Yardley The father of the American cipher who deciphered the Japanese code, Chiang Kai-shek paid a lot of money
Chongqing, 1938. Dai Li, head of the Kuomintang military command, looked at Wei Daming, a telecommunications expert, with a worried brow, and asked, "You really have no clue?" Wei Daming nodded helplessly, and Dai Li asked angrily: "The Japanese plane has already dropped the bomb at the door of the chairman's house, and you tell me that I have no clue?"
You are the top telecommunications expert in China, can't you do this? Wei Daming could only bow his head helplessly when he heard this. But not long after, his eyes lit up, and he said to Dai Li: "I know a person, he can definitely do it, but if you want to invite him out of the mountain, you must go out of the committee in person!" ”
Who? Dai Li hurriedly asked. "An American, whose name is Yardley. Soon, Chiang Kai-shek and Dai Li's secret telegram was sent to Hu Shih in the United States, asking him to find someone in the United States, and this person was Yadley.
Who is Yardley? Can you get Chiang Kai-shek's personal invitation? Today, let's talk about the well-deserved first foreign aid on the hidden front of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression - Yadley, the father of passwords!
The Japanese army approached Nanjing step by step, and the Kuomintang ** was forced to move the capital to Chongqing in order to defend the capital. Chongqing is located in the mountains, the terrain is complex, known as the "mountain city", easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the perennial fog, called the "fog capital", is a natural barrier, can limit the enemy's air strikes to the greatest extent.
However, after moving the capital to Chongqing, the foggy weather in Chongqing could not stop the Japanese bombers, on the contrary, the Japanese army seemed to have mastered the ability of unpredictable prophets, and every time the fog was thick over Chongqing, the Japanese bombers would disappear until the sun was shining.
The most puzzling thing is that the Japanese bombers have repeatedly and accurately dropped bombs near Chiang Kai-shek's mansion and bomb shelters, is it a coincidence or premeditated? In addition, every time before the arrival of Japanese bombers, there would always be some inexplicable coded telegrams in the sky over Chongqing, which deepened people's suspicions of Japanese spies.
In order to prevent the Japanese army from continuing to bomb Chongqing, the military commander had to bring in the country's top experts, but they could not crack the Japanese army's code telegram. Under these circumstances, Chiang Kai-shek and Dai Li had no choice but to send a telegram to Hu Shih, the ambassador to the United States, hoping that he would invite Yardley to Chongqing.
Dai Li, who is known as the king of Asia, and a series of experts can't crack the Japanese spy code, can Yardley succeed?
As early as 1919, Yardley set up a special intelligence department in the United States, called the "American Black Room". He is not only the pioneer and founder of codebreaking in the United States, but also the students he has trained are all experts in codebreaking.
The group of people trained by Yardley later became the backbone of the US National Intelligence Agency, and even the famous US ** Intelligence Agency had to be treated as juniors in front of them.
In the United States, Yardley is known as the "father of cryptography". If anyone can crack the Japanese telegraph code, it must be Yardley. However, can Chiang Kai-shek and Dai Li, such a figure, be moved?
As fate would have it, despite Yardley's high status in the United States, for some reason, his life was not satisfactory, and his decipherment team was ordered to disband by the American authorities.
When Hu Shi found Yardley, he was in a very bad situation, and he could only barely make a living by writing. However, he was thrilled when he learned that he could work on deciphering again.
After negotiating an annual salary of $10,000, he immediately accepted China's invitation. In September 1938, under the pseudonym "Robert Osborne", Yardley secretly left the United States as a fur merchant and embarked on a ship bound for China under the protection of the military commander.
After a difficult voyage that lasted two months, Yardley finally crossed the Pacific Ocean to Hong Kong, China, and under the protection of the military commander, he came to the mountain city of Chongqing. However, the task he faces is much more difficult than expected.
The telegram sent by the Japanese spies took only 10 characters, and the time was extremely regular, three times a day, as if clocking in and out of work. These seemingly disordered telegrams imply a certain pattern.
With his extensive knowledge of cryptography, Yardley determined that the 10 characters represented the Arabic numerals of 0 9, and that different combinations of numbers represented different literal meanings.
However, he pondered through this complex pile of telegrams, but had no clue. Just when his eyes were sour and his gaze moved out of the window, he suddenly realized that these 10 characters represented nothing else, but the weather in Chongqing.
It was a telegram that needed luck and opportunity, and Yardley figured it out as he stood by the window and stretched. At this moment, the air raid siren sounded overhead, and Yardley accurately predicted the Japanese army's air raid plan.
Chongqing's weather secrets were passed to the Japanese army by a Japanese spy with a code, but his arrest was only the beginning of the story. The military commanders succeeded in capturing a new set of Japanese telegrams, but these messages were irregular, completely impossible to decipher.
Through the analysis of these messages, Yardley deciphered three English words: her, light, and grain. While there doesn't seem to be any connection between these three words, Yardley believes they come from the same book.
He decided to find the book as a way to decipher the contents of the message. However, there are so many books in English that finding one that contains these three words is as difficult as looking for a needle in a haystack.
The new telegram led the Japanese army to launch two air raids in succession, causing the loss of nearly 10,000 people in Chongqing, which is the famous "May 3rd" and "May Fourth" bombing in the history of Chongqing.
In a series of incidents, Yardley felt deeply remorseful, believing that the inability to decipher the Japanese army's telegrams led to the tragic deaths of countless Chinese people. As a result, he became negative and often indulged in taverns.
Drinking was both a hurt and a comfort to him, and he met many surprises in the tavern. Among them, he made two new friends, one was an officer of the Kuomintang anti-aircraft artillery air defense unit, known as the "one-armed thief".
It is said that he got his name because he lost an arm in battle with the Japanese army. In addition, he met a beautiful oriental woman named Xu Zhen. Both men were good at English and had a high social status, so they became friends.
The one-armed thief did not know Yardley's true identity and thought he was an American fur merchant. Through many drinks, they became friends who talked about everything. The one-armed thief also often invited Yardley to visit his unit.
During one visit, Yardley posed a question to the one-armed thief, why couldn't the anti-aircraft artillery used by the Kuomintang hit the Japanese bombers? The one-armed thief laughed and didn't answer, which made Yardley wary.
He then informed Dai Li that the military commander would investigate the one-armed thief. The results of the investigation revealed that the one-armed thieves had used the radio to send secret messages to Shanghai, which was already under Japanese occupation at the time.
Like a drowning man, Yardley suddenly grasps a life-saving straw, and he wants to explore the one-armed thief's home for possible clues. The opportunity finally presented itself, and the one-armed thief's Hong Kong girlfriend came to visit him in Chongqing, and invited Yardley and friends to be guests.
However, looking for clues during a party is not an easy task and the stakes are high. Yardley thought of his tavern confidante Xu Zhen, whose piano skills and fluency in English would surely help.
After communication, Xu Zhen agreed to join. During the meeting, the one-armed thief was next to them, making it impossible for them to access his books in English. At this time, the air raid sirens sounded, and the one-armed thief rushed out on a mission, leaving only his girlfriend to accompany Yardley.
The blaring sirens and a sudden power outage provide them with an opportunity for Yardley to signal to Seo Jung to leave with an excuse to leave, while he is in charge of delaying the one-armed thief's girlfriend.
Xu Zhen quickly rushed into the one-armed thief's study, rummaging through English books in her hands. Among the many books, she finally found the three key English words in one book, and all three words were marked with a pen.
This book is the "Earth" by American writers in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, and at that time, this book was a must-read for many powerful families. After determining the title of the book, Xu Zhen left the study, and gave Yardley a look, and the two left in a hurry.
When he returned home, Yardley immediately sent someone to deliver "The Earth". Through comparison, he successfully deciphered the new message code of the Japanese spy and found the reason why the Kuomintang anti-aircraft artillery unit was useless.
It turned out that the firing range of the Kuomintang anti-aircraft artillery was 3 kilometers, which was a top-secret data, but the one-armed thief, as an officer of the Kuomintang air defense force, knew this secret.
Therefore, whenever Japanese bombers bombed Chongqing, the altitude remained above 3700 meters. After deciphering the telegram, the agents of the military command succeeded in uncovering many Japanese spies, including one-armed thieves.
During the interrogation, the one-armed thief confessed that he was Wang Jingwei's spy in Chongqing. At this point, the Chongqing espionage case was completely solved, and the Japanese bombers could no longer be arrogant.
Despite the twists and turns in the course of events, Yardley lived up to his promise and successfully completed the tasks assigned to him by Chiang Kai-shek and Dai Li.
When Xu Zhen was looking for clues in English at the house of the one-armed thief, a pair of cold eyes stared at her from behind. That was the eye of the one-armed thief's servant, and he was also the spy planted by Wang Jingwei.
Due to the existence of this servant, the identities of Yardley and Xu Zhen are unfortunate**, and the lives of the two are seriously threatened. Yardley immediately found Xu Zhen and suggested that she go abroad to take refuge first, Xu Zhen deeply agreed, and immediately packed her bags and prepared to go to the airport.
However, on the way to the airport, she was assassinated by Wang Jingwei's spies and died heroically. Jade's grief was shattered by Seo Zhen's death, and the beautiful Oriental woman fought alongside him, but she died regretfully because of herself.
In the years that followed, Yardley was devastated and his health deteriorated, so he chose to leave China in 1940 and return to the United States. Many years later, he wrote his nostalgia into a ** "Chinese Black Room - Spy Sea Adventure", but it was not released for various reasons.
It wasn't until the '80s that the book was reissued and the world was able to learn about this thrilling intelligence war. Although Yardley is not well-known compared to Bethune, Chennault and others, his contribution is unmatched.
Therefore, he was known as "the first foreign aid on the hidden front of China's Anti-Japanese War".