(Female protagonist's perspective + two strong leads + romance. The story takes artistic liberties with history, so please don't treat it as a historical record.)
Long Nanxiao's journey: military academy studies, the Songhu and Jinling campaigns, studies in Yan'an, the main battlefield in western Guangdong, peacetime reconstruction
In 1934, at her father's arrangement, Long Nanxiao disguised herself as a man and enrolled in the Central Military Academy. Her resilience and strategic mind set her apart among the cadets of the eleventh class.
Amid the infighting, schemes, and darkness of the various factions, she advanced cautiously, using her exceptional abilities to overcome crisis after crisis, and ultimately graduated with excellent results, escaping danger by the skin of her teeth.
When war engulfed the country in 1937, Long Nanxiao joined the Guangdong Army's 83rd Corps after graduation, fighting fiercely in Songhu and defending Nanjing to the last. After the army collapsed, she led the remnants through the besieged city, where she came upon the surviving troops of the Central Training Corps and intervened to save them.
Rescued from desperate straits by a female student, the group hid in the school's enormous basement. There they stumbled upon a passage leading to the waterways: an escape route from hell, quietly opening up in the darkness.
Later, she transferred to the main battlefield in western Guangdong. In the vast world of guerrilla warfare, Long Nanxiao returned to her hometown to build a new life. It would also be her home for the rest of her life.
(Some of the military units in this story are fictional, so please take note.)
Setting: The War of Resistance period, from the war against Japan through the end of the War of Liberation.
