In the years of Chunxi during the Southern Song, Xin Qiji, a Han Chinese who had returned from the Jin kingdom, was brimming with patriotic fervor. He submitted Ten Discourses on Meiqin to the court, hoping to launch a northern campaign, but the powerful faction that favored peace mocked his proposal and cast it aside like so much trash. Unwilling to sink into obscurity, Xin Qiji traveled to Hunan to take up a post, accompanied by his wife, Fan Ruyu. On the surface, he wrote poetry and enjoyed the scenery. In truth, he reformed local government and stockpiled provisions and funds. When faced with bandits and Jin spies, he crushed them with an iron fist. Despite fierce resistance, he founded the Southern Song's most powerful fighting force, the Flying Tiger Army. Caught between court intrigue and the flames of war on the frontier, Xin Qiji outwitted and battled the nobles who feared war, while leading the iron army he had built with his own hands against the Jin forces. His life gave vivid expression to the tragic grandeur and passion of the words: "Back then, with spears and iron steeds, I could swallow ten thousand miles like a tiger."
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