The Chinese Expeditionary Force: The Road Home

In the winter of 1941, Duan Qingshan, a young hunter from a mountain village in western Yunnan, was tracking prey when he witnessed Japanese planes bombing towns and villages. The war shattered the familiar life he had known in the mountains and pushed him into the ranks of the Expeditionary Force.

Years of hunting in the mountains had honed Duan Qingshan's keen eyesight, patience, and ability to read the wind and terrain. From a taciturn mountain villager, he gradually became a scout and crack shot in the army. He followed the Chinese Expeditionary Force into Burma, enduring brutal battles in places like Tonggu, Mandalay, and Yenangyaung. There, he encountered an opponent unlike any he had faced before: Naoki Matsumoto, a Japanese sniper.

Calm, precise, and ruthless, Matsumoto excelled at hiding in rainforests, ruins, and darkness. He killed Luo Dage, the squad leader Duan Qingshan respected most, and became a shadow that never left Duan Qingshan's mind.

As the war turned against them, the Chinese Expeditionary Force was forced to retreat. Duan Qingshan and his comrades were separated from the main force, struggling to survive in the jungles of Burma and the wilds of Hukawng Valley. They had too little food, medicine, and maps. They had to evade the pursuing Japanese while facing swamps, venomous insects, disease, hunger, and despair.

This was the first time Duan Qingshan truly understood war.

A hunter only has to kill one prey, but a soldier must lead the living forward through a mountain of the dead. At last, deep in the Hukawng Valley, Duan Qingshan faced Matsumoto in a fight to the death and led his surviving companions out of the jungle.

But escaping the Hukawng Valley did not mean the war was over.

For Duan Qingshan, the truly long war had only just begun after that green wilderness swallowed so many lives.