“Well, Li Bai has basically mastered the radio engineering. He can complete his apprenticeship now. The 2 families, one master’s family and another the apprentice’s family, shall not live together any longer. If anything wrong, then both families will be arrested. So Gong Yinbing agreed: “Well, separated.”

So Tu Zuochao and his family were out and moved to 1520 Xinzha Road. Li Bai and his wife continued living at 338 Weihaiwei Road.

Screen:   Left Photo: Tu Zuochao; right photo: Li Bai

Both Tu Zuochao and Li Bai came from Hunan Province. Tu Zuochao came from a poor family. He began his carpenter apprenticeship when 13 or 14 years old. Carpenter later became his code name in his secret service work. In November, 1920, Tu Zuochao took part in Hunan Trade Union as one of the founding members. In May, 1924 Tu Zuochao joined in the CCP. He went to Shanghai to begin his secret service life. However, not long after his life in Shanghai, Tu Zuochao violated the discipline by shooting his pistol and so exposed his CCP membership. During that time of Kuomintang (KMT) and CCP Cooperation, those who had exposed their CCP membership would have 3 ways out. One was to hide locally. Two was to go for admission test at Huangpu Military Academy. And Way 3 for Tu Zuochao was to go to attend Moscow Orient Communist Labor University. So he became a CCP student in USSR. During his earlier days in USSR, Tu Zuochao concentrated on Marxist-Leninist theories. Like all the others, he made a Russian name for himself, Volodarski. On June 1, 1927, according to a Commintern (Communist International) order, Tu Zuochao who was studying at the Orient University was sent to the most famous Soviet secret service training camp named Bekovo. There he received a short time training on secret service skills.

Zhang Yi: What specifically happened after his arrival there?

Shenghua Tu: He received trainings on shooting, assassination, use of poison, secret writing and driving, etc. One of the assassinating skills taught by his Russian coaches was such that there was no need for gun, knife nor poison. Only one air injection was enough.