The novel shows the living conditions of old China through the different fates of the four protagonists. The four main characters in the book are real people, and all the names in the book are also real names.
In 1917, a pair of cousins, Fan Baosen and Hu Chaojun, from Yanggu County, Shandong Province, left home to travel to Guandong. On the way, they met Chinese missionaries who were recruiting Chinese laborers for the British. The two of them became Chinese laborers by accident. At the waiting room for Chinese workers in Weihai, the two met Li Dianjia and Ruan Zhaoyin from Tianjin. The four people became sworn brothers of the opposite sex and came together to the battlefield of the First World War in France. The four people have very different personalities; one is highly skilled in martial arts, one is sneaky, one is loyal and honest, and one hates evil. One of them died in France, and another was injured and disabled in France.
In 1919, the three people returned to their motherland, thinking that they could live a good life with the money they exchanged for their lives abroad. But in a chaotic social background, although the three people have different personalities...
This novel and its characters are purely fictitious. Any similarity is purely coincidental and should not be imitated.
