Li Kenong

And Chen Geng's primary function was the vetting and placement of the most devastating moles in the history of intelligence.

He oversaw the activation of a network that included a man named Li Kenong.

Known in the intelligence files as the Smiling Buddha.

A very apt nickname.

Yeah.

[laughs] Li Kenong was a portly former journalist who constantly wore dark glasses and possessed a relentlessly cheerful, disarming demeanor.

He was one of the original Hakka operatives who had studied alongside Zhou Enlai in France.

So how does a cheerful communist operative infiltrate the Nationalist High Command? The Smiling Buddha manages to get himself hired as Chiang Kai-shek's personal cryptographer.