In 1938, the Japanese army advances south along the Jinpu Railway, seeking to encircle Xuzhou. Liao Guangyi, commander of the 56th Army of the National Revolutionary Army's Third Group Army, is ordered to abandon Jinan, a key stronghold on the railway, and retreats without a fight. Zhou Tianyi, former commander of the First New Battalion and a subordinate of Liao, must choose between loyalty to his brothers and duty to his nation. In the end, he chooses duty, leading his troops away from Liao and toward the front lines to fight the Japanese, where they face a bloody campaign of encirclement and suppression. After Zhou and his men break through the encirclement, the 31st Army of the Guangxi Clique disarms them en masse in Mingguang as
