Listening to Staff Officer Genda's words, Vice Admiral Nagumo Tadaichi's face showed obvious hesitation.

Seeing that Nagumo Tadashi was unable to make a decision for a while, Chief of Staff Kusaka expressed his condolences to Fuchida Navy Nakasa, saying, "Whether it is necessary to attack again or not is up to the command to decide. You've worked hard. ”

After returning to the flight command post with the bridge of the Fuchida Navy, he and the detachment leaders studied the issue of the distribution of attack targets. Rear Admiral Tabun Yamaguchi, commander of the Second Aircraft Carrier Squadron, reported to Nagumo Tadaichi from the "Soryu" aircraft carrier that the "Soryu" was ready for a second attack. Soon, the "Pancheng" also completed preparations for the attack. Fuchida Naval Nakasa hurriedly finished the breakfast specially rationed for the fighters, peony cake (a rice cake dough with adzuki bean paste), and began to prepare for departure. However, the Supreme Command of the Mobile Forces was slow to issue the order to attack.

"What's crazy? Do you really want to give up the attack? Seeing the figure of Yuantian's staff officer appear, Yuantian hurriedly asked.

"I have already suggested that I send a telegram to Chief Yamamoto to report on the situation of the battle, whether to attack repeatedly, and listen to Chief Yamamoto's opinion." A hint of helplessness appeared on Gentian's face.

"I think Chief Yamamoto will order the attack to continue!" Fuchida's eyes lit up with excitement.

"I think so." Genda took a deep breath and nodded.

Yamamoto Isoroku on the battleship "Nagato," the flagship of the Combined Fleet, frowned and showed an angry expression on his face after receiving a telegram from Nagumo Tadaichi.

"How did Nagumo do it! At such a critical moment, such a decision was made! It's unbelievable! ”

Just now, Nagumo Tadaichi reported in detail in the battle at Pearl Harbor in a telegram and suggested that he should withdraw from the battle immediately.

When Nagumo Tadaichi decided to withdraw from the battle, he made this judgment of the situation:

First, the first air raid has achieved its intended purpose. The second airstrike is not expected to expand the gains much.

2. During the first air attack, the enemy's anti-aircraft artillery opened fire quickly, and in fact, the troops carried out a strong attack instead of a surprise attack, as a result of which the losses were large. It is expected that the second air raid will only be able to attack strongly, and although it will increase some gains, it will obviously add more losses.

3. Based on the enemy's radio communications, it can be judged that the enemy still has at least 50 large aircraft (in this case, heavy bombers) and nearly 100 fighters that have not suffered losses. In addition, the enemy has an aircraft carrier, two cruisers (battle cruisers), as well as submarines whose movements are unknown.

Fourth, it is said that the search distance of military planes does not exceed 250 nautical miles, and they cannot rely solely on the submarines of the advance force to carry out the search. Therefore, the situation of the mobile units is quite dangerous, and it is not advisable to stay for a long time within the combat range of the enemy's shore-based aircraft.

"These are not reasons to give up and continue the attack," Kuroshima Kameto looked at Yamamoto Fifty-six with a blank face and said, "The current General Nagumo is like a thief who has entered a jewelry store, and he only took a few random jewels and wanted to escape. ”

Hearing such an analogy from the Black Island Turtle Man, who had never been a talkative person, the staff of the Combined Fleet Command all widened their eyes in surprise.

"Send a telegram to Nagumo now! Order him to start attacking immediately! Yamamoto said in a deep voice.

After Nagumo Tadashi telegraphed to Yamamoto Isoroku about the attack on Pearl Harbor and judged the results, he intended to increase the speed of the mobile force to 24 knots and retreat north. But Yamamoto's telegraph soon arrived, forcing Nagumo Tadaichi to reverse his previous decision.

Soon, the first supply team came to rendezvous and refueled the vigilance troops. Prior to this, the alert force bypassed the patrol circle of US shore-based aircraft at Midway Island for reconnaissance. On the way, the results of the battle were further studied according to reconnaissance photos. As a result, it was determined that the results achieved exceeded those of the first report, but considering that it would be unfavorable to continue to send reports, he did not immediately report to Isoroku Yamamoto.

Just after the successful attack on Pearl Harbor, the Admiralty, the headquarters of the Admiralty, suddenly issued a communiqué: "The Imperial Army and Navy entered a state of war with the United States and Britain in the western Pacific in the early morning of the 8th of this month. The people were amazed. At 11 o'clock on the same day, a communiqué was issued, saying: "In the early morning of 8 August, the Imperial Navy launched a decisive air attack on the US fleet and air forces at Pearl Harbor. ”

At 20:45 on the same day, the Admiralty of the base camp issued another communiqué, saying: "On the morning of the 8th of this month, the Imperial Navy bombarded Pearl Harbor. It is now determined that the results of the battle are rough: two aircraft carriers were sunk, seven battleships, two battleships and about four cruisers were severely damaged. In addition, a number of enemy planes were shot down and destroyed. The losses of our aircraft were slight. At this time, the Fourth Fleet, which included the Mariana Islands, the Marshall Islands, the Caroline Islands, and the Palau Islands, and the vast sea area including the Philippines, Sulawesi, Borneo (Kalimantan), Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula as the Outer South Seas, had succeeded in attacking Wake Island, a strategic point in the central Pacific, but it also encountered considerable trouble. Thinking that it could be taken lightly, he only sent a few destroyers and special marines to attack Wake Island, but was counterattacked by a dozen American fighters and was repulsed. This raid was repulsed by the American forces, and two destroyers "Ruyue" and "Hurricane" were lost. The depth charges of the destroyer "Ruyue" were strafed by US planes and exploded, causing the ship to sink. At the same time, the destroyer "Hurricane" was sunk by American coastal artillery on Wake Island. With the cooperation of the 2nd Aircraft Carrier Squadron, the 8th Cruiser Squadron, and the destroyers, a second attack was launched on Wake Island, and Wake Island was conquered by the Chinese army. These were the first two warships to be lost by the Navy in the Pacific War. In fact, the battlecruiser "Lexington" under the command of Vice Admiral Halsey strengthened the garrison of Midway.

After receiving the above-mentioned report, the Combined Fleet immediately telegraphed and ordered Vice Admiral Nagumo Tadaichi to send troops to provide support. By this time, the mobile forces were ready to renew the offensive; The head of the mobile unit studied the results and decided to send the 2nd Aircraft Carrier Squadron ("Soryu" and "Flying Dragon"), the 8th Cruiser Squadron ("Tone" and "Chikuma"), and a part of the alert force ("Tanikaze" and "Urakaze"). The six warships left the main force of the mobile force and headed for Wake Island.

It was at this time that in order to support the defenders of Wake Island, the battle-spirited Vice Admiral Halsey led a task force (the battle cruisers USS Lexington and USS Saratoga and the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown) to the seas of Wake Island, only a few hundred nautical miles from Wake Island. The carrier-based aircraft of the American aircraft carrier were already on the flight deck, and while they were ready to take off, Vice Admiral Halsey received a report: "The army has carried out a major air attack on Pearl Harbor." So, he decided to stop the attack on the Wake Island army and lead his troops back to rescue Pearl Harbor.

Thus, at the beginning of the war, there was no combat contact between the aircraft carrier groups of the United States and the United States. The 2nd Aircraft Carrier Squadron for air raids on Wake Island, not knowing at the time that an American aircraft carrier was so close to it.

After receiving Yamamoto's order to continue the offensive, Nagumo Tadaichi felt a little reluctant, but he nevertheless ordered the continuation of the assault on Pearl Harbor.

Just as the 212 planes of the new round of attack waves were swarming towards Pearl Harbor, Yue himself did not expect that their seemingly elusive every move would be watched by the Chinese.

And everything that has happened and is about to happen has not affected the leisurely mood of Chi Buzhou, the chief commissioner of the China Technology Research Office. Every night at 8 o'clock, he appeared on time in front of a house near the intersection of the two roads, wearing his beloved coffee-colored suit and carrying a black-leather briefcase with the edges worn off.

It is a low, two-story building, and in order not to be obtrusive, the white building is painted with plaster, and the surrounding walls are wrapped with barbed wire, and the whole building looks like a miniature prison. In front of the gate, a plum tree with yellow flowers and green leaves is in full bloom. Although half of the tree has been sawn off, revealing its white bast bark, it is still fragrant and full of life.

As soon as he entered the door, two men in top hats and black suits flashed out of the shadows, shone flashlights on his face, and then retreated silently. Chi Buzhou frowned, although he knew that this was a routine, he still felt a trace of anger. He hated these people, whether it was the FBI, the Military Intelligence Agency, or the Department of Homeland Security, they all had a black choking smell on them, like ink mixed with peppercorns, and the slightest contamination would be entangled in this smell, and they couldn't be washed off.

Walking into the dimly lit corridor, Chi Buzhou carefully avoided the incandescent lamp hanging overhead. The original wall lamps had long since been broken, and they were newly installed by the electricians of the General Armament Department, and the exposed wires could still be seen at the joints.

He walked into his office. In addition to a table and a chair, there was only a mahogany dresser left by the owner, which seemed a little empty. Large maps of China and the world were hung on the walls, and new shutters were installed on the windows near the street to block out the light.

Next door is the room where the operator is used to listen in. The two rooms, which were originally a hall, are now separated by wooden planks with a small window in the middle. Once the telegraph operator has recorded the telegram, a hand will silently pass it through this small window.

When the decipherment work reached a bottleneck, he would often look at the small window in a daze. He couldn't see the people in the next room, he didn't know what was going on as they worked, only their hands reaching out of the small window. The appearance of the hand is often different, sometimes rosy and shiny, sometimes dull, and sometimes pale as a dead man. Late one night, the hand that came over was covered with brown spots, old and terrifying, and he was terrified all night.

He turned on the lamp and sat down at the table. There are two telephones on the table, one is the ordinary landline of the original homeowner, and the other is a confidential line that goes directly to the office of the secretary of homeland security, Mizuei. In the corner of the room was a dark green safe, and a large font lock looked like a giant one-eye, staring at him coldly.

He was stationed here on March 1, 1939. Prior to that, he had fired from a high-paying position at the Department of Homeland Security and switched to broadcasting at China Central International Radio. Even after he became a member of the Military Technology Laboratory, he still insisted on not giving up his broadcasting job, which made him the only part-time member of the Secret Electricity Research Group of the Military Technology Laboratory.

Although the environment here is simple compared to the building of the Ministry of Military Affairs, the location is moderate, and it is very convenient to get to and from the central radio station of Bao'en Temple where he works and his home in Caolu Hutong of Guanyin Street. He also used this as an excuse to resolutely reject the proposal of the well to send agents to protect him.

He had no interest in the intrigues and factional struggles within the intelligence apparatus, and in his view, the former leaders of the Communist Party of Soviet Russia, Mr. and Mrs. Bukharin, who broadcast on international radio, were more like Chinese who wholeheartedly served China than those who were ultimately engaged in the struggle for power. If it weren't for the Minister of Finance, Yang Shuoming, who named and transferred the generals, and his passion to serve the motherland, he would not have wasted his time on the tedious and boring work of deciphering the code.

As a native of Minqing, Fujian, his favorite is Tieguanyin produced in his hometown, and the habit of traveling for many years has made his way of drinking tea mixed with the quiet and elegant tea ceremony. Even the placement of the teacups is meticulous. Every time he picked up the teacup and drank the fragrant tea, his body and mind would enter a wonderful and mysterious realm, as if he could see all the mysteries of the ruler. At this time, the dense symbols on those military telegrams were like peaks and peaks that had dispersed the mist, first a corner of the strange rock, then a trance path in the mountains, and the outline of the mountain, one by one, continued to become clear, until there was no cover, completely exposed in front of him.

Among the [***] party ciphers, the military cipher is recognized as the most difficult to decipher. After the end of World War I, the American cryptographer Herbert? Yadre was the author of The American Black Room. The book not only expounds the secrets of the US Cryptography Bureau, but also lists the details of the successful decipherment of the Japanese military code by American cryptography experts. Stimulated by this, he has worked hard to develop the most cutting-edge cryptography technology in Asia and the world. In the middle of the twentieth century, the most advanced encryption technology was undoubtedly the cipher machine. To this end, they successively purchased the world's most advanced "Hepburn" rotary machine and the commercial "Enigma" machine, and on this basis, developed their first rotary cipher machine, and began to serve the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is a pity that the security of this cipher machine with the "Damm" type half-wheel design is really poor, and it took only one year for the United States to easily restore this cipher machine they called "red", and unveiled the crotch cloth of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Annoyed and angry, the intelligence community learned from the pain, immersed themselves in hard study, and finally developed a new encryption machine, "Cipher Machine Type B" -- that is, the famous "97" type Owen printing machine.

The "Ninety-Seven" type Owen printer used a telephone stepping exchange to replace the traditional rotary machine. Compared with the turntable machine, the biggest disadvantage of this kind of cipher machine is that it cannot increase the complexity of the password by converting the turntable. Although the wiring board jumper method it uses makes up for this defect to a certain extent, the line of the telephone exchange switch is fixed, and the simple two-by-two jumper mode is not difficult to decipher the code. And the key to making the "ninety-seven" type of password a high-level password is the way it is encoded. Its internal wiring cleverly divides the 26 letters into two groups. The first set contains 20 letters, encoded by three arithmetic units; The second group has only 6 letters and passes through only one coding unit. The codebreaker can often easily crack the second set, but there is nothing they can do about the first set of ciphers, because the encoding pattern is different from any existing cipher machine.

Under the impetus of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the "97" type of Owen printing machine soon became a strategic-level cipher widely used in the diplomatic system, and this new type of cipher machine was also named "purple" or "purple secret" by US intelligence personnel. Just when the Ben side cheered, thinking that they had stumped the American deciphering geniuses, they did not know that this set of "purple secrets" that they were proud of had been cracked by a small chief commissioner of the Chinese [***] side.

Chi Buzhou's decipherment method is very simple, that is, starting from English, and then using the pronunciation of Chinese characters to slowly deduce and generalize. The composition of the purple code is extremely complex, with English letters, numeric combinations, and katakana in Chinese characters. They never grouped into groups, nor did they leave any gaps between them, and they were densely packed together, like a colony of ants in a maze. However, after his statistics, he found that there were ten groups with the highest frequency of English double-word groups, which probably represented ten numbers from 0 to 9. Next, Chi Buzhou made a magical inference comparable to Sherlock Holmes cracking the dancing villain: in the normal communication of human society, the frequency of "1" is the highest among all ten numbers, while "9" is the lowest, and the last number in a group of numbers is often "0". In this way, he mastered the three letters "my", "gi" and "hl". The cracking of these three numbers was like three seeds scattered into the land of symbols, and soon grew into a forest.

Numbers are magical, they are concise, intuitive, abstract, accurate, and at once cold and magnificent, full of fascinating magic. There is no doubt about the importance of digital symbols, they can represent the number of things, they can also deduce definitions and laws, and they can also be used as symbols to transmit perceptible information. As a highly talented student majoring in electrical engineering at Waseda University, Chi Buzhou is extremely sensitive to numbers, and he almost instinctively bets on the last piece of information that can be perceived. In frequent wars, it is difficult to accurately check the number of troops, and the definitions and laws are even more marginal, but the number of troops on both sides of the war remains unchanged, which has also become the breakthrough point of the entire decipherment work.

After a long period of monitoring, Chi Buzhou obtained more and more secret messages for comparison. Finally, in a secret message, he found that there were five two-character codes, such as MY, HL, O, DI, and GL, that is, the first two words of the message were "10". After a month of repeated deductions, he finally created a miracle in the history of decipherment—in less than a month, he deciphered the entire set of ciphercode codes of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

(To be continued)