At this time, what can you do if you don't obey orders?

Not to mention Ryazan, but Liang Tianyou, who is the vice president, after learning the news, felt a little bitter in his heart, but also knew that they had no other choice but to accept, after all, Jingluo is the largest shareholder of the Chamber of Commerce, and if he refuses, Jingluo can completely replace the Chamber of Commerce with a new company.

This is exactly the risk of dealing with the government!

"At least, Jingluo didn't break his promise!"

When Liang Tianyou was thinking like this, his father's explanation of the "joint-stock company" also made him see an opportunity.

"Outsiders can take a stake in the Beiyang Company, so can't we also take a stake in the Nanyang Company?"

Suddenly, Liang Tianyou, who had figured out this, seemed to see some opportunity, and immediately went to Qinghe Academy with great interest, so as to ask the Western gentlemen in the academy about the "joint-stock system" - there are several professors from Europe in the academy, but their identities are different, since they are missionaries and businessmen, but it is these people who bring Western knowledge to Qinghe Academy and enrich the "practical content" in the academy. The reason why Liang Tianyou thought of the college was precisely because he had seen the content related to the "joint-stock system" from the newspaper, and those contents were written by Western professors in the college.

"Qinghe Journal".

In the library of the shoin, Oshima Yuri looked at the "academic journal", almost word by word reading the contents of the newspaper of the academy, and from time to time made records, he was not just a Japanese merchant who was specially approved by the shogunate, although as early as 20 years ago, Japan abolished the "vermilion ship", but at the same time they allowed a very small number of merchants to trade on Chinese merchant ships, but their purpose was not just to do business.

While he traveled to Qinghe to trade, he also shouldered the responsibility of intelligence gathering, and even this was their main duty. However, unlike the Japanese businessmen who went to Hoi An and other places, he did not need to ask for news, and could get all the information he needed from the newspapers.

It seems that what Jiangbei is now advocating is "practical learning", not the ...... science"

Although he was a businessman, Oshima, who was also a scholar, learned information from this "academic journal" that he had never learned in Japan, and even went out of his way to copy the articles in the "academic journal" in order to bring these words back to Japan.

However, while Oshima was copying the articles in the "Academic Journal", he did not notice that in the library, someone occasionally looked at him, even saying that he did not notice himself, and that this person had been following him and observing his movements almost since his merchant ship arrived at the Qing River.

Of course, although he was being followed, he didn't do anything else, as if he was just there to observe, as if he was there to learn something.

Although Japan only allowed Chinese and Dutch merchants to trade in Japan, as early as 16 years ago, that is, in the sixth year of Japan's Shoho, the Tokugawa shogunate, which actually ruled Japan, stipulated that Dutch merchant ships coming to Japan must provide the shogunate with the latest reports on the situation in the Netherlands and the Western world. What is more noteworthy is that the shogunate set up a special post of "wind storytelling" in Nagasaki, whose task is to listen to the daily conversations of those merchants when the merchant ships of the Manchu Qing or Zheng clans enter the port, and if there is any strange news, it will record it and report it to the local government of Nagasaki immediately, so that it can obtain overseas information at any time. Even the reason why Liang Tianyou was able to enter the port smoothly was because before he arrived in Nagasaki, the shogunate had already learned about our defeat of the main force of the Qing army through the Manchu Qing or Zheng merchants, so they pushed the boat down the river and gave us the same trade license as the Zheng family......"

As the person in charge of the Military Division, Shi Lei is engaged in military law affairs, but the military justice of the Military Department is divided into two kinds because of its duties, one is to maintain military law, and the other is to collect intelligence, the former is similar to the military judge and the military law team, and the latter is similar to the Jinyi Guard, of course, the Jinyi Wei is also divided into the royal guards and intelligence gathering according to its duties.

Because he is engaged in intelligence work in Jinyiwei, Shi Lei, who has expertise in this, naturally pays attention to this work, and it is precisely because of this that he will install a military chief on the merchant ship when the Chamber of Commerce sent a merchant ship for the first time, and it is precisely because of this that he found that compared with Jiangbei, the seemingly closed Japan pays more attention to the collection of intelligence.

Although it seems to be closed to the country, but they through the compilation of the "Wind Story" and the establishment of the "Wind Story" collection, analysis, in terms of intelligence collection, the Japanese do have a certain expertise, and the Japanese shogunate sent those "seal" maritime merchants, also shoulder the responsibility of intelligence collection, of course, this is because of the shogunate's requirements, and in contrast, in this regard, we do not have similar requirements, so that if you want to know a certain place, you have to send troops to set up an intelligence station in that place, and then collect intelligence, so that, Naturally, this has led to a lag in intelligence work, and through our understanding, the Japanese have even been able to understand the situation in the West and in our country through the analysis and study of the "wind storytelling." ”

Shi Lei's report made Zhu Mingzhong's whole person in a shock that he had never felt before.

"You mean, the Japanese gather intelligence through our merchants?"

Almost some kind of instinct, the word "traitor" appeared in Zhu Mingzhong's mind, but then he denied the word, because those businessmen didn't even realize that their random reports were actually providing their own intelligence to the Japanese who were closed off from the country, as for the intelligence collection mission shouldered by Japanese businessmen, it seems that there is a tradition, after all, from the 19th century to the twentieth century, and even in the 21st century, Japanese businessmen paid attention to collecting intelligence, and before World War II, Japanese businessmen took the initiative to collect intelligence. For the use of the military, after World War II, Japan's various trading companies incorporated former military intelligence personnel and analysts into the clubs to set up special intelligence collection and analysis agencies to analyze all kinds of political and commercial intelligence, and obtain a large amount of information from it.

In the past, I only thought that the Japanese attached importance to intelligence gathering after the modern Restoration, but who would have thought that they actually had a "tradition of intelligence", and compared with Japan, until the Opium War, the Qing Dynasty still had a very limited understanding of the situation in the West, and did not know whether "there were dry roads from England to Huijiang", and believed that the British were "wrapped all over, their waists and legs were stiff, and a servant could not recover", so they could not kneel. If there are also "wind storytelling" and "wind talking" in the "Thirteen Lines", how can it be so absurd?

"Yes, even after the merchant ships of the Qinghe Chamber of Commerce docked, they need to be questioned by special officials, and it is through this kind of questioning that they obtain information related to us, although this information is mostly hearsay, but if the content of these hearsay is studied and judged, a lot of useful information can still be obtained. This is the question that the military officer sent by the military department to record his inquiry based on his recollection. ”

took the paper handed by Shi Lei, and on the thin sheets of paper, a series of questions were written that seemed to be no big deal.

"Who is Jiang Zhun Jing's envoy? What is the personality? ”

"What is the relationship between Jianghuai Jinglu and Nanjing Zheng Chenggong?"

"How did the Loyal Rebels defeat the Qing elite?"

……

Looking at the questions on the paper, Zhu Mingzhong's expression became more and more solemn, so that even his breathing became heavy, through these seemingly simple questions, Japan already has a certain understanding of Jiangbei, and what does he know about Japan at this time?

It doesn't seem to be any understanding at all! Except for knowing that Japan produces copper and silver, and that Japan can make huge profits by exporting raw silk and other materials, there seems to be no other understanding.

Zhu Mingzhong, who came from the 21st century, immediately realized the danger because of this ignorance of intelligence. In addition, Japan did not only obtain this information from Chinese and Dutch merchants, but also sent their own merchants to collect local information directly when they were trading overseas.

"Vermilion Ship ......"

A ship with a seal is a ship that is allowed to go to Southeast Asian countries such as Annam, Siam, Luzon, and Cambodia to carry out trade activities. However, as early as 20 years ago, the Tokugawa shogunate completely banned all Japanese ships and Japanese people from leaving the country.

Raising his head to look at Shi Lei, Zhu Mingzhong asked rhetorically.

"Shishi, do you know how Japan used to collect intelligence through the Vermilion Seal Ship in the past?"

The reason why Zhu Mingzhong asked this question was because he really wanted to understand the Japanese intelligence operation mode, and then learn from them, so that he could borrow another unofficial channel to learn about the collection of overseas intelligence information.

The reason why such an idea was born is that in later generations, the Japanese have long been known for attaching importance to intelligence and being good at intelligence analysis, especially the ability to analyze and obtain strategic intelligence information from fragmented detailed intelligence, which is what they are best at.

Just like in that special era, the intelligence officers of Japanese companies judged the location of the Daqing oil field just by analyzing a few photos, and speculated that China needed to import a large amount of economic information such as oil processing and smelting.

Their keen sense of intelligence is far from being comparable to that of some professional intelligence agencies, and learning from them is undoubtedly the easiest and most convenient way to establish new channels to grasp overseas intelligence.

"If we can, can we learn from them?"

Looking at Shi Lei, Zhu Mingzhong asked rhetorically.

"For example, borrowing from the intelligence gathering method of the Zhu Yin ship?"