Assembly

The story begins in 1948 during the Huaihai Campaign of the Chinese Civil War with Gu Zidi (谷子地), a captain of the Chinese Red Army, fighting the Kuomintang (KMT) and winning a battle with severe casualties. The loss of his political officer in the fight causes Gu to order the shooting of the surrendering KMT prisoners, but the command is met mainly with refusal. As punishment, Gu is imprisoned, and he quickly befriends his cellmate: an army teacher and pacifist named Wang Jincun, who had been jailed for cowardice. Gu's commanding officer, Colonel Liu, soon sends Gu and his 46 remaining men off on a new assignment; to defend to the last man (with limited resources) the battalion's flank — an old mine on the south bank of the Wen River — and not to retreat until he hears the bugle call for assembly with the regiment. Gu then receives permission to take Wang (who is condemned anyway) as his new political officer.