They mentioned that Wu's army buried many of Zhang's soldiers alive after winning the battle in order to take possession of their enemies' belongings.
Under such circumstance, Zhao, disappointed by his unrewarded service and incited by his fellow soldier Old Li, takes hold of the payroll money and fled into a nearby jungle.
From this point on, the rest of the play closely resembles the forest section of The Emperor Jones, only in the illusions the past experiences of the Negro convicts are changed for those of the Chinese soldier.
"[6] Hong's Yama Zhao bears clear a resemblance to Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones by "[borrowing] from its American prototypes the money motif, the structure of plot, the scene division, and the psychological treatment of hallucinations in a forest setting.
"[6] Due to the similarities between Yama Zhao and The Emperor Jones, Hong faced charges of plagiarism from the Chinese literati when his play premiered in Shanghai in 1923.