Major Lu Punches 'The Lord of the West'

A garrison town in the northwest, where a soldier's rank counts for more than the law does. Lu Da (Lǔ Dá) holds a middling officer's post called tíxiá: he has a few hundred men under him, a commander above him, and on the street people get out of his way. He drinks where he likes and pays tomorrow.

The people he drinks near are not so protected. A father and his daughter, Jin Cuilian (Jīn Cuìlián), sing for coins in a wine shop to pay off three thousand strings of cash they owe a rich butcher who calls himself the Lord of the West (Zhèn Guānxī). The money is on a written contract. She never received a copper of it. There is nowhere to take a complaint like that: the court is for men with money, and the butcher has money.

Lu Da has a temper, a purse he is happy to empty, and no talent at all for waiting until tomorrow.