The anti-German road-blocking movement in Gaomi, Shandong Province, took place in China in the early 1890s in my hometown, and the leader of the anti-German road-blocking movement was from my hometown village. It has been spread through my ears and eyes since I was a child, and it has been passed down by word of mouth. It has always shocked my soul and is deeply rooted in my heart.
The novel conceives of the anti-German road resistance leaders Shi Changwen and Wusheng Liu Jinbang who saw foreigners surveying routes and building railways in their hometowns. They saw the land being occupied and crops destroyed, and went to question them. This led to the long-planned German conspiracy to seize China's Jiaozhou Bay and seize power to build railways and mines in Shandong through the Shandong Juye Mission Case, and the tragic story of Shi Changwen leading the people of Xixiang in an arduous struggle against the enemy.
