By April 85, the Manchu Qing had stationed nearly 600,000 troops outside Siqi Province, of which less than 50,000 were elite Qing troops, and the remaining Qing troops were all green battalion soldiers or militia overrecruited on the spot. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

Among the dozens of cities near Siqi Province, there are more than 10,000 troops stationed in small and medium-sized cities, tens of thousands of troops in large cities, and nearly 600,000 Qing troops are distributed in these dozens of cities.

The people who originally lived in the city had already moved out of the city, or moved to the countryside or fled to other places, and they did not want to leave the place where they lived, but in order to avoid possible war and harassment by the Qing army, they had to leave.

600,000 troops is such a huge number, take the book that had just started a war with the Manchus, the standing army was only 30,000, and it took nearly a year to expand to 100,000.

In addition to the huge territory of the Tsarist Russian army of more than 600,000, the number of the remaining national armies did not exceed 600,000, and in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, 600,000 was only a part of its army, you must know that the Manchu Qing Dynasty also had 100,000 Beiyang New Army in training, garrison troops stationed on the border, and green battalions in various places, in total, the number of Manchu Qing troops now exceeds 1 million.

How much money would it cost the Manchus to maintain such a large army?

The Eight Banners soldiers pay three taels of silver a month, the elite Qing army such as the Huai Army and the Hunan Army pay one tael to two taels a month, and the ordinary green battalion soldiers earn one tael to one tael or two a month and a tael, and a large number of recruited militiamen, except for the five taels of silver settlement allowance at the beginning, do not even have a monthly stipend, just eat, and even many militiamen's clothes are tattered.

Even so, there are still a very large number of people who have become militiamen, and they are just a group of poor people who want to have enough to eat.

600,000 Qing troops, firmly surrounded the province on three sides, only the west remained, the Manchu court was eager for the "short-haired thieves" to march to the west, for the Qing court, the west was only a deserted land, far less important than the four provinces.

For the Han army, it is very simple to defeat the 600,000 Qing army, but compared to the Han army, which is too small in number, it is simple to defeat and defeat the Qing army, and it is impossible to encircle and annihilate the 600,000 Qing army.

The Han army will not shrink in the four bars forever, today's waiting is for a better tomorrow, but one day the Han army will play the four bars.

In order to avoid this problem, Yan Xueyi had already instructed Cao Wenbin to let the Ministry of Intelligence rebel against the Qing army that surrounded Siqi, but there were many traitors who forgot their righteousness in the Qing army that were plotted against in the early stage, and finally led to many middle and lower-level officers of the Qing army who had defected to their side were caught and beheaded by generals loyal to the Manchu Dynasty.

The Ministry of Intelligence accepted this lesson and prepared to continue to rebel against the Qing army, and a plan called "Hiding from the Sky and Crossing the Sea" gradually took shape, which aimed to more covertly rebel against some of the Qing army's upper-level generals (commanding more than 10,000 people) and middle- and lower-level officers (commanding less than 1,000 people).

Over the next year or so, the project was perfectly executed by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence.

Although the Qing army was vigilant because of the failure of the first rebellion of the Ministry of Intelligence, the agents of the Ministry of Intelligence grasped the personality characteristics of some Qing generals and used money to bribe and other methods to easily infiltrate the Qing army and carry out rebellion operations.

According to the intelligence materials submitted by the Ministry of Intelligence, three Qing army generals and one-tenth of the officers have been plotted against them, and the results of the "Concealing the Sky and Crossing the Sea" plan have been gratifying.

Judging from the proportion of generals and officers who have been rebelled, the three generals who have been rebelled against are all under the age of 40, and they are considered young among the generals, and the older generals are more loyal to the Manchu Qing Dynasty and are more difficult to rebel, while the middle- and lower-level officers are generally "younger" and more likely to be rebelled.

In particular, the impact of the last two wars on the Qing army was particularly great, and it was easier to rebel.

Compared with the 600,000 Qing troops of the miscellaneous army, the Ministry of Intelligence paid more attention to the Beiyang New Army, and the rebellion of the Beiyang New Army was also part of the "Concealment from the Sky and Crossing the Sea" plan.

Even if the 600,000 Qing troops were all rebelled, ordinary officers and soldiers would only become workers or peasants, while the 100,000 Beiyang New Army, once they were rebelled, could soon be transformed into the Han army.

Entering the 85th year, Liu Zhengshan and other part of the one-year crash course students graduated and joined the Beiyang New Army, with Liu Zhengshan's academic performance, Liu Zhengshan was appreciated by the generals of the Beiyang New Army, plus the help of the Ministry of Intelligence, as soon as he entered the Beiyang New Army, he became a team officer, equivalent to the company commander of the Han Army, and the other students were basically deputy officers, chief and deputy platoon commanders.

The cadets who graduated from the Tianjin Armed Forces Academy had just entered the Beiyang New Army and were "unfamiliar with the place," while Liu Zhengshan had the highest official rank, and everyone actively moved closer to Liu Zhengshan, and Liu Zhengshan's Kyodo Society continued to grow.

In addition, the middle and lower-level officers in the Beiyang New Army also knew that Liu Zhengshan's undergraduate students would be valued, so they befriended Liu Zhengshan, allowing Liu Zhengshan's contacts to expand rapidly and lay the foundation for his further work.

In the invisible corners of the Manchu court, the "foxes" were trying to dig one big hole after another for the Beiyang New Army, on which the Manchus had high hopes.

After reading the information sent by the Ministry of Intelligence, Yan Xueyi was very pleased, the Ministry of Intelligence did a very good job, and being able to infiltrate the Manchu Dynasty so quickly is enough to prove the efforts of the Ministry of Intelligence, and Cao Wenbin has made great contributions.

With a phone call, Cao Wenbin was summoned to Yan Xueyi, and Cao Wenbin, who was dressed in black and had a straight face, made outsiders look a little gloomy.

"You're doing a good job, and the teacher doesn't even know what reward to give you, okay?" Yan Xueyi said with a smile to Cao Wenbin.

"Serve the teacher, don't ask for anything else." Cao Wenbin said immediately.

Yan Xueyi was silent for a moment, and suddenly thought of what reward to give Cao Wenbin, so he said to Cao Wenbin: "By the way, you haven't married a wife yet, you are 25 years old, how can you not marry a wife and have children?" In the past few days, I will ask your wife to find you a lady. ”

When Cao Wenbin heard the teacher's words, he suddenly turned into a bitter gourd face.

"What? Don't want to? Looking at his student's bitter face, Yan Xueyi asked.

Of course, Cao Wenbin is not unwilling to get married and have children, but as the Minister of Intelligence, he is busy to death every day, how can he have time to fall in love, Cao Wenbin himself does not want to find a wife at will, so he delayed, it can be said that Cao Wenbin is a novice in love.

The teacher wants to give him a marriage, and if he doesn't want to, he has to be willing, and others don't have the opportunity to get the teacher's marriage, Cao Wenbin sighed in his heart before replying: "The student is willing." ”

"If you want." Yan Xueyi said with a smile.