The Legend of Zhao Hengde

In 1945, on the eve of victory in the War of Resistance, the flames of resistance in the Taihang Mountains were reaching their peak.

Zhao Hengde was a real-life, first-class reconnaissance hero of the Taihang region, a steely man who had come from the Taigu Escort Agency. As Japanese invaders trampled the land, he bid farewell to his wife and children and entered the mountains alone. Armed with a flying knife, he became the “Death-Dealing Blade,” a figure who struck terror into the Japanese and their puppet collaborators.

On a snowy night during the Little New Year, he lay in wait on a rooftop on Chenghuang Temple Street in Pingding County and ambushed “Wu the Skinner,” the notorious leader of the military police. His blade flashed, blood spattered across the snow, and behind the clean, decisive assassination lay a silent condemnation of the collaborators' atrocities.

But this was only the beginning. Iwamatsu Yoshio, senior staff officer of the Japanese First Army, had masterminded “Operation A.” His hands were stained with the blood of Eighth Route Army soldiers, and his actions had indirectly led to the death of Comrade Zuo Quan. On the night of the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, this chief culprit would travel by special train from Taiyuan to Beiping to report on his duties. The railway between Shouyang and Yuci would become his final hunting ground.

Facing the Japanese army's layers of blockades, hidden moles, and intelligence traps, Zhao Hengde used a scout's keen instincts and a knife fighter's daring to set a deadly trap in the face of certain doom. He would not only avenge his fallen comrades, but sever the enemy's chain of command and carve a path toward victory in the war.

Snow and wind swept across the Taihang Mountains, and the gleam of his blade reflected his unwavering heart. This real-life hero of the resistance carried out a lone-wolf decapitation mission that was all but certain to end in death. With his life and blood, he etched an undying legend into the Taihang Mountains.