Chinese Drama 2023

Pledge of Allegiance (Chinese Drama Review & Summary)

Pledge of Allegiance poster

• Genre: Historical Costume Drama Fiction, Wuxia
• Release Date: 28 March 2023
• Origin: China
• Cdrama: 24 Episodes

Cast

• Leon Zhang as Li Wu
• Chen Ruo Xuan as Lu Zheng/Song Zhen
• Sun Yi as Shu Tang
• Yin Zhu Sheng as Lu Yu Lin
• Ci Sha as Li Dong Fang
• Ma Yu Jie as Zhang Jun Qing
• Zhou Tie as Si Xiang Nan
• Yang Yi as Song He Ming
• Fang Xiao Mo as Mei Dou
• Zu Ka Er as Ji Fei
• Hu Bao Sen as Bai Nian Shan

Episode 1

It is a really interesting drama though the story is still rather nebulous at the moment since it just started.

The blurb said that during the 25th-year reign of Hong Wu, the Crown Prince suddenly died of illness.  His position became vacant which caused upheaval in the country.

It became chaotic that everyone, including children, was being sent to prison even for minor offenses.

Song Zhen and a girl went to save a young thief, Li Wu, but he did not get away because he was limping due to the torture.

Song Zhen went to get him but found Li Wu with a dagger, having stabbed Song He Ming, the guard of the investigation bureau who happened to be Song Zhen’s father.

Li Wu and Song Zhen fought.  Li Wu got away after cutting Song Zhen in the back.

Song Zhen was taken and hidden by Lu Yu Lin.  He looked after him as if he was his own son and renamed him Lu Zheng.

10 years later…

Lu Zheng is now a detective in the investigation bureau while Li Wu pretends to be a noble and secretly look after the street boys.

Lu Zheng learned from his lesson of saving someone only to literally stabbed him in the back so now, when it is criminal, he sees it only in black and white.

A high-ranking official’s son had been abusing, to the point of killing, women from a brothel.  When Lu Zheng talked about it, Lu Yu Lin encouraged him to overlook the matter.

Lu Zheng took matters into his own hand and kidnapped the son and told him that he was going to send him away far away where he could work as a digger/miner.  He then put him in a box which he nailed shut.

Episode 2

Lu Zheng wanted to become the new Sargeant at the Investigation Bureau.  He aspires to it so it was a shock when he learned that someone from the North had been given the position.

The man from the North was Li Dongfang, who somehow ended up being kidnapped by the illiterate Li Wu.

Li Wu accidentally became Li Dongfang and met Lu Zheng..

Li Wu advised him to go back to the North. Li Wu pretending to be Li Dongfang was agreeable with the right motivation, meaning money.

But Li Wu helped a bleeding female assassin.

Episode 3

Lu Zheng looked for the assassin who he knew he injured.  It was Shu Tang, who is a member of the Night Scouts.

Lu Zheng noted that Li Wu was behaving rather suspiciously so he followed him into a granary where they both got locked in.

Li Wu later found out that Lu Zheng had been given the Yuming Lock that could unlock a little orb that contained secrets.   The orb was hidden inside the base of Song He Ming’s memorial tablet but when Lu Zheng went to look for it the memorial tablet was empty.  He did not know that Li Wu got to the orb first rather accidentally.