[5] A young Chinese laborer, Wang Boxiak (played by Khaidarov), returns to a squalid lodging house after work, where impoverished peasants share space with opium smokers, prostitutes, and livestock.
Meanwhile, at a Soviet border outpost, Red Army soldiers Vasily (Melnikov) and "Baby" (Nazarenko) practice Chinese phrases about class solidarity with the peasants of Manchuria.
That evening, Vasily takes his shift on guard duty but is captured by a semi-bandit group of Chinese soldiers allied with remnants of the defeated White Army officers.
Wang Boxiak, along with many other Chinese soldiers, is taken prisoner, where he observes the stark contrast in the humane treatment of captives by the Soviet forces.
In a swift operation, Soviet forces secure several border villages and, following the signing of the Khabarovsk Protocol, return triumphantly to their bases.