The Last Shot

In the sixth year of the Republic (1917), in Fufeng, Shaanxi, the loess plateau is cracked and dry, and oppressive taxes and military chaos continue unabated. Qiang Sanwa, born into a tenant farmer's family, comes into this world on this land of suffering. From childhood he is silent and slow of speech, stubbornly principled, grateful for kindness, and devoted to his native soil. The loess nurtures him, famine tempers him, and war tears the countryside apart. In his youth he loses his mother and follows his father, scratching a living from the plateau. He has seen routed soldiers plunder and neighbors driven from their homes. He wanted only to tend a few mu of rented fields and live in peace, but the chaotic times press in step by step, the land and nation totter, and peace can no longer be found anywhere. As beacon fires rise on all sides, he sets down his hoe and takes up a gun, going from the loess of Guanzhong to the battlefields of northern Jiangxi. Smoke, bloody fighting, and wounds follow one after another, and the comrades around him fall one by one. When the position is shattered, his body drenched in blood, and he is on the verge of death, Qiang Sanwa uses his last strength to pull the trigger of his Hanyang rifle. This shot is not for fame, not for glory, but only to hold fast to the Fufeng homeland in his heart and to keep the charge his mother left him: a person must never forget his roots. A tragic song of an ordinary soldier in chaotic times—no cheat powers, no time travel, only a son of the loess giving his life for home and country. — Description from novelcodex.orgFull novel: The Last Shot — read the rest free on N​o⁠v​e⁠l​C⁠o​d⁠e​x⁠.​o⁠r​g⁠