Xuzhou 1938

In the spring of 1938, the Battle of Xuzhou took place. Under the command of Li Zongren, 600,000 Chinese troops fought with flesh and blood against the 240,000 Japanese mechanized corps. The novel outlines the panoramic view of this battle through the fate of four groups of ordinary people: Shi Suo, a 17-year-old Sichuan Army recruit, fought a bloody battle in Tengxian County with an ancestral machete, and completed his coming-of-age ceremony at the sacrifice of a bald veteran; Qi Yunsheng, a staff officer who returned from Germany, deduced the strength of the troops in front of the headquarters map, each number Behind the scenes are living colleagues; church nurse Xiuhe, who joined the street fighting in Taierzhuang after her fiancé died in the battle in Linyi, bandaging wounded enemy and enemy soldiers under the moonlight; American photographer Frank, whose lens changed from calm recording to trembling witness, finally put down the camera and picked up the fleeing children. From the night attack in Teng County, the great victory at Taierzhuang to the breakout in Xuzhou, the four people briefly met and separated in the smoke of gunfire. Finally, at Huayuankou, the turbid waves of the Yellow River exploded to prevent the Japanese army from advancing westward, pushing their fate to the ultimate decision - when the torrent of history swept forward, the little people used the humblest perseverance to create the unyielding backbone of the nation. This is a work about sacrifice and memory, dedicated to those who have not left their names in the dust of history.