1937, toward the end of the Battle of Shanghai.
At the last position on the north bank of the Suzhou Creek, young regimental commander Nan Huaizheng, out of ammunition and supplies, received the order to retreat across the front.
He glanced at the foreign concession five hundred meters behind him. Two hundred thousand unarmed compatriots were there.
"Order received." He burned the telegram, then turned to the surviving soldiers. "But we're not leaving."
Thus began a desperate stand destined to go down in history.
When the Japanese thought only scattered remnants remained, they met the fiercest resistance. When the world thought Shanghai had fallen, the flag here was still burning.
Soldiers had come from every corner of the country:
- Veterans of the Twenty-Ninth Army's Big Sword Corps, one sleeve empty, yet still able to wield a blade with their right hand
- Eighth Route Army guerrilla warfare experts, turning every ruined building into a Japanese grave
- Overseas Chinese who had returned from across the seas, bringing the latest equipment and tactics
- And the so-called "volunteers," whose origins were unclear but who were just as determined to fight to the death
Their equipment was mismatched, their accents varied, and even their uniforms came in every style.
But their bayonets pointed in the same direction:
"Nanjing is behind us. So are four hundred million compatriots. If we retreat, what will become of them?"
Every inch of land is soaked in blood; ten thousand young men make up ten thousand soldiers.
This was more than Shanghai's final line of defense. It was a declaration that a nation would never yield, even unto death.
[This book is set in an alternate-history world and pays tribute to all the heroes who fought for the survival of the nation]
