower Cult Leader. At last, the veteran marshal Xue Li dies in battle. Xue Dingshan asks Fan Lihua to return three times, Xue Yinglong kills Yang Fan with a sword, and the army takes White Tiger Pass. The couple make peace and return to court victorious. The story centers on Xue Dingshan and Fan Lihua, with the tales of Xu Qing, grandson of Xu Maogong, and Princess Helian Ying of Yalei as a secondary thread, while Jiang Xu holds the narrative together.
