Shortly after the founding of New China, the "Tianjin Special Group" of the Kuomintang Secrecy Bureau attempted to engage in a conspiracy to undermine our regime. Our public security organs were about to destroy the group when it was not stable and had not yet found more important information, and made major contributions to defending the capital, safeguarding the security of the central leading organs, and ensuring the victory of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. This secret service organization, which was painstakingly run by Mao Renfeng, director of Taiwan's Secret Service Bureau, and placed great hopes on it, was swept away by our public security organs in less than half a year after infiltrating the Beijing-Tianjin area.
Mao Renfeng: "Send someone to build a platform again"
On February 26, 1950, the day after the first counter-espionage case in New China was cracked, the "Beiping Sleeper Platform Directly Under the Secret Bureau," Li Kenong, minister of the Social Affairs Department of the CPC Central Committee, ordered Ji Zhaoxiang to use the original sleeper station in accordance with the method he used to send a report to the Taiwan Secrecy Bureau's General Station, and sent a telegram warning and reprimanding Mao Renfeng, director of the bureau:
"Mao Renfeng, your boastful 'Almighty Lurking Platform' has been detected by us. As many as you come, we will destroy as much as we want. Do you still have the ability? If you have the ability, come in person! Tell you, it was Li Kenong who spoke to you. The sender is your newly promoted Major Commander Ji Zhaoxiang. ”
After Receiving the telegram, Mao Renfeng shouted angrily and defiantly: "Send someone to build a platform again!" On the same day, when Mao Renfeng was in a hurry to select the dispatched candidates, Cao Yafu, chief of staff of the Operations Organization Technical Corps of the Secrecy Bureau, recommended to Mao Renfeng Qin Yinglin, the commander of the headquarters squadron and a veteran special agent of the military command, and introduced that Qin Yinglin joined the Kuomintang in 1935 and after joining the secret service organization in 1939, he had achieved excellent results, and had buried the radio and codebook in Beiping before coming to Taiwan, and could not bring a radio station when he sneaked back. His family is in Beiping, and two relatives have opened a herbal medicine room and a Western pharmacy in Tianjin, both of which can be used as cover, and said that Qin Yinglin zhiyong is the most suitable person to send.
Mao Renfeng agreed on the spot. The next day, Mao Renfeng summoned Qin Yinglin to a conversation, saying that Qin Yinglin was familiar with the situation in Pingjin and asked him to sneak back to Pingjin to form the "Tianjin Special Group."
Mao Renfeng equipped Qin Yinglin with Sun Yuqing, who had worked at the general station of the Secrecy Bureau, as a telegrapher, specially trained them in the use of ciphers and passwords, and gave them four codebooks and activity funds -- 13 taels of gold and 4,320 silver dollars. When he left Taiwan, Mao Renfeng personally entertained them. During his stay in Dinghai County in the Zhoushan Islands, Qin Yinglin recruited Liu Jinghui, a subordinate of his technical corps, to join the group as a correspondent and translator.
On April 7, Qin Yinglin and others arrived in Tianjin. The three of them were originally planning to take a foothold in Tianjin Qin Yinglin's brother-in-law Bian Shutang, but they had no contact with Bian Shutang, and they did not dare to stay in Tianjin for a long time, that is, they sneaked to Beijing on the 8th and came to the home of Qin Yinglin's wife Bian Shulan, and planned to establish a radio station and carry out activities at Bian Shulan's home. Qin Yinglin soon felt that the traffic in the place was busy and easy to attract attention, so he changed his plan and found another foothold.
Qin Yinglin learned the lessons of the previous cracking of the lurking group and the lurking station, and adopted some new methods and methods: First, the group and the station were separated, Qin Yinglin himself hid in the downtown area of Beijing, set up the radio station in the countryside in the outskirts of the city, the intelligence group hid in a certain warehouse outside the front door, the intelligence group personnel did not have a direct relationship with the radio, and Qin Yinglin's wife Bian Shulan was responsible for the intermediate contact; second, Qin Yinglin and his wife Bian Shulan lived separately, and all used pseudonyms to secretly contact; third, the people who contacted him must be relatives and old relatives of the intelligence group personnel. Such contact in the name of relatives and friends is conducive to concealment. According to these conditions, after the introduction of Liu Jinghui's wife, a radio station was set up in the home of Liu Jinghui's brother-in-law, Niu Yipei, a diaspora officer of the Kuomintang. Niu Yipei said that his home was in a remote part of the countryside in the far suburbs, and it was very easy to cover the radio. After the location of the station was determined, Niu Yipei covered Bian Shulan to transport the radio to his home, and camouflaged the cover with an ore radio antenna.
On May 28, Qin Yinglin began to formally inform the Taiwan Secrecy Bureau. Because they used large radio stations, the power supply in the suburbs was insufficient, and they competed with the peasants for electricity, Qin Yinglin was afraid that he had been sending reports in one place for a long time, and he was discovered, so that he could sneak back to Tianjin again in early August, trying to find a new lurking place to set up a radio station in a place with sufficient power supply in the suburbs of Tianjin.
Many investigations have gradually emerged
At the beginning of March 1950, our intelligence department learned that the Secrecy Bureau approved the dispatch of Qin Yinglin, commander of the Technical Corps, and Sun Yuqing, a reporter, to Tianjin to set up a "Tianjin Special Group Directly Under the Secrecy Bureau" to carry out intelligence activities. At the end of June, the monitoring station of a certain unit of the Central Military Commission discovered that there was a lurking station signed Peng Zhenbei in the Beijing-Tianjin area, and contacted the Taiwan Secrecy Bureau General Station, secretly reporting: "The Song Shilun Department entered the DPRK with Soviet-style 80-ton heavy tanks and Katyusha artillery," deciphered it and reported it to the party Central Committee. The Party Central Committee approved and forwarded it to the Ministry of Public Security.
In accordance with the arrangements made by the Ministry of Public Security, the Hebei Provincial Public Security Department conducted an in-depth and comprehensive investigation of the Laiyuan Group of the Secrecy Bureau, where Qin Yinglin had been the leader, grasped the list of all the personnel of the group, and further learned: Qin Yinglin, a native of Dingxing County, Hebei Province. He is 36 years old. In 1946, the Kuomintang Secrecy Bureau established the Laiyuan Group as its leader and was active in Laiyuan, Yixian and Dingxing. In October 1948, Qin Yinglin led the whole group to flee to Beiping, and in December the group was abolished. In early January 1949, Qin Yinglin accepted the task assigned by Wu Zonghan, deputy director of the Beiping Station of the Secrecy Bureau, and formed the Wanping Lurking Group of the Secrecy Bureau. Qin Yinglin's whereabouts are unknown after receiving the radio and funds. This is much the same as the confessions of the detainees Luo Shiyun and Xiang Yi, and our investigation.
The Hebei Provincial Public Security Department also found out that Qin Yinglin's wife, Bian Shulan, was also from Dingxing County, Hebei Province, about 30 years old, had helped transport radio stations during the Laiyuan group's escape, and was now living in the South House of No. 10 Naizifu Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing, under the pseudonym Mrs. Jin. Therefore, the reconnaissance section sent people to track Bian Shulan, whose pseudonym was Mrs. Jin.
While tracking Bian Shulan, she found that she was in close contact with some people in a certain warehouse outside the front door. According to the analysis, this may be an intelligence group. Then, we also tracked and monitored Li Muren (Qin Yinglin's old henchmen), Liang Xizeng (Liu Jinghui's brother-in-law), Li Guangqin (Qin Yinglin's old brother), and Niu Yihui (Niu Yipei's brother) who had frequent contact with Bian Shulan in the warehouse.
At this time, the Tianjin Municipal Public Security Bureau also found that Qin Yinglin's brother-in-law, Bian Shutang, had worked as a partner in the Dekang Pharmacy and the Old Lady and Pharmacy in Tianjin. After this period of investigation, the situation of Qin Yinglin and his important associates has become more and more specific.
In mid-August, the special intelligence reported a very valuable situation: someone had seen Qin Yinglin's letter from Tianjin in early August at the home of Qin Yinglin's wife, Bian Shulan. According to this analysis of the situation, Qin Yinglin has undoubtedly sneaked back to the Beijing-Tianjin area.
Sending telegrams led the way for reconnaissance
Just as our scouts were following up and investigating Qin Yinglin's brother-in-law Bian Shutang and Qin Yinglin's wife, Bian Shulan, the Taiwan Secrecy Bureau sent a series of telegrams informing Peng Zhenbei of his lurking in Taiwan, saying that Hong Kong businessman Wang Yongxiang had sent $1,000 to the old lady and pharmacy in Tianjin to hand over Bian Shutang. These telegrams have greatly advanced the case. From the analysis of the materials already mastered, it can be preliminarily concluded that Peng Zhenbei's lurking platform is the pseudonym of Qin Yinglin's "Tianjin Special Group." Qin Yinglin's brother-in-law, Bian Shutang, was the transfereer agreed between Peng Zhenbei's lurking platform and the Secrecy Bureau. Controlling Bian Shulan and Bian Shutang, you can follow the vine to find Qin Yinglin.
However, at the critical moment when the case was developing in depth, Bian Shutang could not be found, and the reconnaissance was once in trouble. Li Guangxiang and Su Yuhan calmly analyzed the enemy's telegram and estimated that Bian Shutang might have gone to Tianjin to receive the money. Therefore, the Reconnaissance Section was notified and a capable reconnaissance officer was immediately dispatched to Tianjin to cooperate with the Tianjin Municipal Public Security Bureau in organizing a search. With the cooperation of the Tianjin Municipal Public Security Bureau, Bian Shutang was found in Tianjin Dehua Hospital and continued to follow.
While tracking Bian Shutang, he found that he had many contacts with a "Hu Zhenyuan" who claimed to be a drug dealer, who was about thirty-five or six years old. Hu Zhenyuan of the Laiyuan group that Cheng Runzhi and I found in No. 18, Baoan Temple Hutong, Xidan, Beijing, was only 25 years old, and the age difference between the two was large. This self-proclaimed "Hu Zhenyuan" person, medium-sized, a little fat, long round face, small eyes, thick lips, three head-up stripes on the brain door, facial features are very similar to Luo Shiyun and Xiang Yi's Qin Yinglin, and the accent also seems to be Dingxing. It is estimated that this "Hu Zhenyuan" is likely to be the Qin Yinglin we are looking for, so we arranged tracking and surveillance for him.
This "Hu Zhenyuan" is very cunning and has a strong anti-reconnaissance ability. On August 16, the scouts discovered that Bian Shutang had gone to the Zhongyuan apartment to find "Hu Zhenyuan". That night, the scouts went to the Zhongyuan apartment to check the shop once, and the next day this "Hu Zhenyuan" moved to the Fuyuan Hotel. On the 22nd, "Hu Zhenyuan" drove back to Beijing from Tianjin. When he arrived in Fengtai, he told the inspectors that he was going to Baoding, and he also took a ticket to Baoding, and the car went to Gaobeidian, and "Hu Zhenyuan" suddenly got off the bus. The clue was interrupted...
Bian Shutang was secretly arrested and the whole case was suddenly tried
On August 27, reconnaissance revealed that Wang Yongxiang, a businessman from Hong Kong, had handed over the money to Bian Shutang. With this evidence, on the 28th, Vice Minister Yang Qiqing instructed Bian Shutang to be secretly arrested and interrogated. Bian Shutang confessed that "Hu Zhenyuan" is Qin Yinglin's pseudonym, and the real Hu Zhenyuan is now in Lanzhou, Gansu. When asked where Qin Yinglin went, Bian Shutang confessed: On the 22nd, Qin Yinglin found that someone was following him and sneaked back to Beijing. When he arrived in Fengtai, he still suspected that someone was following him, and did not dare to go directly back to his residence in Beijing, so he absconded to the home of Zhang Fudong, a cousin of Bian Shutang in Hanjiazhuang, the county seat of Dingxing County, Hebei Province, and wrote a letter entrusting Zhang Fudong to go to Tianjin to find Bian Shutang and ask him about the money from Hong Kong.
Asked about the payment, Bian Shutang confessed that Hong Kong businessman Wang Yongxiang brought him a bill of exchange of 6,000 Hong Kong dollars, equivalent to 29.55 million yuan (old currency). He had commissioned Li Huiyuan, a disciple at Dekang Pharmacy, to withdraw from the People's Bank of China. Bian Shutang also confessed that Liu Jinghui, a correspondent of the "Tianjin Special Group" (that is, Liu Jingquan, who was approved as a captain's correspondent in the telegram of the Secrecy Bureau, "Quan" is a mistake of "Hui"), the members of the group, Niu Yipei (that is, Qi Beiguang, who was approved as a member of the captain's group in the telegram of the Secrecy Bureau, and Liu Jinghui's brother-in-law), Sun Yuqing, and Niu Yihai all lived in Niu Yipei's house in Duozi Village, Tongxian County, and said that Qin Yinglin's radio station was there. According to Bian Shutang's two residences where Qin Yinglin and his wife lived, the intelligence group, and the addresses of the radio stations, Vice Minister Yang Qiqing analyzed that it was difficult for the scouts to conceal the reconnaissance work carried out in the rural areas, and instructed them to solve the case immediately.
On the evening of 1 September, the reconnaissance personnel of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, the Tianjin Municipal Public Security Bureau, and the Hebei Provincial Public Security Department who participated in the battle were uniformly commanded by Li Guangxiang, and the soldiers carried out operations in three ways: One was led by Cao Chunzhi to Naicifu Street to arrest Qin Yinglin and Bian Shulan; the other was led by Cheng Runzhi to a certain cargo depot outside the front gate to arrest intelligence group personnel; and the other route, Zhang Youheng, deputy director of the Tianjin Municipal Public Security Bureau, led a team to arrest the telegraph operators and translators in Duozi Village, Tongxian County, and search the radio.
Cao Chunzhi and others captured Qin Yinglin and Bian Shulan that night. Cheng Runzhi waited until a certain warehouse outside the front door, and he had already grasped that there were four intelligence officers lurking there, but only Three people were arrested: Li Muren, Li Guangqin, and Niu Yihui. After Cheng Runzhi returned to the reconnaissance section, he said that Liang Xizeng was out of town and was not caught. Cao Chunzhi said that Liang Xizeng was a native of Liang Gezhuang, a certain county in Hebei Province, and quickly used the telephone to notify the Hebei Provincial Public Security Department to arrest him. Cheng Runzhi immediately called the Hebei Provincial Public Security Department and asked them to send someone to arrest them. Because the operator Sun Yuqing and others had received an alarm letter from Qin Yinglin on August 31, they dismantled the radio station and buried it in Niu Yipei's house that night, and fled on the morning of September 1. Therefore, when he went to Duozi Village in Tongxian County to search the radio station, Deputy Director Zhang Youheng, who arrested the telegraph operator and translator, pounced.
On the morning of September 2, Zhang Youheng reported to Li Guangxiang and Su Yuhan on the situation of going to Duozi Village in Tong County. After Li Guangxiang and Su Yuhan asked Vice Minister Yang Qiqing for instructions, they also dispatched some people from the reconnaissance group that was investigating the case of international spy Li Andong, and cooperated with Deputy Director Zhang Youheng to search and block the crops near duozi village in Tongxian County and in various sections of the road. It was not until the evening that Liu Jinghui, Niu Yipei, and Niu Yihai were caught under a large tree in the crop field by the road. According to the address they gave, Sun Yuqing, a radio operator, was caught in downtown Beijing that night. The Hebei Provincial Public Security Department also arrested Liang Xizeng on the same day. At this point, all the main criminals and accessories in the case have been arrested.
From Niu Yipei's home, it was found that the "Secrecy Bureau directly under the Tianjin Special Group" CMS american special agent receiving machine and sending machine each, a copy of the register of receiving and sending newspapers, four code books ("Tianmi", "Meimi", "Yumi", "Anmi"), wavelength call sign tables, radio parts, secret agent identity certificates and resumes. From the residence of Bian Shulan, No. 10 Naizifu Street, three secret agent appointment letters issued by Chiang Kai-shek, Chen Cheng, and Mao Renfeng to Qin Yinglin were found, and 179 telegram manuscripts were sent (100 were received, 56 were issued, and 23 were to be issued). The types of telegrams include four types: herringbone (internal personnel), love (military intelligence), zhizi (political intelligence), and jingzi (economic intelligence).
Interrogate Qin Yinglin and trace the origin of the radio station
After the arrest of Qin Yinglin, the case-handling personnel did not find any evidence of the crime at Qin Yinglin's residence at No. 4 Naizifu Street, but the US-made CMS radio station found in Niu Yipei's home attracted their attention. Because american CMS radio was the standard equipment of the US Navy during World War II, the general lurking agents used small AMERICAN direct-exchange 15-watt radios. How could Qin Yinglin's "Tianjin Special Group" use such a large radio station? Where did he get this big radio station from? Cao Chunzhi, Cheng Runzhi, Liu Gaoyi, and others, in accordance with the instructions of Vice Minister Yang Qiqing and Director Li Guangxiang, took Qin Yinglin back to the organ and interrogated him overnight:
"Qin Yinglin, before the liberation of Beijing, you were the head of the Laiyuan Group of the Secrecy Bureau, and you were an old spy who carried out criminal sabotage activities in our Jin-Cha-Ji revolutionary base area. As you know, we have a policy of 'being frank and lenient and resisting strictness' for the counter-revolutionaries, and when Chiang Kai-shek fell and scattered, instead of registering with the government and making meritorious atonement for his sins, he fled to Taiwan and continued to work as a spy. This is the ironclad proof that you are unrepentant and dead-hearted as an enemy of the people. As soon as Qin Yinglin heard about his crimes and heard that he would be severely punished by being shot like Ji Zhaoxiang, the director of the "Beiping Sleeper Platform," he immediately sweated profusely, threw himself on his knees and prostrated his head repeatedly, saying: "I honestly confessed, repented completely, confessed my guilt and obeyed the law, and asked the chief for leniency." ”
"Where did the radio stations you use come from?"
Qin Yinglin said hesitantly, "Things have to start from the beginning." Ever since the people's government discovered the "Beiping Lurking Platform" of the Secrecy Bureau, Li Kenong ordered Ji Zhaoxiang to send a telegram to Mao Renfeng, and at that time, the secret service agents above the school officer of the Secrecy Bureau were holding a partial meeting. Mao Renfeng received the telegram and thunderously, and shouted in succession: 'Send someone to build a platform again!' Send someone to build a platform! The American consultant Jared was also very depressed. We sat in the outhouse and listened, all worried and muttering to each other, this time I don't know whose turn it is to die. We have seen more, and we have decided that whoever sneaks back to the mainland will have to go, and if we do not go, we will be immediately executed. Those who went were either killed during the landing or captured alive after landing. Even if they barely sneak into Beiping and Tianjin, they will inevitably be arrested by the Communist Party. Therefore, everyone is afraid of their turn. Just the next day, Mao Renfeng suddenly called me away, saying that I was a veteran and had experience, and told me to sneak back to the Pingjin area to build a platform. I dare not say I will not go. If I didn't go, didn't I just look for death at that time? I indicated obedience. Mao Renfeng said to me happily, "We have failed to use the Universal Platform against the Communist Party, and we must use your old experience to separate the group and the Taiwan, and it is more appropriate to disperse and conceal. I said that my newspaper operator Xiang Yi had been arrested by the Communist Party, and I could not report, which was a difficulty. Mao Renfeng said: "You have a lot of relations in Pingjin, so when you leave, you take a telegraph operator with you, and you hide, and behind the scenes, you command the intelligence officers, correspondents, telegraph operators, and your old relationship activities, and you will be foolproof." I said again, 'My original radio station has been confiscated by the Communist Party after The arrest of Luo Shiyun and Xiang Yi, and all those of us who brought radio stations to the mainland have failed. Mao Renfeng frowned at this and went back and forth in the room. I thought if the radio didn't work out, I might not go. At this time, the American adviser Bao Ruide spoke, and after translation, the gist was: Before the liberation of Peiping, the US Strategic Intelligence Agency had five radio stations there. The US Strategic Intelligence Bureau withdrew from Beiping and gave these five radios to Zhang ×× to cover up, and you can find Zhang ×× to use when you go to Beiping. The radio station I used to send and receive newspapers was the U.S.-made CMS radio station for the U.S. Strategic Intelligence Agency that was taken from Zhang ××'s house. ”
"What else are you hiding?" You haven't explained the four American-made secret agent radio stations, where did you go? ”
Qin Yinglin replied, "I don't cover up, I thoroughly explain it to the chief." If those four American-made secret agent radio stations Zhang ×× not transferred, they would still be in Zhang ××'s house. ”
Cheng Runzhi picked up a pen and paper and handed it to Qin Yinglin and said, "Give you paper and pencil, and you will clearly write down the names, ages, and places of origin of the four AMERICAN secret agent radio stations and all the members of your 'Tianjin Special Group,' including the radio operators, translators, and informants and correspondents of a certain warehouse outside the front door." This is a chance for you to atone for your sins, you know? ”
Qin Yinglin replied, "Understand, understand, please be gracious to the chief, I write, I write!" ”
Qin Yinglin nervously wrote down the location where the radio station was stored and the personnel of the "Tianjin Special Group." Cao Chunzhi, Cheng Runzhi and others read it and thought that what was written was quite realistic.
Finally, Cao Chunzhi said to Qin Yinglin, "Give you a chance to repent and rehabilitate." Only by thoroughly admitting guilt and obeying the law can an old spy like you have any hope of being treated leniently. You go back to the confinement cell and give a thorough account of the historical crimes of yourself and your accomplices. In addition, writing down the information of other secret agents that you know is the evidence that you provide yourself with sentencing. Qin Yinglin replied, "Yes, yes, I write, I thoroughly explain." ”
At this point, the second case of counter-espionage in New China, the "Tianjin Special Group Directly Under the Secrecy Bureau", was solved.