Conscripts Are Also Soldiers (2015) | On the first day a fool went to battle🧠🎯💥
In 1939, during the brutal Suizao Campaign,🔥 Captain Zhao Guowu of the Sichuan 149th Regiment witnesses his brothers-in-arms and innocent civilians slaughtered by the ruthless Japanese commander Matsumoto 💀. Though he escapes death, he is falsely labeled in the newspapers as a shameful deserter 📰💔 — a stain worse than death for a soldier.
Carrying guilt, grief, and rage, Zhao returns to his hometown Xiangxi, only to learn that his elder brother Zhao Guowen has been captured by the local mountain bandits ⚔️. Determined to save him, Zhao heads up the mountain but gets caught by the gang leader Huang Mazi 😈. Just when death seems inevitable, a mysterious woman Huang Feiyan saves him — the same girl he rescued four years ago, and who has secretly loved him ever since ❤️.
Huang Mazi forces Zhao to marry his sister as the price for survival 💍. Zhao refuses, and the angered bandit kidnaps Zhao’s beloved Meng Ximei to blackmail him 😡. Zhao escapes, rallies local militia, attacks the mountain stronghold, and captures Huang Mazi 😱. However, once again, Feiyan kidnaps Meng Ximei to protect Zhao — her love is pure but desperate 💔.
Zhao’s identity as a “deserter” is exposed, and both he and Feiyan are arrested 🚓. But the local principal Kong Lixin leads the villagers to protest ✊, and the military agrees to release Zhao only if he recruits and leads new soldiers — turning farmers into warriors.
Thus begins an unlikely army:
👗 Wang the tailor, joining just to retrieve uniform debts
😭 Foolish but pure-hearted Si Biti, desperate to prove his worth
🍼 Tian Saozi, his caretaker, who follows no matter what
💔 Meng Ximei, shattered by her father’s fiery death but choosing war over despair
Their destination: the deadly front at Yicheng 🎖️.
Upon arrival, they are assigned as stretcher carriers, treated as worthless logistics 🩹. But Zhao refuses to hide in safety. Witnessing blood-soaked chaos and heroic sacrifices, he leads his men into real combat 🔥⚔️.
Huang Mazi eventually returns, broken and lost, resentful yet unwilling to abandon his men. When surrounded, Zhao risks his life to save him, proving that brotherhood is forged not by birth, but by war and honor 🤝💥.
Through multiple battles, Zhao and his improvised troop destroy a Japanese command post, catching the attention of the official 149th Regiment. The new commander Yu Minzhi reluctantly accepts Zhao, but forces him to hide his identity forever — the price of belonging 🥀.
When Yicheng is attacked again, Yu Minzhi orders Zhao to hold the line, then cowardly flees, leaving Zhao and his men trapped against impossible odds 😡🔥. Only the loyal officer Li Zhenguo helps Zhao escape alive, though at devastating cost.
Exhausted and starving, they finally regroup at Wu Family Village, helped secretly by the New Fourth Army 🏞️. Zhao sneaks into town to seize Japanese supplies but is captured, forcing his elder brother to take Matsumoto’s wife hostage in a desperate rescue attempt 🎭.
But betrayal strikes — Little White Dragon, once part of the bandits, switches sides and leads Matsumoto to the village 🐍💣. In retaliation, Matsumoto orders a ruthless bombardment, turning the peaceful refuge into a burning hellscape 🌋.
At last, during chaos, Zhao kills Matsumoto — vengeance fulfilled, but victory feels hollow 💀💔.
Their final mission: infiltrate Yicheng disguised as a wedding procession 💃🕺 to destroy the Japanese airfield ✈️.
Tragedy hits again — Huang Mazi dies, and Meng Ximei sacrifices herself to save Feiyan 😭.
Before the last assault, Zhao ties Feiyan to a bamboo raft and pushes her into the river — forcing her to live, because he knows he will not return 🌧️🌊.
Then — like silent shadows — they charge alongside the New Fourth Army 🌑⚔️.
One by one, Li Zhenguo… Wang the tailor… everyone falls fighting.
No retreat.
No surrender.
Only blood, fire, and belief 🔥🇨🇳.
Feiyan survives, carried by fishermen, returning alone to Xiangxi — carrying the memories of every nameless hero who died not as soldiers, but as ordinary people who chose to stand 🕯️💫.