"Your Highness, what you said is very right, but in this way, more capital investment is also required, and a special person is responsible for arranging management, and I am afraid that the minister stationed abroad alone will not be able to keep busy."

Volyntsov first glanced at the mysterious clerk, and then was the first to respond.

"Since I haven't done it before, there is no need to rush it, because the collection of this kind of intelligence is long-term, and it requires continuous monitoring of many targets, and I also know that the workload is very large, so how to implement it, how to manage it, and how to ensure that it is carried out secretly, all need to be discussed separately, and today I just mentioned that our focus is still on the current war."

"I see, Your Highness"

Warrentsov nodded.

"Well, war-related intelligence is the second meaning of intelligence as I understand it, that is, information that has a significant impact on decision-making in a short period of time, that is, it has extremely high requirements for timeliness. If it is specific to a certain battle, the required information includes who the opponent's generals are, what the generals' command style and ability are, the opponent's army configuration and the number of personnel and weapons, the combat morale of the opponent's soldiers, the opponent's supply lines and supply consumption, the opponent's possible route or the layout of the defensive position and the distribution of artillery, as well as the battlefield terrain, wind direction, sun exposure angle, weather at the decisive battle, etc., all of which affect the generals' decision-making and the victory or defeat of the battle. Well, of course, because of the high timeliness of this information, a large part of the sources of intelligence are not available to us sitting in St. Petersburg, but to delegate the collection, management, and use of intelligence to the commanders, marshals, and generals of the army, who can obtain the information they need through scouts, through guides, through allies, through local populations, and even through prisoners. However, I think this is only part of the story, because high-level decisions from hostile countries are very difficult for marshals and generals on the battlefield to access, and even if they can be obtained, there is already a certain time lag, and it is very likely that they will not be able to make decisions and deployments for the overall situation, which is what is included in the first meaning of intelligence that I just mentioned. It can be seen that there is often some kind of correlation between different intelligence, and a seemingly isolated message is likely to affect some things that we don't know, and then we don't know if it will have an impact on our decision-making in the future, which requires us to summarize and sort out the collected intelligence, and weave the fallen leaves into a web and stitch them into a map."

With that, Peter paused and took a sip of tea.

"In addition, there is a category of intelligence that I think would be more appropriate to call 'common sense'. For example, the topography of the mountains, rivers and rivers, the temperature changes of a certain place throughout the year, the duration of rain and snow, such as the roads between the two places that can be walked by large armies and the roads where small groups of cavalry can travel, similar to what I said, these are rarely major changes, but they have a significant impact on the war, and if the relevant data and information are collected after the war, it is obviously too late. Wouldn't it have been easier to have an advantage if Saltykov's army on the southern front had detailed maps of Austria, Saxony, and Prussia, and could move flexibly even without the Austrians leading the way? But we don't, it's very passive, the army is stagnant, timid, you tell me, can such a battle be easy to fight? ”

"This kind of map information, both Prussian and Austrian, is treated as a military secret, and it is very difficult to obtain..."

The mysterious clerk explained with an embarrassed expression.

"Hard? You tell me what's so hard? Is it hard to steal maps? Wouldn't you find someone to walk through all those places and measure every inch of land, the height of every mound, the speed and width of every section of the river? Hard? It's just that you're too lazy to do it! This is a time-consuming and laborious work, and it doesn't need to be done with your brain at all! Do you still want to say that doing a survey will be suspected by the locals and reported to the local governor? Then think about what identity will not be suspected! Can a businessman be suspected? Will traveling aristocrats be suspected? Can hunters be suspected? Can a gypsy be suspected? If a merchant wants to buy land, he has to measure it; If the land is used for farming, it is necessary to understand the changes of the seasons; If the crops are to be sold, you have to know how to go on the road. There are thousands of reasons that can be made, it depends on whether you are a tendon or not! ”

"Yes, yes, I understand Your Highness!"

Peter slapped the table with some anger, and the bald Shuvalov was nervous.

Although it affected his mood very much, Peter had to admit in his heart that the 'Mei Agency' set up by the Japanese invaders in order to invade and occupy the land of China was indeed a very effective intelligence collection work for the later invasion, and the investigation of the entire terrain, climate, products, transportation, entrance, folk customs, etc., was more detailed than that of the Nationalist Government at that time. This level of detail is something that even the enemy has to admire.

"The three levels of intelligence I just mentioned, that is, the government level, the battlefield level, and the common sense level, although it is too late to start collecting now, it is better than knowing that it has not been done and has not improved, and it is necessary to start working on it from now on."

Speaking of this, Peter glanced up at Bestuzhev.