Empress, You Accuse Me of Treason? Then I'll Rebel and Show You!

Qi Xiu is a renowned general guarding the border for the State of Wei. All he did was remark, “When the Way of Heaven is broken, common men must mend it, for the people, not the throne.” His political rival, the chancellor, accused him of plotting rebellion. The bewildered Empress Wu Qingli of Wei sent twelve urgent edicts, commanding Qi Xiu to return to the capital at once! But beyond the border, the Xiongnu and Qiang allied forces were pressing their attack. Qi Xiu knew that if he left, the border could fall at any moment. Then the whole State of Wei would be in peril! He could only send the envoy back with the words, “A general in the field need not obey every order from the throne,” and resolutely remain at the frontier. That decision only confirmed Wu Qingli's suspicions. At the chancellor's urging, she threw Qi Xiu's family into the death cells! She also sent the chancellor's son, Cao Xiu, a fierce Wei general in his own right, to lead an army in a surprise attack on Qi Xiu from behind! Believing his family dead and beset on both sides, Qi Xiu shouted with red-rimmed eyes: “I have fought three thousand miles in a single lifetime, and with one sword once faced a million soldiers. “And now the empress trusts slander and forces a loyal general to turn his arms against the imperial army?!” He then led his hundred thousand border troops to join the southern State of Cheng. To win Qi Xiu's loyalty and silence her ministers, Cheng's empress, Liu Jianxiao, did the unthinkable: she married him herself! As soon as the hundred thousand troops left the frontier, the Xiongnu and Qiang forces immediately breached the pass and invaded Wei. Cao Xiu led his troops to stop them, only to be routed and sent fleeing in disgrace. Only when the allied forces reached the gates of Luoyang did Wu Qingli suddenly realize that she had wronged Qi Xiu!