When it comes to war, many people first think of the battlefield where gunfire is flying. In fact, modern warfare is all-round, not only military, but also competition in political, diplomatic and economic fields. Among them, the battle on the economic front is particularly important, because the essence of modern war is the competition of national strength, material resources and financial resources. If the economy collapses, it will not be able to support the military contest on the battlefield. So is War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. At present, there is a view in the history circle that the currency reform initiated by China in 1935 was the catalyst for Japan to launch a full-scale war of aggression against China in 1937. Through this currency reform, the National Government has recovered the right to issue local currency, and only the Central Bank, Bank of China, Bank of Communications and Agricultural Bank can issue currency. At the same time, from the silver standard to the exchange standard, the circulation of silver dollar and silver is prohibited, and the legal tender is linked to the pound. In this way, a large amount of silver was recovered from foreign financial institutions, especially the cash and local currency of the puppet Mongolian autonomous government and the Yinrugeng North China autonomous government could not circulate in China, which dealt a heavy blow to Japanese occupation of North China and economic aggression against China. More importantly, through the currency reform, China's economic strength was greatly enhanced, which made the Japanese feel threatened and launched an all-out war of aggression against China impatiently. By 1938, although the Japanese army occupied a large area of China and adopted "fighting to support the war", it was an extremely heavy economic burden for Japan, which was poor in resources. Therefore, the Japanese army first issued "military tickets" in the occupied areas. This kind of currency, which has no currency reserve and relies entirely on bayonets, is actually naked plunder. Later, the Japanese army itself thought it was too blatant, so it changed its strategy and supported the traitor government to set up a bank to issue money, so at least it had a fig leaf. However, although the legal tender issued by the national government has only been circulating for a few short years, it has won a high reputation and credit among the people. The purchasing power of legal tender is quite strong at 1938, and 100 yuan can buy a cow. Coupled with the anti-Japanese mentality, it is difficult for the traitor government's currency to completely expel legal tender from the market despite the Japanese bayonet. Faced with this situation, the Japanese army adopted the most despicable tactic in economic aggression-making counterfeit money to attack legal tender. Counterfeit banknotes manufactured by the legal tender registry have a long history. In ancient China, the business of making counterfeit money was called "Fire Gate". Because most of the money in ancient China was gold, silver, copper and other metal coins, it took "fire" to make counterfeit money, hence the name. There are also those who specialize in making paper counterfeit money, such as Jiaozi in Song Dynasty, Huizi, Yuan, Ming and Qing precious banknotes. There are also paper securities, such as salt quotations and bills of exchange in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The penalties for making counterfeit money in past dynasties were extremely severe, but under the temptation of attaching importance to profits, some people took risks. However, this kind of folk counterfeit money is nothing compared with the state's behavior of making counterfeit money. During the war, there were also cases in which national organizations created other countries' currencies to disrupt the enemy's economy, which has a history of more than 200 years. During the American War of Independence, King George III of England ordered the manufacture of American "continental tickets" to destroy the economy of the North American colonies. During the French Revolution, Britain did the same thing again, but this time it was not money, but the real estate certificate of the French church. France also quickly learned this trick. Napoleon ordered the confiscation of the printing plate of the Vienna National Bank of Austria, printed a large number of Austrian banknotes in Paris, and then used these banknotes, which are almost the same as real banknotes, to buy materials in Austria. In the Franco-Russian war, Napoleon, who tasted the sweetness, followed suit and forged a large number of Russian rubles. During World War II, it was not uncommon for countries to make counterfeit banknotes. Germany made the famous "bernhard pound", and the Soviet Union, Britain and the United States also printed a large number of currencies of other countries, both enemy countries and occupied countries. 1938 12, tojo hideki, then secretary of the army, officially issued the order to monetize China, which started the counterfeit currency war in China. Specifically responsible for this work is the Ninth Scientific Research Institute under the Japanese Weapons Management Headquarters. Because it is located in Denghu, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, it is commonly known as "Denghu Research Institute". Denghu Institute is mainly responsible for developing secret weapons, including poison gas and balloon bombs. Imitating the currencies of other countries is also an important mission. The workshop and warehouse for printing counterfeit banknotes developed by Denghu Research Institute covers an area of more than 300,000 square meters at the peak, with thousands of staff. Kenzo Yamamoto, director of Denghu Institute, presided over the manufacture of counterfeit money in the office of Denghu Institute. Kenzo Yamamoto studied at the Japanese Army Accounting School and was assigned to the Kwantung Army after graduation. However, his work is not limited to the Northeast, but he has repeatedly entered the pass to spy on the relevant information of China currency. Yamamoto soon learned that China's legal tender was printed by three paper money companies in Britain and America. Anti-counterfeiting measures are mainly watermarking and steganography, and some US dollar bills have red and blue silk threads in the middle. Yamamoto believes that the manufacturing technology of legal tender circulating in the market is not complicated, and the domestic people's awareness of anti-counterfeiting is not strong. He found a first-class Japanese coin-making expert, Inoue Yuancheng of Letterpress Printing Co., Ltd., and recruited a group of coin-making experts from the official cabinet printing house and private printing companies to start making legal tender and counterfeit banknotes. Yamamoto initially chose China Bank's 5 yuan denomination legal tender as the target, and after continuous trial and experiment, he finally printed a batch of 5 yuan legal tender. But I didn't expect that this piece of 5 yuan legal tender just withdrew from the circulation field. Then he turned his attention to the China Agricultural Bank's 1 yuan, 5 yuan, 10 yuan legal tender, 1939, 1 1 printed successfully in June. At first glance, there seems to be no flaw, and it has not been found in the market. However, Yamamoto is obviously not an expert in counterfeiting. I don't know that counterfeit money still needs the old process. Counterfeit money was caught in the bank because the face value was too new. It was not until May 1940 that the first batch of counterfeit legal tender was printed, and then mass production began in Denghu Institute. Denghu Institute first adopted photographic plate-making technology, and the legal tender produced was not ideal. So Yamamoto decided to use engraving to make plates. He secretly recruited two carving technicians from the Mint Bureau of the Ministry of Finance, and used a magnifying glass to carve figures, patterns and other patterns of legal tender on the steel printing plate. After many attempts, Denghu Research Institute finally produced the first batch of counterfeit banknotes at 194 1+0 1. 194 1 After the outbreak of the Pacific War in, the Japanese army captured Hong Kong, and seized the coinage equipment formulated by the National Government and the latest edition of 10 yuan denomination legal tender, as well as the semi-finished products of 5 yuan denomination legal tender, printing machines, legal tender codes, secret account books, etc. 1942, the submarine of the German navy intercepted an American merchant ship in the Pacific Ocean, seized the semi-finished products printed by the American mint company for China with a total denomination of 10 billion yuan, and handed them over to Japan. Thanks to these trophies, Denghu Institute finally cracked all the secrets of making legal tender, so as to make counterfeit money. By the time Japan surrendered in August, 1945, Denghu Institute had printed counterfeit money with a face value of more than 4 billion yuan, which was unique among all the participating countries in World War II. Yamamoto confessed after the war: "The hourly and monthly minimum is not less than 2 million yuan, and with the increase of trade volume and the need of inflation, the number of counterfeit money is increasing. The counterfeit French currency notes made in Japan are issued and circulated by the Japanese "Sugiyama Society" located in Shanghai. Because the head of this institution is Seiji Sakata, it is also called "Sakata Institution". 1939, Sakata Chengcheng founded "Chengda Company" in the Japanese occupation area. This company has set up more than 30 branches in various places and has a huge commercial operation network. It is the most important organization in the economic war against China. At first, Japanese-made counterfeit French currency notes did have a certain impact on China's wartime economy. But with the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong-before that, legal tender was printed overseas and entered China through Hong Kong-this channel was interrupted. Therefore, the Printing Bureau of the Ministry of Finance of the National Government opened a printing factory in Chongqing, printed legal tender by itself, and carried out a comprehensive revision of legal tender. By July 1944, the legal tender printed by Chongqing Banknote Printing Factory, such as runaway wild horses, had reached189 billion yuan. In the face of such a massive currency issue, the counterfeit banknotes of 4 billion yuan made by the Japanese army were instantly submerged, so it did not play much role in the later period. In this operation of printing counterfeit banknotes, the Japanese army took highly confidential measures, and only a few people knew the inside story. Only the Secretary of the Army, the Deputy Secretary of the Army and the Director of Military Affairs know about the Army Province; Only the Chief of Staff, the Deputy Chief of Staff and the ministers and directors under their direct leadership know about the General Staff. As far as the Lian Deng Lake Institute's superior competent department, the Army Weapons Administration Headquarters, is concerned, only the Minister of Administration Headquarters, the General Affairs Department in charge of logistics support and the Equipment Director know about it. Because the Japanese know very well that this kind of action is disgraceful after all, of course, they have also taken strict confidentiality measures to ensure that they will not arouse China's vigilance. The national government soon discovered that the Japanese army was making fake legal tender and immediately took corresponding countermeasures. First of all, the circulation of counterfeit money is strictly prohibited, and those who sell counterfeit money for profit are strictly investigated. Secondly, the military government adopted "fighting fakes with fakes" and "storing coupons" issued against the puppet government of Wang, and also created counterfeit banknotes to attack the financial order under the rule of Japan and Puppet. In close cooperation with Anglo-American Mint Company, Scout spared no expense to buy paper and the most advanced banknote printing equipment from the United States, and established a mint in Geleshan, Chongqing, which specializes in manufacturing Japanese and puppet counterfeit banknotes. The organization that organized this counterfeit currency counterattack was the "Economic War Room against the Enemy", and the person in charge was the famous economist Major General Deng Baoguang. Deng Baoguang graduated from the Economics Department of the University of Tokyo, Japan. He is not only an economics graduate, but also very familiar with Japan. From 1934, he began to study the economic war against Japan, and was later recruited into the military system by Dai Li, becoming the number one expert in analyzing and studying Japanese economic intelligence. Deng Baoguang transferred a group of skilled banknote printing workers from the Banknote Printing Bureau of the Ministry of Finance and the former Bank of China Mint, used the military commanders in the occupied areas to collect all kinds of banknotes circulating in the occupied areas, and began to develop and print Japanese counterfeit banknotes in Geleshan. Deng Baoguang, however, the counterfeit money technology of the early military government was not very good, and it was easy to be seen through, which also led to the arrest of many military government personnel who brought counterfeit money to the occupied areas. Fortunately, Lin Dingli, an undercover official of the Japanese military government, sent the information of Japanese counterfeit banknotes in time, which enabled Deng Baoguang's team to quickly adjust the strategy of printing counterfeit banknotes. In addition, Zhou Fohai, who served as Minister of Finance and Governor of the Central Reserve Bank in Wang Puppet's government, joined hands with to provide a printed version of "China Reserve Bank". In this way, Deng Baoguang's team completely grasped the secret of "Reserve Bank of China", and there was almost no difference between the counterfeit banknotes printed by "Reserve Bank of China" and the real banknotes, which finally forced Wang Pseudo Central Reserve Bank to announce that it would stop collecting banknotes at 1943. There is no doubt that the main goal of the military system to print counterfeit banknotes is to "store coupons." Such an announcement is a great blow to the reputation of "storing coupons" and has also led to various rumors. At the same time, the military government also used these counterfeit banknotes, which could be real banknotes, to buy a large number of food, cotton and other materials that were in short supply in the Kuomintang-controlled areas from the enemy-occupied areas, which dealt a heavy blow to the finance and economy of the Japanese puppet government. Deng Baoguang later recalled, "1942, Dai Li asked the United States to print two kinds of counterfeit banknotes, namely Wang Pseudo-China Stock Exchange and North China United Bank, which were divided into one yuan and five yuan. In principle, the puppet troops and the guerrilla warfare between Yin and Yang (regardless of the region) are used to purchase materials from the region. Later, Lieutenant Colonel Milton Myers of office of naval intelligence, who worked closely with the military government, also participated in the printing of counterfeit money. He recalled: "The first battalion of SACO, about 200 miles southwest of Shanghai ... became a swindler, smuggling counterfeit banknotes from the Japanese occupation area to this densely populated and prosperous area ... Every time the truck convoy drove to the first camp, there were always one or two cars on average. According to him, for many years, they have been trying their best to imitate the counterfeit money issued by the Japanese and circulate it ... "How many of these counterfeit money remains to be verified. In addition to "storing coupons", the military government also copied all kinds of forged government currency and military tickets circulating in enemy-occupied areas. Due to the proliferation of counterfeit banknotes, the Japanese and puppet authorities were almost helpless and had to issue new banknotes as the simplest and rudest response. However, as soon as the new banknotes were issued, the military department got the printed version through Zhou Fohai and worked overtime at Geleshan Mint day and night. This counterfeit banknote with the same ticket board is actually the same as the real banknote. Ordinary people, even professionals, are difficult to distinguish, so it is naturally a very heavy blow to the Japanese and puppet financial fields. Scout originally planned to make counterfeit yen notes, but only the Bank of Japan printed and issued the yen, and the mulberry paper used for the yen was added with plant fibers unique to Japan, which could not be copied in China. Finally, the plan to print counterfeit yen notes was cancelled. Printing counterfeit money was also the main way to make money in Dai Li during the Anti-Japanese War. These counterfeit banknotes were brought to the Japanese occupation area by military commanders through various channels to buy back the gold, grain, cotton and other materials in short supply in the Kuomintang-controlled area, and then sold on the black market in the Kuomintang-controlled area. Military commanders can still make a fortune, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone. It was with such abundant financial resources that the military system reached its peak during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression period. There are only 50,000 officially established agents. Unlike civil servants and demobilized cadres in other units, all the staff are paid a discount (usually 20% off the original salary) and are still paid in full. In addition to the salary, the internal staff of the military system also receive an allowance. The field staff who hold other public positions can get two salaries, and those who do not work part-time have activity fees and rent subsidies. Generally speaking, the salary of soldiers is 40% to 50% higher than that of civil servants or military cadres at the same level. For those who died in covert operations, the military traditionally paid a one-time pension, monthly living expenses to survivors, and education expenses for those with minor children. As time goes on, the amount of this money is getting bigger and bigger. In addition to these daily expenses, extra funds are naturally indispensable to carry out special and hidden actions. It is conceivable that to maintain the operation of such a huge institution, the demand for money is absolutely amazing, and it is definitely not enough to rely solely on funds. But in the memory of many officers, Dai Li never seemed to worry about money, and I'm afraid printing counterfeit money played a big role in it.