The Assembly

War feasts upon death. Its greedy appetite carries away many a life on the battlefield, and soldiers must be ready to die at any time. Yet all these sacrifices can be given meaning and reason with honor. A weathered witness of war’s insatiable appetite, Guzidi, captain of the Ninth Company, will struggle his entire life to return honor to his 46 men and their self-sacrifice. 1948 witnessed the launching of the Huaihai Campaign during the Chinese Civil War. In one of Chinese history’s deadliest battles, thousands from the People’s Liberation Army and the KMT Army fell in the battle that took place between Xuzhou and Bengdu. It was amid this bloody fight that Captain Guzidi led the Ninth Company infantry unit on a sniper mission. His orders were to fight the KMT Army until the retreat assembly call was sounded. Yet, after many long hours of painstaking resistance, Guzidi watched powerless as the ammunition ran out and the scant ranks of the Ninth Company grew sparser still...