Roughly a decade before the game's present, a poem by the Shimmer of the South (Li Songjia, later Li Yu) celebrated a Later Zhou warrior who killed a Khitan envoy rescuing a Velvet Shade disciple. The verses enraged the steppe and drew Khitan retaliation — buying Southern Tang time at almost no cost. Whether the rescue happened or was invented, the clash aligns with the Battle of Gaoping (954 CE).
[spoiler]In 954, Guo Wei died and his adopted son Chai Rong (historically Guo Rong; the game uses Chai Rong) ascended Later Zhou's throne. Liu Chong of Northern Han allied with Khitan cavalry — roughly fifty thousand men — and swept south toward Luzhou. Its defender Li Yun is Murong Yuan's birth father in the Kaifeng storyline; his vanguard was ambushed and he withdrew to hold the city.
Chancellor Feng Dao — Inkbound Order leader in-game — opposed Chai Rong leading the army personally. The emperor went anyway, dividing forces on three fronts. At Gaoping, Chai Rong's courage turned a near-rout into victory; Northern Han and Khitan forces broke. The battle secured his reign and proved the young emperor could command loyalty under fire.
The Shimmer's poem, the Velvet Shade performance, and the real Gaoping campaign intertwine: poetry as weapon, history as backdrop, and Chai Rong's Hanging Blade / Peace Bell Tower legacy rooted in the same northern grief that still drives Tian Ying and the Hidden Swallow in 962 CE.[/spoiler]
*Based on analysis by [fwalicia](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYiieNxEKskaAzhrmA0p7iQ).*
