The Secret History of Manchuria, Part Two

[Bandits + Northeast China + warlords + Japanese spies + Manchukuo + Republican era + romance + collaborators] The turbulent fate of one woman, and a bloody epic of Northeast China. From bandit chieftain's wife to a secret pawn of the Japanese, she lives through every secret behind Manchukuo's collapse, caught between love and hatred, family and country. The second half of Manchuria's Secret History picks up where the middle section left off. Set against the true historical backdrop of Northeast China from late 1937 to 1946, it mainly follows the major events that led Manchukuo steadily toward its demise. In the blink of an eye, Han Xuemei had spent several years working in Manchukuo's imperial palace. In December 1937, her eldest daughter, Yun Zhongyan, suddenly appeared, and Han Xuemei hurried to Fengtian. Before she could see her daughter, she unexpectedly ran into Yun Feihu. She learned that Yun Zhongyan had become an intelligence agent for the Communist International and had returned to China on an important mission. Yun Feihu had followed Yang Jingyu and become a capable member of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army. He had come to Fengtian to meet Yun Zhongyan and continue their resistance against Japan. Yun Feilong had become a senior official in Manchukuo, but he was not trusted. Disgusted by the Japanese invaders' growing ambition to occupy all of China, he contacted Han Xuemei and told her that Yun Zhongyan was under Japanese surveillance and should flee at once. Not long afterward, Yun Feilong told Han Xuemei that Yun Feihu had died while delivering medicine to the Anti-Japanese United Army. Han Xuemei was devastated. After the Pacific War broke out, the Japanese invaders drew ever closer to defeat, and Manchukuo's situation grew increasingly desperate. In the autumn of 1943, Long Feilong was assassinated. Yoshiko was driven out of military and political circles. Using a restaurant as cover, she traded in intelligence and specifically warned Han Xuemei to keep an escape route open. Empress Wanrong took it upon herself to arrange Han Xuemei's remarriage, and Han Xuemei was forced to marry Bao Xi, a notorious collaborator in his seventies. In the summer of 1945, Han Xuemei's father died. After returning home for the funeral, she had barely made it back to Changchun when she found that her daughter had been murdered. As Soviet forces advanced into Northeast China, Manchukuo's top officials took to the road as fugitives. Because of her close relationship with Wanrong, Han Xuemei stayed by her side and cared for her until Wanrong died of illness in June 1946. Han Xuemei was also imprisoned for her identity as a collaborator. During her sentence, she unexpectedly encountered her son, Han Yunhe, who had become a war criminal, but he refused to acknowledge her. Yoshiko, living under an assumed name, came to see Han Xuemei one last time...