Dasheng Ambition: Part 1

In the two hundred and thirty-seventh year of Dasheng, the prosperous age was full of false fame, and the mountains and rivers had long since decayed. The court pretends to be peaceful, the officials hide disasters and impose heavy taxes, powerful enemies from all four frontiers are around to encroach, successive years of drought sweep across the countryside, refugees are everywhere, and people's livelihoods are in ruins. The seemingly stable and peaceful age is just a thin layer of illusion that can be broken easily. In Qingshi Village of Qingming Mountain, orphan Shen Jin and Shen Tieshan, a border veteran who returned home with a broken arm, depended on each other for life, chopping firewood for chaff every day, struggling to survive in the dust and mud of the barren years. As a young man, he witnessed with his own eyes the suffering of the grassroots, the indifference of officials, and the harbingers of troubled times, and saw through the false peace of the remaining mountains and rivers of Dasheng. The adoptive father told the old history of the border crossing in Black Wind Valley, where the whole army died for the country. The court hall was cold and the soldiers were cold-hearted. Shen Jin lost his childishness early and knew that troubled times were coming and no one could survive alone. Unwilling to be trapped in the mountains and swamps, trapped in ignorance and poverty, Jin Jin secretly read through the wall and studied hard under the lamp. With his perseverance and tenacity, he impressed the country scholar Su Wenyuan, and received a secret gift from his husband to hide old books on Mongolian studies. Under the mountains and forests, he met Su Qinghe Qingfeng, the daughter of Su Wenyuan, and they became close friends. In the cold and troubled world, he gained a tenderness, kindness and a bond in his heart. The body of a mote of dust hides the aspirations of a lurking dragon; the common clothes of the mountains and plains hide the heart of the mountains and rivers. During the years of dormancy in the mountains and fields, Shen Jin practiced both the skills of saving lives on the battlefield and the principles of saints and sages helping the world. He took root in an unknown place, sharpened his muscles and bones, and settled his mind. The prosperous age is about to fall, and the war is about to rise. The humblest mote in the mountains will eventually break free from the shackles of fate, go out of the green mountains with a lonely sword, quietly gather strength on the eve of troubled times, wait for the wind to blow, and open up a grand road ahead to raise troops to save the people and stir up the remaining mountains and rivers.