Route of heroic endeavor

She reveals the drama is the final production of a trio franchise about the CPC's early history between late 1920 and early 1930s, with the first and second series respectively featuring a Red Army division that sacrificed the lives of many soldiers to ensure the retreat of the major force, and the Gutian Conference held in Fujian in 1929, which defined the missions of the CPC and the Red Army.

With the support of Chinese authorities and experts specializing in revolutionary history, the new drama started shooting in Bogong'ao village in Fujian in September 2020, taking 70 days to travel to Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang provinces to shoot the outdoor scenes as well as the scenarios in several soundstages in Hengdian World Studios, the country's largest shooting base for movies and television productions.

Hidden deep in far-flung mountainous areas in western Fujian, Bogong'ao was the first station to shelter CPC members trekking from Kuomintang-ruled areas in Guangdong.

From the winter in 1930 to the eve of Red Army's Long March in October in 1934, the transitional station accommodated many significant Party members, ranging from leaders including Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, Ye Jianying and Dong Biwu as well as specialists in various fields such as telecommunication.

One of the village's most heartbreaking stories is that of 30-plus members of the local Zou family who worked for the Party on transportation missions. Seven of them paid the ultimate price and were brutally killed by the Kuomintang forces. All were officially recognized as "revolutionary martyrs".

As one of the archetypes of the TV show's protagonist Pan Yuqing, Zou Duanren was once the head of the Bogong'ao station. During a mission departing from Qingxi in Guangdong to Bogong'ao, he was captured by Kuomintang militia.