In the smoke of the War of Resistance Against Japan, a female spy codenamed "Wumei" gave the Kuomintang military a headache. Her method of transmitting codes was unique, and it was not deciphered until the end of the war. However, the gears of fate always turn unexpectedly. More than 60 years later, a young woman was sorting through her home when she accidentally found a dusty tin box. The notebook in the box is full of puzzling combinations of numbers. What is the relationship between this woman and "Ume"? How did she inadvertently uncover this long-lost history? And what impact will this astonishing discovery have on her life?
In November 1937, after the Battle of Taiyuan, the Japanese army approached Xi'an. The commander of the Japanese North China Front, Terauchi Shouichi, was anxious to capture this important town in the northwest, but suffered from a shortage of troops. At this critical moment, a female spy codenamed "Wumei" quietly infiltrated Xi'an City and started her criminal career in the service of the Japanese army.
"Wumei", formerly known as Li Meihua, was born in 1915 in a declining landlord family in Xianyang, Shaanxi. She has been brilliant since she was a child, and she is especially good at music. In 1935, Li Meihua was admitted to a famous conservatory in Shanghai, which should have been the beginning of a brilliant life. However, as fate would have it, she met a Japanese businessman in Shanghai and was tricked into joining the Japan secret service.
After rigorous spy training, Li Meihua mastered a number of espionage skills such as assassination, camouflage, and eavesdropping. In October 1937, she accepted the task of infiltrating Xi'an and was given the code name "Wumei". In order to perfectly disguise her identity, Li Meihua carefully devised a convincing disguise: she entered Xi'an under the pseudonym Wang Shufang as a down-and-out music teacher.
At the end of November, "Wumei" successfully entered a primary school in Xi'an as a music teacher. She was well-behaved and well-spoken, and quickly earned the trust of her colleagues and students. Who would have thought that this beautiful and bookish female teacher would be a well-trained spy?
Using his identity as a teacher, "Wumei" began to collect intelligence in the city of Xi'an. She skillfully used the network of students' parents to gradually get closer to the military and political leaders. Through seemingly unintentional small talk, she acquires a wealth of valuable information. At the same time, she also took advantage of the convenience of music teachers to organize students to participate in various performance activities, taking the opportunity to go deep into military restricted areas and important institutions.
The information collected by "Wumei" was very comprehensive, including important information such as the deployment of Chinese troops in Xi'an, the coordinates of military quartermasters, the locations of light and dark pillboxes, and even the residence of military and political chiefs. Through a unique encryption method, this information was continuously transmitted to the Japanese troops in Taiyuan.
Ume's encryption method is brilliant. She translates information into musical notes, which she then corresponds to numbers. This method is not only highly concealed, but also fast to transmit. Whenever night falls, Ume sends these seemingly meaningless sequences of numbers over the radio. After receiving it, the Japanese army converted it back into a musical note, and finally interpreted the specific information.
With the precise information provided by "Ume", the Japanese bombing of Xi'an became extremely accurate. In the first half of 1938, military facilities in Xi'an were devastated, and even ordinary houses were not spared. In just half a year, Xi'an suffered nearly 30 air raids, causing a large number of military and civilian casualties and heavy losses of military supplies.
The activities of "Wumei" caused incalculable losses to the cause of the War of Resistance in Xi'an. However, what she did did did not arouse suspicion among the Kuomintang military. On the contrary, she has also received several commendations for her excellent performance in school work. In June 1938, she was even elected an "exemplary teacher", which is undoubtedly the best praise for her camouflage skills.
Over time, the intelligence network of "Ume" continued to expand. She began to recruit downlines and set up a vast intelligence organization. The members of this organization spread all over all walks of life in Xi'an, and even infiltrated key military and political departments. "Wumei" has become the most powerful eyeliner of the Japanese army in Xi'an, and every piece of her information is priceless.
In the summer of 1938, Xi'an suffered frequent air raids by the Japanese army, and the military facilities suffered heavy losses, which aroused the high vigilance of Jiang Dingwen, the director of the Xi'an camp. As an experienced military commander, Jiang Dingwen was keenly aware that there must be Japanese spies in the city to respond. In order to find out the truth, he decided to take action.
Jiang Dingwen first adopted a series of confusing measures. He mobilized the army with great fanfare, creating the illusion of a large-scale adjustment of Xi'an's defense deployment. At the same time, he also deliberately released some false information, hoping to confuse the judgment of the Japanese army. The purpose of these measures was to confuse the Japanese spies lurking in Xi'an and expose them.
At the same time, Jiang Dingwen secretly contacted the military commander and asked to send an elite special operations team to Xi'an. The team was personally selected by Dai Li, director of the Military Command Bureau, and its members were all agents who were proficient in counter-espionage technology. Their task is to carry out meticulous counterreconnaissance work without alarming the enemy.
Immediately after the arrival of the special operations team in Xi'an, the operation was launched. First of all, they carried out a comprehensive inspection of the communication facilities in Xi'an, especially the monitoring of suspicious radio signals. At the same time, they also sent a number of agents to infiltrate various communities as ordinary citizens to secretly collect intelligence.
After nearly two months of investigation, the special operations team made a major breakthrough. They captured a number of Japanese spies, and learned from these spies an important person codenamed "Ume". It is said that this "Wumei" is the core figure of the Japanese army's intelligence network in Xi'an.
However, the true identity and exact hiding place of "Ume" remain a mystery. The task force decided to take a more radical approach. They began to monitor all radio signals in Xi'an 24 hours a day, hoping to capture the radio waves emitted by "Wumei".
Hard work pays off. Late one night in September 1938, the listeners finally picked up a suspicious radio signal. This signal uses a never-before-seen encryption method, which has attracted the attention of the task force. They immediately started locating the source of the signal.
After overnight efforts, the task force finally locked the source of the signal in a primary school in the east of Xi'an. This discovery came as a surprise to everyone, because no one expected that the Japanese spies would be hiding in a school.
In the early hours of the next morning, the Einsatzgruppen launched a raid on the elementary school. They silently surrounded the entire campus and then quickly took control of all entrances and exits. During the search, they found a sophisticated radio transmitter in the basement of the music classroom.
At this moment, a young female teacher suddenly appeared at the basement door. Her sudden appearance caught the agents off guard. However, the seemingly weak female teacher unexpectedly displayed amazing fighting skills and subdued the two agents in an instant. In the chaos, she took the opportunity to escape from school.
Although "Ume" was allowed to escape, the special operations team found a large amount of important evidence in the basement, including code books, intelligence records, etc. Through this evidence, they confirmed that the female teacher was a Japanese spy codenamed "Ume".
The news quickly reached Jiang Dingwen. Enraged, Jiang Dingwen ordered martial law throughout the city and launched a carpet search. The city of Xi'an suddenly fell into an atmosphere of panic, and everyone became the object of suspicion.
However, as if evaporating from the world, "Ume" has never been found. It was not until a month later that the Einsatzgruppen found the body of "Ume" in an abandoned temple outside the city. A forensic examination revealed that she committed suicide by poisoning.
The death of "Ume" sparked more speculation. Some people believe that she committed suicide in fear of crime, while others suspect that she was killed by other Japanese military agents. In any case, with the death of "Ume", this network of Japanese spies in Xi'an was temporarily destroyed.
However, it doesn't end there. During the search of the "Ume" hideout, the special operations team found some strange notes. The notes were littered with incomprehensible combinations of numbers, suspected to be some kind of password. Although the military commanders used the best cryptographers, the numbers could not be deciphered.
What is even more disturbing is that shortly after the death of "Wumei", a similar mysterious radio signal appeared in Xi'an. This made the military commanders realize that there may still be a "Ume No. 2". However, despite another large-scale manhunt, the mysterious "Ume-2" was never caught.
Until the end of the Anti-Japanese War, the string of keys left by "Wumei" remained a mystery. With the passage of time, this once sensational spy case has gradually been forgotten and has become the dust of history. However, the gears of fate never stop, and more than sixty years later, a dusty past is about to be revealed.
In 2003, Xi'an has developed into a modern metropolis. In the summer of that year, a young woman named Li Xiaomei was sorting through the relics of her recently deceased grandmother. Li Xiaomei is a lecturer in the history department of the university and has always had a keen interest in family history.
In the process of sorting, Li Xiaomei found a dusty iron box that had been sealed for a long time. The tin box looks old, and the surface is rusty. Li Xiaomei carefully opened the tin box, which contained a yellowed notebook and some old photos.
Li Xiaomei opened the notebook and found that it was densely filled with numbers. The numbers are arranged in groups of five and look irregular. In addition to numbers, there are some sporadic notes in the notebook, but they are all daily chores, and there is nothing special about it.
Just when Li Xiaomei thought that this was just some inconsequential essay by her grandmother, her eyes were attracted by one of the photos. The photo shows a young and beautiful woman, wearing a cheongsam from the Republic of China, standing at the gate of a school. The back of the photograph reads "Xi'an, 1938".
This photo piqued Li Xiaomei's curiosity. She looked closely at the woman in the photograph and was surprised to find that she resembled her grandmother when she was younger. Li Xiaomei suddenly remembered that her grandmother had mentioned before her death that she had an aunt she had never met who disappeared during the Anti-Japanese War.
With questions in mind, Li Xiaomei began to carefully study the numbers in her notebook. As a historian, she also has some knowledge of cryptography. She noticed that the numbers were arranged in a way that looked very much like some kind of encrypted information.
Li Xiaomei decided to investigate the mystery in depth. She first contacted the Xi'an Municipal Archives, hoping to find some historical materials related to Xi'an in 1938. With the help of the archives, she consulted a large number of historical documents, including newspapers and government documents of the time.
In these materials, Li Xiaomei found some shocking information. In 1938, there was indeed a sensational spy case in Xi'an, where a Japan female spy codenamed "Ume" was active in Xi'an, causing huge losses to the local anti-Japanese war cause. Even more surprisingly, the agent was eventually found teaching at an elementary school, but then mysteriously disappeared.
Li Xiaomei linked this information to the photos and notebooks in her hands, and a bold guess formed in her mind: Could it be that the woman in the photo was the mysterious "Wumei"? And this "Ume" is likely to be his aunt who has never met?
To test this guess, Li Xiaomei began to try to crack the digital password on the notebook. She tried a variety of common code-breaking methods, but none of them came up with meaningful results. Just as she was about to give up, she suddenly remembered an old song that her grandmother used to hum when she was alive.
This song is a popular song during the Republic of China, with a beautiful melody. Li Xiaomei had a flash of inspiration, could it be that these numbers are actually some kind of representation of musical notes? She immediately consulted the relevant music theory sources and discovered that there was indeed a notation that represented notes in numbers.
With excitement, Li Xiaomei began to try to convert the numbers on her notebook into musical notes. Surprisingly, it worked! The converted notes are connected in series to form a complete melody.
Li Xiaomei immediately enlisted a friend who majored in music to help. Together, they played the melody and found it to be a tune they had never heard before. What is even more surprising is that in this melody, there seems to be some kind of message hidden.
After repeated research, Li Xiaomei and her friends finally cracked the information hidden in the music. This is a text encoded in a special way, and the content involves a large amount of military intelligence, including sensitive information such as troop movements and weapon allocations.
This discovery plunged Li Xiaomei into a deep shock. She realized that she might have inadvertently uncovered a long-hidden historical truth. The mysterious "Ume" is likely to be her aunt, and this notebook records the information content of her time as a spy.
However, this discovery also caused great trouble for Li Xiaomei. As a historian, she is well aware of the historical value of this information. But as a member of the family, she doesn't want to see her relatives labeled as traitors.
After hesitating and struggling, Li Xiaomei decided not to make the discovery public. She begins a secret investigation into the true identity and whereabouts of "Ume". By consulting more historical materials and family records, she gradually pieced together a sad story.
As the investigation deepened, Li Xiaomei gradually revealed the true identity of "Wumei". Her aunt, formerly known as Zhang Meihua, was born in 1915 in an ordinary farming family in Shaanxi. Zhang Meihua has been brilliant since childhood, especially in music. In 1933, 18-year-old Zhang Meihua was admitted to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music with excellent results.
While studying in Shanghai, Zhang Meihua met a Japan student, Ryuji Fujita. The two met and fell in love because of their shared love of music. However, with the growing tension between China and Japan, their love also faces great challenges. In 1937, the full-scale war of resistance broke out, and Ryuji Fujita was forced to return to China.
It was at this time that Zhang Meihua was approached by a man who claimed to be a Kuomintang agent. The agent told her that the organization needed her to infiltrate the Japanese intelligence network under the code name "Ume" and become a double agent. Zhang Meihua was hesitant at first, but eventually accepted the dangerous task, driven by patriotic fervor.
At the beginning of 1938, after rigorous training, Zhang Meihua came to Xi'an as a Japan agent. She used her relationship with Ryuji Fujita to successfully break into the Japanese military intelligence network. In the months that followed, Zhang Meihua collected intelligence for the Japanese army while passing on important information to Kuomintang agents.
In order to hide her identity, Zhang Meihua worked as a music teacher at an elementary school during the day and carried out secret intelligence work at night. She used her musical talents to create a unique cipher system. This system converts the intelligence content into musical notes, and then represents the musical notes with numbers, thus realizing the covert transmission of information.
However, the good times were short-lived. In September 1938, the Military Command Special Operations Group suddenly launched a surprise attack on Zhang Meihua's school. In the chaos, although Zhang Meihua successfully escaped, she also exposed her identity as a spy. To make matters worse, she was unable to prove her identity as a double agent to the Kuomintang.
In a desperate situation, Zhang Meihua decided to temporarily remain incognito. She fled to a remote village outside Xi'an, changed her name and started a new life. In order to hide her eyes, she also deliberately faked her own death scene, so that the pursuers mistakenly thought that she had committed suicide.
In the village, Zhang Meihua met a kind young man, and the two met and fell in love and eventually got married. After marriage, Zhang Meihua always kept her secret and never revealed her true identity to her husband. Her only concern was the notebook with important information. She carefully kept the notebook, hoping to prove her innocence one day.
Time flies, the Anti-Japanese War ends, and New China is founded. Zhang Meihua lives an ordinary and quiet life, but she has never been able to get rid of the shadow of the past. Her only solace is music. She often plays those hidden songs alone, as if she is talking to her past self.
In the 1980s, the elderly Zhang Meihua decided to tell the truth to her daughter, Li Xiaomei's mother. However, on the eve of her opening up, a sudden heart attack took her life. The truth is thus buried forever in the dust of history.
By consulting a large number of historical archives and family records, Li Xiaomei finally restored this thrilling history. She discovered that the man who claimed to be a Kuomintang agent was actually an underground Communist Party worker. Unbeknownst to her, Ms. Zhang was actually working for the Communist Party.
This discovery plunged Li Xiaomei into deeper confusion. Was her aunt a patriot or a traitor? Does everything she has done deserve to be forgiven? These questions kept swirling in Li Xiaomei's heart.
At the same time, Li Xiaomei also discovered that some of the information recorded in the notebook was actually false. When Zhang Meihua passed on the intelligence, she skillfully mixed in some misleading information, thus protecting the real military secrets. This discovery made Li Xiaomei's admiration for her aunt spontaneously arise.
However, Li Xiaomei also realized that even with these discoveries, it is still a difficult task to fully restore the historical truth. Many of the key figures have been lost, and a large number of historical documents have been lost. The truth is like a giant puzzle, and even if some pieces are found, there are still large gaps that need to be filled.
After careful consideration, Li Xiaomei decided to make this history public. She believes that only by facing history squarely can we learn lessons from it and promote social progress. She began to organize all the materials and prepare to write a biography of "Ume".
In the spring of 2005, Li Xiaomei's book "Wumei: A Forgotten Double Agent" was officially published. As soon as the book was published, it immediately attracted wide attention from the academic community and all walks of life. The book details Zhang Meihua's legendary experience and Li Xiaomei's arduous process of discovering the truth.
The publication of the book sparked a great discussion in Xi'an about historical cognition and national memory. Many people sympathized with Zhang Meihua's plight, believing that she was an ordinary person who was carried by the torrent of the times. Others have questioned parts of the book, arguing that there is insufficient historical evidence to support it.
As the discussion deepened, more and more relevant historical materials were excavated. The Xi'an Municipal Archives has released a batch of classified documents from the 1930s, which contain some sporadic records of the "Wumei" operation. These documents corroborate some of the statements in Li Xiaomei's book to a certain extent.
At the same time, some veterans who participated in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression also came forward to testify. A 93-year-old veteran recalled that he had met a mysterious female teacher in Xi'an in 1938, who frequented some important military sites but never aroused suspicion. The veteran's description is highly consistent with Zhang Meihua's experience.
The book has also aroused the interest of Japan scholars. A Japan historian found a report on a spy network in the Xi'an area in the archives in Tokyo, which mentioned a female spy codenamed "Umeko". This discovery adds new corroboration to Zhang's story.
However, the controversy did not end there. Some historians have questioned Li's methodology, arguing that she relied too much on family memories and personal speculation and lacked rigorous academic research. It was also pointed out that some of the details in the book contradict known historical facts.
In the face of doubts, Li Xiaomei did not flinch. She is active in dialogue with other scholars and is open to criticism. She also traveled to various archives several times to find more historical evidence to support her views.
In 2006, Li Xiaomei, together with several historians and music scholars, conducted an in-depth study of the compositions left by Zhang Meihua. They found that these pieces not only contained important historical information, but also had a high value in the musical art. One of the piano pieces is called "Xijing Nostalgia", which is considered one of the most representative works of that era.
In order to let more people know about this history, Li Xiaomei has curated a series of public lectures and exhibitions. She invited a number of historians, musicians and veterans to participate in the work to recreate the true face of that turbulent era. These activities aroused strong repercussions in society, and many young people had an in-depth understanding of the living conditions of ordinary people during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression for the first time through Zhang Meihua's story.
In 2007, a TV series "Spy Love" based on Zhang Meihua was broadcast nationwide. Although the plot has been adapted, it still arouses the audience's strong interest in that period of history. During the broadcast, anti-Japanese memorial halls and history museums across the country ushered in a peak of visits.
Li Xiaomei's research has also attracted the attention of the international academic community. In 2008, she was invited to the United States to participate in an international seminar on espionage in Asia during World War II. At the meeting, Li Xiaomei's report was highly praised by the participating scholars. Many Western scholars say Ms. Zhang's story offers a new perspective on how to understand China's war of resistance.
However, as time went on, the discussion about Zhang Meihua gradually subsided. But her story has become part of Xi'an's local history. In the special exhibition area of the Anti-Japanese War of Xi'an Museum, a small corner has been set up to display historical materials related to "Wumei".
In 2010, a young composer composed a symphony based on the story of Zhang Meihua. The work received an enthusiastic response when it was first performed and is considered the best musical interpretation of that period of history.
Li Xiaomei's research work continues. She began to pay attention to the stories of other forgotten ordinary people during the Anti-Japanese War. In her opinion, history should not only focus on big people and big events, but also those obscure little people who are also worthy of being remembered.
In 2015, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Li Xiaomei revised the book "Wumei: A Forgotten Double Agent" again, adding new historical materials discovered over the years. After the publication of the revised edition, it once again aroused people's thinking about history.
Today, the story of "Wumei" has become part of the city's memory. Every year on the Qingming Festival, some people will spontaneously come to Zhang Meihua's mound to offer flowers. What people remember is not only a specific person, but also that difficult and glorious era.