In the eleventh year of the Xianfeng reign, in Wuqing, Hebei, an eight-year-old boy squatted at the village entrance, pelting grasshoppers with stones. A gaunt old man with a long-stemmed pipe in his mouth took him home. The old man was surnamed Zhao and practiced Xingyi boxing. The boy was called Chen Zhige, and that was how he began learning to fight. In the same year, in Jingyang, Shaanxi, five-year-old Su Yunzhang received the first move of Hongquan from his father.
In the Gengzi year, the Boxer Rebellion broke out. Chen Zhige's master and senior fellow apprentice died beneath foreign guns, while Su Yunzhang's father fell to the stray bullets of fleeing soldiers. The two young men, each bereft of their closest kin, set off on separate journeys, one heading south, the other north. They did not yet know of each other's existence, but fate had already arranged their meeting.
Tianjin. Two styles of boxing clashed, and two unyielding spirits met. It was not love at first sight, but a lifetime at each other's side. Each started a family, living as neighbors, and in the chaotic years of warlord conflict, they kept a small boxing school alive. The next generation grew up, and the fighting spirit was passed down.
Lugou Bridge. Gunfire rang through the night. Chen Zhige's son and Su Yunzhang's daughter gripped the Eight Broken-Edge Saber Techniques and charged into the enemy ranks.
Fists are made to be used. Bone is harder than fist.
A professional martial arts related work