In his previous life, Shen Jingyuan, a general tasked with defending the nation, led thirty thousand cavalrymen in holding Yanmen Pass to the death. He exhausted himself driving back the Northern Di, only to be framed by treacherous courtiers for colluding with the enemy and betraying the nation. His entire family was executed. Only as he lay dying did he learn that the masterminds behind the plot were the very crown prince he had fought to support and his high-ranking maternal uncle.
Reborn, Shen Jingyuan returns to the age of nineteen, just after being demoted to the frontier for opposing the crown prince's regency. This is the crucial turning point in his fate. This time, he has all the memories of his previous life. He knows exactly when the Northern Di will invade, sees through the masks worn by everyone at court, and knows that a remarkable woman in the imperial palace holds the military strategies and reform proposals capable of overturning the dynasty's fortunes and curing its deep-rooted ills.
With the crown prince's faction closing in and old aristocratic clans cutting off resources, Shen Jingyuan uses his knowledge of the future to first stabilize Yanmen Pass, then rally the scattered troops. Step by step, he exposes the traitors stealing military pay and captures the bridgehead for the Northern Di's southward advance. At the same time, he secretly contacts the woman in the palace to pass along his proposals and wins over a disgraced prince whom the crown prince has suppressed, gradually chipping away at the power of the corrupt forces.
He knows that in ten years, the Northern Di's iron hooves will trample the Central Plains, and floods along the Yellow River will shake the dynasty to its foundations. If he cannot root out corruption at court and reform the military system and agricultural taxes within those ten years, Great Jing will inevitably meet the same end as in his previous life. His greatest secret is one he can never tell anyone: if he fails, he will once again endure the agony of his entire family being wiped out; if he succeeds, he will still bear the burden of countless bloody deeds as he stands alone at the summit of power. In this life, he will not only make every enemy pay in blood, but also protect the people and reverse the nation's fate, which is doomed to collapse.
