The story is set in Jin (Chinese state), a ducal state under the Zhou dynasty, during the Spring and Autumn period in ancient China. Zhao Dun (Spring and Autumn), the Chancellor (China) of Jin, and his son, General Zhao Shuo, have a feud with General Tu'an Gu. Tu'an Gu secretly murders the Duke of Jin and pushes the blame to the Zhao family, using that as an excuse to massacre the Zhao family. The sole survivor is Zhao Shuo's baby son, Zhao Wu, whose mother is the Duke's elder sister, Lady Zhuang. Lady Zhuang pleads with Tu'an Gu's subordinate, Han Jue, to spare her child. She then instructs Cheng Ying, a physician, to bring the child to Gongsun Chujiu, a friend of the Zhao family, before committing suicide. When Tu'an Gu learns that the orphan had escaped, he slashes his sword at Han Jue's face in anger and disfigures him. Tu'an Gu then issues an order to seal the gates and to gather all newborn babies in the city. The plan was to identify the Zhao orphan since Tu'an Gu was counting on the person hiding the baby to not hand over the baby to him, hence singling out the one baby left in the city to be the Zhao infant.