On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Bay, and the U.S. army suffered heavy losses because of the lack of preparation in advance. The next day, then-U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered a historic speech in Congress declaring war on Japan, and the Pacific War broke out.
However, before the Pearl Bay sneak attack broke out, someone on the Chinese side had already deciphered an important Japanese military intelligence, indicating japan's military movements in an attempt to sneak attack Pearl Bay. After urgently telegraphing the deciphered content to the US military, the US military did not pay attention to it, resulting in a big loss in the Pearl Bay incident.
The leader of the Chinese department that deciphered intelligence was Mao Qingxiang, who had long served in Chiang Kai-shek's government. As a military attaché of the Republic of China, he has long worked in the Statistics Bureau of the Military Commission of the National Government and is an expert in intelligence and codebreaking.
Born in 1898 in Fenghua Xikou, Mao Qingxiang was the eldest son of the family, and his father, Mao Yingfu, was a large landowner in Xikou, Fenghua, Zhejiang. As the owner of the ''Mao Taichang'' business, the Taichang Salt Hotel he runs is adjacent to the Yutai Salt Shop opened by Chiang Kai-shek's family. Because the two families are close, they often move around in private and have a close relationship.
Mao Yingfu was chiang kai-shek's introducer when he joined the league in Tokyo, Japan, and his relationship with Chiang Kai-shek was extraordinary, and every time Chiang returned to his hometown, he would visit the elder of the world.
In 1917, Mao Qingxiang studied abroad, first in Japan for a year, and then in France. After returning to China, he taught at the Zhejiang Fisheries School for a period of time. Because of his family relations with the Jiang family, he had many correspondence with Jiang during his study abroad. In 1926, at the invitation of Chiang Kai-shek, he was transferred to Chiang Kai-shek's post as the confidential secretary of the commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army, and in July of the same year, the Northern Expedition broke out, and Mao Qingxiang immediately marched north with the army. In 1932, he began to work confidentially in charge of the attendant room. And as a close confidant of Chiang Kai-shek, he often followed Chiang to high-level meetings and received important officials and foreign dignitaries.
With this special relationship with Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Qingxiang actively plotted power for himself in the DPRK and China, and took advantage of his position as director of the confidential office of the attendant room to gradually consolidate the work of cryptography and translation and translation, and became the first leader of the Kuomintang's unified management of cryptography and translation and telecommunications work.
In view of the Japanese side, at the request of Chiang Kai-shek, Wen Yuqing set up the "Secret Telecommunications Inspection and Translation Institute", specializing in the study of Japanese diplomatic and military aspects of the cryptographic and electronic translation agencies. The funds required for the translation institute were personally approved by Chiang Kai-shek, and there was nearly 10,000 yuan left every month in addition to the necessary expenses. In addition, because of its importance to the work of Japan's secret electricity, this department was able to invite many rewards to Chiang Kai-shek. Such a good piece of fat meat, as Mao Qingxiang, who also works for the secret electricity, of course, also wants to insert a foot and share a piece of the pie.
In 1938, with Chiang Kai-shek's permission, Mao Qingxiang set up a research group specifically aimed at deciphering the Japanese military's codes and telegrams in the office of the Military Commission.
Because of his relationship with Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Qingxiang's progress in the deployment of personnel was extremely smooth, and everyone had to let him get three points, and generally did not dare to come forward to block it, which made the strength of the Japanese research group under Mao's leadership constantly improved.
However, hungry wolves pounced. Mao is not the only one in the Kuomintang who looks up to this piece of fat. In addition to Wen Yuqing before him, Dai Kasa of the military command also set up a secret telegram group in the military command, and the person in charge of related affairs was Wei Daming, the founder of the military command secret agent telecommunications network.
He Yingqin was followed in 1939 by ordering Wang Jinglu, then director of the Transportation Department of the Ministry of Communications, to organize a team dedicated to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs' secret electricity. Before and after, including Mao, four dense electricity research institutions affiliated with different institutions were formed.
The four tigers competed with each other and robbed each other of talents, and if people could not grab them, they stole the intelligence that the other side had already deciphered, so that they could take it and ask Jiang for credit. Faced with this chaotic situation, Mao proposed to Chiang Kai-shek to form a new institution, the Technical Research Office of the Central Military Commission. The equipment and personnel of the original four secret power organizations were transferred to it in a unified manner. Mao Qingxiang wanted to use this method to swallow this piece of fat in one bite.
For Jiang, the open and secret struggles of the departments have long been unable to see it, and this proposal is just in line with Jiang's appetite. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek quickly agreed with Mao's opinion, agreed to the formation, appointed Wen Yuqing as the director of the technical research office, Mao Qingxiang, and Wei Daming as the deputy directors of the major general, and specially designated Mao as the chief secretary, responsible for the personnel arrangements within the organization, and presided over the daily affairs. This personnel appointment actually emptied the power of Wen and Wei, and the two men were in name only and became mao Qingxiang's foil.
Mao watched as the fat flesh that reached his mouth was about to be swallowed into his belly. As a result, Wen Yuqing was not willing to accept the power of the side, and joined forces with Dai Kasa, who had long been dissatisfied with Mao, and Wei Daming, who was also elevated, to join forces to fight back, and jiang changed the personnel appointment, successfully squeezing Mao down.
Wen Yuqing's wife Shi Huizhen studied in the United States with Song Meiling and had a close relationship. Wen took advantage of this relationship and asked his wife to go to Chiang Kai-shek's Huangshan official residence many times to meet Song Meiling and intercede for herself. He actively co-opted Miss Kong Er in order to win the support of Kong Xiangxi and Song Ziwen. On the other hand, Dai Kasa was not idle and actively cooperated with Wen's actions. In front of Chiang Kai-shek, wen jin proposed that real power should be handed over to Wen Yuqing, as a professional with many years of work experience. Only by handing over real power to such people can we improve the efficiency and level of the future work of secret teleportation investigation and research.
Finally, under the two men's running, Jiang finally changed his appointment and abolished Mao's concurrent position. This caused the authority to fall into the hands of Wen Yuqing.
People are not as good as heaven, and wen Yuqing's painstaking efforts to win the leadership before it was hot. After Wen Yuqing initially assigned the appointment of personnel and the affairs of various subordinate departments, he fell ill because he was not accustomed to the sweltering hot weather in Chongqing. In order to treat the disease, he had to apply to Chiang Kai-shek to go to Hong Kong for convalescence, and after his departure, the post of director was handed over to Wei Daming for the time being. After receiving Jiang's approval, Wen embarked on the road to Hong Kong, thinking that Wei Daming was in charge of the overall situation in the research room, and there was also the deterrent of Dai Kasa in the back, and when he returned from recuperation, he could take over the matters again.
But Wen did not expect that it was a pig teammate who fought side by side with him, and before he could return from Hong Kong, all the power was taken away by Mao Qingxiang again.
In the 10 months that Wei Daming represented him, he was instigated by Dai Kasa to try to turn this institution into the pocket of the military command, so he desperately installed military command personnel in various departments, and took bribes, threats, persecution, and other means to try to control them all, which caused dissatisfaction among many personnel inside the research office. Thirty or forty group leaders and section chiefs took the lead in signing and submitting two reports listing Wei Daming's various evil deeds, which were presented to Mao Qingxiang and asked him to forward them to Chiang Kai-shek.
Mao Qingxiang was very excited to receive this report. I have always held a grudge against the matter of being seized of power, and I want to regain power but I can't find a breakthrough. These two reports can be said to be very timely, "'Charcoal in the snow'". Mao Qingxiang invited the signatory to his home, carefully verified the evidence about Wei Daming and the military command, and immediately found Chiang Kai-shek after the verification was completed.
As a leader, the most taboo thing is that the people under him make moves in private, form gangs, and install forces. Wei Daming and Dai Kasa's actions can be said to have violated the taboo of those in high positions. In addition, in the early days of the establishment of the research office, Jiang was even more interested in Mao, so after reading the report, he immediately removed Wei Daming from his position as acting director and replaced him with Mao's deputy. Wen Yuqing, who was far away in Hong Kong, knew that the general trend had gone, and he had no chance of winning the battle with Mao when he went back. Therefore, he immediately went to go to Song Ziwen and went to song Ziwen's Office of the US Lend-Lease Act for China.
Since then, the power struggle has come to an end, and then Mao Qingxiang has begun to roll up his sleeves and work hard and concentrate on his career. After receiving the leadership of the Technical Research Institute of the Military Commission of the National Government in 1941, during his leadership, the research office repeatedly cracked major intelligence and made significant contributions to the War of Resistance Against Japan, of which the two telegrams cracked in 1941 were particularly important.
In the autumn of 1941, the Institute cracked a top-secret telegram from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The telegram consisted mainly of a Japanese operational compendium, known as the Compendium of the Present Situation and the Imperial State Policy.
In the previous part, it talked about Japan's "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Policy" and stepping up its urging of the Chiang regime to submit to Japan. This was followed by talk of Japan's operational planning, indicating that Japan's next move would be to occupy French Indochina and Thailand. As for the war between the Soviet Union and Germany at that time, it remained in a wait-and-see state and did not intervene for the time being. The cracking of this intelligence made it of great significance for our side to understand the movement of the Japanese army at that time and make corresponding strategic arrangements.
The content of this information was later learned by Zhou Enlai, and it was relayed to the Soviet Union, so that the Soviet Union could rest assured that the Far East troops would be transferred to the western battlefield and no longer need to worry about Japanese intervention.
In addition to this deciphering of Japan's strategic deployment intelligence, the laboratory also deciphered an important piece of intelligence in the same year. In the winter of the same year, several people in the Technical Research Office, Chi Buzhou, investigated and deciphered a "notice" marked as top secret by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, requesting an urgent telegram to the Japanese embassies in Washington, San Francisco, New York, and other places to destroy the important documents used and evacuate Japanese expatriates in the United States.
The sensitivity of the profession made Mao Qingxiang immediately realize that this "circular" must not be simple, and the Japanese army may take some actions against the United States in a short period of time. Mao immediately proposed to Chiang Kai-shek that the U.S. ambassador should be immediately informed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After Chiang Kai-shek reviewed it, he immediately approved it. However, after receiving the notice, the US side replied to Chiang Kai-shek that the US-Japan peace talks had reached a stalemate, that it had learned of the Japanese army's plan to withdraw overseas Chinese, and that it had also taken countermeasures against the Japanese army's plan to withdraw overseas Chinese.
The inattention of the American side on this matter finally gave the Japanese army an opportunity to take advantage of it. Just a few days later, the Pearl Bay incident broke out. The United States did not realize until this time, but the wood was already in the boat, and it was too late. Afterwards, Chiang Kai-shek personally received the meritorious personnel of the research office in Chongqing and congratulated and rewarded them one by one. With the merits again and again, Mao Qingxiang can be said to have sat firmly in this position.
Until the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Mao Qingxiang was the top post in telegraphy. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Mao Qingxiang had greater ambitions and wanted the post of Minister of Communications. However, Chiang Kai-shek believed that Mao's ability was not enough to serve as a major member of the government, and he did not agree for a long time. Frustrated, Mao Qingxiang withdrew from politics in early 1949 and later went to the Americas.