Mao Yuanyi and Sun Chuanting took Chongzhen's 11-year army personnel appointment and dismissal plan and sent it to the Xiyuan Lodge and reported to Chongzhen in advance.

Although Sun Chengzong, chief of staff, is still very strong, he is already a 76-year-old man after all, and according to Chongzhen's requirements and Sun Chengzong's own will, the work of the army general staff is gradually handed over to Mao Yuanyi and Sun Chuanting, the two deputy chiefs.

As a matter of fact, it was clear to the general staff that the only marshal and chief of staff of the Imperial Army would inevitably retire within two or three years. And the next person who is most likely to take over the post of chief of staff is about three candidates, Mao Yuanyi, Sun Chuanting and Yuan Chonghuan.

Since the establishment of the General Staff of the Army, with the fame of Sun Chengzong, Lu Shanji and others, as well as the strong support of the emperor, the newly established body of the General Staff quickly seized most of the authority of the Governor's Office and the Military Department of the Five Armies. This power grew with the victories of the Forces nouvelles everywhere, so that the civilian clique could no longer be as supreme as the military clique had done before.

However, whether the General Staff can continue to maintain this strong position depends on the personal ability of the next chief of staff who will succeed Sun Chengzong. From the current point of view within the General Staff, Mao Yuanyi's qualifications are too shallow and his personality is weak, and it is really difficult to lead the General Staff to continue to maintain its independence from the civilian clique under pressure.

And Sun Chuanting and Yuan Chonghuan, not only have the status of Jinshi, but also have relatively strong personalities, with them leading the General Staff, there is no need to worry about the civilian clique meddling in military issues. It's just that Sun Chuanting is quite trusted by the emperor, and Yuan Chonghuan has a very good reputation among the courtiers, and the voices of the two are about the same.

However, it is also clear to everyone that the civilian officials may be able to express their opinions on the choice of the reserve candidates for the first assistant of the cabinet, but the military ministers from the general staff down do not want to form any gang, and the choice of who will take over as the chief of staff of the army depends entirely on the opinion of the emperor alone.

The middle and lower class officers trained by the Beijing Army Military Academy, the Nanjing Army Military Academy, the Southwest Army Military Academy, the Kunming Army Military Academy, and the Guangzhou Army Military Academy, together with the new army system, are eliminating the old military systems such as Jiangmen, border army, and guards, and unifying the Ming army in the hands of the emperor alone. Under such a system, the local military attaché wanted to challenge the emperor's grasp of military power, which was no different from a pipe dream.

Because of this, although Sun Chengzong's resignation was a foregone conclusion, the local military ministers below were not in a hurry to run out and hug the thighs of the three, but waited for the emperor's statement.

However, Chongzhen still seems to be still observing the candidates for these chief of staff, and has not revealed his opinion on the future candidates for the chief of staff of the army.

After reading the personnel appointment and dismissal plan in front of the two, Zhu Youzhen crossed out a few lines of words, added a few lines of words, and said: "Anton Marquis has been fighting behind enemy lines for decades, creating a town on the Dongjiang River, how can he only be awarded the rank of lieutenant general, and after he returns to Beijing, he will be awarded the rank of general and will serve in the Senate."

As for the post of the chief soldier of Dongjiang Town, according to Anton Hou's wishes, Chen Jisheng was ordered to take over. As for the deputy commander-in-chief of Dongjiang Town and the county guard of Tieshan County, they were handed over to Kong Youde to take over.

Lu Xiang was promoted to the commander-in-chief of Uiju, and Shang Kexi took over as the Jeju 1st Infantry Division. The 31st, 32nd, and 33rd Divisions were formed under the command of Zhou Wei, Zu Kuan, and Yan Yingyuan, and these three divisions were merged into the 11th Field Army, which was commanded by Lu Xiangsheng. The defense area of the 11th Field Army is Yizhou, Chaoyang, and Wuliangha until Chahanhot..."

After hearing this, Mao Yuanyi couldn't help but say worriedly: "Geng Zhongming guards Dalian, Zhao Chengdong guards Primorye, and Chen Jisheng and Shang Kexi take over Dongjiang Town and Jeju First Infantry Division, won't the entire north become the power of Anton Hou?" If something goes wrong..."

Zhu Youzhen glanced up at Mao Yuanyi, and then asked Sun Chuanting, who was thinking on the side, "Boya, what do you think of Shi Min's worries?" ”

Sun Chuanting glanced at his colleagues around him, and then replied to the emperor: "The minister thinks that there is no problem with Your Majesty's arrangement. Now Andong Hou should be more worried about the accident in the north than the imperial court, so as not to affect him. Besides, with the Bohai Fleet and the East China Sea Patrol Mansion in the hands of the imperial court, these places separated by the sea will not be able to set off any storms after all. Even if a few generals are moved by Jianyu, the soldiers under his command will not be completely opposed. ”

Only then did Zhu Youzhen nod slightly and said: "It's a good thing to be vigilant, after all, the Army General Staff is in charge of all the armed forces of the Ming Dynasty, and it is the duty of the General Staff to ensure that these forces are loyal to the Ming Dynasty."

However, how to ensure that these forces are loyal to the Ming Dynasty cannot be determined by guessing, let alone tying the generals to the middle and lower classes. To ensure that the Ming are loyal to the Ming in force, we need to establish systems to instill faith in our soldiers, so that they can become a new type of army that truly belongs to the country.

Of course, the city of Beijing was not built in a day, and we need a process to replace the old style of generals with such a new army, and the soldiers will be the old army model. In this process, we do not have to face the enemy's attack and co-optation.

Therefore, we need to raise the price of these old-style armies to betray the Ming Dynasty, that is, to make the Qing state unable to afford to buy these armies. I hope that you will think more about how to establish such a system, instead of aiming at a limited number of personnel, which will easily lead to mountaineering in the army and disappointing local officers. ”

Sun Chuanting glanced at the emperor with some surprise, and then lowered his head, he finally understood why Chongzhen said this to the two of them, this was to remind him and Mao Yuanyi not to engage in the same party and disagreement in the General Staff. Although Mao Yuanyi's comprehension ability was worse than Sun Chuanting's, he also woke up in a moment.

Seeing that the two no longer objected to their revisions, Zhu Youzhen pointed to the plan and asked a few more questions, before handing over the personnel appointment and dismissal plan to the two of them, asking them to take it back and write it again, and then report it to the Ministry of War for review.

Only then did Zhu Youzhen ask: "Regarding the information sent back by the Russian mission, can the General Staff draw any conclusions?" ”

Mao Yuanyi and Sun Chuanting glanced at each other, and under Mao Yuanyi's chin, Mao Yuanyi replied loudly: "According to the attitude shown by the Russians, it is obvious that the power of the Russian center has been transferred from the hands of the tsar to the hands of the All-Russian Gentry Conference.

These great Russian nobles were not as friendly to our country as the Tsar himself, and they only wanted to intercept the trade interests of our caravans and limit the boundaries of our development to the north. And from the confessions of the survivors of the Russian expedition sent back from Temple Street, it can be seen that the Russians have great ambitions for the whole of Siberia.

It took the Russians to cross the Ural Mountains and see the West Siberian Plain in the thirteenth year of Wanli, but today they have crossed the entire Siberian region and saw the Sea of Okhotsk in the east. It is said that the journey from the Ural Mountains to the Sea of Okhotsk is not less than 10,000 miles. It has occupied such a vast land in a short period of time, and has become a de facto neighbor of our Ming Dynasty.

The Russians divided Siberia into three parts: eastern, central and western, and in addition to Western Siberia, Central Siberia and Eastern Siberia were all places with lush mountains and forests and bitter cold climates. The Russians were able to traverse such a region and survive in such a difficult environment, and if they were allowed to gain a foothold in Eastern Siberia, they would probably be an even more vicious enemy than the Jianling.

The General Staff came to the conclusion that an alliance with the Russians was undoubtedly a conspiracy with the tigers, and that sooner or later they would be our enemies, and that it would be better to drive them back while they had not yet gained a foothold in Eastern Siberia. Only in this way can the great Russian nobles know who they are dealing with. ”

After listening to Mao Yuanyi's words, Zhu Youzhen lowered his head and thought for a while before continuing to ask: "Is there only one opinion in the General Staff?" ”

Sun Chuanting added: "There is also an opinion that the northern areas occupied by the Russians are not suitable for farming, so the number of people who have migrated here is not large.

At present, the great enemy in the north of our country is the Manchus and the Mongol tribes in the steppe that have not yet been completely subjugated, so it is really inappropriate to erect another northern enemy. It is better to wait until the threat of the Manchus and the Mongols has been eliminated, and then find an excuse to drive the Russians back to Europe. ”

Zhu Youzhen was also noncommittal about Sun Chuanting's addition, he got up and walked to the globe on the edge of the desk, and gently turned it around with his hand before pointing his finger at the globe to stop it.

Zhu Youzhen then pointed to the globe and said: "The Age of Discovery, which was started by Europeans, has actually explored most of our earth.

According to the compilation of all the information in our possession, in fact, the truly civilized countries are distributed on these two connected continents, the so-called Eurasia.

As for the African continent and the American continent and the islands in the Pacific Ocean, for the time being, although there is human life in these areas, they are still in a very primitive social form. Therefore, when the civilized nations of Eurasia arrived in these regions, they could only become conquered, and their lands became the spoils of the conquerors.

As I have said before, the world is increasingly divided into three competing civilizations. And these three civilizations are also located on the Eurasian continent, the westernmost Christian civilization on the continent, and the Chinese civilization in the easternmost part of the continent, which have occupied the * civilization in the belly of the Eurasian continent.

Judging by the current situation, the * civilization occupies the most populous area, while the Christian civilization occupies a vast resource. As for our Chinese civilization, we have just seen the scenery outside the pond at the gate.

In the competition of civilizations, the use of force is naturally indispensable, but force is not everything that solves the problem. Before using force, we must first be clear about what kind of world we want to build. It's like a painter painting a painting, he always has to be confident before he can put pen to paper.

The ink of the ink pool is limited, and the national strength of the Ming Dynasty is the same, if you splash ink at will without any idea, in addition to wasting the national strength in vain, it will not bring any benefits to the Ming Dynasty. Especially for a country like Daming that needs to have a sea and land strategy, we can't write lightly.

So now I would like to ask both of you, when you think about Sino-Russian relations, do you think about Sino-Russian relations in the context of Eurasia? ”