A Woman Unleashed

To defy her father's arranged marriage, Zhao Yuniang fled with her beloved, Jiang Zhong, and they became fugitives on the run.

They endured a life of hardship and had a son and a daughter.

When they reached the banks of the Hula River in North Hei Province, Jiang Zhong was killed by bandits.

Zhao Yuniang and her children drifted to Zhengjiatun, where she became a wet nurse in the household of Jia Dejin.

There, she became the family bookkeeper and learned to ride and shoot.

She and Jia Dejin fell in love. Just as they were about to marry and she was set to become his third concubine, the warlord forces backing the First Madam tore them apart.

While helping the Northern Feng Army suppress bandits, she met Bai Erlang, a physician. The two married and had a son.

While gathering herbs, Bai Erlang was shot by a Japanese survey team, fell from a cliff, and died.

Jia Dejin cut corners while building a river embankment, causing it to burst and inflicting huge losses on the people. Zhao Yuniang and Bai Erlang's son was swept away by the flood.

Zhao Yuniang sent Jia Dejin to the execution ground, but the Japanese arrived and rescued him. Jia Dejin became a die-hard collaborator.

Zhao Yuniang poisoned the bandit who had murdered her daughter, but the Japanese hailed her as a hero of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and appointed her commander of the Manchukuo Co-Prosperity Army.

To wash away her shame, she sought out her guide, Liu Xingbang, a former Northern Feng Army chief of staff and an underground Communist Party member, and joined the Communist Party.

Zhao Yuniang, now commander of the Manchukuo Co-Prosperity Army, was misunderstood by her son Jiang Zhengtao and her other loved ones. Yet she remained loyal to her country, fighting a series of desperate battles against the Japanese and collaborators such as Jia Dejin. She finally helped win the victory over fascism and became a national hero. Under the Communist Party's leadership, she also fought the remnants of the bandits alongside the fanatical Nationalist forces, at last eliminating the bandit menace and welcoming the dawn of a bright new era.