Song general Zhan Hao is pressured by three imperial edicts into slaughtering a village that refuses to hand over an iron ore mine. His expecting wife is accidentally killed trying to stop the massacre from happening. Before she dies, she gives birth to a son, who is eventually saved and adopted by the village magistrate Fang Zian. In the resulting political unrest, Zhan is made the scapegoat and is jailed for treason. With his entire family executed, the disgraced general escapes from prison and kidnaps the infant prince from the palace, vowing to overthrow Song with a royal descendant! Twenty years later, the young prince grows up to carry out Zhan, his foster father's order to topple the Empire, while the Song Emperor sends Fang's adopted son to infiltrate a group of rebels led by his real father, Zhan...
