The questions in this test were from the material that I had been given by Captain Hu, whereby two middle-level ciphers that had already been broken had been rearranged as two mathematical problems. Of course they weren’t complete, but to a certain extent they would reveal the mathematical abilities of the individual, and their familiarity with ciphers. In the current situation, that was the only effective way to test our candidates. I decided to give them the paper with the first question, and two and a half hours to work on it. It was an open-book examination, so they could bring along whatever materials they liked, but they had to work independently. To show my sincere appreciation for their efforts, I invited all the candidates and the people overseeing the examinations to lunch, which would cost 2 yuan per person. I also gave the candidates and the invigilators 3 yuan to cover any additional expenses. I handed Party Secretary Wang 100 yuan, and ration coupons enabling him to buy ten jin of rice and ten jin of pork at any of the local shops. Party Secretary Wang was just amazed at the sight of the thick bundle of notes and the two really hard-to-come-by ration coupons, and stood there transfixed. Everyone had problems getting enough to eat in those days.

Discipline during the examination was excellent, and the result was OK: there were three successful candidates. Unfortunately the two people particularly recommended by Party Secretary Wang both handed in blank papers. That afternoon I reported the names of the three successful candidates to Party Secretary Wang, and said that I wanted to meet them. He arranged for me to see them one at a time in his office, and I then gave them the second question and told them to work out an answer independently. I had a good reason for not giving them the second question in an exam, because I wanted to test their moral character – to see if they would stick to the rules even if they weren’t being supervised. I don’t need to say that the person that I wanted would come from these three. I could tell that the Party secretary was more than a little unhappy about my selection, perhaps because I had not picked any of the people that he had thoroughly recommended. I didn’t have any choice: some people like greens and some people like radishes, and I wasn’t going to set the menu according to his preferences. In very much the same way, at the banquet that he gave in my honour that evening, even though he wanted us to drink a toast together more than once, I simply refused.

Away from home I never drink; that had been my custom for many years.