"What do you say? The warehouse was supposed to store more than 500 million rounds of ammunition for emergency use. As a result, you now tell me that half of these munitions do not know where they are going? A New Army officer led by him put his hands behind his back, looked at the colonel guarding the storehouse in front of him, and asked in a cold voice: "Are you planning to let me use this set of rhetoric to report back to the New Army Headquarters?" ”

"Your Excellency, Your Excellency...... I also had no choice but to do it, and the deficit in this ammunition depot was not caused by me alone. "Although the rank is a colonel, the colonel in front of him does not dare to snub these junior officers from the new army, you must know that just a day ago, they have seized another ammunition depot, held a military tribunal to hang 17 derelict officers, and directly disbanded the officers and soldiers of a battalion guarding the ammunition depot.

While wiping his sweat, he put a check on the desk beside him with a wry smile, and said in a mournful voice: "This is the various benefits I have received over the years, and I don't dare to touch a penny...... But this ammunition is really not something I can control, and if I don't take this money with me, I can't sit still in this position. ”

On the one hand, the colonel actually knelt down crying, and with tears in his eyes, he told himself how he had gone from a good young man who had made progress to a poor corrupt official who neglected his duties and misappropriated materials.

As he spoke, he even hugged the thigh of a New Army officer, so that these New Army officers did not know what to do - not every corrupt official is an abominable bastard, but they have never thought about their conscience when they do bastard things. When their affairs are revealed, their conscience instantly returns to their bodies, but at this time it is too late, and what awaits them is only the end of the road.

"I said, Lieutenant Colonel Guo, something is wrong with this...... We walked through 2 arsenals along the way, and it turned out that the stocks of these arsenals were only a third of what was recorded on paper, and the situation was similar if the nearby arsenals were all ...... Doesn't it mean that in the Gyeonggi region of the Ming Dynasty and Jiliao in the northwest, the ammunition reserves are only less than half of those on the books? Next to the new corps commander Guo Xing was a young man wearing the rank of captain, and after thinking for a while, he said: "You can't wait, report this situation to Deputy Commander Wang." ”

If the entire Ming Dynasty's border defense line, as well as the buffer zone behind this defense line, has actually dropped to half or more of the original actual standard - then once war breaks out, the entire defense line will be in danger of collapsing.

As a staff officer who graduated at the same time as the crown prince Zhu Mu and Wang Jue, this young man named Wang Yan was keenly aware of the extraordinary dangerous atmosphere, he looked at Guo Xing, and suggested: "This news must be reported to the headquarters immediately, and even to the cabinet." ”

"It makes sense, this matter must be reported back, and all the soldiers we brought with us are arranged around here, and martial law is here. The remaining ammunition was gathered and prepared to be transported back to the Tangshan New Army garrison. Guo Xing put his hands behind his back, looked at the town guard officer who was already crying silently at his feet, nodded with an unhappy face and said, "Just do it, report to the headquarters as quickly as possible!" ”

……

When Wang Jue got this telegram, he was surprised and couldn't say half a sentence. He always thought that even if the army system of the entire Ming Dynasty was rotten, it was much better than other departments in terms of combat effectiveness and standardization. But now he found out that he was wrong, because after this incident, he found that the entire army of the Ming Dynasty seemed to be overwhelmed.

Closing the telegram in his hand, he closed his eyes, rejoicing on the necessity and correctness of his formation of the new army, and thinking about how many black hands behind the scenes were stirring up in this matter, and how he could use this matter to seek the greatest benefit for the new army's own son.

"Send a telegram to the Jiliao front line to remind Wang Nu of the idea of no more arms!" Wang Jue summoned the dead soldiers of the Wang family who were following him, and opened his mouth to instruct: "Use the Wang family's private telegraph line, and be sure to let Wang Nu stabilize the situation near Fengtian." ”

After finishing the order, he called another officer and handed the telegram to the other party: "Go to the Prince's East Palace and report this matter to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince immediately." Tell him that maybe war will break out in the border area in the near future, let him find a way to enter the palace and tell His Majesty the Emperor as soon as possible! ”

"I instruct His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to ask His Majesty for the authority to take over the nearby weapons and ammunition storage point!" Wang Jue stared at the officer's eyes and said solemnly: "If any of these ammunition goes wrong, our reserve ammunition will not be enough to support a war!" ”

"Then, let General Sima Mingwei, the staff officer of the headquarters, write a fold and hand it to the palace! I send it by the normal way! The first auxiliary and the second assistant should be sent to the other side, don't mess with the charter. After instructing His Royal Highness the Prince, Wang Jue called a third person and continued to explain the order: "Hurry up and do it!" ”

"Yes!" After hearing the order, the two officers hurriedly stood upright, stretched out their hands and clenched their fists on their chests, and replied with a salute: "Long live the Ming Empire!" Subordinates will do it! ”

This etiquette is a requirement that every soldier in the New Army must strictly enforce, and it can be regarded as a detailed embodiment of patriotic education -- all soldiers of the New Army must undergo patriotic ideological education and training for one hour a day, and it will never be interrupted unless they carry out their tasks.

"Someone! Prepare the horses! Let the soldiers of the 1st and 2nd regiments gather at once! Waiting for the holy decree brought back by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince! As soon as His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's order arrives, he will immediately control the large ammunition depots in Tianjin, Tangshan and other places! Without the order of His Majesty the Emperor, no internal ammunition can be misappropriated! After Wang Jue finished these instructions, he took a step and walked out of the door.

"Deputy Commander, where are you going?" After leading a war horse, Wang Jue's adjutant asked suspiciously.

"Me? What else can I do? Go to the arsenal in Tangshan and personally check the distribution of ammunition in the past year, there is such a big mess, there must be some clues in the books, and when His Majesty the Emperor arrives at the factory, I am afraid that these things will have been burned down long ago. As soon as Wang Jue pulled the reins of the war horse, and as soon as his legs clamped his crotch and lowered the horse's belly, the war horse threw off its hooves and rushed out of the gate of this spacious compound.