One day in 1967, Yang Qiqing, vice minister of public security, was working in his office as usual, but a reconnaissance officer without an appointment came.
This scout's name was Zhang Wenqi, and he was a comrade of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau who was in charge of the reconnaissance of the enemy special forces in the foreign trade system.
Yang Qiqing is an old revolutionary, what kind of wind and waves have not been seen, seeing this young man's panicked look, a little unhappy.
But he was still patient and listened to his report, but when Zhang Wenqi said half of it, Yang Qiqing couldn't sit still, went directly to the table, grabbed the red phone on the table, and said: "I am Yang Qiqing of the Ministry of Public Security, and I have important cases to report to the premier!" ”
Zhang Wenqi knows that this red phone is not ordinary! Only a small number of senior cadres can use it!
The entire phone has no dial pad or number button, because the phone does not use dialing at all, and all communication is encrypted.
When using this phone, just say who you are looking for, and the operator will transfer you to the telephone you need.
Zhang Wenqi knew the importance of Yang Qiqing's phone call, so he held his breath, the atmosphere did not dare to breathe, after waiting for a moment, Zhou Enlai's voice came from the quiet room: "I am Zhou Enlai." ”
Yang Qiqing immediately reported to Zhou Enlai what Zhang Wenqi had just reported to him, and only listened to the telephone and said: "This case has great potential, we must carry it through to the end, and cooperate with the diplomatic struggle and the foreign trade struggle." ”
After Yang Qiqing hung up the phone, Zhang Wenqi, who was next to him, suddenly came to the momentum and decided to devote himself to solving the case.
So, what kind of case did Zhang Wenqi report that could attract Zhou Enlai's attention?
This has to start with the two rats seized at Guangzhou Baiyunshan International Airport, where the airport staff worked as usual that day, but the customs officers at the airport customs entry, exit and exit inspection office found a strange thing.
There was a Briton named George Watt, a foreign expert hired by the Lanzhou Chemical Company, who passed through Guangzhou Baiyun Airport to pass through Beijing and then go to Hong Kong for a vacation.
Old photos of Guangzhou Baiyun Airport
It was no surprise, it was strange that Watt was carrying two rats, an act that attracted the attention of a customs officer named Lin Hua.
Although everyone knows that foreigners are strange and like to raise some messy things, but the rat breeders have not really heard of it, Lin Hua thinks that there must be something strange inside, so he reported the matter to the Foreign Affairs Bureau of the Guangzhou Customs and the Ministry of Foreign Trade.
The customs department thought that Lin Hua was making a fuss and had never seen the world, when the rats were still among the "four pests", and it was too late to eliminate them, and they also managed what foreigners did when they took away the two.
Because Lin Hua's way of reporting was a telegram, this matter also reached Zhang Wenqi, a comrade in charge of enemy reconnaissance in the foreign trade system of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, and Zhang Wenqi, who has many years of reconnaissance experience, immediately judged that there must be a problem in this case according to the clues, so he notified the customs security department to detain the two rats and send them to the Guangzhou Municipal Health and Quarantine Bureau for testing, and must find out the source of the rats.
Guangzhou Customs made this difficulty, because this person named Watt is not an ordinary foreigner, but a foreign expert hired, or a foreign expert who is particularly friendly to our side.
At that time, China introduced a set of chemical equipment worth 20 million pounds from the United Kingdom, but the progress of the installation project was very slow, and the foreign trade department found that this set of equipment was not advanced equipment at all, but some old things, they were fooling China without technical talents.
Among these foreign experts, Watt is more friendly, not only works diligently, but also exposes those in his companions who do not work well.
Not long ago, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs specially approved his wife to visit his family in China and also approved his application to go to Hong Kong for leave.
Old photo of the chemical plant
If the customs department directly detains people's things without any evidence, it is easy to cause a bad impact.
However, the experienced Zhang Wenqi asked the customs people to go outside to catch two similar rats to make a "fake bag change", and secretly took watt's two rats to be sent for inspection.
This test is not good, the two mice sent for testing are stuck with different degrees of radioactive materials, and the radioactive material data after laboratory identification is similar to the radioactive data of China's northwest nuclear industry production base, and some people say that these two mice are likely to be caught from China's atomic industry base.
Soon, the comrades of the Ministry of Chemical Industry sent the investigation report to the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, and in the face of such a complicated situation, Zhang Wenqi knew the urgency of the matter and wanted to take urgent measures to directly order the airport to detain Watt, and if Watt was allowed to return to Britain, it was likely to take away the secrets of China's important nuclear industry production base, which would inevitably have huge adverse consequences.
However, if you hastily withhold watts and do not find enough evidence, it will naturally cause unnecessary trouble, not only may not be able to keep their own work, but even cause diplomatic disputes, especially in the context of the deterioration of Sino-British diplomatic relations at that time, the British side once restricted the activities of the personnel of our representative office in britain...
At this time, Zhang Wenqi asked an old comrade in the bureau for advice, who was very experienced in this kind of thing, and immediately reminded Zhang Wenqi: "Wen Qi, there is really no way for you to go to the Ministry of Public Security to find Vice Minister Yang Qiqing for direct instructions, I think that at this time to find him can solve this problem." ”
Listening to this old comrade's guidance, Zhang Wenqi was so enlightened that now is not the time to act in accordance with the general rules and regulations, we must be efficient, so he directly knocked on the office of Yang Qiqing, vice minister of public security, detained two rats at Guangzhou Airport, and let Yang Qiqing give instructions when Watt might leave the country with the secrets of China's nuclear industry.
The second from the right is Yang Qiqing
As vice minister of public security, Yang Qiqing immediately realized the importance of the matter.
Since the founding of New China, it has constantly endured hostility from Western countries, especially the nuclear-weapon countries headed by the United States, and have often used nuclear weapons to threaten China.
Therefore, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and other revolutionaries of the older generation resolutely made the strategic decision to develop the new China's nuclear industry in the face of the new battlefield in the new period, stepped up the development of nuclear weapons, and set up a nuclear test base in the northwest region.
Chen Yi, who was vice premier of the State Council at the time, said excitedly: "When you are a trouser, you must also engage in nuclear weapons." ”
It can be said that New China has made the greatest determination to develop the atomic bomb, since October 16, 1964, China's first atomic bomb was successfully exploded in Lop Nur, since then China has also possessed nuclear weapons and is no longer afraid of the imperialist nuclear threat.
China's achievements in the nuclear field have shocked some Western countries, so various forces have tried to infiltrate it in various ways, and the central government has always regarded nuclear engineering as the country's top core secret.
Now is the moment when the Northwest Atomic Energy Industrial Base is preparing to officially test the explosion of a hydrogen bomb, and foreign spies dare to set foot in this "forbidden area" in such a frenzy.
After listening to Zhang Wenqi's report, Yang Qiqing picked up the red phone to report to Zhou Enlai, and after the report, Yang Qiqing told Zhang Wenqi categorically: "You can't let go, letting go is a crime!" Do you have any good ideas? ”
Zhang Wenqi meant waiting until the customs seized the evidence and then formally arresting him, and now he was dragging Watt to prevent him from leaving the country.
So Zhang Wenqi said: "You can make excuses, isn't he quite friendly with the Chinese side, just say that the work is needed, let him stay for the time being." ”
Yang Qiqing also nodded his head after listening to it and said, "Good! Be gentle, don't hit the grass and snake, drag him, open a passage for him, let him give the 'thing' to the lady, we are at the airport! ”
Hearing this, Zhang Wenqi understood that Jiang was still old and spicy, Yang Qiqing's move was simply a bottom of the pot, if Watt was left behind, he would definitely hand things over to his wife in order to quickly bring things to the situation, and it would be much easier to do at that time.
After getting the order, Zhang Wenqi immediately rushed to the capital airport, when Watt's wife's flight was 1:10 p.m., but Zhang Wenqi's car exploded in the middle of the road, and Zhang Wenqi looked at his watch at 11:40.
When Zhang Wenqi was waiting for the shunting, a young man on a bicycle saw it, came over and turned around a few times, wanted to help but would not repair the car, Zhang Wenqi took the opportunity to borrow the boy's bicycle and ran to the airport.
By the time Mr. Zhang arrived at the airport, the airport guards had detained Watt's wife, and Mr. Zhang found a transmitter and film from Watt's wife's suitcase, as well as details of the Chinese atomic bomb test mission requested by foreign intelligence agencies.
Zhang Wenqi took the film to the photo studio to rinse and enlarge, and then sent it to the relevant departments for identification, confirming that although the apparent identity of these foreign spies was that although they were equipment installation experts, they were actually engaged in radiochemistry, and they took a topographic map of my nuclear industrial base.
After these negatives have passed a special grade, they can display not only confidential information on the atomic bomb, but also several complete topographic maps of the Lanzhou Military Region's combat readiness, as well as three topographic maps of the Lanzhou military airfield.
Based on this evidence, it is entirely possible to conclude that Watt was a prepared international spy who came to China to obtain atomic secrets.
What about the two mice that were with them?
It turned out that they wanted to test the test data of the radiation of China's northwest atomic bomb base through the dust on the rats, and then deduce the development secrets of China's atomic energy industry.
After receiving these news, watt's identity as a spy was basically determined, but Zhang Wenqi, who was experienced in handling cases, did not arrest Watt, but controlled him, that is, did not arrest him or let him leave the country.
And Watt does not know that he has been monitored, and even does not know that his phone has been monitored, because Zhang Wenqi believes that there must be a big fish behind Watt.
Soon, a foreign expert in Lanzhou was detained by our side while collecting radio telemetry frequencies for our nuclear warheads at a scientific research unit.
At this time, a long-distance call came to Watt in Beijing, watt did not know that his phone was being monitored, and when he answered the phone, he said: "It's not him, it's Xu Linde!" ”
Although Zhang Wenqi had not yet figured out the relationship between the characters, and he did not know who Xu Linde was, he had realized that this Xu Linde was probably a big fish.
Therefore, Zhang Wenqi decided to find out the true identity of Xu Linde, so he went to the Lanzhou chemical base with the inspection team of the China Import and Export Corporation in the name of a technical expert.
At that time, the Lanzhou Chemical Base decided to introduce a set of chemical production equipment from a British company, and according to the procurement contract, the company supplied the most modern production equipment to China, but in the process of implementation, it was found that the company did not have such advanced technology.
The so-called technicians they sent were ostensibly engineers and other positions, but in fact they did not understand the technology in this area, and after they came to Lanzhou, they had nothing to do but find excuses to wander around the military restricted areas in Lanzhou.
Zhang Wenqi found that there were problems in the introduction of this project after an overt inspection and covert visit, but the arrival of the inspection team had long attracted the attention of foreign experts.
In the foreign expert group, the leader of the group was called Trutz Feng Xu Linde, and Zhang Wenqi began to deliberately contact Xu Linde.
Xu Linde, on the other hand, was wary of Zhang Wenqi's raw face, and Xu Linde tentatively asked the Chinese inspection team what zhang Wenqi's identity was, whether he was a political worker or a technical expert.
It can be seen that a foreigner knows about China's political work system, which shows that it is not simple, but the comrades of the expert group did not break through this relationship, but vaguely said that more contact is naturally clear.
In order to be able to identify the foreign spies in the foreign expert group, Zhang Wenqi suggested that the inspection team hold a meeting and let the foreign experts report on the technical problems in the imported equipment, so that those spies who do not understand technology will naturally be screened out.
At this meeting, the inspection team also specially arranged for Xu Linde to be the keynote speaker of the meeting, in order to see whether he was an expert in this field.
Seeing that the inspection team was threatening, Xu Linde had realized the danger of the situation, so he had to play it down hard, some technical technical terms, he was not clear, but he pretended to be very authoritative and read the script there.
Just when Xu Linde was talking dryly and did not know why, Xu Linde poured a glass of water in the past, and then approached him, and soon he learned that this Xu Linde was nominally a British expert, but in fact an American, often secretly taking photos in the forbidden area.
Since the outbreak of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, western countries led by the United States have always been hostile to China, especially after China's successful development of atomic bombs, they have begun to rack their brains to obtain the real situation of China's nuclear industry.
Because of this, the U.S. government sent its intelligence agencies to China to spy on intelligence, and even sent a spy plane into the skies over Lanzhou in September 1967 to secretly take pictures of nuclear facilities.
Rostao, director of U.S. policy planning, even openly discussed the feasibility of using force to undermine China and the plan in the U.S. State Department's office.
Under such hostility from the United States, Zhang Wenqi found that Xu Linde's identity as an American was a very crucial matter, so he decided to take further action against him.
After Zhang Wenqi returned to Beijing, he immediately reported to Vice Minister Yang: "There is absolutely no problem in arresting him, but he is also asking to go abroad now." ”
It turned out that Xu Linde knew that the situation was not good, and had already proposed to go abroad, but he was immediately rejected, on the grounds that the foreign expert group was still indispensable to his leader.
The CIA also did not allow Xu Linde to return to China, so he was asked to seize the time to collect intelligence in Lanzhou.
On the other hand, Zhang Wenqi has already begun further control of Xu Linde and Watt, and their phones are all monitored to see when they show the fox's tail and their true intentions.
Sure enough, soon after, the Shanghai public security department was listening to a telegram that Watt's wife secretly sent to Xu Linde in Shanghai, which said: "Watt is sick, and there is a doctor to accompany him." ”
In fact, it is to tell Xu Linde that Watt has been exposed, and let him find a way.
Xu Linde realized the seriousness of the problem, and soon he sent it from Lanzhou to the Xinqiao Hotel in Beijing in the form of a package, which contained a secret letter, and Xu Linde issued an order to Watt: "You have failed, please write a letter of accusation to the International Court of Justice against the Chinese government, try to send it out and then commit suicide, in order to create international public opinion." ”
While instructing Watt to commit suicide, Hsu Linde was also asking his superiors to return to England.
Before Xu Linde could leave, Zhang Wenqi received a report from the Lanzhou Foreign Affairs Department, saying that Xu Linde had asked to return to Britain, and the specific route was from Lanzhou to Beijing, but then to Guangzhou.
Zhang Wenqi immediately realized that Xu Linde was going to run, so he immediately took three measures.
The first measure is to ask the relevant authorities to buy him a ticket, but only 136 night flights from Lanzhou to Beijing;
The second measure is to change the exit inspection from Guangzhou to Beijing through routine customs inspections;
The third measure is not to hang the arrival time board of 136 flights at the Beijing airport, and to ask the outside world about the specific arrival time of the 136 flights, and will not answer them based on meteorological relations.
The purpose of this is to ensure that Xu Linde must pass through the Beijing airport and arrest him at the Beijing airport, and the latter practice is to prevent foreign embassy personnel from contacting Xu Linde at the airport and to prevent Xu Linde from being transferred by the other side by means of diplomatic immunity.
One night in early December 1967, Xu Linde's plane arrived in Beijing, and when he stepped off the plane, he found Zhang Wenqi, and before he could react, in the airport inspection room, the staff had searched for the information Xu Linde was carrying.
The intelligence was not divided, not segmented, not punctuated, but 72 pages long, and all arranged in english capital letters, and it was later learned that this was a unique way for American agents to write intelligence.
Through the surprise interrogation of Watt and Xu Linde, they confessed a lot of content, which involved the work of China's foreign trade and diplomatic front, which is not a trivial matter, once improperly handled, it is easy to cause international disputes, so Zhang Wenqi decided to report to the central authorities, and the central authorities will make decisions.
After that, Zhang Wenqi was connected with Li Qiang, the minister of foreign trade, and just as Zhang Wenqi went to Li Qiang with documents to report on his work, Li Qiang said directly: "You don't report it, tell you, this case was approved by Premier Zhou, the company's personnel in China left the country within a time limit, immediately abrogated the contract signed by the British company and the Chinese technology import company, and demanded that they compensate for economic losses." ”
After Li Qiang finished speaking, Zhang Wenqi said: "Now that watt and Xu Linde's espionage crime has been confirmed, if they are allowed to leave the country and take things away, it will cause great losses!" To solve this problem, you must go through diplomatic channels, by asking the central leadership for consent, can you find the prime minister? ”
Li Qiang then picked up the red phone and said, "Please pick up The Office of Premier Zhou." ”
After a while, Li Qiang and Zhou Enlai had a few words, and then Li Qiang put the earpiece in front of Zhang Wenqi and said, "You tell the premier directly!" ”
Zhang Wenqi was not prepared at all, and did not expect that Minister Li Qiang would directly ask him to report to Premier Zhou on his work, and then he finished the situation of the two spies with a brain.
Premier Zhou's voice came from the phone: "You have worked hard, you must carry the case to the end, cooperate with the struggle on the diplomatic front and the foreign trade front, and wish you greater victories." ”
After hearing Zhou Enlai's support, Zhang Wenqi wasted no time in saying: "The opinions on the handling of the case have been sent, please approve it quickly." ”
Zhou Enlai sighed for a moment, then smiled and said, "Please give me a little time to think about the problem, okay?" Zhang Wenqi heard this and replied in a loud voice: "Hey, hey." ”
Soon after, Premier Zhou Enlai's office sent the approval of the case to Zhang Wenqi, which clearly stated: Agree with Comrade Zhang Wenqi's opinion on the handling of the international espionage case. ”
Subsequently, Zhang Wenqi formally arrested two international agents, Xu Linde and Watt, and successfully cracked the case of foreign spies spying on confidential information related to China's nuclear industry.
Whether in the past, or in the present, or in the future, there may be inadvertent espionage activities around us, after all, our country has come to this day, it is really not easy, there are many people who are red-eyed about us, only when everyone unites, can we not give external forces the opportunity to exploit loopholes.
With this article, I would like to pay tribute to those public security officers who have been defending the country on the front line of the battlefield, you have worked hard, and it is you who have made our lives more comfortable.