Tang Li

Financial and political pressures bankrupt a Chinese store owner.

Xiang Zi is a rickshaw boy who has always had a desire to excel and a thirst for freedom. He married Hu Niu who died of dystocia later. After her death, another girl, Xiao Fuzi, falls in love with Xiang Zi but they are separated by poverty. Xiang Zi works very hard in order to change his life, only to find that Xiao Fuzi is dead just as he begins to be hopeful for their future. Finally, Xiang Zi, an unflinching man, surrenders to that dark society.

During the early War of Resistance Against Japan in Baiyangdian, Hebei, the Yanling Squad, led by Communist Party member Hei Lao Cai, conducted effective guerrilla warfare. Yang Xiaomei, fleeing abuse from her husband Zhang Jinlong, joined the squad and developed feelings for farmer Niu Dashi. Zhang Jinlong, unable to change, defected to the Japanese. As Japanese sweep operations intensified, Xiaomei, Dashi, and Zhang Jinlong faced different paths in the conflict.

Militiaman in Lü Liang Shan actively organize to fight enemies.

A film by Li Ziyu.

In 1958, during Chiang Kai-shek’s threats to retake the mainland, the Kuomintang navy attacked Fujian Province’s coast. The landing ship “Dacheng” was sunk by our torpedo boats, and Captain Wu John led troops to an unnamed island. Naval political instructor Wang Yongzhi and others, who fell into the water after a collision, also drifted there. They launched a political offensive against the enemy, who, unaware of our capabilities, awaited rescue. Prisoner Sun Gui swam back to his comrades, witnessed the cook’s beating, and returned to our side. Wang Yongzhi, seeing the enemy’s wait for rescue, forced them to reveal themselves. The enemy tried a fake negotiation to delay time. At night, Cai Dage brought reinforcements, eliminating the enemy on the island and their rescue ship.