Liu Qi, Great General of the Song Dynasty

The Famous Song Dynasty General Liu Qi is a sweeping historical biographical novel chronicling the life of Liu Qi, the greatest general of the Southern Song's revival and a steadfast scholar-general forged in war. During the Song dynasty's three hundred years of elevating civil officials while suppressing the military, as its defenses grew weak, the Northern Song's realm collapsed in its final years. The Jingkang catastrophe devastated the Central Plains, and the Southern Song teetered through storm and turmoil. Amid the flood of chaos, the four great generals Yue Fei, Han Shizhong, Zhang Jun, and Liu Qi propped up the broken realm. Of them, Liu Qi was the steadiest, the most restrained, and the most skilled at turning desperate situations around, yet he was also the cornerstone of the state most underestimated by later generations.

Liu Qi was born into a military family on the western frontier and grew up amid the beacon fires of Longyou. As a boy, his archery was unmatched on the frontier, striking fear into the tribes of Western Xia. As a young man, he served on the border with his father, learning the state of the frontier, caring for the people, and mastering military strategy. Before chaos descended, he had already developed the qualities of a great commander. When the Jingkang disaster struck, many generals fled in defeat. Liu Qi alone held formation and brought up the rear as the army fell apart, preserving his troops. He fought his way across a thousand li, protected civilians on their journey south, restored the scattered army's morale, and rebuilt the Jianghuai defense line.

In the tenth year of the Shaoxing era, Wanyan Wushu invaded south with a hundred thousand cavalry, throwing the court and people into panic. With just five thousand isolated troops, Liu Qi defended the ruined city of Shunchang. He burned his boats, used strategy to overcome a powerful enemy, and routed the Jin army's Iron Pagodas and armored cavalry. His stunning victory at Shunchang shook the ages and stabilized half of the Southern Song realm, creating a once-in-a-millennium opportunity for Yue Fei's northern expedition.

His great achievements aroused jealousy, and his fame invited slander. As calls for peace grew louder, Liu Qi was stripped of his military command and spent more than ten years living in retirement. Calmly holding to his principles, he neither complained nor fought back. In his later years, when Jin ruler Wanyan Liang led the whole country in an invasion south, the realm was in danger and had no general to defend it. Though in his sixties and plagued by illness, Liu Qi answered the call in a crisis, crossed the river while sick, and once more took command of the Jianghuai region. He burned through what remained of his strength to protect the Song realm, ultimately dying after coughing up blood and leaving his name in the history books.