bookrebus Chapter 168 Intelligence Department and Layout
Chapter 168 Intelligence Department and Layout
After receiving Fang Jian's telegram, Jiang Changkun felt a little elated. He thought that Fang Jian's reporting everything to him was a sign that he was following his lead.
He didn't know that Francis Xavier was simply using the power of the New Army in the South to help him resist pressure from the Northern government.
Seeing the smile on Jiang Changkun's face, Chen Xiuqing, the chief of staff of the Southern Army, asked, "Commander-in-chief, what happened to make you so happy?"
"This Lin Zongde is undisciplined, behaves erratically, and is always self-righteous. This time we should teach him a lesson." Jiang Changkun did not hide anything and handed the telegram to Chen Xiuqing.
After seeing the telegram, Chen Xiuqing frowned and said, "Commander, Lin Zongde was defeated. If he withdraws from Sanjiang Province, it will not be a good thing for us."
Jiang Changkun naturally understood this, and he was also very conflicted.
The Northern Government had a total of only twelve armies and fourteen divisions. Three of its armies had been annihilated in Jiyang Province, and three of its armies were held back in Heyuan Province.
It was difficult for him to decide whether to continue to send troops to expand the results of the war, or to quit while he was ahead and stop the Northern Expedition.
Thinking of this, he became even more dissatisfied with Xu Weigong. If Xu Weigong could join the Northern Expedition instead of attacking the warlord troops in the south, not only would they not immediately face the pressure from the southern warlords, but they would also have one or two more armies to send to the Northern Expedition.
When Lin Zongde saw Fang Jian's telegram, he slammed the table and said, "Asshole."
"What good will it do you if I don't help you? Once our army retreats from Sanjiang Province, the next target of the Northern Army will be your Nanshan Province."
After Lin Zongde finished his temper, his adjutant Wang Yunhai stepped forward to comfort him, saying, "Commander, we only have about 10,000 men left. I'm afraid it will be difficult to defend Linjin."
"If Nanshan Province does not come to our aid, we should withdraw our troops back to Jiyang as soon as possible."
Lin Zongde was unwilling to withdraw troops at this time. He gritted his teeth and said, "Dispatch the 35th, 36th, 37th, and 38th divisions to support Sanjiang Province."
"Continue to ask for help from Nanshan Province, and at the same time send a telegram to Jiang Changkun, telling him of our army's predicament, hoping that he can send some reinforcements."
Wang Yunhai was puzzled and asked, "Commander, Commander-in-Chief Jiang will definitely not send reinforcements. What's the point of sending this telegram?"
"Jiang Changkun is a man of deep scheming. He will be extremely happy about our defeat. If we don't send this telegram, he might hesitate and wonder if we have other plans." Lin Zongde sneered.
There is no way. Many people with deep thoughts always like to think too much, especially people like Jiang Changkun, which makes Lin Zongde have to be on guard.
Wang Yunhai smiled and said, "The commander is planning to make Commander-in-Chief Jiang think that we have done our best to attack Sanjiang Province and have no energy left to do anything else."
"Yes, if we transfer another four divisions from the rear, our military strength will reach 50,000." Lin Zongde nodded slightly.
"Fifty thousand men are more than enough to deal with the reinforcements from the Northern Army, but I'm afraid Jiang Changkun will trip them up from behind."
Five days later, Fang Jian was handling official business when Tao Yunong came to report, "Commander, Lin Zongde dispatched four divisions from Jiyang Province to support the Sanjiang front."
Fang Jian was not surprised by this news. After the defeat, Lin Zongde had only two strategies to deal with it: the first was to increase the number of troops, and the second was to retreat.
Whether they increase their troops or retreat, Francis Xavier would not be surprised.
Fang Jian tapped his fingers on the table and fell into deep thought. This year has been a year of constant war for Nanshan Province.
Although Nanshan Province has expanded rapidly, its foundation is unstable and problems will eventually arise if it continues like this. For Nanshan Province, expansion at this time is not a good thing and it needs to settle down for a while.
"Let's put aside the North-South war, we need to deal with internal problems. What is the current size of the Intelligence Department?"
Tao Yunong did not dare to hide anything and introduced the truth: "The Intelligence Department now has 3,000 agents, and another 3,000 are still in training."
This scale is not small, but it is not large either. When you think about the Military Control Commission during the Republic of China period on Blue Star, not counting peripheral organizations, there were tens of thousands of people inside, which is much smaller than the Intelligence Department.
Of course, for the sake of conscientious development, Francis Xavier would not expand the Intelligence Department a lot at once.
Even if we expand the Intelligence Department, we need truly capable personnel. Recruiting people just to make up the numbers will be of no use.
"Okay, Yunong, during this period of time, you will select some personnel to infiltrate Beilong, Xuelin, Mobei, Xining, Yongxi, Guanxi, Nanchuan, Yunshan, Nanyue, Guannan, Xilin, Nanhai, Guangnan and other places."
"Not only do we need to collect intelligence, but we also need to try to get intelligence agents to infiltrate the warlords in various places, or bribe some high-ranking officials to work for us."
Tao Yunong had no objection to this, but during the initial training of the Intelligence Department's 3,000 agents, due to time constraints and uneven professionalism, only a group of outstanding personnel could be selected from them to carry out this task.
Then Fang Jian asked someone to find Zhuang Jiwu and asked him, "Jiwu, how many people are left in the training class now?"
Three hundred people were urgently transferred before, and the rest are still studying in training classes. After half a year of training, they are almost ready to be sent out.
"Commander, we recruited more than 300 students in October last year, 500 students in December, and more than 1,000 students in February after the new year," Zhuang Jiwu replied.
"Of the 300 people selected before, more than 100 were selected from the first batch, and more than 100 were selected from the second batch of students."
According to Zhuang Jiwu, there are only more than 100 people left from the first batch of more than 300 people, and this group of people can almost graduate from the training class.
To put it bluntly, this training class, like the previous classes of the Blue Star Whampoa Military Academy, is a crash course.
"Okay, when will you let the first batch of students graduate and then arrange for them to take up positions in local areas?"
Zhuang Jiwu also had this plan and had wanted to discuss it with Fang Jianan in a few days, but he didn't expect Fang Jianan to bring it up today.
So he said, "Yes, Commander, I will arrange it as soon as possible."
"After these trainees graduate, courts in various places should be established one after another, and the staff needed for taxation and industry and commerce should also be filled as soon as possible." Fang Jian instructed again.
“Don’t be afraid of these people having problems. Build the framework first. Once the framework is formed and more and more people are trained, then slowly deal with those with problems.”
In Fang Jian's opinion, as long as the system is well established, even if these people are corrupt in the early stage, the talents trained later will graduate one after another and can completely replace the original ones.
Although there were not many people in the initial training classes, Nanshan College of Political Science and Law has been established, and there will be people graduating from it every year, which is enough to replace problematic officials.
Compared with the bald government during the Blue Star period, the reason why corruption could not be eradicated after its political system was completed was because the interests of the upper class were solidified and there were no effective channels for talent training.
In the military, there is the Whampoa Military Academy to provide grassroots officers, but in politics, there is no complete talent training system.
Of course, even if the talent training system is perfect, Baldy will not be able to completely eradicate corruption when the interests of the upper class are entangled.
More importantly, the bald couple were the most corrupt officials in the government. This was the reason why the bald government collapsed rapidly during the civil war after the end of the Anti-Japanese War.