Thunder over the Mountain Pass

In the winter of the third year of Xuantong, the thunderclap of the Wuchang Uprising shatters the snow at Shanhaiguan. Shen Yanzhi, son of a former anti-Qing rebel, has lain low for twenty years. Now, with three thousand local militia, he raises the banner of "Restoring China" and cuts off the Qing court's lifeline to reinforcements beyond the pass. From then on, he leads his troops into the revolutionary tide sweeping across China, fighting bloody battles in the Liaoxi Corridor, maneuvering through political intrigue on the outskirts of Beijing and Tianjin, and charging through fire and blood on the Northern Expedition. Amid the warlord conflicts, he holds fast to his republican ideals. He forms a life-and-death alliance with Cheng Zhenbang, a commander of the new Wuchang army, and wages a desperate struggle against Qing loyalists, restorationists, and foreign interventionists alike. He witnesses the passion and sacrifice of revolutionaries, and sees betrayal and compromise amid the power struggles. Torn between duty to his country and loyalty to those he loves, he steps over mountains of corpses and rivers of blood. From a young warrior amid the flames at Shanhaiguan to a revolutionary commander ruling over a territory, Shen Yanzhi's life reflects the agony of an ancient nation reborn through upheaval. It is a tragic epic of a generation that used its own flesh and blood to knock on the door of a republic.