Legend of the Female General

To keep the family title, He Yan (何晏, played by Zhou Ye, 周也) is made to wear a mask and live as her elder brother He Rufei (何如非), the heir. As a teenager at the Xianchang Academy (贤昌馆) she meets Xiao Jue (肖珏), the school's brightest star, then leaves to fight. Years later, when the real brother returns, the family turns on her. She survives and comes back under a new identity: He Yan (禾晏), the daughter of a city-gate captain. The two names sound identical in Mandarin and are written with different characters.

Disguised as a young man, she enlists in the Yezhou (掖州) garrison, where the commander is the grown Xiao Jue (Cheng Lei), now a general. He suspects she is a spy and tests her at every turn. She answers by finishing first in the garrison's trials. Around them are Chu Zhao (楚昭, Zhang Kangle, 张康乐), a courteous and well-liked young man she befriends, and the army doctor Song Taotao (宋陶陶). The plot moves from rivalry to a working partnership on the front.

The setting is the invented state of Great Wei (大魏), at war with its neighbour Uto (乌托); no real dynasty is named. The series is adapted from the web novel Chong Sheng Zhi Nü Jiang Xing (重生之女将星, "reborn as the female general star") by Qian Shan Cha Ke (千山茶客). Chinese press noted that it is the third adaptation of that author's work, after The Double (墨雨云间) and Yan Hui Shi (雁回时). Jiang Jiajun (蒋家骏) directed.

The Chasing Dramas review's main criticism is that the adaptation moves the spotlight from He Yan's independent leadership to the male lead, giving him key moments the novel gives her, and that her disguise is hard to believe at times.