Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 602

Soon after Fan Ning accepted the appointment, he set up a staff battalion in the capital consisting of more than [-] people. The staff battalion had two functions. One was to make suggestions and provide various combat plans. The idea was proposed by Fanning, but the specific combat plan was planned by the staff battalion.

For example, through various previous intelligence records, they found that there is a section of sea area dozens of miles west of the mouth of the Liaohe River that does not freeze in winter, which provides a basis for the implementation of the Tokyo surprise attack plan.

Another important function of the staff battalion is intelligence acquisition and analysis.

Fan Ning attaches great importance to the role of intelligence. He always advocates making decisions before acting. In his view, the accuracy and sufficiency of intelligence is the guarantee of victory in war.

The Art of War also states: "Stay together for several years to fight for victory in one day, and those who love the rank and pay a hundred gold and don't know the enemy's feelings are the most inhumane. They are not human generals, the master's assistant, and the victor also."

Now that a lot of resources have been spent to fight a protracted war with the Liao army, Fan Ning will not care about intelligence expenditures. He approved 3 taels of silver in the first phase.

Thanks to sufficient funds, the Intelligence Division of the Staff Battalion was quickly established and expanded. By the end of December, the Intelligence Division had used bribery, inducements, threats and other means to conduct military operations in Youzhou, Yizhou, Jizhou, Pingzhou, and Tokyo in the Liao Kingdom. Liaoyang Prefecture, Baozhou and other places have established seven intelligence networks to keep abreast of Liao's movements, and send information through Eagle Letters or business contacts.

At the same time, the intelligence department also received a large amount of intelligence from the scout army of the army, analyzed and sorted out the intelligence, and formed a useful basis for military decision-making.

In the office of the Hebei Xuanfu Envoy, Fan Ning was listening to the report from Liu Kui, Sima of the Staff Battalion.

The information Liu Kui received was sent from the capital. The Intelligence Department is a branch of the capital, with about [-] people. Their mission is to counter-inform, that is, to discover and destroy the intelligence network of the Liao Kingdom in the capital.

In the Song Dynasty, civilian officials were in charge of the military for a long time. They hardly established any intelligence network in the enemy country, and they were not concerned or interested in this aspect, so that Fan Ning knew nothing about the situation in Youzhou and Liaoyang after he sent troops.

But Liao and Xixia are the opposite. They attach great importance to the intelligence of the Song Dynasty. They have established a large number of intelligence points in the capital and border cities to investigate the intelligence of the Song Army and obtain the latest military technology of the Song Army. For example, a large number of firearms technology leaked in the Song Dynasty. It is related to lax secrecy, which caused the Liao army and Xixia army to have the same advanced firearms as the Song army.

"The brothers of the intelligence department found Baohe Restaurant on West Street very suspicious. Many of the customers in their restaurant were from the Liao Kingdom. It's a bit unreasonable for a foreign guest."

"Then how did you find out that this Baohe Restaurant is related to the Liao Kingdom?"

"Brothers monitored the Liao Kingdom Pavilion, and found that within one month, a middle-aged man entered and exited the Liao Kingdom Pavilion five times. Then we monitored this middle-aged man and found out that he is the treasurer of Baohe Restaurant."

Fan Ning nodded, "Keep an eye on this Baohe restaurant. If you find out that it is indeed an intelligence point for the Liao Kingdom, then you can use it to carry out our Wanyan plan."

"Understandable!"

Liu Kui also really admired this young commander. Although he was a civil servant, he was far-sighted and not pedantic at all.

"Go! Go back and sort out the information on Yanshan Mansion, I want to take a good look."

Liu Kui nodded, bid farewell and left.

Fan Ning began to write his memorial again. Although the bulletin on the burning of Tokyo had been sent to the capital, he still had to write a detailed report. He had only received Han Wang's detailed battle report this morning, so he had to send out a copy. new report.

It stands to reason that he copied a copy of Han Wang's report and passed it on to the emperor and the court, isn't it the same?

It's really not that simple. Fan Ning not only has to write the battle process and battle report, but also the cause of this sneak attack and its impact on the Liao Kingdom.

More importantly, the surprise attack on Tokyo was only a part of the entire Bohai campaign, as well as the occupation of Juehua Island and the water battle with the Liao army. The battle of Juehua Island and the surprise attack on Tokyo are combined to form a complete report.

Fanning quickly finished writing the report, read it once, signed it, stamped it with a seal, put it in a wooden box together with the list of trophies, and arranged for someone to send it to the capital.

In the first ten days of December, several days had passed since various newspapers had widely reported the news that the Song army successfully attacked Liaoyang Mansion, but the excitement had not completely dissipated. Various teahouses and restaurants were still discussing the matter enthusiastically, but the discussion was more intense. In-depth, looking forward to the future.

At noon, the Baohe Restaurant on West Street in Beijing was full of customers.

Baohe Restaurant belongs to the classic layout of the restaurant in front and the inn behind. It covers an area of ​​six acres, of which the restaurant occupies two acres and the inn occupies four acres.

Like other restaurants, the drinkers of Baohe Restaurant are also discussing the Song army's surprise attack on Tokyo in the Liao Kingdom.

"It turns out that the Liao Kingdom didn't have a navy at all, so our Song Dynasty navy didn't do whatever they wanted?"

"It's not that the Liao Kingdom doesn't have a navy. I heard that the Liao Kingdom also built a navy, but on the way to Kunzhou, the navy led by Mr. Fan was wiped out."

"The Liao Kingdom actually wanted Kunzhou. No wonder Mr. Fan was offended. Didn't Mr. Fan create Kunzhou?"

"Not only Kunzhou, but the whole overseas area was built by Mr. Fan."

"Hi! Hi! Where are you two going? We're talking about Tokyo, Liao Kingdom!"

An old man shook his head with a wine glass and said: "Last night, when I heard the victory drum, the Song army changed from pigs to tigers. It's so rare! Our army was able to enter the Liao capital, burn their palace, and wash away their century-old shame. "

"Old man Huang, did the Liao Kingdom invade our capital?"

The old man pointed to the two young men and said: "That's because you don't know that the Khitan people also occupied Bianliang back then, but it was not the Song Dynasty at that time, it was the Later Jin Dynasty. After the Khitan people destroyed the Later Jin Dynasty, Yelu Deguang was in Khitan The name of the country was changed to Liao, and the people of the Central Plains revolted one after another, attacking the Liao Kingdom, Yelu Deguang was forced to retreat to the north, and before leaving, he set fire to the imperial palace of the Later Jin Dynasty, and kidnapped thousands of court ladies and concubines."

"So you, the old man, heard that the Song army also burned down the palace of the Liao Kingdom, and you are very relieved, right?"

The old man chuckled, "Of course, I can't wait to rush to the Liao Kingdom's palace and catch a few palace ladies and concubines to relieve my anger."

Everyone laughed, and a young man yelled strangely: "The old man is so old, and his glory is still unabated. In my opinion, the Queen Mother of Liao Kingdom is the most suitable for you!"

Everyone laughed again, the shopkeeper's face turned red and then pale, and he stepped forward and explained: "Liaoyang Mansion is just a companion capital, and the empress dowager lives in Shangjing! Tokyo is actually an empty palace, covering an area of ​​[-] mu. Not even the imperial palace, these generals like to exaggerate their merits and receive rewards, just listen to it, it’s not true.”

"Hey! Could it be that shopkeeper Zhou has been to Liaoyang? Do you know it so clearly?"

"No, I have more customers traveling here and there, and I can hear a lot of news, so I know a little more."

Another middle-aged man said: "However, I heard that hundreds of royal ministers have been arrested. I think it is true. We can exchange many captured people with the Liao Kingdom."

"In addition to arresting ministers, I heard that he has also made a lot of money."

The drinkers talked more and more vigorously, the shopkeeper Zhou couldn't stand it anymore, and went back to the inn behind alone angrily.

This Baohe restaurant and Baohe inn are indeed important intelligence points of the Liao Kingdom in the capital of the Song Dynasty. The information they collected was handed over to the envoys of the Liao Kingdom in the capital of the Song Dynasty, and they sent eagle letters back.

Shopkeeper Zhou is a native of Liao and Youzhou with a Han face. His ancestors were officials of Liao more than 100 years ago. The capital of Song Dynasty became the intelligence leader of the capital.

So when he heard that Tokyo was attacked by the Song army, the palace was burned, and the officials were arrested, he was heartbroken, but he couldn't show it. He could only try to correct some excessive discussions, such as involving the queen mother and concubine. topic of.

Shopkeeper Zhou was sitting alone in the room and was sulking. At this moment, the sound of footsteps came from outside. This sound of footsteps was very familiar, which lifted his spirits, and he was afraid that the news he was waiting for would come.

(End of this chapter)