Xiqu

Xue Rengui and his son Xue Dingshan go on an expedition to expel the encroaching Western Liao army. When the army arrives at Hanjiang Pass, Rengui and his aide, Cheng Yaojin, are defeated by Fan Lihua, a female general guarding the Pass. She captures Dingshan three times, but each time she lets him go. It is actually written in the stars that Dingshan and she should become husband and wife. When she returns to the camp, Lihua is chastised by her father for freeing the enemy. In the heated argument that ensues, she kills her father and brother by accident. So she takes her army and surrenders to the Tang camp. On the way, she takes down a highway bandit, Wang Yinglong, who is willing to serve her as her foster son. She and Dingshan get married, but on their wedding night, Dingshan is so enraged to see her foster son that he accuses her as a woman with loose morals. The couple quarrels, and Lihua returns to Hanjiang Pass with the sense of ill use and being wronged. Back in Dingshan’s camp, a general of the enemy force, Su Baotong, challenges Rengui on the battlefield. When Rengui is losing, Dingshan rides out to save him. Suddenly he sees a white tiger, and shoots it down with an arrow. But it is actually the alter self of his father Rengui. Before Rengui dies, he tells Yaojin to beg for forgiveness from His Majesty, and says that if the Tang army wants to take Western Liao, the only person to win the war is Lihua. He instructs Dingshan to go and apologise to Lihua in the hope she would have a change of heart. So Yaojin sees to it that Dingshan kowtows his way to Hanjiang Pass to apologise. His sincerity wins Lihua’s pardon, and husband and wife together lead the joint forces to drive away the Liao invaders.