Spy War 1933

Spy War 1933 is a full-length espionage novel by the writer Lao Xu, published by Chongqing Publishing House in 2011. The story is set in Harbin in 1933: the city was then under the rule of the puppet state of Manchukuo, with the power of the Japanese Kwantung Army also permeating it, while the underground organizations of both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party were likewise active there. The protagonist, Xu Congliang, is merely a minor section chief in the Manchukuo police station. With no background and no patron, ordinary in looks and low in rank, he relies on exceptional cunning, meticulous calculation, and a smooth, ingratiating manner to maneuver back and forth among the several forces of the Manchukuo regime, the Japanese secret service, the Kuomintang, and the Communist Party, eliminating political rivals while seizing the chance to rise. He is greedy for money and fond of women, and around him appear figures such as a tavern proprietress, a theater actress, a traitor's wife, and the only daughter of a high-ranking Japanese official; yet he also values loyalty among friends and refuses to betray his conscience as a Chinese. He has used his position to obtain intelligence and defuse crises, secretly shielding anti-Japanese forces, and he is also burdened with guilt because a single misstep led to the sacrifice of the undercover Communist known as "Ma Banxian." The novel unfolds around the suspense of "whose spy is he, really," portraying a streetwise figure who is both righteous and devious, surviving by navigating among all sides, and tracing his mental journey step by step toward revolution amid blood and violence. The plot is tightly paced, the dialogue carries the humor of Harbin's streets, and the book was selected as one of the "2011 Sina Four Major Espionage Novels"; it was later adapted into the TV drama Razor's Edge.