Basically if you enjoyed the tribal grasslands/prairie culture of Eagle Flag, and you didn't particularly care for all the supernatural aspects, you'll enjoy the Long Ballad.

A lot of it is set in the Ashine tribe, and the male lead is a warrior/general of that tribe, the foster son of the Khan. As a story goes, it's much more linear and has a pretty satisfying (if abrupt) conclusion.

Oh, I'll admit it - I'm mainly here for the braided tribal hair on the men, ok? While with Eagle Flag it was just Asule and not all the time, in LB it's Ashine Sun (ML), his men, everyone.

This is literally the same historical event but retold from another character's POV. The villains become heroes and vice versa. While I love Zhou Xun as Ulanara/Ruyi in RRLP more, she's about the only character who's developed better.
Everyone else (Concubine Ling, Emperor Qianlong, Empress Rongyin, etc) is developed and acted much better. Special mention to Wu Jin Yan as Concubine Ling (here called Wei Ying Luo, because history never recorded her real name) and Nie Yuan as Emperor Qianlong.