In china in the late summer of the sixteenth century BC, a spy appeared, his name was Yi Yin. Since spies appeared so early, the spy tools for collecting intelligence will naturally not lag behind, and four of them have attracted the attention of people in the international intelligence community, which can be described as the "four major inventions" in the history of espionage.
First, the simplest "drone" paper kite
In ancient times, post stations and beacon towers could transmit intelligence, but this did not satisfy all espionage activities. You might think of using pigeons to relay intelligence, but pigeons need to be domesticated, for a long time, and the average spy can't use it.
Paper kites, also known as kites. Its invention has been more than 2,000 years ago, and the inventor is the founding hero of the Western Han Dynasty, Huaiyin Waiting for Han Xin. At that time, Chen Feng made a rebellion against Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, and he colluded with Han Xin to make paper kites as a signal for the combination of inside and outside, which was also the earliest example of using paper kites as an example of transmitting intelligence.
Second, the most widely used cipher writing: alum water
Cipher writing is the use of special ink, to achieve the purpose of writing can not be seen, the ancients used this special ink, is a common alum water in people's lives, with the words written out, dried on the paper can not be seen at all, but if immersed in water, the handwriting suddenly appeared.
During the Kangxi Dynasty, the "Alum Book Case" was caused by the alum water secret letter of the deposed prince Yin Rong. In the spring of the fifty-fourth year of Kangxi (1715), Kangxi personally enlisted Dzungar, and Yin Rong, who had received the news, decided to take advantage of this opportunity to overturn, he used a large amount of money to buy the doctor He Mengfu and let him go out of the palace with the alum water secret letter, but he did not expect that the secret letter was intercepted by the auxiliary duke Abran, and Yin Rong's plan to restore the status of crown prince failed.
Third, the most difficult password to crack: anti-tangent code
"Yin" can be regarded as the earliest military code. When using it, both sides hold half of it to verify the authenticity and falsehood, and the length of the yin symbol represents the corresponding intelligence, and there is no text on it, even if it is captured by the other party, it cannot be deciphered.
Also used in conjunction with the yin charm is the "yin book", which is to divide a complete piece of information into three parts and send it out separately. On this basis, he invented spying methods such as code names, secret codes, and character tests.
During the Song Dynasty, officials conveniently replaced forty commonly used military phrases with forty characters, and then compiled a poem of forty words as a codebook.
Fourth, the most primitive wiretap: listening urn
Listening to the urn, is a kind of jar with a large mouth and a small abdomen. Bury it in the ground, cover the urn mouth with a thin layer of leather, detect the side ear on it, listen to the surrounding movements, in order to reduce the error of hearing, often train blind people to perform tasks, blind people's hearing is often super strong, it is said that the movement of dozens of miles in all directions, can be heard through the urn.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, when Zeng Guoquan led the Xiang army to attack the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Tianjing (present-day Nanjing), the Taiping Army in the city was convenient for burying the urn under the city wall and detecting the movements of the Xiang army outside the city, so that the Xiang army could not succeed for a while.
The invention of the listening urn dates back about 2,500 years, and in the Tang Dynasty, a gourd-shaped pillow bugging device appeared, which was rested under the head and detected when there was movement outside. In the Song Dynasty, there was also a kind of "Yafu", that is, the equipment for loading arrows was made of cowhide, and the Yafu was hollowed out and blown, resting under the head, and the sound of people and horses within a few miles could be heard, which was invented by using the principle of accepting sound in the cavity.