A Hundred Years in Tuchengzi

By the banks of the Yi River in southern Shandong, Tuchengzi holds a century of blood, tears, and stubborn resolve from five generations of the Tong family.

In the late Qing dynasty, as the Nian Rebellion spread, the Tong ancestors built an earthen stockade, putting down roots amid the chaos of war.

Tong Huiwu, a student who had passed the imperial examinations before the Qing dynasty fell, led his clan to seek a living in Manchuria after a severe drought struck Yizhou. After enduring the bitter cold of the frontier, he returned home with all he had earned, established a private school, and repaired the stockade walls, hoping his descendants would rise above their station.

But turbulent times never grant ordinary people lasting peace.

Bandit gangs swept through southern Shandong during the Republic of China era. When they stormed the stockade, the family lost everything in the bloody battle, and loved ones perished. Grief consumed Huiwu, and he died a broken man.

With the older generation gone, the burden fell to his three sons.

The eldest, Jinjian, was steady and patient. He stood fast on his native soil, maneuvering between bandits and the Japanese invaders and their collaborators, protecting his neighbors in the darkness.

The second son, Jinliang, was compassionate. He opened a cloth shop, hoping industry could eradicate rural poverty. But when Japanese bombs fell, he gave his life protecting refugees in a church.

The youngest, Jinkui, was fierce and forthright. When the nation was in peril, he left home to enlist and fought in the bloody battles of central Henan, spending half his life soldiering and drifting far from home.

After the founding of the People's Republic, the fourth generation faced famine and upheaval, enduring the constraints of political background checks and the crushing blow of having their place in higher education taken by someone else. They dug canals, built dams, and worked in mines, gritting their teeth to survive in the mud. Then came Reform and Opening Up, and the fifth generation of young people broke through the soil amid the surging tide of the times. After a century of turmoil, new life finally began.

This novel has no rebirth, no System, and no golden finger.

The story draws extensively on local historical sources from southern Shandong, accounts of banditry during the Republic of China era, and family history, bringing to life the customs of rural Yizhou and the many faces of ordinary people in turbulent times.

It tells of ordinary people struggling, standing firm, and fighting back in the currents of their age.

The earth may bury seeds, but it can never erase the life force that keeps springing forth!