Hijikata is handsome, even if he is fifty years old, even if his hair is gray, the years have only increased his sense of calmness. As a sword hero, Hijikata himself is slightly thin, his movements are light and powerful, and he does not have any feeling of old age. The uniforms of the Hokkaido Army are navy blue, which is more solemn than the olive green uniforms of China. In addition, Hijikata Suizo is a clothes rack figure, and he looks very military.

It was Qi Rui who was responsible for lobbying the third year of the earth, and since Qi Rui suggested having a good talk with the third year of the earth, Qi Rui would be responsible for this matter. Whether or not to retreat was quite controversial in the Hokkaido Army, and if Qi Rui could convince the Hokkaido Army's army chief, the rest of the problem would be easy to handle.

"The purpose of my visit is to convey the view of our military that the Hokkaido Army should choose to resume its original strategic plan at this time. Took control of the northeastern part of Japan, carried out land reform in the region, and established a solid political power. And relying on Tohoku Japan to wage war with the Meiji government. "Qi Rui first showed the banner of the Liberation Army, if the earthwork was willing to give in, Qi Rui would naturally be able to easily make a great achievement.

Hijikata Suizo's words to Qi Rui showed no signs of being shaken at all, he just nodded, "I already know." Looking at the meaning of the earth, he probably thought that Qi Rui, a young man, was just a person who came to pass the word, and the word had already arrived, and Qi Rui could get out.

Qi Rui had seen this kind of big man too many times, and he continued to ask, "Your Excellency, we hope that you can choose to retreat. So the purpose of my visit is to convince Your Excellency. ”

Hearing this, Hijikata Suizo couldn't help but look at Qi Rui a few times again. It was a big surprise that such a young man in his twenties tried to convince Hijikata Suizo. Hijikata said impatiently, "I think you probably know that I have already rejected your leadership. ”

"Your Excellency, I'm from Nanjing. His Majesty authorized us to inspect the war situation, and to judge what to do in the light of the development of the war situation in order to benefit the Hokkaido Army. So my opinion will determine the decision of His Majesty Weese. At such times, I certainly hope to be able to persuade you to take the initiative to retreat. Qi Rui couldn't think of a better way, so he simply moved these out in an attempt to overwhelm the old man of the earth.

To Qi Rui's surprise, he moved out of such a big backstage and did not shake Hijikata in the slightest. The corners of his mouth turned up slightly, and Hijikata Suizo showed a mocking expression, "Young man, since China's decision is to support the Hokkaido Army. If we follow your arrangement, your country will support us. We will not listen to your country's arrangement, but your country will still support us. No matter who you move out to be a cover, we have to stick to our own choices. ”

Touching such a big nail, Qi Rui didn't know what to continue to say. In fact, lobbying others has never been Qi Rui's strong point, and when he encountered the posture of Hijikata Suisan posing with hob meat, Qi Rui felt even more headache. Seeing that things were about to reach a point where there was no room for turning around, Qi Rui simply said: "Your Excellency, I just said this because I want Your Excellency to understand that we are people who are valued by His Majesty Wei Ze. It is because I feel that Your Excellency is not prepared to consult with me at all, so I have to adopt such an attitude. If you find me offended, then I apologize to you. But I really want to discuss this matter with you. I hope you can give me this opportunity. ”

Hijikata was not frightened, and in the face of Qi Rui's intimidation, he naturally wouldn't accept it at all. However, listening to Qi Rui's next words was reasonable, and he also determined that Qi Rui could indeed represent the meaning of the Chinese Emperor Wei Ze to some extent, and he said to the secretary: "Don't let people disturb me for the time being. After finishing speaking, Hijikata said to Qi Rui: "Please use the most concise statement possible to explain your thoughts." ”

"The Hokkaido Army has passed the peak of its strength, just like a person has reached the top of the mountain, no matter how hard he tries in the future, as long as he continues to walk, it will inevitably go uphill and downhill. It's not about personal beliefs and expectations, it's just a natural rule. Qi Rui, who had bought time, hurriedly made an opening statement, then opened the folder and took out a stack of documents.

Before taking out two of the pages and spreading them on the soil side, Qi Rui pointed to the curve chart above and gave a small explanation. Statistically speaking, the peak of the strength of the Hokkaido Army was not the Meiji government driving out of Tokyo, but the moment before the Meiji government army started the war in the Gunma area. The Battle of Gunma certainly inflicted heavy losses on the Meiji army, and the Hokkaido army also paid tens of thousands of casualties. More importantly, from then on, the Hokkaido Army had to control a large area, and the density of troops was greatly reduced, and there was no way to concentrate on a large scale for a single target.

The choice to stick to Lake Biwa is an instinctive response to the decline in power after passing through the peak of power. If the Hokkaido Army looked at any advantage at that time, it was only a relative advantage, not an absolute advantage. If the strength of the Hokkaido Army at that time was still advancing towards the peak, they would naturally choose to move westward.

"From the perspective of hindsight, the Hokkaido Army can certainly say that if it could have responded at that time, it would have been able to continue its victory. But this discussion has moved to the level of a purely tactical level. Tactics are right because they win, and strategy is only right to win. Since the Hokkaido Army was unable to make a judgment on continuing westward expansion at that time, it must have been because you, after weighing the pros and cons, thought that it was not correct, or at least not so, to continue westward advance. "Qi Rui has worked military theory courses in recent years, and he wants to become an intermediate trainer, and his basic skills are solid. These seemingly mysterious and mysterious theories will be truly recognized by commanders who really have experience in warfare. What he is looking forward to now is that Hijikata is a qualified leader. The lower the level of the commander, the narrower his field of vision. Even if he is entrusted with the post of army chief, if his level is not high, his field of vision will only be limited to the field of front-line commanders. Because there's probably only one area he can think about.

To Qi Rui's delight, Hijikata seemed to understand what Qi Rui meant. Looking closely at the charts drawn by the Chinese side based on the information provided by the Hokkaido Army, there are signs that Hijikata has been touched.

Qi Rui hurriedly struck while the iron was hot and continued, "It is about to start snowing now, which means that the replenishment rate of the strength of the Hokkaido Army fighting here will decrease, and the signs of strength going downhill will be more obvious." The Hokkaido Army will have a decisive battle theory, probably because your command department has sensed a greater crisis. I have no doubt that you will make what they think is the right choice, Your Excellency. However, the consideration of strategic issues is not formulated on the basis of facts after the war has started, but the analysis and evaluation of various data before the war occurs. In the course of the war, only modifications were implemented, and basically no overall adjustments were made to the original plan. If you did not conduct a data analysis of the strength of the army before you sent your troops, I suggest that you take a short time to do a data analysis of it. A lot of things can be seen clearly. ”

It is true that Hijikata has not done such pure data analysis, and the development of the Hokkaido Army is certainly based on the Liberation Army as a model, but this kind of data analysis requires a large number of mathematical talents, and the Liberation Army itself could not do this more than ten years ago. Because at that time, the Guangfu Army itself did not have such talents. Don't look at Qi Rui's current talk like a professional, if it weren't for the evil supplement he made up for when he joined the intermediate training class at the beginning, he himself would not even be a layman, he could only be called a layman.

Although Hijikata did not understand these technical issues, he was still a relatively qualified army commander. He quickly agreed to ask Qi Rui to analyze the trajectory of the Hokkaido Army's forces with him the next day.

After seizing this opportunity, Qi Rui immediately made preparations with the students who came with him. The next day, the analysis began in front of the generals of the Hokkaido War Department.

The reason why Hijikata Suizo was willing to give Qi Rui this opportunity was because Qi Rui's words moved Hijikata Suizo. "We firmly believe that you will definitely make what they think is the most correct choice when making a choice," Qi Rui said with sincerity. Generally speaking, when talking about the shortcomings of others, it is inevitable to have a condescending mood. What Hijikata felt here was something else, Qi Rui didn't think there was anything wrong with the choices made by the generals of the Hokkaido Army, he just thought that the generals of the Hokkaido Army failed to look at the war and the world from another angle. In this case, based on his admiration for the Liberation Army, Hijikata Suizo also wanted to see what kind of world the young soldiers who were said to be personally appointed by His Majesty Wei Ze saw what kind of world they saw.

In essence, the world that these young people see is similar to what Hijikata sees, and perhaps not as thoroughly as Hijikata. The problem is that the knowledge that takes time and experience to accumulate is far from being sufficient in the face of mathematics-based statistics.

After the equation for the strength of the Hokkaido Army was listed, the data of different times were entered and the results were quickly calculated. Points on coordinates, connected by curves. The entire Hokkaido Army strength trend map is clearly presented in front of the Hokkaido Army generals.

Using the same equation to substitute the data of the Meiji Army, another curve was also drawn. These two curves crossed once a few months ago, and then they crossed again recently.

"Usually we call this intersection the 'death cross' or the 'golden cross', and the difference is which side we are on." Qi Rui explained. He didn't know that this was the 21st century economic term that his father used, mainly used to analyze the trend between the stock market, exchange rates and other related economic data.

"You can see that this cross occurred twice, and that time our power was also declining, but the shogunate's power was declining even faster. Now it is our power that has fallen, and the shogunate's power has rebounded from the bottom. Again, a cross was formed. After the last crossover, the shogunate chose to abandon Tokyo and retreat to Kyoto, where they had the upper hand. And so their strength began to regain. All we have to do is abandon Tokyo and go to the Tohoku region to prepare for a winter defensive operation. Qi Rui made a judgment based on data analysis.

The generals of the Hokkaido Army had never experienced such a discussion, they looked at the blackboard, and then at Qi Rui, and there was great confusion in their eyes. So these generals finally set their sights on Toshizo Hijikata.