From a White-Faced Scholar to a Generation of Gangsters

"From a White-faced Scholar to a Giant Bandit" is a historical romance novel set in the troubled times of Western Hunan, which spans from 1908 to 1950. The story revolves around the protagonist Bai Qisheng - he is the old son of Bai Qimei, the landlord of Baijiazhai in western Hunan. He was nicknamed the "white-faced scholar" because he was frail and sick at birth, but he developed a violent and perverse character through pampering. When he was ten years old, he killed his private school teacher with an inkstone. After his parents paid for the settlement, he completely embarked on the path of lawlessness. He was sent to the army at the age of fifteen, but because of disobedience, he stabbed the squad leader to death, grabbed the gun and fled, starting on the road of banditry. He first served as a bodyguard for an opium merchant, and then started his career by stealing goods under the hood, pulling up a team to occupy the mountain and become the king. In the no-care zone of western Hunan, he dealt with local powerful people, warlords, the Japanese, and the national army. Sometimes he defected and sometimes rebelled. He used money to buy, conspiracies, and firefights to annex, and gradually grew into a giant bandit in western Hunan. Through the life trajectory of Bai Qisheng for more than 40 years, the novel shows the turbulent changes in Xiangxi society from the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China to the eve of the founding of New China, and depicts a complex soul distorted by the times: he is both a gangster who is not afraid of death, but also a calculating cunning; he retains a trace of warmth towards his relatives, but is cruel and ruthless to outsiders. Finally, in 1950, he was annihilated by the People's Liberation Army and executed in a public trial, ending his criminal life.