The Paper's trainee reporter Chen Yue and reporter Zheng Hao
Wu Simin design
【Editor's Note】
Shanghai is the birthplace of the party and the place where its original intention originated.
Over the past hundred years, Shanghai has continuously reformed, explored, innovated and practiced, and has become a window and a banner for the world to see China.
In 2021, The Paper traces back a hundred years, visits the old revolutionary sites, toures red venues, traces secret radios, hooks and sinks revolutionary publications, decrypts red agents, rereads the left-wing characters... From now on, the "Red Shanghai • Chuxin Road" series of reports will be launched.
Along Jiashan Road, vegetable and fruit shops, aquatic product shops, department stores, cafes are readily available, and several elderly people move out of their chairs and sit on the side of the road to bask in the sun. The New Year flavor is concentrated in a daily department store, with big red lanterns, Chinese knots, and Spring Festival hanging high, and customers crowding at the door to pick up New Year goods.
Walking to Xinxing Shunli (No. 1-25, Lane 117, Jiashan Road), if it were not for the QR code of "Building Readable" posted on the entrance of the alley, people would hardly notice that Qian Zhuangfei, one of the "Three Masters of Longtan", once lived here.
Qian Zhuangfei Shanghai Archives Information Network Map
Entering the alley, there are ordinary people living in the red brick walls and green iron doors, and long poles support the clothes to dry. At No. 24, Lane 117, Jiashan Road, Qian Zhuangfei's former residence, there is now a 73-year-old Aunt Yang.
She recalled that her grandfather bought the entire building No. 24 that year, and then sold the pavilion and the second floor, leaving only more than 20 square meters on the first floor, which was renovated two or three years ago. She lived here since she was a child, but she never heard of Qian Zhuangfei, until a few years ago, when a sign of the former residence of Yuan Zhuangfei was set up here, she did not know that her family had once been the residence of a "red agent".
Qian Zhuangfei's former residence is located at No. 24, Lane 117, Jiashan Road, that is, No. 4 Xinxing Shunli. (The pictures in this article, except for the annotations, are all the surging news trainee reporter Chen Yue pictured)
"Qian Zhuangfei lives on the first floor, just this place for me." Aunt Yang said, "Often people come to visit in groups, a large number of bicycles are parked outside (the lane), a group of people run in, others will know at a glance, 'No. 24, No. 24'. ”
A group of people stood outside the door to listen to the explanation and take pictures, and Aunt Yang sat in the house to listen. Over time, she also learned more and more about Qian Zhuangfei's story.
The alley where Qian Zhuangfei's former residence is located.
Lurking kuomintang secret service head organ
In 1927, the "April 12 Incident" occurred, many Chinese Communists were killed, ccp organizations at all levels were forced to go underground, and the party central organs were moved from Wuhan to Shanghai.
In order to meet the needs of the struggle, the Party Central Committee secretly established an intelligence agency in Shanghai in November 1927, the "Special Branch", whose task was to try to penetrate into the enemy's interior, understand and grasp the enemy's movements, rescue arrested comrades and punish traitors in a timely manner, and protect the security of the Party Central Committee organs.
In early 1928, Qian Zhuangfei, who had already joined the Communist Party of China, came to Shanghai with his family and lived in No. 4 Xingshunli, West Aixiansi Road (now Yongjia Road), West Aixiansi Road (now Yongjia Road) in the French Concession, that is, No. 24, Lane 117, Jiashan Road. While seeking a job to make a living, he carried out the party's underground activities, and soon entered the Shanghai Radio Training Class with the first place, learning radio transceiver technology, and was appreciated by Xu Enzeng, director of the Radio Management Department of the Kuomintang Construction Committee, and was appointed secretary of the Radio Management Office.
In 1928, Qian Zhuangfei came to Shanghai to live here.
In late December 1929, Xu En went to Nanjing to serve as the chief of the Party Affairs Investigation Section of the Kuomintang Central Organization Department, and Qian Zhuangfei became his confidential secretary. Xu En, bent on making some achievements in the secret service system, established a secret command organ and a secret radio station in Nanjing, and most of the matter was entrusted to Qian Zhuangfei. Most of the confidential documents submitted to Xu Enzeng's office were first seen by Qian Zhuangfei.
Xu En once refused to let go of only one thing, that is, the codebook used by Chiang Kai-shek and a few high-ranking officials to report, and he always carried it in the pocket of his close-fitting clothes every time he went out. The codebook was the key to deciphering important Kuomintang telegrams.
One night, Xu En once returned to the office after finishing his business, Qian Zhuangfei told him that "a poinsettia" had come to a beautiful woman, Xu Enzeng suddenly came to the spirit, said that he wanted to go to see, Qian Zhuangfei persuaded him to lock the codebook into the secret room cabinet. That night, Qian Zhuangfei used a miniature camera made in Germany to photograph the codebook page by page, and then put it back in its original form, and the "master key" that cracked the core secrets of the Kuomintang was thus transferred to Qian Zhuangfei's hands.
Since then, when the telegrams sent to Xu Enzeng's personal translation have not yet reached his own hands, they have been deciphered by Qian Zhuangfei and transmitted to the Shanghai Party Central Committee through underground traffic officers.
Qian Zhuangfei Infographic
Zhou Enlai: If it weren't for Qian Zhuangfei, those of us would be long gone
On April 24, 1931, Gu Shunzhang, head of the special branch of the CPC Central Committee, was arrested and defected in Hankou and was escorted to Nanjing on the evening of the 25th.
Late on the night of the 25th, six "top-secret" telegrams were sent to Xu Enzeng's office, and when he was outside, Qian Zhuangfei deciphered the contents of the telegram, "Dawn (Gu Shunzhang) has returned to the Central Committee, saying that there is a major plan to eliminate the Communist Bandit Central Committee, and wants to face Commander-in-Chief Chen Jiang. "Gu Shunzhang clearly knows the public identities, addresses, activities of all members of the CPC Central Committee and the location of all the secret organs of the CCP in Shanghai, and his rebellion means that the CPC Central Committee may suffer disaster."
Qian Zhuangfei calculated according to the time that the Kuomintang was likely to carry out a large-scale search and arrest on April 28, so the intelligence must be sent to Shanghai on the evening of the 26th, otherwise the CENTRAL Central Committee organs would not be able to transfer it. He asked his son-in-law Liu Qifu to catch the last bus of the night, immediately went to Shanghai, and brought a message to his uncle (Li Kenong), "The dawn has left, the mother is critically ill, and she will be transferred to the hospital quickly." ”
"Dawn" means dawn, which refers to Gu Shunzhang, "has left" metaphorically means that he has rebelled, and "critical illness" and "rapid transfer to the hospital" refer to a major danger, and the central authorities must immediately transfer.
The sixth telegram mentioned that "there were communist elements lurking around the master", although Qian Zhuangfei's name was not written, but the arrest was inevitable. However, Qian Zhuangfei decided to delay some more time, and at 7:20 a.m. on the 27th, he first went to the railway station to pick up Xu Enzeng, and then left Nanjing by train at 8 o'clock. In order not to arouse too much suspicion, he had no choice but to leave his children behind and hurriedly bid farewell.
By the time Xu En knew everything and ordered the hunt for Qian Zhuangfei, he had been sitting on the Mercedes-Benz Beijing-Shanghai line and had not slept for more than fifty hours. Expecting that the military police would be arrested at the Shanghai Railway Station, he got off the train in advance, took a car and detoured into the city and disappeared into the crowd.
From April 28 to 30, 1931, the Kuomintang conducted a large-scale raid on the whole city of Shanghai. For three consecutive days and three nights, the whole of Shanghai was fried, the police cars on the road roared by, and the sound of knocking on the door was endless day and night. Under the guidance of Gu Shunzhang, the military, police, and secret agents rushed into dozens of secret organs, such as the Central Military Commission, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, the Secret Radio Station of the CPC Central Committee, and the Office of the Communist International in the Far East.
Zhou Enlai has said many times: "If it were not for Qian Zhuangfei, those of us would not be there long ago..." Decades later, Xu En wrote in his English memoir "An Agent's Self-Description" that the biggest mistake he made in his life was to reuse Qian Zhuangfei.
Filming provides cover for underground work
As a worker on the hidden front, Qian Zhuangfei's story has not been circulated much. Born in 1896 and died in 1935, his life seemed to others to be somewhat short, but he lived warmly enough.
In addition to becoming a red spy and going deep into the Kuomintang secret service head organs, he was also proficient in medical skills, could make movies, screenwriters, designs, and filmed and starred in China's first black-and-white martial arts film "Yanshan Xiayin". The movie poster he designed by himself has been fortunately preserved, becoming the earliest surviving movie poster in China.
Poster of the movie "Yanshan Xia Cain". Douban chart
In 1926, Qian Zhuangfei, Xu Guanghua and Hu Di cooperated in Beijing to found the "Guanghua Film Company" and shot a number of films, of which "Yanshan Xiayin" was the most successful and was sent to Japan for screening. The film tells the story of a stubborn teenager who has been redeemed many times by a strangely dressed hero, and then the prodigal son turns back and devotes himself to the cause of national education.
Running a company and making movies is actually providing cover for underground work. After Qian Zhuangfei's status as a "movie star" was recognized, socializing naturally increased, "friends" came to the house to gather is a common thing, and talking about "work" and party meetings at the mahjong table will not attract too much attention from the military and police.
In June 1931, Qian Zhuangfei arrived in Ruijin, Jiangxi, the base of the Central Revolution, where he and his comrades-in-arms jointly created and interpreted the dramas "The Last Supper", "For Whom to Sacrifice", "I - The Red Army", "Kill Lushan", "Red Spy" and so on. In the Central Soviet District, he became known as a screenwriter, director and actor.
It is worth mentioning that Qian Zhuangfei's second daughter Qian Zhenzhen (later renamed Li Lili) made her debut in "Yanshan Xiayin" and has since embarked on the film road, becoming a famous movie star in the 1930s, known as "Sweet Sister".
Today, at No. 24, Lane 117, Jiashan Road, it is difficult to find traces of history. Aunt Yang listened to others say, "Qian Zhuangfei's son, who made movies, also came here to see it." ”
(This article refers to the Shanghai Archives Information Network and the series of "100 Heroes and Model Figures Who Made Outstanding Contributions to the Founding of New China")
Editor-in-Charge: Wang Weijia
Proofreader: Yijia Xu