On June 15, 1931, Niu Lan, a liaison officer of the Far East Bureau of the Comintern, was arrested in the Shanghai Concession. From Niulan's residence, the British patrol found a large number of documents from the Communist Parties of the Asian countries to communicate with the Comintern, as well as the funds for the activities of the Comintern to the Communist Parties. With the intervention of Song Qingling and others, the arrest of Niulan and his wife has aroused great concern from various forces in the world, and history has called the "Niulan Incident".
Einstein, a member of the European Association for the Rescue of Cowland Couples
The arrest of Niu Lan and his wife and the exposure of their true identities paralyzed almost all of the Comintern's organizational system in China, and the CCP's ties with the Far East Bureau of the Comintern were completely severed. In order to rescue Niu Lan and his wife as soon as possible, on the one hand, Song Qingling actively organized public opinion propaganda to protest against the arrest of Niu Lan and his wife by the National Government. On the other hand, the Soviet Red Agent Sorge was responsible for secretly gathering intelligence and carrying out rescue work.
Mr. and Mrs. Cowlan
However, in response to the protests from all over the world, the National Government has adopted a silent attitude and has never publicly replied. Because they have identified them, niu lan and his wife can live in a strange way, and controlling them will be able to cut off the ties between the CCP and the Comintern, thus achieving the goal of weakening the CCP. So, how did the Niulan couple survive the rest of their lives? We continue to decrypt it for you today.
After Niu Lan and his wife were imprisoned for half a year, Soong Ching Ling went to Nanjing to negotiate with Chiang Kai-shek on the issue of Niu Lan's release, which eventually broke up. Due to overwork, Song Qingling soon fell ill, however, even in the midst of illness, Song Qingling still consulted Sorge many times about how to rescue NiuLan and his wife.
Song Qingling and others
Sorge was a famous "red spy king" in the Soviet Union at that time, and his most famous achievement was to provide the Soviet Union with strategic intelligence on Japan's "southward expansion", thus changing the course of The Second World War. When Niu Lan was arrested, Sorge's public identity at that time was that of a German journalist in Shanghai, while the actual secret identity was that of the head of the Shanghai intelligence agency of the General Staff of the Soviet Red Army.
Sorge's membership card
The experienced Sorge believes that after realizing the important value of the Niulan couple, the National Government is likely to have made a transfer to the Niulan couple. It is now imperative to find out the exact location of the Niulans' detention and to prepare for a public rescue operation. Sorge analyzed the situation, and the top leaders in charge of the Kuomintang secret service at that time were all Jiangsu and Zhejiang people, the so-called "Zhejiang Gang". So, Sorge wanted to start from here, find the inside line, and open up the relationship. It just so happened that one of his men could help him in this regard, who was this person?
Fang Wen
Fang Wen, a graduate of Yenching University, was Sorge's first Chinese assistant. Because he is proficient in foreign languages, he is usually responsible for translation work. Fang Wen told Zorge that he had a student named Liu Yiyao, a native of Yueqing, Zhejiang, who might know some information. So, Sorge instructed Fang Wen to let his students try to find a relationship.
Two days later, Liu Yiyao came to Fang Wen and said that there was a person in his relative who knew a senior Kuomintang cadre named Zhang Chong.
According to Sorge's instructions, Liu Yiyao also grasped some basic information about Zhang Chong. Zhang Chong, a native of Yueqing, Zhejiang, graduated from Zhejiang Provincial No. 10 Middle School and later entered Beijing Jiaotong University, specializing in Russian. Soon after, he went to the Soviet Union to study, and after returning to China, he presided over the Kuomintang party affairs in Harbin and other places in the northeast, because he was familiar with Russian and familiar with Soviet affairs, and he was deeply respected by the brothers Chen Guofu and Chen Lifu. Later, he was transferred to Nanjing as the director general of the Investigation Section of the Central Organization Department, in charge of intelligence affairs. This investigation section was the predecessor of the Kuomintang Central Bureau of Statistics.
Zhang Chong
There is really no place to step on the iron shoes, and it takes no effort to get it. Isn't Zhang Chong exactly the person Sorge is looking for! So can Zhang Chong find out the whereabouts of Niu Lan and his wife? But if we act hastily now, will we fall into the trap of Kuomintang agents? After carefully analyzing the information at his disposal, Sorge had the following judgment: First, Zhang Chong should have a high status in the Kuomintang's CC secret service and certainly know something about the "Niulan" case; second, he had been to the Soviet Union, and of course he also knew something about the October Revolution and the Communist Party in the Soviet Union, and ideologically, he was not necessarily a hardline fighter.
After weighing it up, Sorge decided to ask Liu Yiyao's relatives to inquire about the situation with Zhang Chong again. A few days later, Liu Yiyao found Fang Wen with Zhang Chong's reply. Zhang Chong said that he knew about the situation of Niu Lan and his wife, that they were still alive and imprisoned in Nanjing, and that Zhang Chong also revealed that he himself was still in charge of the "Niu Lan case".
Sorge
After learning this news, Fang Wen was overjoyed, and immediately informed Sorge, but unexpectedly, Sorge's reaction was very calm. He said to Fang Wen: Zhang Chong said that Niu Lan and his wife are still alive, and if this information is true, then it is fine, it is good news. But if it is a false intelligence, then our current situation is very dangerous, the Kuomintang agents are very cunning, they may have suspected Liu Yiyao's body, want to use niulan and his wife as bait, let us be deceived. The reason why Sorge judged this way is that it has to talk about a report at the time.
The photo below is the "Declaration" dated February 21, 1932, and what caught Sorge's attention at that time was the above article "Wuhao's Revelation of the Party", during which some newspapers in Shanghai at that time invariably published a so-called "Wuhao's Revelation of the Party".
"Declaration" "Wu Hao's Revelation from the Party"
After the announcement was published, the political circles caused a sensation and public opinion was in an uproar. The name "Wu Hao" is a pseudonym that Zhou Enlai once used. It turned out that after Gu Shunzhang's defection, the Kuomintang agents failed to capture Zhou Enlai, so they thought of deliberately creating such a frame-up incident in an attempt to slander Zhou Enlai, ruin the reputation of the Communist Party, and separate relations within the Communist Party.
Zhou Enlai
Seeing this notice, Sorge immediately realized that it was a Kuomintang conspiracy, because the instigators of the revelation did not know that Zhou Enlai had left Shanghai two months earlier. And those who have the right to force these newspapers to publish this fictitious political rumor must be a high-level person in the secret service. In Sorge's view, the initiator of this revelation may be Zhang Chong, who is ready to trade with himself. And the truth is that as Sorge predicted, this announcement is from Zhang Chong's hand.
In the face of sudden good news, the experienced Sorge struggled to remain calm and restrained. He believes that Zhang Chongkou said that there is no basis for it, and it is necessary to come up with real evidence. Soon, Sorge made a request. What exactly is the request, can Zhang Chong agree? Please continue to pay attention to tomorrow's "Hubei Satellite TV Big Reveal" headline number.