The end of the Han dynasty was drawing near. Bingzhou's borderlands were bitterly cold, and the nomadic cavalry ran rampant.
Lü Yuan transmigrated into this world, only to despair when he discovered he was an orphan. Then he learned that the exceptionally gifted younger brother always at his heels was named Lü Bu, while their quiet playmate from the village entrance, who was obsessed with military texts, was named Gao Shun.
There was still hope. Their parents were both dead, but their neighbors helped them get by. When the three brothers were five, the reclusive master Li Yan took them in as disciples. Lü Bu's martial arts surpassed his master's, and his halberd swept across the borderlands. Gao Shun was steady and resolute, finding the true way in military texts and formations. Their eldest brother, Lü Yuan, was less skilled in martial arts, but possessed a quick and brilliant mind. He trained in both civil and military arts, determined to lead his brothers to a way out in this cruel world.
On the day they completed their training, their master set off to roam the world, leaving them with just one sentence: "The world is about to change."
Lü Yuan looked at the bewildered Lü Bu and Gao Shun and weighed their situation: no money, no men, no land, and only two years until the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Rather than join the army and become cannon fodder, they might as well return home, recruit soldiers, and use battle to train them!
The three of them wielded a spear, a halberd, and a saber. They killed the barbarian invaders and took their heads, earning trust with blood. After six months of bloody fighting, their two hundred village recruits had dwindled to fifty, but they had forged a force of iron from the borderlands. The name of Lü Bu, the Flying General, struck terror into the nomadic cavalry.
At the end of 182 AD, Lü Yuan rode into Jinyang with the fifty elite soldiers and paid his respects to Zhang Yi, the Inspector of Bingzhou. The inspector was overjoyed. He had long been desperate for a capable general.
From then on, a dragon rose in Bingzhou, adding an unpredictable new piece to the late Han chessboard. Looking at the formidable passes and long roads before him, Lü Yuan felt his heart surge with ambition. "The realm, here we come! The three of us will claim it!"