Episode Summary
In this episode, Zhuang Qifeng successfully establishes the Farmers' Salvation Association, creating friction with powerful local landowners. This tension escalates when Zhuang is violently attacked, leading to an armed standoff that he de-escalates despite his injuries. Concurrently, a dangerous political alliance forms in Gucheng, and Zhang Zhiping is unexpectedly reinstated to his command by the Japanese, who misinterpret his anger as a sign of weakness.
Spoiler Alert
"Our Homeland (2025)" Episode 6: A Village on the Brink
Episode 6 of Our Homeland (2025) begins in 1938 with the communist-led partisans gaining serious momentum in Shandong. After successfully capturing the counties of Mengshui and Yishan, they've set up anti-Japanese governments, sending a wave of inspiration through the nearby county of Gucheng.Riding this wave, Zhuang Qifeng gets to work organizing the Farmers' Salvation Association in Dawang Village, and a lot of the locals are eager to sign up.
Things get a little heated during a training session for the village's new self-defense team. Wang Mantun starts complaining loudly about not having real guns, which sparks a massive argument with the trainer, Wang Suozhu. It almost comes to blows before Zhuang Qifeng steps in. He lays down the law, making Wang Suozhu apologize and stressing the number one rule: you never, ever point a gun at your own people. The two men make peace, and the crisis is averted.
Just then, Lü Shicai arrives with his daughter, Lü Ying, and sees how well Zhuang handles the situation. Impressed, and knowing the wealthy landowners are against the self-defense team, he gifts them a pistol and ammunition. He also drops some big news: the communists are planning an attack on Gucheng with a force of a thousand people, and he wants Zhuang's group to be ready.A thrilled Zhuang promises to pass the intel to his superior, Zhou Mi.
Zhuang then tries to get the village's three big landowning families on board with the Farmers' Salvation Association. Led by Wang Xiangfo, they flatly refuse. They try to buy him off, offering a token donation if he agrees not to actually enforce the rent and interest reductions. Zhuang isn't having any of it and turns them down cold.
Meanwhile, in Gucheng, a politician named Chen Shouzheng is making moves. He cozies up to a man named Sun Yulin, trying to get his support to become the new county magistrate. Chen's pitch is chilling: he paints the communists as a greater threat than the Japanese invaders, saying he'd rather be defeated by Japan than by the communists. Sun Yulin, seeing a chance for his own gain, agrees to the shady alliance.
Back in the village, the Farmers' Salvation Association is officially launched with Zhuang Qifeng as its president. The villagers are all in on his plan to reduce rent. Following his mother's advice, Zhuang goes to ask some of the middle-class farmers for help with grain shortages, but he's ambushed and brutally beaten by men sent by the hateful landowner, Wang Weichang.
Wang Suozhu finds the injured Zhuang and immediately rallies the self-defense team, who surround Wang Xiangfo's house, demanding justice. The whole village turns out to support them, and a violent standoff with the landowners' guards seems inevitable. Just in the nick of time, a conscious Zhuang Qifeng has himself carried to the scene on a stretcher. He manages to calm the crowd, announcing he's already worked out a deal for the spring food shortage: the wealthier families will lend grain, which will be paid back out of the rent they save from the new policy.
The episode also checks in on Zhang Zhiping. After being demoted to a common soldier in Gucheng, he channels his frustration into his training. His raw, undisguised anger is noticed by the Japanese commander, Satoshi Yamashita. Yamashita sees Zhang not as a threat, but as a simple, emotional man who would be easy to control. In a surprising twist, he reinstates Zhang as the head of the security regiment.
