Yimeng

This film (drama)Also known as沂蒙，is aMainland ChinaProducerbeauty live，At2009Released in year 。The dialogue language isMandarin Chinese，Current Douban rating8.8(For reference only)。

In the autumn of 1938, in a small mountain village called Mamu Pool deep in Yimeng Mountain, Aunt Yu and her husband Li Zhonghou were busy preparing for the wedding of their second son Jicheng. Watching the happy couple, Aunt Yu's eldest daughter-in-law, "his sister-in-law," couldn't help but recall her own wedding night when her husband Li Jichang ran away. A local good-for-nothing named Er Nao came to tell everyone that soldiers were coming, and the villagers panicked and hid in the mountain ravines. After the soldiers left, they returned to find the village not only untouched but the streets also cleaned, with some families even leaving cash as compensation. It turned out that the Eighth Route Army had advanced into Yimeng Mountain to fight against the Japanese. The Japanese invaders indeed arrived, and the villagers hid in the back mountains. Aunt Yu's third daughter, San Ni, was brutally raped and killed by the Japanese, and the wife of villager Li Jicai jumped off a cliff in despair after being harmed by the invaders. Enraged villagers killed a straggling Japanese soldier. Village Chief Li Datou held a meeting to discuss how to counter the Japanese retaliation. The eldest son of landlord Li Zhongfeng returned home from the Kuomintang army, and Li Datou implored him to help contact the national army, but he was turned away. While Li Datou's group prepared to resist to the death, they sent Li Jicheng and Jishan to separately seek help from the Eighth Route Army and the Nationalist army. To prevent the village from being wiped out, the young men were sent up the mountains, while others armed themselves with homemade weapons and rushed to their posts around the village. Hundreds of Japanese and puppet soldiers began their assault, and under the leadership of Chief Li Datou, the villagers bravely fought back against the well-equipped Japanese invaders, suffering many casualties. Li Jicai, who went out to seek help, was conscripted by the Nationalist army, while Li Jicheng not only found the Eighth Route Army but also met his long-lost elder brother Li Jichang. As the encirclement broke, villagers fought desperately against the Japanese massacre, inflicting heavy losses on the enemies. The Eighth Route Army sent a platoon to draw the Japanese away, causing them to abandon over a hundred bodies in a hasty retreat. The villagers buried their loved ones and cremated the Japanese corpses. Li Zhongfeng took the ashes of the Japanese back to the county town they had occupied, where his elder brother Li Zhongqi falsely claimed that they were the Eighth Route Army who had severely damaged the Japanese forces, thus preventing retaliation against the village. After the Eighth Route Army returned, Aunt Yu's eldest son Li Jichang and his wife Luo Ning were sent back to the village for grassroots work, facing the husband they had only met once before his escape and the new wife he had married, leaving the sister-in-law with a complicated feeling of bitterness. Luo Ning was moved by her sister-in-law's kindness and became good friends with her. Li Jichang encouraged everyone to participate in the revolution, and both Jishan and Jicheng joined the party, which greatly impacted Aunt Yu. Chen Tong gave Aunt Yu a name – Yu Baozhen, as she had previously been unnamed. Chen Tong persuaded Li Zhongfeng to become village chief to appease the Japanese, while Jishan and Jicheng organized a militia. Yu Baozhen rallied her daughters-in-law and daughter to mobilize and organize the village women to form a Women’s Rescue Association. Li Jizhou returned to the village to search for Li Jichang, but was stopped by Li Zhongfeng. After some investigation, with Chen Tong’s introduction, Yu Baozhen finally joined the party. When the Japanese came to seize food, Jicheng and others cooperated with the Eighth Route Army to successfully reclaim food supplies, and Jicheng's daughter-in-law expressed her desire to join the party, only to find out that her introducer was her husband. Yu Baozhen treated her sister-in-law as a daughter, naming her Xin Ai, and gave her daughter-in-law the name Xin Tian. Jicheng led the militia to help the Eighth Route Army eliminate a Japanese artillery tower, while Li Zhonghou assisted in rescuing the injured alongside the Women’s Rescue Association organized by Yu Baozhen. After their victory, Jicheng was sent for further learning, and Luo Ronghuan took refuge in Yu Baozhen’s home to recover from injuries, where Yu Baozhen took care of him attentively. The Eighth Route Army was disciplined and widely loved by the people. In 1941, Li Jichang organized a village council to elect Yu Baozhen and Li Zhongfeng to represent the Shandong provincial wartime work committee at Qingtusi. Busy with her Women’s Rescue Association duties, Xin Tian had a miscarriage. A matchmaker told San Ni about a potential marriage with a carpenter from the neighboring village, but she refused and was locked up. At that moment, students from the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University, including many female soldiers, arrived. The presence of these female soldiers completely changed the lives of women in the village. San Ni met Xia Yang, whose passionate pursuit of love and freedom strengthened San Ni's resolve to resist her arranged marriage. San Ni changed her name to Li Yang, attended a literacy class, and with Xia Yang's support, went to study in the district, where she not only gained new ideologies but also met Meng Kui, who would change her fate. Meng Kui taught in the literacy class, and Yu Baozhen secretly had him teach her to read. At Xia Yang and Chen Tong's wedding, Yu Baozhen gifted them the first two characters she had ever written: "Xia Yang." Li Yang's feelings for Meng Kui deepened, making her reluctant to marry. When her in-laws sent bride price, including many Japanese candies, Yu Baozhen learned that Shuan Zhu was working for the Japanese and resolutely rejected the marriage. Da Ni was beaten daily at her in-laws, but encouraged by her sister Li Yang, she participated in the literacy class and changed her name to Li Yue. While she suffered greatly in the literacy class, a smile appeared on Da Ni's face; however, her husband Sun Wang, instigated by her mother-in-law, continued to abuse her. Though Yu Baozhen felt heartache for her daughter, her traditionalist thinking led her to pressure Da Ni to return to her in-laws, prompting Li Yue to flee. Li Jichang and Luo Ning's child was brought back by Li Yue, who worked at the district Women’s Rescue Association. Xin Ai loved Li Jichang's child as if it were her own. The Eighth Route Army hospital brought a batch of injured soldiers into Mamu Pool Village, with some being taken into villagers’ homes for recovery. Chen Tong and Xia Yang also returned to the village but brought bad news: Li Jichang and Luo Ning had been captured by Li Jizhou and subsequently fell into Japanese hands. The troops requested Li Zhongfeng’s help to rescue his brother Li Zhongqi, who was translating for the Japanese. After negotiation with patriotic Mr. Chen and others, the Japanese agreed to release Li Jichang and Luo Ning, under the condition that they publicly declared their surrender. Li Jichang and Luo Ning firmly rejected this demand and ultimately died heroically. Yu Baozhen kept their urn in the backyard, vowing not to bury them until the Japanese were driven away. The children of several Eighth Route Army cadres were sent to the village, and Yu Baozhen distributed them to various families for care, leaving two children at her home: a three-year-old boy given to Xin Ai and a newborn baby named Li Ming to Xin Tian. Xin Tian, determined, weaned her newborn, while the boy Yisheng became Xin Ai's other beloved. When Yisheng fell ill, Xin Ai took him to the army hospital for treatment. Yisheng's biological parents, Minister Xu and his wife, felt that their son was beyond saving and told the hospital not to waste military medicine. As the army was ready to depart, the Xu couple reluctantly left. The doctor gave up treatment, but Xin Ai was unwilling to abandon him; she held the medicine in her mouth and fed it to the child, staying by his side throughout the night. A miracle occurred, and Yisheng survived. In 1941, the Japanese launched a large-scale sweep against the Yimeng base, making the situation tense. The troops were finally set to withdraw, and a large quantity of military grain and supplies had to be hidden in the village, along with some injured soldiers, and a Dutch milk cow to aid the wounded needed to be concealed. The Japanese entered the village, demanding food and Eighth Route Army soldiers, and they wanted the villagers to hand over the Eighth Route Army's children. To protect Yisheng, whom she had nurtured like her own child, Xin Ai brought back Ning Er but fainted immediately afterward. As the Japanese attempted to take Ning Er away, they were ambushed by Liu Hei Qi's bandits. Ning Er also fell into the hands of the bandits, who demanded a ransom of a thousand silver dollars, but upon learning the circumstances, Liu Hei Qi personally returned Ning Er. Teacher Liu from the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University was sheltered at Yu Baozhen's house for recovery. After he healed, he promised to visit her after the revolution was successful. Li Yue took a leader to a cave dug by her husband Sun Wang for treatment. In a moment of desperation to aid the leader, she went to her in-laws for help. Through this experience, she recognized the simplicity and kindness of her mother-in-law and Sun Wang, but to protect the leader, her mother-in-law sacrificed herself. Sun Wang pushed the healed leader to the troops in a wheelbarrow and joined the Eighth Route Army. To deliver a message to the captured Zhong Hui, Li Jicun was captured by the Japanese. Xia Yang was arrested, and Li Yang visited her in prison. Xia Yang bravely sacrificed herself, and after handling her affairs, Li Yang sought out the Eighth Route Army, only to find that Xia Yang's husband, Chen Tong, had also been killed. In the army, Li Yang met Meng Kui and safely led the troops out of danger. The Japanese came for yet another sweep; Er Nao, unable to bear the humiliation, ran into a tree and died. Li Zhongfeng poisoned the congee he fed the Japanese, killing them and sacrificing his family's lives. Zhong Hou and Jishan led villagers to deliver grain to the Eighth Route Army, preferring to starve rather than touch a grain of food. Li Jizhou's Nationalist troops were surrounded by the Japanese and were rescued by the Eighth Route Army when they ran out of ammunition and supplies. Li Jizhou was injured, and Yu Baozhen and Zhong Hou repaid kindness for malice by secretly treating his injuries and hiding him in their home. Li Yang led more than twenty soldiers to cover the main forces' withdrawal. Meng Kui jumped off a cliff, and Li Yang was captured. Shuan Zhu, who was repairing a prison cell in a Japanese stronghold, rescued Li Yang. Feeling guilty, she went to find Shuan Zhu only to discover that both he and his mother had been killed. When the Japanese came to search the mountains, an awakened Li Jizhou single-handedly killed over a dozen Japanese before bravely sacrificing himself for his country. The Eighth Route Army's cattle were discovered; to divert the Japanese attention, the fourth brother plunged a knife into a cow he wouldn't ordinarily harm, and the cow dashed off, dying in the process, yet the Eighth Route Army's cattle were saved, and the fourth brother was given a grand burial by the whole village. The Eighth Route Army returned, and the children fostered by local families were all taken back, causing sadness among Xin Ai and the village women. Many young people who had joined the army returned home, yet Jicheng was nowhere to be seen. In 1945, the Shandong provincial government was established. Mamu Pool Village held elections for village chief, and Yu Baozhen was not elected, blaming Zhong Hou for voting for Jishan. The War of Resistance against Japan was victorious, and celebrations filled the streets. Yu Baozhen and Zhong Hou prepared to bury their deceased Jichang, Luo Ning, and San Ni when the Nationalist army launched an attack on the Yimeng Mountain liberation area; Jicheng received orders to return to duty before he could even step into his home. In 1946, the civil war broke out. Yu Baozhen led the young, old, men, and women in the village to actively support the troops. Women worked day and night making pancakes, military shoes, and hemp rope, preparing provisions. A troop needed to cross a river to undertake an urgent combat task; Xin Tian, Xin Ai, and dozens of girls from the literacy class jumped into the cold river, using their shoulders to carry door panels to create a bridge of fire. The victory at the Menglianggu campaign led the People’s Liberation Army southward in large numbers, requiring a vast labor force to support them; the Yimeng base was the last grain and the last piece of cloth to make uniforms, as well as the last son to go to the battlefield. Zhong Hou pushed his small cart towards the front lines. As he saw the liberation army’s boats crossing the Yangtze River by the thousands, tears streamed down his face as he finally understood why his sons went to fight without hesitation. Zhong Hou died at the moment the crossing battle ended. The new China was finally established, and Li Yang returned to the village. Yu Baozhen decided to bury her loved ones who had died. As a professional combat hero, Sun Wang and Li Yue refused the jobs arranged by the village and both went to the martyrs' cemetery, wanting to guard the memory of their sacrificed comrades throughout their ordinary lives. Li Yang finally found the disabled Meng Kui in the veterans' hospital and brought him back home on a cart. Jicheng sent a divorce agreement. Yisheng and Ning Ning were taken away by Minister Xu. Time passed to the Cultural Revolution period. Outsiders came to Yu Baozhen's house to investigate Teacher Liu, who had been sheltered there for recovery. Although Yu Baozhen was very angry at his ingratitude, she still issued a certificate for him. Jicheng, who was terminally ill, returned home, and Xin Tian accepted him, ultimately dying in her arms. Time moved to the present. An old general with white hair came looking for and visiting his savior from years ago. Yu Baozhen, now over a hundred years old, had slightly muddled wits. However, upon hearing someone outside, she instructed Xin Tian to kill a chicken. The old general recognized her after a long time but concluded that she was not the person he was looking for. The old general searched for several days in Yimeng Mountain but ultimately did not find his desired person. When he left, he donated all his life savings to Yimeng Mountain to build a hope primary school. Although the old general did not find the person he was searching for, he met many in the mountains just like his savior. They were ordinary people of Yimeng Mountain, the most humble and common folk in China. Yu Baozhen passed away, and the entire village held a grand funeral for her. The general watched the funeral procession and paid a solemn military salute to the group.