They Were Eighteen or Nineteen That Year

Core summary: The story starts from the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937 and ends with the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in 1945, spanning eight years of war. The novel uses the relocation of the remains of martyrs at the Xuecun site in Suning County in 2024 as an introduction, revealing a tragic past event that has been sealed for more than 80 years. The story has two parallel lines: Modern Line: Retired veteran Xiao Zhou saw a small round mirror held tightly in the hands of a martyr in the news. He was deeply touched and decided to go to Suning to find the truth. Historical Line: Focusing on a pair of childhood sweethearts - Chen Shanhe and Lin Xiuer. Chen Shanhe grew from an ordinary Hunan farmer to a company commander of the Eighth Route Army, fighting bloody battles in the Jizhong Plain; Lin Xiuer grew from a fleeing village girl to the backbone of the propaganda team, boosting morale and rescuing the wounded in the rear. Story core: This is not only an iron-blooded song about Chen Shanhe's "living to die" on the battlefield, but also an epic about Lin Xiuer's tenacity in the rear "fighting for his life". The story finally reaches its climax in the battle of Xuecun during the "May Day raids" in central Hebei Province in 1942. Chen Shanhe and his comrades fired the last bullet and used their lives to cover the transfer of the masses and the main force. This is a record about "immortality" that explores how ordinary people used their lives and waiting to create the backbone of the nation in a desperate situation where the country was destroyed and the family was destroyed.