After kicking the chair, Vézé told the secretaries not to tell anyone about it, but Vézé still felt uneasy. According to what he had learned about confidentiality, the so-called "don't tell anyone about it" was just to let the people who spread the news think that "the commander-in-chief doesn't want us to tell anyone about it". Vézé wasn't very confident about human nature.
However, what surprised Vézé the most was that Guard Captain Lv Shengzhong couldn't help but interject, "Who doesn't have evil thoughts? That's your own business. But if you go out and say that Political Commissar Lei Hu made the commander-in-chief angry, that's sowing discord. You know what the crime of sowing discord is, right? "
This sentence made the secretaries completely understand the seriousness of the matter, and they immediately promised not to sow discord. Looking at the faces that understood the problem, Vézé felt that his ideological work was really bad. The secretaries weren't psychologists. What they were most afraid of was not reason, but the real deterrent to them was the organization's punishment. The crime of sowing discord was better than a long speech about personal awareness.
At first, Vézé felt that Lv Shengzhong did a good job, but after thinking for a while, he still felt that he couldn't completely learn from Lv Shengzhong. Using power to intimidate subordinates was the most handy tool for a ruler, but the side effects of this kind of thing were too big. Just like how Vézé could use his power unscrupulously, this kind of overdraft would demand a high price from Vézé in the future.
But this was just a small matter, and Vézé didn't have time to think about it at this time. Because Vézé finally didn't show any negative emotions, when he told everyone about the latest changes in the Political Bureau, the comrades in the Political Bureau didn't take it seriously. Since the assault had become a flat sweep, and a large number of troops had killed their way into the four northern provinces, there was no essential difference whether the Xiang Army was destroyed on the south bank of the Yellow River or on the north bank of the Yellow River.
At the Military Commission meeting, no one had the intention to laugh at Lei Hu. They were all experienced soldiers. When they saw the escape route of the Xiang Army, they knew that it was impossible for Lei Hu to catch up with them. Although it was theoretically possible for the cavalry to give chase, the cavalry was a unit that the Liberation Army spent a lot of money on. If something really went wrong and caused the cavalry to suffer heavy losses, whose responsibility would that be? Lei Hu's conservative approach was approved by the Military Commission. If someone else from the Military Commission were to be the commander, they would also make the same choice. In fact, the fact that Lei Hu had used his cavalry to annihilate 5,000 Huai army infantry was enough to prove that Lei Hu's usage of cavalry was much better than others.
In the new plan, Lei Hu commanded eight armies to attack Beijing while the Navy cooperated with the Zhejiang Military Region to attack Tianjin. The navy's plan was to occupy Weihai first and build a transfer station there. With this transfer station, it was estimated that they would be able to transport more than 50,000 troops to Tianjin within a month at most. Even if Lei Hu hadn't attacked Beijing at this time, the Manchu Qing could not resist the Navy's transport troops alone.
After these things were discussed, Vézé made a few more specific requests. He wanted to do his best to seize the Manchu Qing's documents, materials, and books. In particular, he needed to pay more attention to Prince Yi's residence. It was said that there was a complete copy of the Siku Quanshu there. In Vézé's time, the Siku Quanshu was basically destroyed. In history, it was said that Prince Yi's residence still had the Siku Quanshu.
At this time, the Liberation Army had no shortage of officials who had escaped from Beijing. The map department was ordered to make a map of Beijing, as well as the location of various documents and archives, as well as a map of the interior of the Prince's residence.
These tasks seemed trivial, but they took a lot of time. As soon as he sorted out the clues, a telegram about Li Hongzhang's surrender arrived in Nanjing. Vézé did not doubt that the famous paperhanger of the Qing Dynasty would surrender. Li Hongzhang might be a capable man, but he was not a man of character. In times of crisis, there was no need to count on this man's loyalty.
On the other hand, the Military Commission felt that it was troublesome whether they should formally shed all pretense of cordiality with the Taiping army. The commander of the Sixth Army, Hu Chenghe, asked, "Commander-in-chief, should we increase the military budget?"
Vézé was slightly shocked by this. Everyone was from the Taiping army. Even though they had parted ways, Vézé felt that the Military Commission might not be too eager to act against the Taiping army. In the end, Hu Chenghe's words destroyed this thought.
After Hu Chenghe expressed his stance, he continued, "I think it's enough to let the Sichuan military march north to Hanzhong. Even if we increase it, it won't be much."
"We don't have enough troops!" The Director of the Political Department, Shen Xin, also sighed.
At first, Vézé felt that this was true. However, after thinking about it, he realized that there was a problem. It was said that during the heyday of the Manchurian Qing Dynasty, there were 90,000 soldiers. Currently, the total number of soldiers in the Liberation Army had easily exceeded one million. Coupled with the continuously expanding Railway Corps and Engineering Corps, it seemed that the total number of soldiers in the future would reach 300 million without much pressure. Moreover, the basic units that were exploring the South China Sea were also semi-military organizations. In this way, the army could really defeat an unprecedented five million or more.
The population might not be as large as the Manchu Qing, but the number of troops was at least three times that of the Manchu Qing. Even so, various places still thought that the number of troops was not enough. This kind of contradiction sounded a little funny.
However, after thinking about it again, Vézé felt relieved. The power that an industrial country could gather was not something that an agricultural country could compare with. Vézé's army might be similar to the British army in terms of combat power, but it could easily destroy the Manchu Qing army. The stronger the combat power of the army, the stronger the mobilization power of the country. The United States even mobilized more than 10 million troops during World War II, when the population of the United States was less than 200 million. This was an industrial country, and this was the basic ability of a modern country.
Thinking of this, Vézé was no longer excited. He said, "If Chen Yucheng sees that we take Luoyang and immediately retreat, then we will be happy to take the four northern provinces first. If Chen Yucheng insists on fighting, then we can only fight. At this point, although we want to fight later, it may not be entirely up to us. I will discuss the budget with the Ministry of Finance when the time comes. "
The discussion took half a day, the telegram back and forth took less than a day, and the news from Xuzhou to Zheng County took four days. Lei Hu ordered two armies to go to Luoyang. If Li Hongzhang really surrendered, then they would take over Luoyang and Li Hongzhang's troops. If Li Hongzhang pretended to surrender, then they would kill Li Hongzhang without hesitation.
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