Ten Days to Burn the Heart: Three Kingdoms

In 219 AD, Guan Yu launches a northern campaign and strikes fear across China. Meanwhile, in Nanyang Commandery, far from the main battlefield, garrison commander Hou Yin can no longer endure Cao Cao’s crushing labor demands. He joins forces with Guan Yu and launches a rebellion. Cao Cao sends the famed general Cao Ren to put it down. The only strategic pass linking the Nanyang front to Guan Yu’s rear is Qingni Pass.

A covert war of espionage and psychological warfare erupts around this small mountain pass, drawing in Cao Ren, Guan Yu, Hou Yuan, the Nanyang gentry, and factions within the Cao Wei regime.

One lonely pass, three factions: Cao, Liu, and the rebels. Four sides trading in spies, with Eastern Wu and the powerful local clans of Nanyang thrown into the mix. Everyone is a pawn, and everyone wants to be the player. Here, the idealist Hou Yin’s naivety leads to his destruction; Cao Ren’s loyal officers are torn between military orders and their conscience; strategists calculate carefully between the survival of their families and the demands of political struggle; and ordinary people display astonishing ingenuity and courage as they fight to survive the tides of their age. The outcome directly affects Guan Yu’s supply lines and reinforcements during his northern campaign, making this the “second hidden front” of the Battle of Xiangyang and Fancheng. Every heartbeat here is tied to the pulse of the Martial Saint, a thousand miles away.