Double-Cut During the War of Resistance: My Wife Came from 1937

After placing the supplies, Chief of Staff Ni said, "You all wait here for a moment. I'll go and have them leave the area first, so they won't become too curious if they see Comrade Hongwei suddenly appear."

After saying that, he walked out of the cave and dismissed all the guards.

Then Chief of Staff Ni entered the cave and waved to the two men, signaling, "It's ready."

Upon hearing the sound, Ma Hongwei and Xia Weiwei left the cave.

At this moment, there were only the three of them outside the cave.

Chief of Staff Ni said, "You two go back first, I'll catch up right away."

"Why!"

Xia Weiwei responded and began leading Ma Hongwei back.

She and several leaders had been to the cave more than a dozen times, so they naturally knew the way.

The two were halfway there when Chief of Staff Ni ran after them.

And so, the three of them returned to the village.

Chief of Staff Ni said, "Comrade Hongwei, and Xia, you've had a long journey. Go back and rest!"

Ma Hongwei glanced at the sky and said, "Commander, it's still early. Let's go see how their recent decryption is going, and what they need me to teach them."

"become!"

Chief of Staff Ni nodded and said, "Didn't you assign them the task of deciphering division-level coded messages? They've been working hard to do so these past few days!"

Division-level ciphers are typically sent using a two-layer manual cipher system.

One is a codebook, where everything from place names and troop numbers to actions and commands corresponds to a set of four-digit numbers.

In addition, each set of four-digit numbers is superimposed with a page of random four-digit numbers for arithmetic addition and subtraction.

This is precisely a random number table, or a superimposed jumble of characters.

However, a complete vocabulary codebook is usually only changed once every 2-4 months.

This creates an opportunity to crack the password.

"This can't be rushed!"

Ma Hongwei said, "The ciphertext at the division level uses double encryption, which is not easy to crack."

"Moreover, even if it's cracked, it can only be used for a day at most. As soon as the Japanese discover the password has been leaked, they will change it immediately."

The three of them arrived at a heavily guarded courtyard.

Inside, the head of the communications department and the head of the confidential department were using a computer together with their subordinates.

"Creak!"

The door opened, and Chief of Staff Ni led Ma Hongwei and Xia Weiwei in.

Section Chief Yang and Section Chief Zhao looked up, then quickly stood up and said, "Sir! Teacher!"

"Commander! Teacher!"

The others also stood up.

Ma Hongwei taught them how to use computers, so he certainly deserves the title of teacher.

"You guys keep going with your work!"

Chief of Staff Ni asked with a smile, "Is there anything else you don't understand? Be sure to ask your teacher; he won't hold back anything!"

"Teacher, we do have some difficult problems to solve."

Section Chief Yang called Ma Hongwei over.

Then, Ma Hongwei and the others began to decipher the code.

Chief of Staff Ni looked at Ma Hongwei, who was engrossed in his work, and said to Xia Weiwei, "Comrade Xia, if you feel bored, you can go back and rest first."

It wasn't that he didn't want Xia Weiwei to be here, but he was mainly worried that she would get bored waiting.

"I'd better go to the hospital and help out!"

Xia Weiwei said this and then left the house.

Every time she comes back, unless there's something special going on, she goes to the hospital at the division headquarters.

Although many medical staff have gone to the front lines, there are still some medical staff in the rear.

Those wounded soldiers brought back from the front lines, especially the seriously wounded, were sent to rear hospitals.

Ma Hongwei and several others had been using computers to decipher the code.

In recent days, they have been listening to and collecting radio communications from the Japanese 5th Division, also known as the Itagaki Division, and have gathered the coded messages.

As the sky grew darker, Chief of Staff Ni knew it was time to have the kitchen prepare dinner for Ma Hongwei and Xia Weiwei.

The two of them came in a hurry today, so he didn't arrange for anyone to hunt pheasants.

Therefore, we can only use those canned goods.

Chief of Staff Ni also knew that Ma Hongwei and Xia Weiwei were not stingy people, nor would they eat alone.

This time, he had meals prepared for everyone in the house.

These are among the few technical personnel in the division, and they certainly deserve some preferential treatment.

The dishes include braised beef stewed with potatoes, braised pork stewed with vermicelli and cabbage, dace with fermented black beans, pan-fried luncheon meat, and fried eggs in lard.

The staple food is naturally rice.

The Eighth Route Army has no shortage of rice now.

"Everyone!"

After the meal was prepared, Chief of Staff Ni walked in and said, "We've arrived at the restaurant. Why don't we stop what we're doing, eat, and then get back to work? You'll have more energy if you're full!"

"Sir, please wait a moment!"

Ma Hongwei said, "We're about to decipher it."

"real?"

Upon hearing this, Chief of Staff Ni's face immediately lit up with joy.

Division-level coded messages are orders issued by Japanese divisions.

If we could decipher it, it would be extremely beneficial to their operations.

Ma Hongwei couldn't guarantee that their deciphering was entirely correct.

After some time, they finally cracked the four-digit password.

As for the random numbers, they change frequently, so they can only be deciphered day by day.

However, with a four-digit password, and with the help of computer decryption capabilities, it becomes much simpler.

"Next, we'll have to verify it."

Ma Hongwei identified the day with the most ciphertext and began deciphering it.

Soon, the random numbers were stripped away one by one, revealing the initial four-digit ciphertext.

These coded messages were then directly translated into Japanese on the computer, and then translated into Chinese.

"Sir, the translation is complete!"

Ma Hongwei shouted to Chief of Staff Ni.

"Oh?"

Chief of Staff Ni, who had been waiting nearby, hurriedly stepped forward to take a look.

The secret telegram stated that, given the critical situation across the entire front, Itagaki Seishiro, commander of the Japanese 5th Division, had ordered his troops to return from Linfen to prepare for a counterattack against the cities of Mengxian and Xinzhou, which had been captured by the Eighth Route Army.

Furthermore, Division Commander Seishiro Itagaki was to personally go to the front lines to command and supervise the battle.

However, this was a telegram sent several days ago.

"This information is indeed true."

Chief of Staff Ni nodded and said, "We didn't plan to fight a positional assault with the enemy. After Xinzhou and Meng County were captured, we abandoned them."

"Because these places are too close to Taiyuan and Shijiazhuang, which are where the Japanese army stationed heavy troops."

"Our main focus is still on those remote towns near the mountains."

Ma Hongwei nodded and said, "If we save the land but lose the people, we will lose both the land and the people; if we save the people but lose the land, we will save both the land and the people. We really cannot be concerned about the gains or losses of a single city or city. The main objective now is to find a way to kill more Japanese soldiers and deplete more of their manpower."