As we all know, the commander-in-chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet, Isoroku Yamamoto, was one of the highest-ranking Japanese generals killed during World War II, and the key to his sniping was that his travel route was intercepted by the Allies.
In this process, the secret intelligence center under the leadership of the Kuomintang can be said to be indispensable, and it is thanks to their codebreaking work and timely transfer to the US military that yamamoto died in the Pacific.
The main person in charge of this secret intelligence center is the protagonist to be introduced today, Mao Qingxiang.
(Pictured: Mao Zuhe in the TV series "Opponent", the prototype is Mao Qingxiang)
Compared with Dai Kasa and Mao Renfeng, who only covered the sky with their hands, Mao Qingxiang's name may not be so loud, but no one can deny that Mao Qingxiang's position in Chiang Kai-shek's heart is no worse than that of Dai Kasa and Mao Renfeng.
Mao Qingxiang was a native of Zhejiang, and his grandfather was a former friend of Chiang Kai-shek's father, so Mao Qingxiang was also transferred to his side by Chiang Kai-shek as a squire secretary and in charge of various confidential work.
At that time, shortly after the rise of intelligence warfare, in order to gain an intelligence advantage in the contest with the Japanese, Chiang Kai-shek allocated a large amount of special funds to support the development of intelligence agencies. In this way, the domestic intelligence agencies sprang up one by one, first the secret telecommunications inspection and translation institute founded by Wen Yuqing, then the secret telecommunications group organized by Dai Kasa, then the research group set up by Mao Qingxiang, and the secret telecommunications research office of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs supported by He Yingqin.
Although these four organs are all intelligence departments of the Kuomintang, the overlap of their functions has made them intolerable, so that the entire intelligence system has become a pot of porridge, competing for talents, grabbing intelligence, and even obstructing each other.
In view of the chaotic situation at that time, Mao Qingxiang bitterly explained the advantages and disadvantages in front of Chiang Kai-shek and proposed to prepare for the establishment of a brand-new institution, that is, the Technical Research Office of the Central Military Commission, to exercise unified leadership, so as to avoid the current situation of scattered manpower and material resources and slow progress in intelligence work.
After receiving Lao Jiang's permission, Mao Qingxiang appointed himself deputy director and chief secretary, which was equivalent to firmly grasping the management of daily affairs in his own hands, while Wen Yuqing, Wei Daming and others were left with only one idle body. Therefore, Wen Yuqing, who was not willing to withdraw from this, co-opted Dai Kasa and others and jointly sued Mao Qingxiang.
More importantly, Wen Yuqing's wife Shi Huizhen is also a good friend of Song Meiling, and when Jiang and Song were married, Shi Huizhen was one of the bridesmaids. In this way, Mao Qingxiang was removed from the post of chief secretary before he could officially take office.
On April 1, 1940, the Technical Research Office of the Central Military Commission was formally established, and the previous multiple intelligence departments were completely integrated, and Wen Yuqing became the director. It seems that having a good wife still works.
However, Mao Qingxiang did not stay silent for too long, and after only a few months, the power was once again in his hands.
It turned out that not long after Wen Yuqing took office, he went to other places for treatment because he was not adapted to the weather in Chongqing, and Wei Daming, who took over, fell because the means were too tough, and picked and chose, and old Jiang finally chose Mao Qingxiang.
The reason why Mao Qingxiang originally proposed the establishment of the Technical Research Office of the Central Military Commission was to monopolize power, but it is undeniable that during his leadership, the research office did make many eye-catching achievements.
For example, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs' top-secret intelligence "The Current Situation and the Outline of Imperial National Policy", which was deciphered in 1941, not only made public Japan's ambition to make enemies of the world, but also grasped the military strategic deployment of the Japanese army in a timely manner.
For example, the Japanese military action plan for the United States, which was deciphered in December 1941, although the Chinese side forwarded this document to the United States, unfortunately did not attract attention, and as a result, just a few days later, the Pearl Harbor incident broke out.
In addition, the deciphering of Yamamoto's fifty-six travel routes mentioned at the beginning of this article provides an important reference for the US military to launch a sniper operation.
With this series of achievements, Mao Qingxiang was naturally also a soaring Huang Tengda, and in 1943 he was appointed as the head of the confidential group of the attendant room, in charge of the confidential work of the party, government, army, and special forces, with the rank of lieutenant general.
You know, even the famous Dai Kasa was only a major general at that time, and he was not promoted to lieutenant general until his death in 1946.
In 1948, after Chiang Kai-shek was elected president, Mao Qingxiang served as the director of the confidential office of the presidential office and has always been a confidant of chiang kai-shek.
However, Mao Qingxiang was "an intelligence that he had succeeded and an intelligence had failed," and he had proposed to Chiang Kai-shek several times that he wanted to be the minister of communications, but the old Chiang felt that he had done such a good job in the intelligence department that if he left, no one would be able to replace him, so he never agreed.
Mao Qingxiang moved to the United States in 1952 and never returned, dying in the United States in 1993 at the age of 95.