The Warlords

Set in 1860s China during the Taiping Rebellion, the story follows loyalist General Qingyun, the sole survivor of a battle with anti-Qing rebels. He finds refuge in a starving village where he's nursed back to health by the attractive Liansheng. After regaining his strength, Qingyun impresses a bandit leader with his fighting skills and joins forces with him and Liansheng's husband to raid villages. Qingyun convinces them to form a loyalist army unit to fight the rebels and feed their people, leading to stunning military successes. However, as his influence grows, the governing powers begin to fear him, testing the bonds of his newfound comrades and setting the stage for differences between them.