Bloodbath on Wolf Hill

In the late autumn of 1937, the smoke of the Japanese army’s encirclement campaign hung over Jinchaji. On the rugged slopes of Wild Wolf Ridge, near the border between Yu County and Pingshan, a band of outlaws led by hunter Wang Meng faced a desperate shortage of food and salt after a Japanese sweep. Pressed by both loyalty and necessity, Wang Meng decided to ambush a Japanese supply convoy. A series of thrilling raids brought the band rich spoils, but also provoked a brutal campaign of extermination by Japanese commander Okamoto Masao.

The battle to defend the mountain stronghold was savage. All three lines of defense fell in succession, and the brothers’ blood stained the cliffs. At this desperate moment, Zhang Dashan, commander of the Eighth Route Army’s Independent Regiment, had been secretly building a base in the nearby mountains. Overruling objections, he led his troops to the rescue, driving off the Japanese at the last possible moment and saving Wang Meng’s surviving men. The gunfire at Wild Wolf Ridge became the prelude to the fateful union of two very different forces.

Deeply moved by the Eighth Route Army’s sense of honor and justice, Wang Meng joined their ranks. Drawing on his ferocity and expert marksmanship, he formed a special operations unit that struck fear into the Japanese and their puppet forces. But Du Youcai, his former second-in-command, coveted wealth and power and feared hardship. Lured by a traitor, he defected to the Japanese and became a vanguard in the slaughter of his own people. From then on, a deadly struggle over loyalty and betrayal, unity and division, light and darkness unfolded across Yu County.

Under Zhang Dashan’s leadership, the Independent Regiment consolidated its forces, trained and expanded its ranks, and built a broad anti-Japanese alliance. At the same time, it cleverly exploited the power struggles and infighting among the puppet troops, led by Du Youcai, Wang Defa, and translator Liu Bing, staging one spectacular “dog-eat-dog” drama after another. Like a sharp blade, the special operations unit struck at the enemy and eliminated traitors.