In the eleventh month of the fourteenth year of Tianbao (755), taking advantage of the Tang dynasty's corrupt politics and depleted military strength, An Lushan and Shi Siming launched a rebellion. In the twelfth month of the following year, the rebel army captured the eastern capital of Luoyang, and Emperor Xuanzong of Tang fled with his followers to Chengdu. This came to be known as the An Lushan Rebellion. The rebellion lasted eight years and severely weakened the Tang dynasty, marking its decline from prosperity. The central government's power was greatly diminished, while the influence of regional military governors steadily grew. After the war, the population sharply declined and vast areas of farmland lay barren, as regional warlordism gradually took shape. Powerful forces also sprang up throughout the martial world. The Wotuo Manor was a rising assassin organization active in the Sichuan region. Its first manor lord, Bianxuan, was a shrewd and capable woman, skilled at inventing and using all kinds of astonishingly potent poisons. After being betrayed in love when she was young and reckless, she swore to kill every faithless man under heaven. To establish herself in the martial world, Bianxuan recruited women who had been betrayed by men and taught them internal martial arts, training them as assassins to carry out lucrative missions and cement the Wotuo Manor's fearsome reputation. The manor was also surrounded by countless traps and hidden weapons, making it extremely difficult to enter. Thus, though the Wotuo Manor was renowned far and wide, it remained shrouded in mystery. The manor lord Bianxuan was secretive and elusive, giving people the impression that she was neither wholly righteous nor wholly evil, and impossible to read. The orthodox martial world and the greater good of the nation meant nothing to the women of the Wotuo Manor. They lived only in their own world. Skilled in poison and appearing and disappearing without a trace, they struck terror into people's hearts.
Theme: With dust and paper, I fill every line about love with you
