Chapter 493: A Man's Heart Remains Iron Even unto Death! (Large Chapter)—the Southern Border.
The Great Blue Dynasty bordered the grasslands to the east, the Barren Wilderness to the north, the sea to the west, and an endless desert to the south.
At first, many small kingdoms and tribes existed across the desert. Later, a legendary king united them and established a unified empire there known as the Great Desert.
But after that legendary king died, and the Central Plains kingdoms schemed relentlessly to sow discord among them, the Great Desert was eventually split into the Two Great Desert Kingdoms.
One raised a black banner and called itself the Black Desert.
The other raised a red banner and called itself the Red Desert.
More than five hundred years ago, the Grand Ancestor Emperor led an army to conquer these Two Great Desert Kingdoms. They both bowed to the Great Blue Dynasty, willingly became its vassal states, and paid tribute every year.
After the Grand Ancestor Emperor's death, the Two Great Desert Kingdoms showed some signs of unrest, but they did not launch too many major wars.
The major wars recorded in the history books numbered two:
The first took place in Jiaxu's seventh year. The Two Great Desert Kingdoms invaded the Southern Border, and the Great Blue general Ao Yun led an army to quell the chaos. In less than a month, he defeated the invading forces and captured more than twenty thousand surrendered soldiers, all of whom were eventually buried alive! (See Volume Two, Chapter 15.)
The second took place in Hongguang's twenty-seventh year, when the coalition of the Seven Western Continent Nations invaded the Great Blue Dynasty. The Two Great Desert Kingdoms in the Southern Border felt that they had spotted an opportunity and once again sent troops