Nameless Heroes 英雄无名

Description:

Nameless Heroes reveals for the first time the little-known story of Comrade Yan Bao-Hang, a legendary figure on our Party's covert front and a master of strategic intelligence.
A senior aide and close friend of Zhang Xue-Liang, once a trusted man at the side of Chiang Kai-Shek and Song Mei-Ling, and deputy secretary-general of the New Life Movement, Yan Bao-Hang rose to the rank of major general in the Political Department of the Military Committee of the National Government. And yet this "devout Christian," a friend of Dai Li, head of the Military Statistics Bureau, and of Xu En-Ceng, head of the Central Statistics Bureau, was a "red superspy" admitted to the Party on the personal recommendation of Zhou En-Lai. The task Zhou En-Lai gave Yan Bao-Hang was to use his position and connections in the Kuomintang elite to secretly gather international strategic intelligence for Yan'an and the Comintern.
In 1941, Chongqing was the eastern center of the international anti-fascist battlefield. It was precisely in this provisional wartime capital of China, where the winds and clouds of the age converged, that Yan Bao-Hang used his connections to maneuver among the core of the Nationalist government and the diplomatic circles of the United States, Britain, Japan, and Germany. With consummate skill and extraordinary courage, he led his intelligence group into a spy war that seemed outwardly calm but was in truth breathtaking.
The Southern Anhui Incident broke out. To support the Party Central Committee's struggle against the Kuomintang diehards and preserve the policy of the anti-Japanese united front, Yan Bao-Hang secretly maneuvered within the National Government's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and created the conditions for a meeting between the U.S. government's special envoy and Zhou En-Lai, thereby contributing to the Chinese Communist Party's counterblow against the Kuomintang's anti-communist high tide. But at this very time, the radio station of Yan Bao-Hang's intelligence group came within the monitoring range of the Military Statistics Bureau. Dai Li, its head, ordered Major General Tan Wen-Qiang, a special commissioner, to investigate the radio signal. After launching his investigation, Tan Wen-Qiang quickly zeroed in on Yan Bao-Hang, concluded that he was connected to the radio station, and made him his number one adversary, hoping to destroy Yan Bao-Hang's group at a single stroke through radio detection.
Through his own channels, Yan Bao-Hang learned that Nazi Führer Hitler had personally received Gui Yong-Qing, military attaché of the Kuomintang embassy in Germany, and that Gui Yong-Qing and two German intelligence officers had subsequently returned secretly to Chongqing. Combining intelligence from many sources with his own analysis, Yan Bao-Hang concluded that Gui Yong-Qing had brought Chiang Kai-Shek extremely important top-secret intelligence. After receiving instructions from Hongyan Village, Yan Bao-Hang, while dealing with the surveillance and investigation of Military Statistics agents and the garrison headquarters' military police, began searching for a breakthrough to obtain the intelligence in connection with Gui Yong-Qing's return. To divert the Military Statistics Bureau's attention, Yan Bao-Hang simultaneously leaked to Dai Li and Xu En-Ceng the clue he had obtained about the Japanese spy Ho Hong, creating a situation of "dog eat dog" between the Military Statistics Bureau and the Central Statistics Bureau in which neither would yield. At the same time, he deftly established a relationship with the military attaché of the German embassy in China and learned further that Nazi Germany would make a major military move in the summer. At last, at an extremely high-level banquet, Yan Bao-Hang learned from the Kuomintang elite a world-shaking piece of news: Nazi Germany had decided to launch a blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union around June 20 — the so-called Operation Barbarossa, a top secret of the Nazi high command. Yan Bao-Hang narrowly escaped the surveillance of Military Statistics agents and had the two secret radio stations of his intelligence group transmit simultaneously, informing Yan'an and the Soviet embassy in China of this world-shaking strategic intelligence. After receiving Yan Bao-Hang's intelligence, the Soviet Red Army took timely emergency measures, so that the Nazi blitzkrieg could not fully succeed. And because he had promptly provided this vital intelligence, Stalin and the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee sent a special telegram to the Chinese Communists expressing their gratitude...
Because of the leak of Operation Barbarossa, Dai Li, who appeared to be on the warmest terms with Yan Bao-Hang but had secretly long doubted his identity, resolved to find evidence and put Yan Bao-Hang to death. He assigned Tan Wen-Qiang, who was in charge of the Yan Bao-Hang case, to secretly investigate the banquet and Yan Bao-Hang's activities before and after it, and sent agents into Yan Bao-Hang's home to place him under secret surveillance. In the course of this, underground Party members connected to Yan Bao-Hang's group were suddenly arrested by the Military Statistics Bureau, one of them defected, and Yan Bao-Hang's group once again faced a choice between life and death. After carefully analyzing the situation, Yan Bao-Hang refused Zhou En-Lai's instruction to evacuate Chongqing and decided to contend with the secret police, risking staying in Chongqing to continue gathering intelligence. At the end of 1941, under instructions from Hongyan Village, Yan Bao-Hang targeted the Special Technical Research Office just established by the Military Statistics Bureau, drew its head into his own circle through political means, and through this man obtained another extremely important piece of strategic intelligence: the Japanese naval air force under Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku would launch a surprise attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet in early December. At the same time, the investigation of Major General Tan Wen-Qiang of the Military Statistics Bureau into Yan Bao-Hang was gradually deepening, and he was on the verge of obtaining key evidence about Yan Bao-Hang that would wipe out him and his group at one stroke. Yan Bao-Hang once again used his connections with the Kuomintang elite to rescue the arrested comrades, shattered Dai Li's plot and Tan Wen-Qiang's assassination plan against him, and reported to Yan'an the strategic intelligence of the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
In 1945, the Nazis surrendered, the war in Europe ended, and the center of gravity of the international anti-fascist battlefield shifted to the East. The Soviet side telegraphed the Chinese Communists, hoping to obtain intelligence on the Japanese Kwantung Army. After accepting this important task, Yan Bao-Hang used his connections in the U.S. military, the Military Statistics Bureau, and the government, and finally learned that the Third Department of the Operations Bureau of the Military Commission possessed a batch of extremely detailed intelligence on the Japanese Kwantung Army's defensive deployment. Through his relationship with Song Mei-Ling, he obtained authorization from Chen Cheng, head of the Political Department, and then, relying on his shared Northeastern background with the Military Statistics Bureau and the leaders of the Third Department, approached this intelligence under the pretext of studying the situation in the Northeast. Yet Tan Wen-Qiang, who had never gotten over his failed investigation years earlier, discovered Yan Bao-Hang's activity at this very time and began a new round of desperate risk-taking against him. Just as Yan Bao-Hang got his hands on this invaluable intelligence, Tan Wen-Qiang's gun was also aimed at him. At the critical moment, our underground intelligence agent, who had long been hidden within the Military Statistics Bureau secretly protecting Yan Bao-Hang, shot Tan Wen-Qiang dead, and Yan Bao-Hang finally escaped and delivered this intelligence to the Party Central Committee. And to cover Yan Bao-Hang, our underground intelligence agent died a heroic death. Thanks to the detailed intelligence on the Kwantung Army's deployment obtained by Yan Bao-Hang, the Soviet Red Army sent troops into the Northeast and, with a devastating sweep, completely defeated the Japanese Kwantung Army, and the Second World War finally came to an end.
The three great pieces of strategic intelligence obtained by Yan Bao-Hang made him a glorious monument in the history of Chinese Communist intelligence and played an important role in the overall pattern of the world anti-fascist war, for which he received formal commendation from the Russian government in 1995. And only half a century later did the identity and achievements of this "red superspy"