In the 16th year of the Republic of China, there was a severe drought in Shandong and warlords were rampant. Wu Tieshan, a former veteran of the Beiyang Army, led a group of desperate Jiaodong folks on the legendary black land of "beating roe deer with sticks and scooping fish with gourds" and began an epic migration spanning two thousand miles and lasting for twenty years.
They boarded the ship from Shijiusuo Pier and went to sea, experiencing storms, bandits, and soldiers all the way north. Pass through Shanhaiguan, go deep into Fengtian, and reach the Heilongjiang Basin. However, what awaits them is not just hope on the black soil - there are also Zhang's father and son's change of flag, the gunfire in Huanggutun, the bombardment of September 18, and the fourteen years of humiliation under the banner of the puppet Manchukuo.
This is an epic about migration, survival and dignity. Wu Tieshan and his fellow travelers were displaced in the torrent of history, took root and grew in the black soil of a foreign land, and measured a nation's longest suffering and resilience with blood and tears. The black soil is the basis, and I will have no regrets in this life.
