This is not a cool novel, it is not imaginative, and it does not have systematic support. It is a story about a small figure in history. It tells the story of a Shandong farmer named Shen Dazhu who fled to Liaodong due to drought and was kidnapped into the Ming army. From a civilian who built fortifications in Dalinghe City, he experienced bloody sieges and narrow escapes. In the tug-of-war of the Ming and Qing Dynasties for more than ten years, he gradually grew from an ordinary soldier to a unique guerrilla general with his amazing resilience and battlefield intuition. However, when the decisive battle of Songjin was finally defeated and the Empire State Building was about to collapse, he found that what he had spent his whole life guarding was just an isolated city that was destined to collapse. This is a story about a small person struggling to survive in the torrent of history, trying to grasp a glimmer of meaning, but ultimately being crushed by the times.
Reader comments
This is an epic set in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, but it focuses on the humblest life. Shen Dazhu, from a refugee fleeing the famine to becoming the commander-in-chief of the Ming army, spent his whole life practicing one sentence: "Live for them." That rusty horseshoe not only connects the growth of a soldier, but also the traces of countless unknown people who have been run over by history.
The most touching thing about the novel is that it never glorifies war. Those hungry eyes, the redness in the teeth, and the sharing of food at the base of the city wall - they are so cruel that people dare not look directly at them. But it is in this hellish scene that the glimmer of humanity shines brighter: Uncle Scar's "thoughts", Zhao Ergen's stupidity, Cao Erhu's loyalty, and Shen Dazhu's words, "I live for them as a human being, not as a dog."
The Daling River is still flowing, and no one remembers those names. But the river remembered. The novel remembers them for them.
This is an epic set in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, but it focuses on the humblest life. Shen Dazhu, from a refugee fleeing the famine to becoming the commander-in-chief of the Ming army, spent his whole life practicing one sentence: "Live for them." That rusty horseshoe not only connects the growth of a soldier, but also the traces of countless unknown people who have been run over by history. The most touching thing about the novel is that it never glorifies war. Those hungry eyes, the redness in the teeth, and the sharing of food at the base of the city wall - they are so cruel that people dare not look directly at them. But it is in this hellish scene that the glimmer of humanity shines brighter: Uncle Scar's "thoughts", Zhao Ergen's stupidity, Cao Erhu's loyalty, and Shen Dazhu's words, "I live for them as a human being, not as a dog." The Daling River is still flowing, and no one remembers those names. But the river remembered. The novel remembers them for them.