In 1894, the Japanese army, who had been planning to invade China for a long time, created trouble in China's territorial waters. In order to calm the situation, the timid Empress Dowager Cixi appointed Beiyang minister Li Hongzhang (Wang Qiuying), his confidant, the "Jiyuan" manager Fang Boqian (Zhou Wenbin) and others to make peace with the Japanese army, but the arrogant and rude Japanese army shot down the Chinese merchant ship.Patriotic officers and soldiers represented by the "Zhiyuan" manager Deng Shichang (Li Moran) asked twice to fight against the Japanese army, but Li Hongzhang refused and took advantage of Deng Shichang's exposure of Fang Boqian's dereliction of duty to dismiss him.The Japanese army fought undeclaredly, and the public anger rose everywhere. Li Hongzhang, who could not withstand the pressure, re-activated Deng Shichang.During the naval battle, Liu Buchan (Li Jie), the right wing general of the Beiyang Navy who was afraid of death, took the wrong banner, causing the Beiyang fleet to fail and the flagship was sunk by the Japanese army.Seeing the situation, Deng Shichang immediately hung up the commanding flag to replace the flagship to command the battle, and led the officers and soldiers of the "Zhiyuan" to fight a desperate battle with the Japanese army, and his behavior was heroic.