In 1927, after Chiang Kai-shek openly betrayed the revolution, Hunan warlord Xu Kexiang staged the May 21 Incident in Changsha. He sent bandit commander Chen Hanbiao at the head of more than a thousand men to invade Yaoshan in southern Hunan, hoping to establish an anti-communist base on the Hunan-Guangxi border. But the Yao people of Hunan had always been tenacious and fierce, honorable and fond of martial arts. Even in those dark years, they refused to submit to the reactionaries’ blades. Chen Hanbiao was a bandit by origin and knew the Yao people would be difficult to subdue, so he paid a high price to recruit a group of disgraced martial artists, hoping to defeat them at their own game and conquer the people of Yaoshan.
To resist the Kuomintang reactionaries’ bloody repression, our Party promptly organized martial arts heroes to join forces with the Yaoshan peasant self-defense forces in a thrilling struggle against the reactionaries. The battle was full of twists, turns, and peril. It is now told chapter by chapter for readers’ enjoyment.
