Lan Xu

Detectives investigate the death of a clerk, murdered before his wedding

During the War of Resistance Against Japan, a CCP army unit guarding the southwest border follows what is ostensibly a trading caravan and discovers that these traders are actually smuggling arms and spy equipment to Chiang Kai-shek and his American allies.

In the early days of liberation, Kuomintang remnants fled to the Menghe Tibetan region. The government sent Chen Shaohua’s political work team to secure local chieftain Luobu Danzeng’s help against the enemy. Spy Xie Chunfu deceived Luobu Danzeng, causing conflict between the Menghe and Wari people to undermine the Communist Party and plan a counter-revolutionary uprising. Chen Shaohua implemented ethnic policies to win Luobu Danzeng’s support and investigated the spies’ activities. Xie attempted to poison steward Lang Jie, but Lang Jie discovered the plot. Nationalist spies threatened Luobu Danzeng to detain the work team. Chen Shaohua sent Xiao Li and Dali Jie to the military division. The People’s Government advanced into Menghe, prompting Xie to assassinate Lang Jie to eliminate witnesses. Before dying, Lang Jie exposed Xie’s plot to Luobu Danzeng, who apologised and cooperated with the People’s Liberation Army to eliminate the remnants.

During the early War of Resistance Against Japan in Baiyangdian, Hebei, the Yanling Squad, led by Communist Party member Hei Lao Cai, conducted effective guerrilla warfare. Yang Xiaomei, fleeing abuse from her husband Zhang Jinlong, joined the squad and developed feelings for farmer Niu Dashi. Zhang Jinlong, unable to change, defected to the Japanese. As Japanese sweep operations intensified, Xiaomei, Dashi, and Zhang Jinlong faced different paths in the conflict.

At a Shanghai apartment, Mr Hou, a Nationalist official, gets ready to move to Taiwan upon the imminent defeat of the KMT during the Civil War. Mrs Hou gives an ultimatum to the rest of the tenants to move out on behalf of her husband, who is the "owner" of the flat and who is now planning to sell it. From the conversations with the rest, we find out that Hou has been a Hanjian during the Sino-Japanese War and that he has since taken over the apartment by force from the old landlord, Mr Kong. The tenants, including Mr Kong, Mrs Xiao, Little Broadcast (alias Mr Xiao, played by Zhao Dan) and a schoolteacher, Mr Hua, and his wife, initially plan to band together, but circumstances force them to find other ways out. Mr Hua tries to find a place to stay at the KMT-sponsored school he is teaching in. Little Broadcast and Mrs Xiao invest in black market gold. As the situation escalates, Mr Hua gets arrested by KMT agents and his young daughter falls desperately ill.

San mao (3 hairs) was a very popular Chinese comic strip first published in 1935-37, continued from 1948 into the 1990s, about a young orphan boy struggling with life in Shanghai.