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In the early 1930s, a major incident in the secret struggle between the Kuomintang and the Communists occurred, which was the famous "Gu Shunzhang Rebellion Case". This incident was a great harvest made by Chen Lifu's central command agent system in the struggle against the CCP. However, due to the calm response of Zhou Enlai and others, the harm to the CCP and its revolutionary cause was finally reduced to the lowest point.
1. Xu Enzeng's friendship with Chen Lifu
Xu Enzeng, the word can be average. He was born in 1898 (the twenty-fourth year of Qing Guangxu) in Shuanglin Town, Wuxing, Zhejiang. Xu's father ran a business and leased land, and died early. Xu is a distant cousin with Chen Guofu and Chen Lifu. Xu has three brothers and an older sister, and the two brothers are provided with education by Xu Enyuan, the eldest brother who works in Beijing. Xu En, who attended a private school at an early age, entered the primary school in the town, graduated from high school in 1913, and was admitted to the Provincial No. 3 Middle School until Wu Xing. Xu has a strong memory, read hard, in the summer of 1917, after graduating from middle school, he was admitted to the Electrical Engineering Department of Shanghai Industrial College (renamed from Nanyang Public School).
In the summer of 1922, Xu graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University (renamed from Shanghai Institute of Technology), interned at the Westinghouse factory in the United States at his own expense, and later entered the Kaneche Institute of Technology to study factory management. In the autumn of 1924, Xu and Chen Lifu joined the Kuomintang at the same time as the General Branch of the Kuomintang in the United States in San Francisco. In 1925, Xu received a master's degree, and returned to China in the autumn of the same year to work as an engineer in the Shanghai Waterworks.
In February 1928, after the Fourth Plenary Session of the Second Central Committee of the Kuomintang, Chiang Kai-shek was appointed director of the Organization Department of the Kuomintang Central Committee, and Chen Guofu was appointed vice minister and acting minister. After Chen Guofu grasped the power of the Organization Department, he set up an investigation section in the Organization Department, with Chen Lifu as the section chief. This is the predecessor of the Kuomintang's "central reunification," and Chen Lifu was the founder of the central unification.
In 1930, Erchen believed that the task of excluding dissidents within the Kuomintang had been basically completed, so he shifted the focus of his work to "dealing with the Communists", so he added a "special service group" in the investigation section to be responsible for the investigation and research of the Communist Party, conspiracy planning, and confidential intelligence gathering.
At the same time, Chiang Kai-shek sent about 20 graduates of the sixth class of the Central Military Academy, who had been trained by the political police, to work in the Investigation Section. These personnel are not within the formal establishment of the Investigation Section or in the Party Department of the Central Committee, but are located in a two-story building adjacent to the Central Hotel on Zhongshan East Road in Nanjing, specializing in secret secret service activities.
In 1932, Chen Lifu instructed Xu Enzeng to secretly set up a "secret service headquarters" to expand the secret service organization, located in The Zhan Garden, No. 132, Nanjing Daoju Street (now Zhanyuan Road). The Headquarters of Secret Agents is established on the basis of the Investigation Section, and the external activities of the "Secret Service Headquarters" are never used in the name of "Headquarters", and the activities to which they belong are also directed under pseudonyms and code names. There were no signs hanging at the gate of the secret service headquarters, but in the gatehouse there were often seven or eight big men sitting in the gatehouse, and outsiders could not enter without permission to inform.
During this period, the Kuomintang's secret service work was centered on Chen Lifu's faction, focusing on dealing with the political opposition with a focus on the Chinese Communist Party, and in the early 1930s it engaged in fierce battles on the secret front. At this time, the feathers of the Dai Kasa faction were not yet full, and their role in the secret service front was still poised to develop, but its competition with Chen Lifu's secret service system had begun to appear.
2. How does Qian Zhuangfei gain Xu Enzeng's trust?
In the winter of 1929, under the arrangement of Chen Lifu, Xu En was officially appointed as the director of the Party Affairs Investigation Section of the Organization Department of the Kuomintang Central Committee in Nanjing. Before taking office, he deliberately brought Qian Zhuangfei, his former personal secretary who worked at the Shanghai Radio Administration, with him, and appointed Qian Zhuangfei as his confidential secretary.
Qian Zhuangfei, real name Qian Beiqiu, also known as Qian Chao. Originally from Wuxing, Zhejiang, he was born in 1895. In his early years, he attended Huzhou Middle School. Xu En was also a native of Wuxing, Zhejiang Province, and attended Huzhou Middle School, so Qian and Xu En were once classmates of the same country. Qian Zhuangfei was later admitted to the Beijing Medical College, and after graduation, he was listed as a medical practitioner in Beijing, and soon after transferred to the Affiliated Hospital of The Jingsui Railway Hospital as a doctor.
In August 1928, Qian Zhuangfei was instructed by the party organization to enter the Shanghai Radio Training Class, which was presided over by Xu Enzeng, with the intention of moving closer to the secret agency of the Kuomintang. Soon, Xu En, as the director of the Kuomintang Central Radio Station, concurrently served as the director of the Shanghai Radio Administration, and Qian Zhuangfei relied on the face of his fellow villagers and classmates, and with his superhuman talent, he gradually became Xu Enzeng and soon became his private secretary. He was brilliant, not only knew the tao of medicine, but also wrote well, drew well, and especially wrote well.
In April 1927, Li Dazhao and other famous Communists were arrested and killed by the warlord Zhang Zuolin, and Qian Zhuangfei saw that Beijing could not accommodate him, so he had to avoid Shanghai. In July 1928, he got in touch with the party organization and joined the CCP's French Concession Street Branch in the Southern District of the Communist Party of China (the secretary of the branch was Zhang Shenchuan, who later became the ccp's first telegraph operator). Soon, out of the need to find a cover occupation to carry out revolutionary activities, he applied for the Shanghai Radio Training Course.
In the spring of 1929, Chen Lifu assigned Xu En to go to Hangzhou to organize the West Lake Exposition. Xu En took Qian Zhuangfei with him and hung up the title of a secretary for Qian Zhuangfei at the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Education. Qian Zhuangfei worked diligently and diligently, and made this expo sound and colorful, which won praise from all walks of life. After Kong Xiangxi heard the news, he also rushed to Hangzhou's West Lake to visit and praised it. As a result, Qian Zhuangfei further gained Xu Enzeng's appreciation and trust.
Another reason why Xu En once chose Qian Zhuangfei as his secretary pen holder was because he himself had "two fears" that he was ashamed to say in front of people: one was afraid of writing, and the other was afraid of writing articles. Once, the Chinese Society of Engineers published an article of his, and when it was published, it was printed three characters by Xu Enzeng as "Xu Siyu", which was caused by Xu's calligraphy being recognized as a typo, and Xu En, in order to cover up this matter, simply made a mistake and took "Xu Siyu" as his pen name. Since Xu Enzeng was in charge of the Party Affairs Investigation Section, writing and writing were certainly inevitable, and having money and strong flying to do the work for him saved him a lot of energy, which was also a reason why he valued and trusted Qian Zhuangfei.
3. Qian Zhuangfei, the head of the Three Masters of Longtan
At that time, in order to facilitate the command of the activities of secret agents stationed in various places, Xu En had specially entrusted Qian Zhuangfei to set up a secret radio station in Nanjing in the name of his confidential secretary. Qian Zhuangfei took this opportunity to first insert Hu Di, a member of the Chinese Communist Party, into the camp.
Hu Di, also known as Hu Beifeng, is a native of Shucheng, Anhui. He met Qian Zhuangfei in his early years as a student at the China University in Beijing, and lived in Qian's house after graduation. Hu Di joined the Communist Party of China in 1925 and joined the Beijing Guanghua Film Company as an actor the following year. In 1927, he and Qian Zhuangfei fled from Beijing to Shanghai. In the summer of 1928, he joined the French Concession Branch of the Communist Party of China in the Southern District of the Communist Party of China, and later joined the Shanghai Film Company as an actor. Soon, he was detected by the enemy and fled to Nanjing in the summer of 1929 to live in seclusion at Qian Zhuangfei.
Qian Zhuangfei first founded a "Minzhi News Agency" in the name of a social person in Danfeng Street, Nanjing, and he himself was responsible for the name, and Hu Di actually presided over all the work. Soon after, he transferred Hu Di to Tianjin and founded the "Great Wall News Agency" at No. 5 Qiushan Street in the Japanese Concession. In the autumn of 1931, Hu Di opened a communications substation in Tianjin. At the same time, Qian Zhuangfei also set up the "Yangtze River News Agency" on the fourth floor of the Central Hotel in Nanjing as the command organ of the entire set of radio information agencies (including the Shanghai Radio Administration).
In order to facilitate communication, Xu En personally developed a small transmitter that was easy to carry and put it into use. Since then, the commissioners sent by the Investigation Section to Wuhan, Nanchang, Guangzhou, and other places have used such small transmitters to directly communicate with the secret radio station of the "Yangtze River News Agency."
At that time, in the Party Affairs Investigation Section, all the telegrams, reports, and various intelligence sent to Xu Enzeng had to be reviewed by Qian Zhuangfei and put forward opinions on handling, and Xu Enzeng only signed a letter on it. After that, the documents related to the Communist Party collected by the agents of the Investigation Section were also summarized in the hands of Qian Zhuangfei, who only stamped a stamp on it and included them in the collection. In this way, Qian Zhuangfei not only grasped many secrets of the Investigation Section, but also avoided the use of party information by the enemy. Then, Qian Zhuangfei asked Hu Di to recommend the camera of the underground party comrades to enter the Shanghai Radio Administration. Hu Di recommended his Fellow Anhui, Li Kenong, whom he had known as early as when he was engaged in revolutionary struggle in Wuhu.
Li Kenong was a member of the Propaganda Committee of the Hudong District of the COMMUNIST Party of China at that time, and often went in and out of Shanghai cultural institutions, and was familiar with Hu Di.
Soon, Hu Di made a special trip to Shanghai to find Li Kenong and explained Qian Zhuangfei's meaning. At that time, Li Kenong had already entered the work of the CPC Central Committee Special Branch, and Hu Di did not know it. Li Kenong immediately reported the situation to Chen Geng, head of the CPC Special Branch. Originally, the CPC Central Committee had attached great importance to the position that Qian Zhuangfei had gained within the enemy, and after listening to Chen Geng's report, Zhou Enlai, head of the Central Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee, immediately approved Li Kenong's entry into the Shanghai Radio Administration in order to strengthen the party's work within the enemy's intelligence system. Chen Geng immediately instructed Li Kenong to go to the Shanghai Radio Administration to register for the examination.
At that time, there were three subjects to be tested, namely the Three People's Principles, Scientific Common Sense, and Propositional Composition. After the defeat of the Great Revolution, Li Kenong once went to Shanghai to find a party organization, and during the period of drinking green onions, soy sauce and boiling water in the "three fresh soups", he engaged in literary and artistic work with progressive writers such as Ah Ying and wrote novels and plays. In particular, the propositions are well-written and quite literary, and are appreciated by the examiners. When he was on the list, he was successfully admitted.
After Li Kenong entered the Shanghai Radio Administration, he was strongly recommended by Qian Zhuangfei and soon became the chief of the electric power department and also the editor of broadcast news. Li Kenong has been chartering a room at the Shanghai Oriental Hostel for many years, nominally to facilitate the collection of "news" materials, but in fact it has become the contact point for Qian Zhuangfei to deliver intelligence from Nanjing to the Shanghai Party Central Committee.
After that, all the information sent from Nanjing was promptly reflected to Chen Geng by Li Kenong, who then transferred it to the central authorities. At Zhou Enlai's suggestion, the Central Committee decided to form a special party group with Li Kenong, Qian Zhuangfei, and Hu Di as its leader. Major issues in work are to be discussed and decided by the Party group and implemented separately. According to the party's organizational discipline, they were all directly under the leadership of Chen Geng at that time.
Therefore, in the history of the CCP, the three of them were known as the "Three Masters of Longtan" who lurked inside the enemy camp in the early days of the CPC.
3. Taking the initiative to ask Miao da to be appreciated by Xu Enzeng
In April 1930, after the War of the Central Plains began, Chiang Kai-shek was anxious to obtain information on the dynamics of Zhang Xueliang's position in the Northeast Army, in order to prevent him from joining the anti-Chiang camp of Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang. In the past, Chiang Kai-shek also sent people to the northeast to collect intelligence, but they were all cracked by the Japanese. After qian Zhuangfei secretly asked Chen Geng for consent, he took the initiative to ask Xu Enzeng to go to his death.
Xu En knew that this task was very arduous, and if it was not done well, his life would be in danger. Since Qian Zhuangfei took the initiative to request it, he immediately approved it. Qian Zhuangfei then invited Hu Di, who was in Tianjin, to organize a spy team to go to Shenyang for activities. After Chen Geng made a report to his superiors, the CPC Central Committee attached great importance to this and decided to send Chen Geng to go with them.
Therefore, they took advantage of this rare opportunity to use the certificates of the Kuomintang secret service organs as a cover, spent the Kuomintang's money, and incidentally inspected the work of the underground Communist Party in the northeast and north China, and brought back a lot of classified information. In order to deal with Chiang Kai-shek, after Qian Zhuangfei returned to Shanghai, he worked with Li Kenong to collect news from the newspaper, plus some information he had heard, and wrote an investigation material of more than 40,000 words. Xu En, after looking at it, even claimed.
Chen Lifu reused Xu En, who was in charge of the Party Affairs Investigation Section of the Central Party Department. Xu En, who had reformed his internal organization and its activities, relied on Zhang Chong, an interview unit, and Qian Zhuangfei, a confidential secretary, to systematically quote a complete set of training and working methods of the Soviet secret organization "Cheka", and referred to the experience of the Japanese secret agent "Special High Branch", and conducted relatively professional training for his agents.
In order to further strengthen management and improve work efficiency, Xu Enzeng also approved Zhang Chong's proposal to establish a nationwide system of special agents and dispatch permanent personnel to major cities in the country, with the focus of work on dealing with the activities of the Communist Party of China.
4. Central Special Branch
Since the split between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in 1927, the Kuomintang has launched anti-Communist Qing in Nanjing, Wuhan and other places, and has violently dealt with the Communist Party throughout the country, killing thousands of CCP members, and the CCP has also been forced to fight back, launching the Nanchang Uprising, the Autumn Harvest Uprising, and the Guangzhou Uprising. However, the gap in the strength of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China forced the CCP to go underground in the Kuomintang-ruled areas, and the CPC Central Committee hid in Shanghai, thus beginning the underground struggle between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party on the hidden front.
On November 9, 1927, the meeting of the Provisional Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee decided that in order to ensure the safety of the CPC Central Committee, under the presidency of Zhou Enlai, secretary of the Central Military Commission, the Secret Service Section of the Central Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee, referred to as the "Central Special Section", would be established to carry out secret work against the Kuomintang.
Within the Central Special Branch, four sections have been established:
The first section is the General Affairs Section, which is responsible for general affairs, finance, transportation and other work, and the chief of the section, Hong Yangsheng, has held this position from the beginning of the establishment of the special branch until 1931.
His duties are: responsible for arranging various secret organs and contact points for the central government, purchasing all kinds of necessary furniture and office supplies; whenever the central government holds an important meeting in Shanghai, he is responsible for arranging the venue. In addition, the General Affairs Section raises funds for the central authorities and uses various social connections to rescue arrested comrades in a legal manner. The nature of its work is the "General Affairs Section" of the CPC Central Committee.
The second section is the Intelligence Section, and the two section chiefs before and after them are the most famous figures in the Central Special Section- Chen Geng and Pan Hannian. Zhou Enlai once praised the six most outstanding intelligence personnel of the Chinese Communist Party as the "top three masters" and "last three masters" of the Chinese Communist Party's intelligence, and the "top three masters" were Qian Zhuangfei, Li Kenong, and Hu Di, all of whom worked under the direct leadership of Chen Geng. And Pan Hannian is one of the "Last Three Masters".
The task of the Intelligence Section was to grasp the enemy's movements, ensure the safety of the central organs and the party leaders, and inform the Soviet zone of military intelligence. Therefore, the personnel of the Intelligence Section must take advantage of the complicated social relations and adopt the method of infiltrating in and pulling out, or break into the enemy's special organs, or establish special intelligence relations within the enemy's special organs, or develop the internal line of the enemy's special organs, and preside over intelligence, reconnaissance, counter-espionage, and other work.
The third section is the Operations Section, with Gu Shunzhang as the section chief, and a powerful underground operational force has been formed by specialized personnel who have studied the technology of political defense agents in the Soviet Union and the backbone of the Shanghai trade union, called the "Red Team" (commonly known as the "Dog Fighting Team"), which specializes in assassinating enemy dignitaries and punishing CCP traitors, and is an armed weapon of the CPC Central Committee.
The fourth section is the Traffic Section, which is responsible for traffic and telecommunications liaison work and trains the newspaper personnel of the Party Central Committee.
Under the severe situation at that time, the Party Central Committee attached special importance to the work of the Central Special Section, and held several training courses around April 1928 to train specialized personnel engaged in secret work. Twenty days a week of the training course, Zhou Enlai, Xiang Ying, and other central leaders made many political reports to the trainees, while Gu Shunzhang, Chen Geng, and others carefully explained to the trainees the techniques of detection, interrogation, assassination, explosion, and secret liaison that they had learned in the Soviet Union. As a result, the defense organization of the CPC Central Committee began to take shape.
5. Why did Qian Zhuangfei escape?
In March 1931, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China arranged for Zhang Guotao, Chen Changhao and other leaders to go to the Eyu-Anhui Su District, and Gu Shunzhang undertook the task of escorting them. After successfully completing his mission, Gu Shunzhang violated the discipline of secret work on the way back, stayed in Wuhan, and publicly performed magic tricks, but unexpectedly the special commissioner sent to Wuhan by the Kuomintang Central Investigation Section found his whereabouts.
On April 25, 1931, You Chongxin, a traitor to the Ccp under the control of Cai Mengjian, the Wuhan commissioner of the Central Investigation Section, stumbled upon Gu Shunzhang at the Jianghanguan Ferry Terminal in Wuhan and arrested him. That night, Gu Shunzhang asked to see Cai Mengjian, confessed his identity, and considered himself an important person of the CCP and a secret agent in charge, and asked to meet with Chiang Kai-shek, and at the same time asked Cai not to report to Xu Enzeng, so as not to leak secrets, but he refused to say Qian Zhuangfei's name, thinking that strange goods could be lived.
Cai Mengjian has the title of "expert on shoveling the Communist Party" within the Central Unification Committee, and has organized and sabotaged the underground party organs of the CPC in Hankou, and has a relatively strong temper. After tentatively asking Gu to name and capture the CCP underground party members in Wuhan, he believed Gu Shunzhang's words, and after asking the Wuhan camp master He Chengjun, they decided to escort Gu Shunzhang to Nanjing by water.
In order to preemptively report the merits, they did not heed Gu Shunzhang's advice, and on the evening of the 25th, they sent six urgent telegrams to Chen Lifu and Xu En, reporting the capture of Gu Shunzhang and his surrender, and also indicating that they should not let the people around Xu know about the matter.
On the weekend, Xu Enzeng left the office and handed over the codebook he carried with him to his confidential secretary, Qian Zhuangfei. When Qian translated all the telegrams, he could not help but be surprised, and after ruling out the possibility that the Central Command would test him, Qian Zhuangfei immediately made the decision to stop lurking and reporting to the CPC Central Committee.
He quickly took three steps:
First, he sent his son-in-law and traffic officer Liu Qifu to Shanghai as quickly as possible to report the incident to Li Kenong and ask the central authorities to take immediate countermeasures. The second was to warn the underground party in Nanjing to evacuate, and at the same time to use code telegrams to inform Hu Di and others lurking in Tianjin to respond. Third, he decided to withdraw to Shanghai early the next morning, again alerted the Party Central Committee, and left a letter to Xu Enzeng before leaving, threatening to expose his misdeeds and warning Xu not to poison his children and families.
On April 27, Gu Shunzhang was escorted to Nanjing, and according to Chen Lifu's instructions, he was sent to the secret organ of the Central Unification on Zhongshan East Road, but Gu Shunzhang immediately recognized that this was the CCP's "beijing office" and told the truth about Qian Zhuangfei's lurking here, which surprised Cai Mengjian, who accompanied him, knew that things were not good, and immediately reported it to Chen Lifu and Xu Enzeng.
But there is no way to get it back. According to Zhang Guodong, a special agent of the Central Unification Who was involved in the matter at the time, he recalled:
"More than ten hours before Gu Shunzhang arrived in Nanjing, Xu Enzeng's personal secretary Qian Zhuangfei suddenly disappeared, and we could see that at first, Xu was very nervous... He came to the Investigation Section to quietly say a few words with Director General Zhang Chong and Officer Gu Jianzhong, and then hurried away again. After discovering that Qian Zhuangfei was missing, Xu was very nervous, almost to the point of panic. ”
He immediately sent agents to search around, but found nothing, only found his elderly mother in the Qian mansion, in view of Qian Zhuangfei's warning, Xu Enzeng did not dare to harm his mother.
After Cai Mengjian escorted Gu Shunzhang to Nanjing, Chen Lifu and Xu En, when they learned that Chiang Kai-shek was going to meet the two, immediately made arrangements and sent Zhang Daofan, secretary general of the Central Organization Department, to Chiang Kai-shek's official residence and preemptively warned Cai and Gu not to disclose to Chiang Kai-shek about Qian Zhuangfei. When Chiang Kai-shek met with Cai and Gu, he did not show much enthusiasm for Gu Shunzhang, but only said that it was "very good to submit to the central authorities" and asked him to "listen to Comrade Cai's arrangements in the future and serve the country." Subsequently, Jiang summoned Cai Mengjian alone, inquired about the relevant situation of the case, and instructed Gu to make good use of it. Cai Mengjian was jealous of Chen Lifu's relationship with Jiang and his friendship with him, and did not dare to explain Qian Zhuangfei to Jiang.
On the same day, Xu En, taking advantage of Cai Mengjian's meeting with Jiang, led people to rob Gu Shunzhang of his secret residence on Zhongshan East Road and control him under his control. Qian Zhuangfei's series of actions effectively curbed Xu Enzeng's actions, reduced the harm caused by Gu Shunzhang's surrender to Chiang Kai-shek, and fundamentally saved the central leading organs of the Communist Party of China, thus changing the outcome of the incident.
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