Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 612 Military Intelligence
"The name of Australia and Song Dynasty should not be used on a large scale for the time being." Yu Eshui said, "The Red Scarf Army at the end of the Yuan Dynasty wanted to 'the sun and the moon reopen the Great Song Dynasty'. Zhu Yuanzhang was also a member of the Red Scarf Army, but in the end he did The "Da Ming" was created without King Ming. The Ming court may have certain taboos about "descendants of the Song Dynasty". At this stage, we can use an example similar to the Red Turban Army to temporarily replace the country name with the military name. I suggest that we It's called Fubo Army—very relevant."

"Actually, we can call it GLA," Wen Desi said, "Global People's Liberation Army. That's not bad, Secretary Ma."

"It will be used in the future. People who are called GLA Daming don't feel it at all." Ma Qianju said, "I see that from today onwards, our official documents and announcements can use the name of Fubo Army."

Jiang Shan returned to the intelligence bureau's office.As soon as he arrived at the office, he received a call from He Ming, asking him to: "Quickly check the situation of the Ming army in Guangdong."

"It's only been a few days since the establishment of the Intelligence Bureau, and the specific task has come." Jiang Shan said at the meeting in the evening, "This is the first key project of our Foreign Intelligence Bureau. It must be done, otherwise it will be troublesome to fight for the budget in the future."

Wang Ding coughed, and spoke first: "Most of this information can be obtained from the archives of the General Information Database. There are many historical records and information compiled by the Great Library and the materials collected by the Guangzhou Station over the years. I It is planned to conduct a search on this part of the data and then compile it."

"This kind of information is too old." Jiang Shan expressed doubts.

"It's old, but it's only two or three years. The situation of the Ming army will not change much."

"This matter mainly depends on the intelligence of the Guangzhou station." Xu Xu, a so-called "naval military intelligence officer," said, "The Ming army must cross the sea to attack Lingao. The Guangzhou station has eyeliners at the key traffic passes in Guangdong." Arrangement, as long as warships are concentrated and troops are mobilized, there will be news. It is useless for us to guess here."

So the eyeliner is the outer cabinets of the various branches of Qiwei Escort. They use pigeons to report local knowledge to the head office in Guangzhou every five days.Although this kind of information is not very timely, considering that the marching speed of the ancient army is very slow, this speed is acceptable.

"If we just waited for the Guangzhou station's information and collected some files, then our mission would be considered complete, and we, the Foreign Intelligence Bureau, don't have to mess around." Jiang Shan said, "We have to send people to Guangdong! Specially collect some military intelligence."

"Now that we have trained expatriate intelligence personnel, this transfer of collecting Guangdong Ming army is a good internship opportunity. We should let them go out and try it out. Qiongzhou is actually nothing, and the real fish will be on the border of Guangdong How effective the training will be depends on this time." Xu Xu was also interested in this proposal, "If you want to send someone there, I am willing to go."

"Isn't it a little too risky..."

"Since we are engaged in intelligence work, we should still have this risk. Of course, we can't ask intelligence personnel to do dangerous things like sneak into the camp to take pictures, but we should still have the ability to stand and watch."

"Since we just stand and watch, why send people there. The Guangzhou station has eyeliners in many places. It would be superfluous for us to send people." Wang Ding objected, "Guangdong's intelligence work should be done by the Guangzhou station. If Stationmaster Guo said that there is not enough manpower or there are other difficulties, we can send people to Guangzhou station to help, but we must not send other people there, this is not only a waste of human resources but also violates work procedures.”

Wang Ding continued: "The key to intelligence work is analysis. Rather than providing a bunch of fragmentary details, we should focus on analyzing and sorting out the existing data. Submit a detailed and reliable report."

Jiang Shan thought that since Wang Ding became the director of the analysis department, he sang "Analysis is omnipotent" all day long, obviously with the intention of elevating himself.

But his words are not easy to refute, at this time Li Yan also came to echo his point of view.

"That's right, I also suggest focusing on sorting out, judging and analyzing the existing data. As for the lack of data, just call the Guangzhou Station and ask them to collect it—this is their job."

"It depends on how long the Guangzhou Station can survive. Guo Yi and the others are not doing well." Jiang Shan recalled several telegrams sent by the Guangzhou Station recently, including all parties extending their greedy hands to the Guangzhou Station.Although the current situation is unclear, with the flames of war, whether the various industries in Guangzhou Station can survive is still a big unknown.

"The situation at the Guangzhou-Leizhou station is already being discussed at Skeeder," Li Yan said. "Although strictly speaking this is a matter for the Ministry of Colonial Trade, our Intelligence Bureau is also obliged to protect the station abroad."

"My opinion is very simple. To protect people is not to protect wealth." Jiang Shan said, "As long as people are brought out safely. Money is something outside of the body. If it is gone, it will be gone. Anyway, it can be retrieved a hundred times in the future."

Li Yan said: "If possible, we should try our best to preserve the property. I think it is not impossible to consider the appropriate expedient method of 'curve to save the country', such as investing in local power gentry. This can at least make the industry sustainable. , anyway, it will be a breeze to take it back in the future.”

"As for personnel safety, the scope should be wider." Jiang Shan believes that the Guangzhou station has just completed a large-scale exchange of blood and review work, and many personnel were sent from Lingao, so it is a pity to lose them.As for the craftsmen, servants and managers employed locally, they should try their best to protect them-even if they can't be withdrawn to Lingao together, they must use means to ensure their personal and property safety.

"This will greatly improve the trust of the indigenous people in us. We will not just walk away when we know we are in danger."

"There is also Leizhou Station. Leizhou is located in a remote area, and the evil wind from Guangzhou will not be able to blow to them for a while, but we must guard against it."

"If you ask me, Guangzhou can be withdrawn, but Leizhou must not be withdrawn." Wang Ding knocked on the table firmly, "Once Leizhou withdraws, the sugar company will be finished."

Guangzhou is a pure circulation business field, except for the factory of distilling liquor, which has a bit of modern technology - using the distillation cooler of the twentieth century, there is basically no modern industry. Zizhenzhai's manufacturing industry is also purely manual. .After the destruction, as long as the Transit Group can continue to supply "Australian goods", it will be easy to rebuild.What's more, there are many ways to avoid destruction.Leizhou station is different.It is a dual manufacturing-distribution facility. If the modern sugar factory falls into the hands of inexperienced natives, it will be completely destroyed after a short period of operation. Moreover, Leizhou has already invested a lot of capital in the local sugarcane farmers. Once it is abandoned halfway, not only The loss to itself is huge, and the damage to the confidence of sugarcane farmers is even more devastating.

"Guangzhou is the capital of the province, and it is the focus of officialdom's attention. Therefore, it is difficult for Guo Yi to survive, so my opinion is to withdraw Leibao widely." Wang Ding suggested, "Leizhou is not only in the Ming Dynasty, but also in the old time and space. It’s a place far away from the emperor. Ordinary people won’t fix their eyes on it. There’s a possibility.”

Moreover, Leizhou Peninsula is just across from Lingao, and it takes half a day to cross the sea to Xuwen.Whether it is to secretly send a special investigation team out to do wet work, or to send a naval expedition team to crusade, it is very convenient to intervene compared to sailing to Guangzhou for several days.

"If someone in Leizhou tries to harm the industry of Leizhou station, we can ask the executive committee to invest in a special investigation team to carry out the operation. After a few rounds of 'wet work', no one dares to use Leizhou's brains. Even more extreme methods can be adopted , fully control the information exchange between Leizhou's one prefecture and two counties and Guangzhou."

"Let's draft a memorandum to the executive committee, and then send a copy to Skade." Li Yan said, "As for military intelligence, we should base ourselves on the local area—use the existing information first."

Wang Ding also said: "This is our first project. Not only must we make achievements, but we must also stand firm."

Everyone in the meeting nodded together.

"Okay, I understand. Let's do it according to your idea." Jiang Shan gave in, and he could hear what Wang Ding was saying.

The Foreign Intelligence Bureau then issued intelligence-gathering instructions to the Guangzhou Station, requiring the Guangzhou Station to focus on collecting information on the mobilization of the Ming army in Guangdong, the status of its troops, and the personnel information of its generals.Especially the mobilization of the army.Regardless of whether the Minister of War is preparing to go abroad to defend against the enemy or to defend and counterattack, it is always the most important to grasp the movements of the Ming army.

In terms of military intelligence, the Foreign Intelligence Agency spent several days collecting and reviewing various materials, and finally came up with a piece of information.

Most of the content of this information was copied from historical records, and then analyzed and summarized based on the sporadic data collected by Guangzhou and Leizhou stations over the years.

"Although we lack sufficient information on the mobilization capabilities of the Ming army in Guangdong, we can roughly infer how much troops the Ming army can mobilize to attack Lingao based on the strength of Yu Zigao's force to drive out the Dutch in Penghu in 1624."

When Yu Zigao sent troops to Penghu in August 1624, he dispatched more than 1 people and more than 800 ships.The Dutch he faced had only [-] ships, large and small, and the army of the East India Company stationed at the fort in Penghu had only [-] troops.

From the comparison of the strength of the two sides, it can be seen that the Ming army is fully aware of the military gap between itself and the Europeans, so it adopted the method of offsetting the quality with quantity, and forced the Netherlands to retreat by overwhelming the city with ten times one black cloud. people.

"We believe that this time the Ming army in Guangdong is likely to repeat the old tricks, and still adopt the mode of overwhelming troops to achieve our goal of demolishing the castle and retreating." Wang Ding summarized the analysis of the Foreign Intelligence Bureau at the military meeting of the General Staff Headquarters. Explain to those present.

It is impossible for the commander-in-chief of the Ming army not to know about the crossing group building a castle in Lingao and training regiments.The reputation of the Australians for their strong ships and guns has already spread.

The commander-in-chief of the Ming army can of course conclude that the enemy he faces is stronger than the Dutch, so if he wants to attack Lingao, he must mobilize no fewer troops than Yu Zigao did back then.

"This time the Ming army will send more troops, not fewer. Otherwise, their military operations will not be successful. This is one." Wang Ding said, "Secondly, Yu Zigao went to Penghu It is a long-distance sea projection, limited by the number of ships and sailors, it is impossible for him to project more troops."

Moreover, the Penghu area is basically a deserted island. Except for water, food, grass and firewood must be supplied by the mainland. Yu Zigao's logistics pressure is very high, so he has probably reached the limit of troop projection with more than 1 people landing.

But Lingao is different. There are many states and counties on Hainan Island, which can solve part of the food on the spot, and can also requisition dogs, livestock and vehicles along the way.The logistical pressure is much less.

"...To sum up, we believe that the Ming army finally mobilized between 3 and 2000 troops on land and water, and the main force should be He Rubin's Zhenbiao Zhongying and Jia Ding, the general soldier of Guangdong. There are about [-] people in this part .There may also be part of the bidding and bid making camp.”

"How did the data of 2000 people in this town come from?" Dongmen Chuuyu asked.

"It's no secret how many people live in Zhenbiao in Guangzhou." Wang Ding said, "Everyone knows."

"There is no false report of the head, and the empty quota?"

"I'm afraid that false reporting of kills will only be in ordinary troops, so the troops that are the core of tactics will not."

"Are there cavalry?"

"There are not many horses in the Ming army in Guangdong. There are only a small number of horses for generals to ride, carry, scout and send orders. Cavalry as an assault force does not exist. So we don't have to worry about dealing with cavalry."

This is not only because the horses in Guangdong are expensive or difficult to source, but also because the climate in Guangdong is also not suitable for the life of horses.In the huge city of Guangzhou, it is rare to see large livestock such as horses, donkeys, and mules.It is also rarely kept in the army.

"What about the firearms?"

"There are a lot of firearms." Wang Ding said that the proportion of firearms and equipment in the Ming army in Guangdong had already exceeded [-]%.And recently there has been a big improvement in the quality of firearms.Wang Zunde's large-scale production of cannons led to a surge in the number of imitation Hongyi cannons equipped.

"So they will definitely bring a lot of cloned versions of Hongyi Cannon."

"The Hongyi artillery imitated by Wang Zunde is mainly 9-pound and 12-pound artillery according to the report from the Guangzhou station and the information we collected from the Foshan channel. The 12-pound artillery is too heavy, and the Ming army lacks livestock for traction, so it is unlikely For field battles, they should bring 9-pound guns. There are also some old-style artillery such as Francophones."

"He Rubin, the commander-in-chief of Guangdong, is famous for being good at firearms. He also has a firearms book "Western Fire Attack Artifacts". He should be a person who has a certain understanding of the power and use of artillery. We must pay attention." Zhang Bolin left the artillery Route, with a strong focus on older firearms technology.He must read every issue of the reference material on military history compiled by the Great Library.

"He Rubin is an anti-Catholic. He was involved in the Nanjing missionary case in the 44th year of Wanli. At that time, the knowledge of Western firearms was completely mastered by Catholics and missionaries. It is unlikely that this anti-Christian has any connection with Western missionaries—— The source of the book itself is also very suspicious—he claimed that the book was written in the 34th year of Wanli, but Ningyuan was mentioned in the foreword—and besides, the imperial court never bought Hongyi cannons before the 34th year of Wanli.” Yu Eshui said with a smile, “ So I said that if he comes to command the crusade army, he will not be any different from other general soldiers in this time and space in terms of commanding operations and using firearms."

"The firearms of the Ming army are not worth mentioning," Ying Yu said. "Even if we use 12-pound cannons to bombard them, they will still be completely defeated. I am afraid that the enemy will retreat before the infantry fires."

"Let's not underestimate the enemy." He Ming said, "Let's continue the discussion. According to your estimates, when will the Ming army start military operations?"

"Yes," Wang Ding nodded, "Our calculation is that the Ming army should be in the second half of this year at the earliest. Around October."

"Is it too wide to calculate?"

“荷兰人二次登陆澎湖是1622年的7月。而明政府以武迫退的决心大致是在1623年的10月过后才下的。俞咨皋的部队也要到1624年8月才出动，差不多整整间隔了一年。这大概是明军动员1万多人所需要时间。”

It is impossible for tens of thousands of troops to be concentrated in one place on weekdays, and they must be stationed in a scattered state.Wang Zunde wants to gather the troops, this is not something that happens overnight.According to the information from the Guangzhou Station, the Guangdong government has not yet raised the military expenses for the deployment of the army.

"Actually, the military operation in Guangdong has not officially started at all strictly speaking. All operations will not be officially launched until the military expenditures are implemented."

But in the first half of the year, the Ming army didn't have much time--it was going to be summer in Lingao, and the beginning of summer was the beginning of the rainy season.The Ming army is not a modern army that can carry out military operations in harsh weather conditions. If the offensive cannot start before June, the offensive will be delayed until after autumn.

"...After autumn comes, there is a threat of a typhoon at Lingao. If the Ming army wants to attack by water and land, it will not start until at least October."

"Is there any possibility for Zheng Zhilong to intervene?" Chen Haiyang asked.

Wang Ding nodded: "Zheng Zhilong's troops are completely ready for battle and can be dispatched at any time. They are our biggest threat. However, Xiong Wencan will not use Zheng Zhilong to curry favor with Wang Zunde. Moreover, his own ability to restrain Zheng Zhilong is also very limited. Unless Zheng Zhilong He thinks it is profitable, otherwise he won't come here to get involved in the muddy water."

"Is it not profitable to beat us? I think it is very profitable."

"He still has a lot of opponents to deal with, so it's impossible to meet us. Li Kuiqi hasn't finished yet."

"According to our latest information," Wang Ding took out a document, "Li Kuiqi's troops were destroyed not long ago under the joint attack of Zheng Zhilong and Zhong Bin."

The demise of Li Kuiqi made everyone feel tense.Every time Zheng Zhilong wiped out a major enemy, it meant that his military strength had expanded a lot, and there was one less force to restrain him.Zheng Zhilong's footsteps were getting closer and closer to Lingao.

The following is less than [-] words
Note:
Li Kuiqi should have been wiped out in the second year of Chongzhen, but I misremembered it as Zhong Bin. In fact, Zhong Bin is about to be wiped out now.

Correct it here.

(End of this chapter)