In the deadly Black Wind Pass, a no-man's-land wedged between Chinese and Japanese positions, eight chests of gold bars and two chests of antiques lie hidden in the cellar of the abandoned Li Family Village. The treasure is enough to live in luxury for three generations. But the place is riddled with mines, Japanese patrols, and stray bullets. Anyone who enters is almost certain to die. Adjutant Lao Chen begs Zhou Kui not to go, insisting it's a Japanese trap and warning that anyone who ventures in without permission will be branded a deserter.
But Zhou Kui, who crawled out of a pile of corpses on the battlefield, has long since let greed devour his conscience. A fortune in gold matters more to him than his country and his cause. Claiming he is going out on a night patrol, he deceives his superiors and takes Lao Chen, two veteran soldiers, and a new recruit nicknamed Gouzi into Black Wind Pass under cover of darkness.
The moment they enter this deadly place, hell breaks loose. Gouzi steps on a mine and dies horribly, while Zhou Kui watches coldly and spits abuse. When they run into a Japanese patrol, a veteran stays behind to cover their retreat and is killed, while Zhou Kui only cares about climbing over the wall to reach the treasure. In the cellar, gold bars are piled high. He stuffs them all over himself in a frenzy, only to be surrounded by Japanese troops. The adjutant pulls a grenade, trading his life for a chance to escape. Their last companion is also killed by a stray bullet. Of the five who went in together, only Zhou Kui is left.
Laden with gold, Zhou Kui stumbles blindly into a minefield and is captured by the Japanese. A Japanese second lieutenant sneers as he reveals the truth: the treasure map was a deadly trap all along, designed to lure greedy people to their deaths.
Zhou Kui frantically throws away the gold and begs for mercy, but the Japanese gun him down. Even as he dies, he clutches the gold bars and refuses to let go. The next day, his corpse is hung in front of the Japanese position, with the golden bar that cost him his life laid beside it.
Looking at the body, the battalion commander says just one thing: Greed brings a blade down upon your head. He killed himself.
The guns of the Battle of Taierzhuang have yet to fall silent. The most lethal thing on the battlefield is not Japanese bullets or traps, but the boundless greed that devours the human soul. A mad gamble to trade lives for gold ends with only one person buried: the gambler himself.
The characterization of the characters is meticulous!