After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937, Beiping fell to the Japanese. Li Suzhen, a descendant of the chivalrous bandit Li San the Swallow, formed the Society of Chivalrous Women and assassinated numerous Japanese officers. Military police commander Amu Saburo was so troubled he could neither eat nor sleep, and asked Tokyo to send the jujitsu master Oda Shiro. Oda had lived in China for more than a decade and studied under Elder Changde of Shaolin Temple. A formidable martial artist, he used preparations for a Sino-Japanese martial arts research society as bait, turning his sworn brothers, who cared only for brotherhood and knew nothing of loyalty to their nation, into collaborators and accomplices. The chivalrous women fought their powerful foes time and again, and their underground base in the palace beneath Gongzhu Fen narrowly escaped destruction. In the end, Changde was taken in by Oda’s lies, came down from the mountain to aid the enemy, and captured Li Suzhen alive. Li remained steadfast under torture, but Oda’s daughter, Huiko, secretly freed her. Unable to explain himself to his superiors, Oda was furious that his daughter had disrupted the military operation and sent Huiko to headquarters in Li Suzhen’s place. Amu, a man devoid of humanity, raped Huiko and then killed her. Overcome with remorse, Oda committed seppuku during an awards ceremony. Guided by our underground Communist Party, more than fifty members of the Society of Chivalrous Women joined the anti-Japanese base in Baiyangdian.
