The Young Warriors (2006)

The Young Warriors
Promotional poster featuring the main cast members
Genre	Wuxia Romance War
Written by	Wang Li Zhang Mian
Directed by	Lee Kwok-lap
Presented by	Wang Zhongjun
Starring	Hu Ge Peter Ho Eddie Peng Justin Yuan Chen Long He Jianze
Opening theme	Farewell Poem by Anson Hu
Ending theme	Twenty Years by Zhang Mengmeng
Composer(s)	Mak Jan-hung
Country of origin	China
Original language(s)	Mandarin
No. of episodes	43
Production
Producer(s)	Karen Tsoi Wang Zhonglei
Location(s)	China
Running time	45 minutes per episode
Production company(s)	Chinese Entertainment Shanghai Huayi Brothers Media Corporation
Release
Original network	China Television
Original release	26 September 2006 (2006-09-26)
External links
Website	www.tangrendianying.com/works-tv-detail.php?id=9

The Young Warriors (Chinese: 少年杨家将) is a 2006 Chinese television series based on a series of novels and plays that detail the exploits of the Generals of the Yang Clan during the early Song Dynasty. The series was jointly produced by Chinese Entertainment Shanghai and Huayi Brothers Media Corporation, and stars an ensemble cast of talents from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the United States and Canada.

In the 980s, former Later Han general Yang Ye pledges allegiance to Emperor Taizong of the Song dynasty. Yang leads his family and followers to defend Song from invaders of the Khitan Liao Dynasty. Having served Song for years, the Yangs are viewed as an honorable, courageous, and patriotic clan that protects the nation from foreign invasion.

Unfortunately, at the Battle of Golden Beach, the Yangs fall into a conspiracy trap, which concludes with the death of Yang Ye and four of his sons, and another son becoming a prisoner-of-war. Yang's last two surviving sons, Yang Yanzhao and Yang Yande, must continue their family's legacy to bring peace and prosperity to Song, in addition to seeking vengeance on the conspirators.

The series' war segments were later reused in The Legend of the Condor Heroes (2008) for the flashback scene depicting Yang Zaixing's death. The filmmakers obscured the actors' features to differentiate the two television series, but the images' compositions are the same.

The series' costume design is one of its main focal points. During its premiere, the production team hosted runaway events for cast members to showcase their costumes. The Yang generals and Yelü Xie's costumes were designed based on battle armour from the Tang, Song and Liao dynasties. However, the Yangs' armours attracted the most attention, as audiences felt that they resembled samurai armour more than Chinese armour, because of their bright red and black colouring, and long narrow plates. The Song military uniform designs were featured again in The Legend of the Condor Heroes (2008) and A Weaver on the Horizon (2010).