Chapter Seventy-One: Intricate Intelligence

  After the German Far East Squadron was frightened away by torpedoes, Oskar von Truppel sent a telegram to Fleet Commander Dietrich, stating that the Beiyang Fleet of China had two ironclad warships and if they were determined to fight, the outcome would be unpredictable.

  After reading the telegram, Biedermann was deeply convinced and ordered the army to switch from offense to defense, making all kinds of defensive preparations. He believed that as long as he could withstand one or two attacks by the main force of the Qing army, the entire Qing court would lose confidence, and then wait for an opportunity to find a chance to launch a counterattack and defeat the Wuwei Army, everything would be fine. At that time, it was likely that the Qing country would come to negotiate with humility.

  The situation in Shandong is on the verge of eruption, a major war is about to break out, attracting close attention from domestic and foreign media, with reporters constantly heading north to Jiaozhou Bay in search of news.

  Shandong Governor Nie Shicheng is a traditional Confucian general, and whenever the media comes to visit, he uniformly claims to be busy with official duties and refuses to meet them. The newspaper reporters have no choice but to look for another key figure, Ye Zhiwei. Unfortunately, according to his schedule, Ye should now be in Weihaiwei, Shandong, which is a naval base of the Beiyang Fleet, heavily guarded. It's not easy for reporters to get in, so they can only wait outside for Ye's appearance.

  Weihaiwei, in the Beiyang Navy Admiral's Mansion, Ye Zhikui was discussing battle plans with other generals. The 5,000 troops under his command had disembarked from warships and were resting at the naval barracks before rushing to the front line of resistance against German forces in Jimiao.

  Ye Zongji then set up a command center for the War of Resistance, modeled after the German General Staff, responsible for strategic and tactical research and handling some technical auxiliary tasks, including logistics, marching, stationing, mapping and other work.

  The members of the command center for the War of Resistance included commanders above the battalion level, the general offices of various headquarters units, and some staff officers under Ye Zhiqi. Ye Zhiqi required the command center to come up with a feasible marching plan within one day, as well as study the German army's overall strategy based on various intelligence reports, and our army's corresponding countermeasures.

  Nie Shicheng was directing the troops in Jimo, Shandong and did not come to welcome Ye Zhiwei. Deng Shichang sent a telegram to the imperial court reporting on the unexpected situation that had arisen during this troop deployment. Before long, he hastily came to see Ye Zhiwei who was leisurely practicing calligraphy in his room. He couldn't help but praise: "General Yun is indeed worthy of being called an anti-Japanese general, and yet he doesn't worry about the war at all."

  Ye Zhi Kui secretly felt a little ashamed in his heart, not that he wasn't worried, but rather because he had entrusted everything to others and suddenly found himself with some rare free time.

  Ye Zhi Kui didn't refute him but instead asked: "Deng big brother, it's so late, is there something important?"

  Speaking of serious matters, Deng Shichang immediately put on a solemn expression and said: "It's like this, I just received a telegram from the Military Affairs Department ordering our Beiyang Fleet to cooperate with the army in combat. I came over to hear your opinion, Zuo, and see how our fleet can coordinate."

  Ye Zhiwei thought for a moment and replied, "At present, in terms of naval strength, the German Far East Fleet is not an enemy of our Beiyang Fleet. However, we have to guard against other powerful countries taking advantage of the situation, and to preserve our strength, we must make some concessions to the German Navy. I think, big brother, you just need to prevent the German Far East Fleet from continuously reinforcing Qingdao, and leave the rest to me."

  Deng Shichang smiled and said, "In that case, I'll have the naval forces block the route from Shanghai to Qingdao, not allowing a single German soldier or supplies to reach Qingdao, making them exhausted. By the way, Yun, Ji Cheng has already been demoted and punished by me, I hope you can forgive his previous recklessness."

  Ye Zhiyuan thought of the deputy captain Xu Zhenpeng who had launched a torpedo at his own ship and couldn't help but smile, saying: "Ji Cheng was only acting out of righteous indignation. Such a loyal and patriotic man, how could Yun blame him? On the contrary, I'm worried that you'll punish him too severely, big brother!"

  Ye Zhiwei asked Deng Shichang about the basic situation of the Shandong battlefield, and Deng Shichang worriedly said: "Up to now, Nie's army has launched three major counterattacks against the German army, but unfortunately, each time they returned without success, with very little effect. Alas! It's not that I'm sighing, it's just that the Huai Army has declined and become corrupt too quickly, its combat strength is too weak, and the imperial court originally didn't take them seriously, the supply of weapons and ammunition was also insufficient. Now they are hastily rushing onto the battlefield, some soldiers haven't touched a gun or cannon for one or two years, it's really worrying."

  Ye Zhiwei also knew about these situations. After the Jiawu War, the imperial court, considering that the local militia was too powerful, concentrated the original elite troops of the Huai Army in Zhili Province. Some were reorganized and some were disbanded. Then the imperial court trained a new army, concentrating military power in the center, while leaving behind in other provinces were troops with not-so-great combat effectiveness. The peasants were still okay, but when they encountered Germany's strong military, they could only admit defeat.

  Nie Shicheng, although a famous general of his time, unfortunately, a clever woman cannot cook without rice. He had just taken office and it was impossible for him to greatly improve the combat effectiveness of the Shandong Hualian Army in just a few months.

  Ye Zhi Kui and Deng Shi Chang conferred for a while, the two men talked until late at night before Deng Shi Chang left Ye Zhi Kui's room.

  Not long after Deng Shichang left, the sound of three long and two short knocks on the door was heard outside Ye Zhiwei's room again. Upon hearing this knock, Ye Zhiwei had to hastily get out of bed once more. Before long, he opened the door to find a man in black standing outside with his face covered.

  The man in black with a mask is the person in charge of the East Branch of the Thirteen Hawks, and all the guards outside Ye Zhikui's house are people from the Thirteen Hawks. As long as he takes out the token, it's actually quite easy to get in.

  The man in black walked in, removed his masked attire, revealing a vibrant face, gazing at Ye Zhiwei with eagerness, and saluted: "Subordinate 501, reporting to Young Master Ye."

  Wu in thirteen eagles represents Shandong, 01 is his code name, just from the code name can see he is the person in charge of Shandong thirteen eagles.

  Ye Zhi Kui naturally recognized this somewhat young Shandong person in charge, and couldn't help but smile as he opened his mouth to say: "How is it, are you still getting used to being in Shandong?"

  501 smiled and said: "Thanks to Ye Shao's relationship, everything is fine here. I came to report the good news to Ye Shao specially. The 13 Eagles are developing rapidly in Shandong, and the core personnel above the 9th rank have exceeded 500."

  The thirteen eagles use eagle-shaped decorations as their emblem, with the number of eagle heads representing their rank. The more eagle heads, the higher the status. Nine-headed eagles are already considered core members, and those below nine heads are divided into formal members and peripheral personnel. Within the Thirteen Eagles, there is a strict promotion and reward system. In the previous article, Wu Liu gave Zhao Sanduo an eagle-shaped decoration with one head, according to the rules, Zhao Sanduo can be considered as the most peripheral member of the Thirteen Eagles.

  The person in charge of each province is almost always a golden token with eleven eagle heads, the butcher has twelve male eagles, and as for thirteen male eagles, it's unnecessary to mention that only Ye Zhi Kui has one.

  Ye Zhi's nod of approval was followed by a question: "What about the Boxer Rebellion?"

  Long ago, Ye Zhiqiu received a letter from Nie Shicheng saying that the Yihetuan had appeared in Shandong, and immediately thought of the various kinds of Righteous Harmony Fists in later generations. He then instructed the Thirteen Hawks to infiltrate the Yihetuan when it was still in its embryonic stage and wait for an opportunity to gain control.

  501 also came for this matter, with a confident chest and an arrogant face, reporting back: "As Ye Shao said, now in the large and small Yihequan factions in Shandong, more than 80% of the leadership has our people, and the remaining 20% also have our infiltrators, but their positions are not high and they have not obtained certain command powers."

  After finishing speaking, 501 took out a list from his pocket and handed it to Ye Zhi Kui: "Young Master Ye, this is the only copy of our personnel list within the Boxers United in Righteousness. Please take a look."

  After Ye Zhi received it, he roughly flipped through it and closed it, saying: "Thank you for your hard work. For the Boxers United in Righteousness, we still need to continue infiltrating them. We must ensure that there are our people among the top leaders of each branch of the Boxers."

  501 again reported to Ye Zhi Kui some other relatively important intelligence from various parts of Shandong, and finally presented the German defense map that the 13 eagles had worked hard for many days.

  Yè Zhī Kuí's appearance brought uncontrollable joy, with this, Wǔ Yì Jūn had an additional guarantee of winning.

  Ye Zhi Kui's heart was filled with joy, and even his speech became much lighter, until the break of dawn, when 501 quietly retreated.

  ………………

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