The leader of the northern nomads brought one hundred thousand soldiers to the Great Wall to call himself a tributary of the Chinese sovereign, to whom he sent an ambassador with rich gifts. The ambassador should also ask the Chinese princess to marry the nomadic lord.
Meanwhile, the cunning and treacherous dignitary, Mao Yanshou, has put himself in trust in an elderly emperor. He believes his flattering speeches and listens to advice. Everyone is afraid of Mao. He, fearing third-party influence on Vladyka, tries, having estranged his pundits from him, to surround him with beauties. Therefore, it is recommended that the most beautiful girls of the empire be gathered in the palace. The emperor happily agrees. He instructs Mao Yanshou to travel around the country and look after the most worthy, and so that the overlord can evaluate the choice of his messenger, a portrait should be written from each girl and taken to the palace.
Fulfilling the errand, the dignitary shamelessly robs the families of the pretenders, demanding generous offerings. Everyone is afraid of the sovereign ambassador. No one dares refuse him. In one of the counties, Mao Yanshou finds a rare beauty named Wang Zhaojun. She comes from a peasant family, but there is no one more beautiful than her in the whole world. A dignitary demands gold from a poor Wang family.Then the daughter will excel at the court. But the beauty is so confident in her irresistibility that she rejects harassment. In revenge, Mao depicts her in a portrait with a crooked-eyed: such are sent to the most distant palace chambers. And so it happened. The emperor did not honor Zhaojun. She yearns alone.
The emperor plans to go around his palace and look at the girls, whom he still has not managed to honor. He hears: someone masterfully plays the lute. Sends lead lute player. Wang Zhaojun appears before the sovereign. He is stunned by her beauty, is interested in her origin and regrets that he still has not met with her. Zhaojun talks about the insidiousness of Mao Yanshou, the guilty of her imprisonment. The angry lord orders to seize the villain and chop off his head. The loving sovereign grants the beauty the name of Minfei - “beloved concubine”.
At the same time, the leader of the nomads learns that the emperor refused to welcome him to the princess, saying that she is still too young. He is terribly offended, because everyone knows how many beauties surround the sovereign. It was then that Mao Yanshou, who had fled from imperial anger, appeared before the offended nomad. He talks about the amazing beauty of Wang Zhaojun and shows a portrait - this time he portrayed a girl without any distortion, and her leader is breathtaking from her beauty. An insidious traitor advises her to ask for a wife, and in case of refusal to move the army of nomads to Chinese lands.
The sovereign completely lost his mind from love.He left things, he spends days and nights in the chambers of Mingfei. But the minister cannot help but report to him on the arrival of the ambassador, demanding that Wang Zhao-jun be given in marriage to the nomad leader. The minister warns that a huge army is ready to attack, and there is no way to defend against it: the soldiers are poorly trained, there are no brave generals ready to join the battle. It is required to save the country from enemy invasion. The emperor wants to get advice from his officials on how to preserve peace without betraying his beloved. But no one can help him.
Wang Zhaojun is ready to prevent war at the cost of her own life. She persuades the sovereign to put the interests of the state above their mutual love. The emperor has to agree, but he decides to take Mingfei to the Balintziao bridge and drink a farewell cup of wine with her. The Sovereign and the Ministry of Finance look at each other with sorrow. Finally they part forever.
At the border, the nomad leader joyfully meets Wang Zhaojun. He is proud that the Chinese emperor did not dare to neglect the alliance with him. The beauty asks permission for the last time to look in the southern distances and drink a cup of wine. She drinks wine and throws herself into the waters of the border river. No one has time to come to her aid. At the place of her burial, Green Hill is erected - the grass is always green on it. The leader of the nomads blames the villain Mao Yanshou for everything. He orders to seize him and take him to the emperor to the right court.
For a hundred days, the emperor does not give audiences. And now, in autumn, he is sad alone in the palace.I hardly dozed off - Zhaojun appears in a dream, but the Huns are again taking her away. Farewell cries of flying geese give rise to even greater sadness, and even more languid memories of short happiness. The dignitary reports that the traitor Mao Yanshou has been delivered. The emperor orders to chop off his head. A funeral prayer for Mingfei is immediately arranged.
