Chapter 1984

He Xi's speculation is more radical and bold than Yan Chujie's conclusion. He believes that regardless of whether the mastermind behind the scenes is Spanish or not, there must be other forces involved, so that the opponent can distribute these special weapons over such a large geographical area.

If it were just Spain, then Haihan wouldn't need to worry too much. After all, judging from the records of many battles in the past few years, he has always been firmly suppressing the other side and has no fear of the Spaniards causing trouble in the South China Sea.

But if the Spaniards get some help that allows them to expand their influence from the South China Sea to Northeast Asia, then it will not be a small problem that Haihan can ignore.

"Other forces? Lao He, can you be more specific?" Ning Qi asked curiously.

He Xi said: "We have not obtained actual evidence yet, but the holders of these weapons are obviously the most suspected people. The Qing army, salt merchants, and the masterminds behind the plan to attack the crown prince of Joseon. There is no doubt that these forces are closely related to

Weapons providers have direct contact, and some are even providing them with tactical training. You can think about what kind of stakes bring them together."

"It's a position." Tao Donglai responded: "A position that is hostile to us! The forces that can obtain these weapons from overseas are either enemies on the battlefield or have direct conflicts of interest with us. With these weapons

After that, people who originally did not dare to challenge us now have more confidence to express their position."

Tao Donglai's words illustrate another commonality among these current events, which is the position of the parties holding special weapons. Although the reasons for these forces' involvement must be different, their common enemy is Haihan

, and may even include important allies of Haehan. The fact that the Crown Prince of Joseon was targeted may be one of the concrete manifestations of this stance.

"What you say makes sense, but there is still a lack of evidence."

After listening to it for a while, Gu Kai expressed his opinion on the discussion: "I'm not saying that Lao He is making a fuss, but the Ministry of Security was investigating a case in Danzhou before, and I heard that it used the entire resources of Danzhou to pretend to be the crown prince of North Korea.

The atmosphere of the visit was used to lure the snake out of its hole. Of course, the final result was quite satisfactory. The bad guys were all caught and the Crown Prince of Joseon was safe after changing his itinerary. But after so much effort, I heard that the real behind-the-scenes still hasn’t been found out.

Black Hand. Should we consider investigating the case in Danzhou first and then infer any potential connections with what happened in other places?"

Regarding the operations of the Ministry of Security in Danzhou, the Executive Committee actually has different opinions. It is important to solve the case and arrest people, but the Ministry of Security's approach of requiring all public and private institutions in Danzhou to cooperate in order to solve the case will make people feel that it is overstepping the rules.

Suspicion. In other words, there are no clear legal provisions on which level of local government the Ministry of Security can command. In special circumstances like the arrest of Xue Zheng and his gang this time, some controversy will inevitably arise.

Although Danzhou Mayor Zhang Xin has no objection to this and has given the Ministry of Security the greatest support for its investigation within the scope of his authority, after this matter is reported to the Executive Committee, senior officials like Gu Kai will still

Question the rationality of the case handling procedures.

This is not that Gu Kai intends to cause trouble for the Ministry of Security. His worries are justified. After all, the Ministry of Security itself is a privileged organization that is only responsible to the Executive Committee. It receives too little supervision on its external actions and relies almost entirely on the executors.

Their own professional qualities and loyalty. However, if there is someone with ulterior motives or impulsiveness in the Ministry of Security who intends to create chaos, it will easily cause the local government to be at a loss due to lack of supervision.

He Xi responded: "The investigation of the case in Danzhou is indeed not over yet, but since some of the evidence can be linked to situations that occurred in other places, we should consider combining the investigations. As for the case you mentioned in Danzhou

Too many resources have been used in the arrest work. This situation does exist. We are also sorting out relevant information and will submit an explanatory report to the Executive Committee."

He Xi would not debate with Gu Kai whether it was necessary for Zhang Qianzhi to take those unconventional measures in Danzhou. He understood what the other party meant, but he did not want to affect the existing operational privileges of the Ministry of Security. So he officially

Put this issue aside, and as for the subsequent report submitted to the Executive Committee, we can try to polish it slowly when the time comes, and maybe the case will be clearer by then. If the subsequent evidence can confirm He Xi’s guess, then the Executive Committee

The focus of the meeting will definitely no longer be on the case-handling procedures.

Although He Xi dislikes these power struggles in the officialdom, he also knows that as long as he continues to be in charge of the privileged department of the Ministry of Security, he will continue to face these annoying "trivial matters." He is not a master of intrigues, but he is good at understanding people's hearts.

Because of his professionalism, he can generally deal with the occasional "picking" from other officials and departments calmly.

Tao Donglai raised his hand and tapped the table lightly and said: "As for whether the Ministry of Security's investigation work in Danzhou is in compliance with the procedures, I think this issue can be discussed later. The focus now is still what Lao Yan and Lao He just discussed.

The special situations that have occurred in these places. I think that out of careful consideration, it is necessary for us to consider some worse situations in advance, such as the possibilities just listed by Lao He, so that we can calmly deal with various situations in the subsequent investigation.

An emergency situation."

Tao Donglai's statement was obviously on the side of the Military Intelligence Bureau and the Ministry of Security. Generally speaking, his statement would have the final word, and today was no exception. The tone of the meeting was immediately set, and gun-related cases occurred in three places.

All must quickly follow up the investigation and invest more manpower and resources to ensure that the situation does not deteriorate further.

Tao Donglai's worries about the situation were not unfounded. Although the firearms found in these places were not used on a large scale, the group captured in Danzhou even only had one handgun, but Haihan himself

Having relied on armed forces, I naturally knew that training musketeers was not that difficult as long as the firearms and ammunition were in place. If professional officers could be trained, it would only be a matter of time before an organized musketeer unit emerged.

Of course, to cultivate truly combat-effective troops, training alone is definitely not enough. After all, it must be polished by actual combat. The small groups of musketeers that appeared in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Liaodong were considered by the Military Intelligence Bureau to be engaged in actual combat.

An attempt was made to verify the feasibility of this combat method. But once this method of combat achieves good results, there may be situations that Haihan does not want to see in the future.

However, this is only a relatively extreme situation. In fact, to establish an organized unit using firearms, the number of firearms and ammunition required is not small. And if the scale of the armed force is too small, it will be difficult to pose a real threat to Haihan.

I think at the beginning, the colonial armed forces of Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom, which had fought with Haihan, all had muskets and artillery. However, because of their limited strength, they could not rely on their superiority in strength to close the gap in weapon performance, so they all became Haihan.

The army's generals were defeated.

Although these Western countries' colonies in East Asia also have some small arsenals, their production capacity cannot support the combat needs of large armies. In fact, a considerable part of the weapons used by local armed forces come from distant Europe and are not produced locally. If we say

The difficulty of arming an army of another country outside the colonies will naturally increase exponentially.

However, this cannot completely eliminate the possibility of transferring weapons manufacturing technology. Especially if a big financier like the Jiangsu and Zhejiang salt merchants who is not short of money wants to buy the musket manufacturing technology at a sky-high price, and supplemented by some other cooperation conditions, then

It might also tempt the Western colonists who have mastered the technology. As for the Qing Dynasty, although it was far away in a bitter cold land, the resources it could bring out would only be more than those of the salt merchants, and its stance was to fight against the Haihan to the death and to the sea.

For Han's Western competitors, this was certainly an excellent target of support.

If the Qing Dynasty had mastered the manufacturing technology of flintlock muskets, even if its performance was average and its lethality was average, it was just a usable musket. If it had used resources to manufacture and equip troops in large quantities, it would have been really difficult for Haihan, who had a limited garrison in Liaodong.

It would be a huge threat. Even if the Qing army retreats ten thousand steps and places the main attack direction of its firearms troops on the Ming Dynasty instead of the Liaodong Peninsula, it will be an extremely bad situation. If it masters Western artillery manufacturing technology, then

It’s even worse.

After the meeting, several urgent telegrams were quickly sent from Victory Fort, asking Haihan to pay attention to the movements of civilian armed forces in nearby areas in various occupied areas along the Ming Dynasty, especially private armed forces in the form of various militia groups. If

If it is found that they are equipped with standard muskets in batches, the Ministry of Security and the Military Intelligence Bureau must be notified immediately for follow-up investigation.

Even in areas like the Fu-Guang area, which have been infiltrated by Haihan, the executive committee still dare not be careless. After all, in addition to the many vested interests in these areas who have become rich and promoted by Haihan, there are also many

The unlucky guy whose family declined or lost his job because of Haihan's appearance. There are many people who admire Haihan and want to hug him, but there are also many people who hate Haihan. If these people are given the opportunity to fight Haihan with force, then

It’s hard to say that many people will jump out and take risks.

In addition, Shandong is also an area with great hidden dangers. Although Fushan County, which is actually controlled by Haihan, is relatively peaceful, the chaos caused by the Denglai Rebellion in Shandong is still continuing, and there are still some people on the Shandong Peninsula.

The armed bandits were active. During the period when Haihan occupied Fushan County, he had several battles with the Dengzhou garrison, and also dealt with a group of disobedient landowners and squires. His hatred in the local area cannot be ignored.

After such statistics, everyone in the executive committee couldn't help but feel that there was a crisis. In recent years, Haihan's development had been smooth, and they had not felt like this for a long time.

"Look, the people in Fort Victory are getting anxious!" Qian Tiandun came to Wang Tom with the telegram he had just received and informed him of Fort Victory's latest decision.

Wang Tom took the telegram and read it carefully, then smiled and said: "Fort Victory is worried that the Qing army will install firearms on a large scale. This is not so easy to do. Even if they have the technology to make weapons, they don't have the production level!

"

"But with this telegram, it is indeed easier for us to operate here." Qian Tiandun responded: "The Executive Committee has authorized us to take military actions based on the situation, so we don't have to stick to small-scale reconnaissance.

, when necessary, troops can be dispatched to attract the opponent's attention."

"After all, you still can't help but want to fight!" Wang Tom has worked with Qian Tiandun for many years, and he knows the other's true thoughts as soon as he hears it. The reconnaissance operation a few days ago was overturned by the navy, and Qian Tiandun must not be satisfied with this.

Too willing, after all, how can such an interesting thing as defeating the Qing army be left to the navy alone?

Qian Tiandun said seriously: "There is only one opponent in Northeast Asia. We can only use them to train troops. There is no choice. The troops have been resting here for a long time. It is time to move and stretch their muscles."

Qian Tiandun was not particularly concerned about how many new muskets the Qing army was equipped with, and whether there were heavy weapons such as artillery. He also knew that the Qing army would not be able to install these advanced weapons and equipment on a large scale in a short period of time.

The main purpose of the operation is to confirm the specific situation of the Qing army's weapons. There is no need to specifically ask Victory Fort for instructions for this operation. But if it is a large-scale attack, they must first submit the combat plan and obtain approval before it can be implemented. Now, it is carried out

If the committee authorizes them to decide on their own whether to take military action, things will be much easier to handle.

Both the Datong River base and Jinzhou have large amounts of ammunition and weapons storage, which is enough to support large-scale operations. North Korea and Shandong can both provide food, medicinal materials and other military supplies to the front line, and can complete war preparations in a very short time. Whether it is

It would not be too difficult for Haihan to launch an offensive from the direction of Jinzhou or North Korea.

If it is just for military training, it is not enough to start such a large-scale war. Therefore, whether or not evidence of the Qing army's use of new weapons can be found will become the decisive factor in whether Haihan adopts military strikes.

It's called eliminating hidden dangers.

Of course, in the eyes of senior generals like Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom, whether the Qing army's use of new weapons can be truly confirmed is not a necessary condition for whether to start a war. The main consideration is how to maximize the combat effect. If there is no actual

In order to gain more benefits, you have to bear the risk of losing troops and generals, so there is no need to go to war.

"Wait for a while. We have news about the Marine Corps' reconnaissance operation, and then we will consider the next step." Wang Tom was not opposed to choosing an opportunity to teach the Qing army again, but he had more factors to consider. At this time, the Liaodong region

Winter has already entered, which is not a good time to launch large-scale combat operations.
Chapter completed!