The A-Order

This is a standalone comic book published by Heilongjiang People's Publishing House in April 1983, subtitled "A Story of Revolutionary Struggle." The editor states that it was adapted from the screenplay of the film Those Who Deal with the Devil, with illustrations by Xing'an and Meiyang. It is a 64-mo paperback with a first printing in the hundreds of thousands, a common item among 1980s popular reading matter. The story takes place in Shanghai under Kuomintang rule. Following the Central Committee's directive to open a front on the economic battlefield, the underground Party member Yu Haitao (later under the alias Zhang Gongfu) moves among Kuomintang bureaucrats, Zhongtong and Juntong agents, and the police under the public identity of a business magnate. He opens a trading company with branches in Beiping, Tianjin, Xi'an, Hong Kong, and elsewhere, raising funds and scarce supplies for our side. To cut the supply lines to the liberated areas, the Kuomintang formulates the secret "A-Order," sending agents from both Zhongtong and Juntong to Shanghai to blockade the land and water routes along the Yangtze and conduct investigations everywhere. Zhang Gongfu carefully shields the Party organization while exploiting the greed and self-preservation instincts of Corps Commander Zhao Yibiao, Wang Yisong (Chen Guofu's godson-in-law), Police Chief Yan Kefei, and others, sowing discord between them and the Juntong agent Du Kangfu and gradually dismantling the A-Order's arrangements. Meanwhile, he is reunited with his long-lost younger brother Yu Haibao and his daughter Yu Landi, but cannot acknowledge them because of underground discipline. The comic advances its plot through successive panels with brief captions, moving at a brisk pace with clear-cut heroes and villains. Because it is adapted from the screenplay of the film of the same name, the plot is basically consistent with the film's main line, but the names of characters and organizations and several details differ from the film, from the Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House edition, and from the China Film Press screen-and-stage edition—for example, the company here is called "Dahua Trading Company," and Liang Jianzhai is identified as its manager. When reading or collecting, this book should be regarded as an illustrated adaptation of the film's subject matter, not as a photo-still comic of the film.