Hijikata Suisan was handsome. Even though he was 50 years old and his hair was white, the years only added to his calmness. As a swordsman, Hijikata himself was slightly thin, but his movements were light and powerful. He didn't look old at all. The Hokkaido army's uniform was navy blue, which was more solemn than China's olive green uniform. In addition, Hijikata Suisan's body was like a clothes rack, and he looked very much like a soldier.
Qi Rui was in charge of persuading Hijikata Suisan. Since Qi Rui suggested a good talk with Hijikata Suisan, Qi Rui was responsible for this matter. There was a lot of debate in the Hokkaido army whether to retreat or not. If Qi Rui could persuade the Chief of the Army, the rest would be easy.
"The purpose of my coming here is to convey the opinion of our army. The Hokkaido army should choose to return to the original strategic plan. Control the northeast of Japan, implement the land reform there, and establish a stable regime. And rely on the northeast of Japan to fight against the Meiji government. " Qi Rui first showed the flag of the Liberation Army. If Hijikata Suisan was willing to surrender, Qi Rui would naturally be able to easily make a great contribution.
Hijikata Suisan didn't show any signs of being shocked by Qi Rui's words. He just nodded and said, "I already know." Looking at Hijikata's words, he probably thought that the young man Qi Rui was just a messenger. Since the message had been passed, Qi Rui could leave.
Qi Rui had seen this kind of action too many times. He continued to ask, "Chief, we hope that you can choose to retreat. So the purpose of my coming here is to persuade you. "
Hearing this, Hijikata Suisan couldn't help but look at Qi Rui again. It was a big surprise that such a young man in his twenties was trying to persuade Hijikata Suisan. Hijikata Suisan said impatiently, "I think you probably know that I have already refused your leader."
"Your Excellency, I am from Nanjing. We are authorized by His Majesty to come and inspect the situation of the war and judge what is best for the Hokkaido army according to the development of the war. Therefore, our opinions will determine His Majesty Vézé's decision. At a time like this, I hope I can convince you to take the initiative to retreat. "Qi Rui couldn't think of a better idea, so he tried to convince Hijiko Suisuo.
Contrary to Qi Rui's expectations, Hijikata Suisan did not waver even after he brought out such a powerful backer. With the corner of his mouth slightly raised, Hijikata Suisan revealed a mocking expression, "Young man, since China's decision is to support the Hokkaido Army. If we follow your arrangements, you will support us. Even if we don't listen to your arrangements, your country will still support us. No matter who you use as a cover, we have to stick to our own choices. "
After being rebuffed, Qi Rui didn't know what to say. In fact, persuading others had never been Qi Rui's strong point. Seeing Hijikata Suisan's attitude, Qi Rui felt a headache. Seeing that there was no turning back, Qi Rui simply said, "Your Excellency, I just said that because I want you to understand that we are valued by His Majesty Vézé. I feel that you have no intention of negotiating with me, so I have to adopt such an attitude. If you feel that I have offended you, then I apologize to you. But I really want to discuss this matter with you. I hope you can give me this opportunity. "
Hijikata Suisan was not easily intimidated, so he naturally wouldn't accept Qi Rui's threat. But what Qi Rui said next was reasonable, and he also confirmed that Qi Rui could indeed represent China's Emperor Vézé to some extent. He said to his secretary, "Don't let anyone disturb me for the time being." After that, Hijikata Suisan said to Qi Rui, "Please state your thoughts as concisely as possible."
"The Hokkaido Army has passed the peak of power, just like a person who has reached the top of the mountain. No matter how hard he tries, as long as he continues to walk, he will inevitably go downhill. This has nothing to do with personal ideas and expectations. This is just a very natural law. " Qi Rui, who had bought some time, quickly made an opening speech, then opened the folder and took out a stack of documents.
Pulling out two pages and spreading them in front of Hijikata, Qi Rui pointed to the graph above and made a small explanation. In terms of data, the peak of the Hokkaido Army's strength was not driving the Meiji government out of Tokyo, but in the moment before the Meiji government army started the war in Gunma. Although the battle of Gunma hit the Meiji army hard, the Hokkaido army also suffered tens of thousands of casualties. More importantly, from then on, the Hokkaido army had to control a large area, and the density of the troops was greatly reduced, and there was no way to concentrate on a single goal on a large scale.
The choice to stick to Lake Biwa was an instinctive response to the decline of power after passing the peak of power. If the Hokkaido army had any advantage at that time, it was only a relative advantage, not an absolute advantage. If the Hokkaido army's strength was still moving toward the peak at that time, they would naturally choose to march westward.
"From the perspective of hindsight, of course, the Hokkaido army can say that if they could have responded at that time, they could have continued to win. But this discussion has entered the level of simple tactics. Tactics are correct because of victory, and strategies are only correct to win. Since the Hokkaido army couldn't make the judgment to continue westward at that time, it must be because after weighing the pros and cons, you thought that continuing westward was not correct, at least not that correct. " In the past few years, Qi Rui has worked hard on military theory courses. If he wants to become an intermediate trainer, his basic skills must be solid. These seemingly mysterious and mysterious theories, commanders with real war experience will really agree. What he now expects is that Hijikata Suisan is a qualified leader. The lower the level of a commander, the narrower his vision. Even if he is entrusted with the position of Chief of Army, if his level is not high, the scope of his vision will only be limited to the field of frontline commanders. Because this was probably the only area he could consider.
To Qi Rui's delight, Hijikata Suisan seemed to understand Qi Rui's meaning. Looking carefully at the icon drawn by China based on the information provided by the Hokkaido army, Hijikata Suisan showed signs of being touched.
Qi Rui hurriedly struck the iron while it was hot. "Now it will start to snow soon, which means that the replenishment speed of the Hokkaido army fighting here will decline, and the signs of strength going downhill will be more obvious. The decisive battle theory of the Hokkaido army is probably that your command department has already felt a greater crisis. Sir, we firmly believe that when you make a choice, you will make what they think is the best choice, I have no doubt about that. However, strategic considerations weren't formulated based on facts after the war had started. Instead, all sorts of data analysis and evaluation had to be made before the war broke out. During the course of the war, there is only modification and implementation, and basically no overall adjustment to the original plan will be made. If you have not conducted a data analysis of the army's strength before the war, I suggest that you take a short time to do a data analysis. A lot of things can be seen clearly. "
Hijikata Suisan had indeed not done such a pure data analysis. The development of the Hokkaido army was based on the Liberation Army, but this kind of data analysis required a large number of mathematical talents. More than a decade ago, the Liberation Army itself could not do this. Because at that time, the Liberation Army itself did not have such talents. Although Qi Rui was now speaking like a professional, if it weren't for the cramming he had done when he first joined the intermediate training class, he wouldn't even be considered a layman, and could only be called a layman.
Although Hijikata Suisan did not understand these technical issues, he was still a relatively qualified army chief. He quickly made an appointment to let Qi Rui analyze the strength of the Hokkaido army with him the next day.
After fighting for this opportunity, Qi Rui immediately prepared with the students who came with him. The next day, they began to analyze in front of the generals of the Hokkaido army.
The reason why Hijikata Suisan was willing to give Qi Rui this opportunity was because Qi Rui's words moved Hijikata Suisan. "We firmly believe that when you make a choice, you will make what they think is the best choice," when Qi Rui said this, his attitude was sincere. Generally speaking, when talking about the shortcomings of others, it was inevitable to have a condescending feeling. What Hijikata Suisan felt from Qi Rui was something else. Qi Rui did not think that there was anything wrong with the choice made by the generals of the Hokkaido army. He just thought that the generals of the Hokkaido army did not see the war and the world from another perspective. In this case, based on his admiration for the Liberation Army, Hijikata Suisan also wanted to see the young and promising soldiers of the Liberation Army. It was said that the young soldiers who were personally appointed by His Majesty Vézé saw what kind of world.
In essence, the world that these young people saw was actually similar to what Hijikata Suisan saw, maybe not as thorough as Hijikata Suisan. The problem was that Hijikata Suisan's knowledge that required time and experience to accumulate was far from enough for the math-based statistics.
After the equation about the strength of the Hokkaido army was drawn up, the data at different times were input, and the results were quickly calculated. Points on the coordinates were connected with a curve. The entire Hokkaido army's strength chart was clearly presented in front of the generals of the Hokkaido army.
Then, the same equation was used to replace Ming Zhijun's data, and another curve was drawn. These two curves had crossed once a few months ago, and they had crossed again recently.
"Generally, we call this intersection the 'Death Intersection' or the 'Golden Intersection.' The difference lies in which side we are on," Qi Rui explained. He did not know that this was a 21st-century economic term used by his father. It was mainly used to analyze the trend of the stock market, exchange rate, and other related economic data.
"As you can see, this intersection has appeared twice. Although our strength has also declined, the shogunate's strength has declined even faster. Now, our strength has declined, and the shogunate's strength has rebounded from the bottom. They formed another intersection. After the last intersection, the shogunate chose to give up Tokyo and retreat to Kyoto, where they had the advantage in strength. As a result, their strength began to recover. What we need to do is to give up Tokyo and prepare for winter defense in the northeast. "Qi Rui made a judgment based on the data analysis.
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