Chapter 2042

Tao Donglai frowned and said, "Wang Tom wants to use this as an excuse to start a war with the Qing army? What does he plan to do?"

Yan Chujie said: "Wang Tom's plan is to use the special battle group and the Navy's Northern Fleet as the main force to enter the Bohai Sea and attack the Qing army strongholds on the west coast of the Liaodong Peninsula. The main targets are the two acropolises of Gaizhou Guard and Fuzhou Guard. Through The military strike blocked Shenyang's channel for transporting supplies to the Liaodong front line. He also hoped to draw Ming Dynasty to send troops together in this operation, so that our troops would be well-known when entering the Bohai Sea and no longer have to worry about Ming Dynasty's attitude."

After listening to this, Tao Donglai slowly shook his head and said: "I don't think it's appropriate. Even if we defeat these two places, the current military strength in Liaodong is not enough to achieve long-term garrison. We have to recruit a large number of troops locally and expand the garrison." To increase the scale, we can only replenish troops from the south. But that means there will be greater military expenditures in the local area. Considering that the output of the Liaodong region is limited at this stage, even if it occupies a larger territory, it will not be able to obtain it. Enough revenue to support the military expenditures needed to maintain rule is actually a loss-making deal for us."

"How about attacking but not occupying? From a political point of view, if Ming Dynasty can send troops to coordinate, maybe this is a good opportunity to show off its muscles to the Ming court." Seeing Tao Donglai's resolute attitude, Yan Chujie changed to another one. Persuasion from an angle.

Tao Donglai still shook his head and said: "Follow the previous practice and leave after fighting? But the Ming army may not be able to accept such a strategy. If they agree to send troops, they must have the idea of ​​regaining the lost territory. If they defeat the two acropolis After coming down, the Ming army may not be willing to withdraw honestly, and will most likely choose to station troops locally. By then, the Ming army's stronghold will be on the chokepoint of the Liaodong Peninsula. Not only will it be a thorn in the side of the Qing army, but it will also become a thorn in the side of the Qing army in the future. A stumbling block in front of us! When the Qing army wants to seize these two places again, will we care or not?"

Regarding the situation on the Liaodong Peninsula and Haihan's local strategy, there are actually several different opinions among Haihan's senior leaders. Not everyone supports the continued military attack on the Qing Dynasty. Even those who have always been supportive of the military's opinions Tao Donglai also had reservations about whether he should continue to proactively carry out combat operations in Liaodong.

The military's position is of course that it hopes to arrange one or two major military operations in Liaodong every year. While it can hone the combat effectiveness of the troops, it can also consume the strength of the Qing army, making it unable to divide its troops to attack the Ming Dynasty, so as to achieve the goal of containing its military strength. Purpose. Of course, increasing the influence of the military by supporting war with war, and gradually expanding the military as the war progresses, are also additional effects of this type of action.

But every large-scale military operation means astronomical military expenditures and material consumption. Even for Haihan, who has strong war mobilization capabilities, launching a large-scale war in a distant overseas country is not easy. In addition to the impact that the war will have on the international situation, the Executive Committee must also consider very practical issues, such as the direct benefits that Haihan can obtain through the war. Money, land, property, population... various resources will be Calculate the value and use it to measure whether it is worth going to war.

Among Haihan's many overseas ruling areas, Liaodong has actually been regarded as a "low-value area" by the Executive Committee. This is not entirely because of the lack of natural products in the area, but because the comprehensive development costs and returns are not proportional. Only by moving a large number of people into the local area can it be possible to achieve Haihan-style rapid development. But if a large number of people can be organized in the north, then why bother moving to Liaodong, where infrastructure is incomplete and war may break out at any time, and to the more peaceful south. Isn't the ruling area better?

When the Haihan army crossed the sea from Shandong to attack Jinzhou, one of its main purposes was to contain the Qing army and give the Ming Dynasty a chance to breathe. This effect has indeed been achieved. But it is necessary to continue to increase troops in Liaodong to join the Qing army.

There is actually no need for Haihan to fight to the death. Even if he wins, Haihan does not have enough troops and population in the local area to occupy more land, and there is little economic gain directly from the war.

Pitiful.

It is precisely based on this consideration that the Executive Committee's long-term strategy for Liaodong Jinzhou tends to be conservative. Most people believe that maintaining the current military confrontation situation is an ideal state. This will allow Jinzhou to maintain a relatively stable state.

The social environment will help local infrastructure development and construction, and it can also save unnecessary military expenditures. It can also achieve the strategic purpose of continuing to contain the Qing army.

As for pulling Ming to send troops, taking this opportunity to show off his strength, etc., from Tao Dong's point of view, such a purpose is not necessary, and the expected benefits will not be much better. If not handled well, it may become his own.

Looking for trouble. In the eyes of the Ming Dynasty, there is not much difference between Haihan and the Qing Dynasty in nature. They are just enemies who use force to occupy the territory of the Ming Dynasty. To say the least, even if Haihan sends troops to destroy the entire Qing Dynasty, then

It may not necessarily win the respect and trust of Ming Dynasty, but it may be regarded as the biggest threat.

"I think Wang Tom's plan should be discussed later when the relevant investigation has more detailed results. Now I just want to know when the mastermind behind the planning and implementation of this series of things will be caught!" Tao Donglai didn't want to say anything anymore.

I continue to debate with Yan Chujie on this topic. There are too many problems with this plan. Even if it is submitted by the military to the Executive Committee for discussion, it will be difficult to pass. There is no need to convince the other party at this time.

What really worries the Executive Committee is the shooting case, which has been under investigation for almost two months. Although the investigations carried out in various places have made varying degrees of progress, the final answer to the mystery has still not been solved.

The performance of the department can hardly be called satisfactory.

Yan Chujie coughed dryly and said: "Actually, we have gradually narrowed down the scope of the suspect's activities through investigation. I think the truth will come to light soon."

He Xi also added: "We have a lot of clues, but it takes time to conduct follow-up investigations overseas. Mr. Tao, this is not the era we came from. Skynet can be called everywhere, and you can be contacted with just a phone call.

Overseas, our people often need to spend many times the time and energy to verify a piece of information, and considering that they may alert the snake and cannot take investigation actions with great fanfare, it is difficult to investigate the case any faster."

He Xi's complaint is also true. In fact, outside the Sanya base camp, the number of personnel in the Haihan Intelligence Department is very limited. An overseas administrative area with a staff of more than ten or twenty people is already a high-level area. Even

In a place like Liaodong that is classified as a war zone, the total number of people from the Ministry of Security and the Military Intelligence Bureau is less than forty. These places cannot mobilize hundreds of people with a single order like Zhang Qianzhi presided over the investigation work on Hainan Island.

Go to a certain place for reinforcements, or seal off a certain place for large-scale investigation.

The shortcomings caused by the lack of professionals are obvious. Similar to gun cases that occur in various places, the range of information that intelligence personnel can obtain when conducting investigations is relatively narrow, making the investigation work very difficult.

When Gong Shiqi and Ji Yuanqing went to Yangzhou to investigate the salt merchants, neither the Military Intelligence Bureau nor the Ministry of Security had permanent personnel there, so a lot of key information could not be obtained in advance, and the entire action plan seriously lacked detailed arrangements. This also led to their failure in the local area.

He was once in danger and had to fight a bloody battle all night before escaping from Yangzhou.

When Manila sent investigators to Cebu, it lacked enough professionals and had to use a group of Hispanic and local indigenous intelligence agents who had just entered the intelligence system. Although the subsequent investigation progress seemed pretty good,

But these gains seem to be due more to intelligence agent Jose's luck than to their investigative skills.

Even in Hainan Island, where the investigation is proceeding relatively smoothly, in order to investigate some of the clues obtained from the prisoner's confession, it still needs to rely on intelligence personnel stationed overseas for verification. The opponent obviously has a strong counter-reconnaissance awareness, and there are many possibilities.

The clues that revealed his whereabouts and identity were cut off in advance, which also caused the intelligence department to encounter many difficulties in following the investigation ideas.

Of course, as an official in charge of security intelligence affairs, He Xi definitely cannot give reasons such as "because the enemy is too cunning" at such a meeting. The reason can only be attributed to the fact that the investigation work is limited by objective conditions, which is barely a reason.

Justifiable reasons.

He Xi then introduced the progress of the investigation work in various places. As of now, the local investigation work in Hainan Island has actually come to an end. All those who can be arrested have been arrested, and seventy-seven clues of the investigation have been found.

It's almost eighty-eight. The current work being done at the headquarters of the Ministry of Security is to collect, organize and compare the clues investigated from various places to find out the timeline and general context of the contacts between the mastermind and all parties.

The two places in the north brought the investigation to an end through fighting. Although some clues were obtained, because the intention had been exposed, subsequent verification was very difficult. But the good thing is that in these two places

The combat operations basically achieved the effect of eliminating potential threats. In Yangzhou and Liaodong, a musketeer team that had not yet fully formed combat effectiveness was destroyed. The process was much more dangerous than the Ministry of Security's arrest of Xue Zheng's group in Danzhou.

The place where valuable clues were actually obtained was in Manila, which was the last to enter this joint investigation operation. The fledgling intelligence agents relied on their invincible luck to obtain some very critical intelligence in Cebu - such as the upcoming

Another batch of weapons and equipment has been shipped from Cebu to somewhere overseas.

Although it is impossible to confirm where this batch of weapons will be transported, the news sent back from Cebu indicates that these weapons will be transported by a cargo ship under the name of a Han merchant. This means that if Haihan can intercept this batch of weapons,

A ship can not only confirm the route of weapons smuggling, but also possibly unearth the real mastermind behind the scenes.

However, this is beyond the capabilities of the Ministry of Security, and the navy must be dispatched to complete this task. He Xi handed over the conversation to Yan Chujie, who explained the military's current arrangements for this.

Yan Chujie said: “After receiving the report from Manila, the Ministry of National Defense has notified the local navy to monitor the channel between Luzon and Mindoro, which is the main channel from Cebu north to the mainland coast.

Once a suspicious ship is found passing through the waters, the navy will take decisive action."

Tao Donglai raised his hand and said: "I have two questions. One is the probability that the opponent will pass through this strait, and the other is what the local geographical environment is like and whether the opponent's ship can be detected in time."

Yan Chujie said: "Of course there are many routes to the north. It is impossible for us to monitor all sea areas. We can only choose the most likely route. It is hard to say how likely it is, but according to our understanding, in the past, there was a route between Cebu and Manila.

All ships will choose this route with the closest sea conditions and the best sea conditions. As for the local environment, the narrowest part of the strait is less than ten nautical miles, and there is a Verde Island in the middle that divides the channel into two. It is enough to send a few more ships.

It can monitor the waterway. Of course, this can only deal with conditions during the day. If the opponent chooses to pass through the strait at night, there is a possibility of missing the target."

"Then do we have other means to make up for this loophole as much as possible?" Tao Donglai asked.

Yan Chujie paused for a moment before replying: "Without having more information, we can only judge based on known intelligence that the destination of this batch of weapons should be one of Yangzhou and Liaodong. So the national defense

The Ministry has also issued orders to the East China Sea Fleet and the Northern Fleet, requiring them to inspect suspected ships entering these two waters in the near future. But this is definitely much more difficult than monitoring a strait, and I believe everyone can understand the reason."

Compared with the strait channel with a width of less than ten nautical miles, it is extremely difficult to rely on ships to conduct real-time monitoring of the long mainland coastline at sea. Therefore, Yan Chujie cannot give any guarantee to the Executive Committee. He can only say this

It's a covert method, and its effectiveness probably depends on God's arrangements.

Although it sounds like the military has taken almost all feasible measures in this regard, in fact it still depends largely on luck. A sailboat with a displacement of less than 100 tons is a very small target on the vast sea, let alone Haihan.

It failed to grasp its route, departure time and destination in advance. If the opponent's cargo ship successfully left the South China Sea, Haihan's attempt to find the opponent would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

"It seems that what we have to compete with our opponents this time is not only patience, but also luck!" Tao Donglai's expression and tone were as calm as ever: "But I believe that no matter who is causing trouble behind the scenes, they can give us a solution."

The troubles we create are only temporary. No matter how deeply these monsters are hidden, they will eventually show up one day!"
Chapter completed!