In the winter of 1962, Jiao Yulu (Li Xuejian) was sent to Lankao County, Henan Province, where famine was severe, as the second secretary of the county party committee. Seeing the beggars in the streets and the hungry people fleeing to other places, he was very depressed and determined to cure the "three evils" of wind and sand, waterlogging and salinization that had long been suffering the people of Lankao. Soon, he worked out a plan to cure the "three evils" based on many investigations and studies at the grassroots level. However, his way of working among the masses caused dissatisfaction from Wu Rongxian (Li Rentang), the county magistrate and deputy secretary of the county party committee. After being promoted to the secretary of the county party committee, Jiao Yulu insisted on working on the front line of curing the "three evils" almost every day despite the frequent swelling and pain in his liver, and was very loved by the people. Wu Rongguang instructed people to take advantage of a certain incident to bring Jiao Yulu down, but the people of the whole county gathered together to complain for him. Later, Lankao suffered a severe flood. Although Jiao Yulu's liver disease was in the late stage, he still insisted on going to the front line of disaster relief.