It involves a hypothetical scenario where Kong Rong marshals an army of allied Han politicians and lays siege not to Xuchang but Chang'an with the intention of killing the infant Cao Rui and his mother, thus destroying Cao Cao's legacy, setting up a counter-hold in Western China and levelling his authority.
Sima Yi and Cao Pi find out and take a small but elite army to hold them off until reinforcements come.
Guo Nuwang is also involved, having recently earned Cao Pi's interest and she infiltrates the castle to protect Zhenji and Cao Pi.
Among Cao Pi's striketeam are Yu Jin, Zhu Ling, Li Tong, Lu Qian, Xiahou Shang, Ba, He and Mao, Wang Xiu and Guanqiu Xing.
Already inside the city are mostly ministers, strategists and scholars but they put their skills to good use defending the city. Among them are Zhong Yao, Jia Kui, Cao Xiu, Sima Fang, Deng Ai, Du Ji, Chen Jiao, Cang Ci and Shi E (Cao Pi's ancient but hardy martial arts teacher)
Taishi Ci serves as Kong Rong's most able warrior. Zang Hong and Chen Rong also serve as the vanguard. The rest are mostly made up of nobles Cao Cao's disgraced, exiled or punished for corruption, incompetence or insolence. He also has some foreign mercenaries including War Elephants from Alashan, Wokou from Okinawa and Camel Riders from Taxila. I'm hoping Mi Heng can also be included, serving as Kong Rong's herald and ambassador who basically looks and acts ridiculous while insulting everyone around him.
I hope to give a lot of attention to the more obscure characters who have less romance about them but where still very crucial to history.
To diversify the characters both in-universe and out, there are a few race lifts and gender flips. Some of the officers and scholars are women and a couple are implied to be foreign (Chang'an is, after all the mouth of the Silk Road where China received foreign trade and the Cao Emperors were famous for their liberal views on women in education.) But I aim to make these changes purely aesthetic and keep the personalities of their historical counterparts consistent.
Please let me know what you think, any questions, suggestions, constructive criticisms and more. Your opinion is highly appreciated and this seems to be the only site I can find that discusses this stuff.
Thank you.