My Young Lord Has a Mysterious Aura

In the fifth year of Taijian, during the third month, Emperor Xuan of Chen, Chen Xu, personally led a great army to campaign against Northern Qi, with Northern Zhou joining the expedition at his invitation. The decline of Northern Qi had become apparent, yet the Prime Minister of Northern Qi devised a plan: the monarch would offer the eldest princess and fifteen cities as a bride price to Northern Zhou. The princess was famed for her beauty, and the Emperor of Northern Zhou, delighted, sounded the retreat.

The eldest princess captured the emperor’s heart, and so bewitched was the Zhou sovereign that he entered into an alliance with Northern Qi, agreeing to jointly campaign against Southern Chen. For a time, the southern borders of Chen faced grave peril; imperial forces were besieged, surrounded on all sides by the enemy.

Northern Qi and Northern Zhou pressed their advantage, sweeping south and seizing city after city. Emperor Xuan was struck by an arrow and fell into a coma, while anxiety and dread gripped the army and the entire nation.

At this critical moment, Empress Jiang, eight months pregnant, could only entrust command to her brother, Jiang Jie, heir to the Duke of Wei, ordering him to lead three hundred thousand troops northward. Jiang Jie did not fail in his duty; his army swept through the recaptured cities one after another in a decisive campaign, rescuing the emperor from dire straits. However, Emperor Xuan’s wounds were too severe; upon his return to the capital Jiankang, he remained secluded in the inner palace, rarely seeing anyone excep