Beiyang Zuozhen military camp, just near Baoding, these big soldiers in a few years ago did not bring disturbance to the local area, but brought a little prosperity, at least this fireworks alley, the tavern business because of their existence is much better, some of the first pull out of the winter, the Western-style barracks suddenly deserted.

However, after only ten days' work, with the return of the officers and men of the infantry and cavalry artillery battalion of the brigade, the barracks, which had been deserted for ten days, once again became noisy. In the barracks dormitory, there are many dormitories where no one lives, and there is dust and dust all around. The door suddenly opened, and a crowd of soldiers poured in. Zhou Shaoqi is also among them. More than a year of his career as a horse restrained his ambition and showed a heroic spirit. And the soldiers looked tired, threw down their guns and luggage, and cursed and scratched.

"Grandma's, it's finally back!"

"Mom, grandpa has been practicing in the field for a few days in the cold winter, and there is no one at home to clean up?"

"It's such a life to be a soldier, it's useless to scold!"

At this time, an officer walked in, it was Lei Zhenchun, the standard commander, and the soldiers immediately fell silent, straightened their waists and stood upright.

Lei Zhenchun, who entered the barracks, had a calm face, obviously hearing the soldiers' complaints.

"The things that the dog said were just the six days of winter, but they were bitter!"

As soon as he saw the standard and seemed to want to be angry, Zhou Shaoqi took a step forward and saluted.

"Report to Lord Biaotong, the brothers just said something tiring, but they never complained bitterly when they practiced."

Looking at Zhou Shaoqi, Lei Zhenchun's face softened, and this week Shaoqi gave Zuo Xie a long face.

The status of chief of staff in Beiyang is very low, and it is generally held by young non-commissioned officers who are familiar with military operations, and the auxiliary chief officer. And Zhou Shaoqi just graduated from the Beiyang Crash School, so he was appointed as the former standard general staff officer. Who would have thought that the big handsome would suddenly come to the standard camp in winter, and directly asked the officials of the standard camp.

"How many people have come to the front of the Left Association? How many people are left behind? How many sick numbers are there? How many minor illnesses? How many are seriously ill? How many tents came? How many horses came? ”

Lei Zhenchun, who was a standard, couldn't answer a word, his face was red, and he had to say, "I can't remember." If you ask someone else, at most you will say, "These are all accounts to check, just look at the accounts." At that time, everyone saw that the commander of the front step team took a leave of absence due to the death of his mother, and immediately appointed the acting leader of the front step team and battalion.

"Zhou Tong, come out with me!"

"Yes! My lord! ”

As soon as he got out of the barracks, Lei Zhenchun, who was originally stiff-faced, had a smile on his face.

"Gongjie, this time you showed your face in front of the handsome!"

"The whole system is well trained! Shaoqi didn't dare to take credit! ”

Zhou Shaoqi, who didn't know what the standard meant, hurriedly said.

"Okay, Gongjie, this time you showed your face in front of the marshal, and the marshal also wrote down your person, no, the training office came yesterday, and you entered the staff and battalion office of the supervision and training office as a staff officer! The future is limitless! ”

Zhou Shaoqi was stunned, the staff officer of the Staff Office! And Lei Zhenchun was just smiling, with a smile on his face, and a smile in his heart, this week's Gongjie showed his face in front of the handsome, but it also made him lose face Lei Zhenchun, and going to the staff office is basically equivalent to pension!

Before entering Baoding City, Zhou Shaoqi found that the atmosphere in Baoding City today seems to be a little different, the patrol police battalion with guns at the city gate is checking the people entering and exiting with guns, etc., even if he is wearing a Beiyang military uniform, holding the order of the Supervision and Training Office, but he was also interrogated before being put into the city, and everywhere in the city can be seen the Beiyang Army who are carrying guns in and out of the alleys, searching hotels and restaurants.

"What's going on?"

I was surprised, and walked for a while, Zhou Shaoqi went to the Beiyang Supervision and Training Office, and also went through some inventory when he entered the office, there were several rows of neat red brick barracks behind the Supervision and Training Office, and the barracks were German-style barracks. At the back of the barracks, in the staff barracks office, after he had explained his intention to a man, he was received by an officer who was a few years older than him but had the rank of colonel.

"Zhou Shaoqi, is it?"

"Yes."

"I'm Li Jiaping, the word is far away! The staff officer of the General Staff Office, it is really an honor to be able to meet a young and promising brother like Gong Jie. ”

The two shook hands, and Li Jiaping laughed, ignoring the surprise on Zhou Shaoqi's face. Most of the people in the Beiyang New Training Army knew Li Pingyuan's name, and the German instructor once mentioned that Li Jiaping was the real staff officer. And in terms of plausible plans and map performances, there is almost no one in the entire Beiyang. Naturally, the marshal also praised it, so when the right town was first built last year, the marshal had intended to go to the right town to take charge of the first standard troops, but Li Jiaping said that he was not suitable to be the commander of the army, and was only suitable for the staff department to plan for the marshal, and missed the opportunity in vain. Although he is not in charge of this staff office, he is also a staff officer with considerable influence, and ordinary staff officers cannot be compared with him.

"Brother Gongjie, come, follow me."

Saying that, he took Zhou Shaoqi into a room. This is a lounge, but from the layout of the room, it is more like a war room, with battle maps hanging and spread everywhere on the walls and tables, and everywhere exudes a strong atmosphere unique to the army staff office. The wooden floor on the floor and the brown leather cushions on the seats have a strong foreign smell.

However, under the wall, there were still several Western-style oil paintings with war themes, and when he walked in front of the oil paintings, Zhou Shaoqi stopped. From these oil fields, he saw that one of them was the oil field where Yuan Shikai quelled the Korean rebellion, which was obviously intentional by the painter and the painter, and what he did was nothing more than a slap on the horse.

Li Jiaping said and smiled, pointing to the chair on the side.

"Please sit down, no one will care about you for the next two days!"

"Huh? Sir, why is that? ”

Zhou Shaoqi frowned in a daze, is it because the Spring Festival is coming? No, it won't! This is not a green camp.

"Yesterday, someone attempted to assassinate the commander!"

After seeing Zhou Shaoqi sit down, Li Jiaping sat down opposite him.

"Assassin Marshal?"

Looking at Li Jiaping in surprise, Zhou Shaoqi couldn't imagine that anyone in Baoding would dare to assassinate the marshal. When he came, he only thought about how there were Beiyang soldiers everywhere in Baoding City, and he didn't think about someone assassinating the marshal at all.

"It was done by the revolutionary party, when you came, you didn't see that there were three sentry posts outside the training office, and bullets were also distributed to people in the battalion, who knows if the revolutionary party will throw a bomb at this training place?"

Laughing, Zhou Shaoqi didn't notice the slight mockery between Li Jiaping's eyebrows.

"Let's have a cup of tea first."

"Thank you, sir!"

In extreme shock, Zhou Shaoqi nodded slightly, not noticing his identity as an official and asking the chief to pour tea for himself.

"Sir, did the assassin catch it?"

"It doesn't matter if you can catch it, the important handsome is not injured, isn't that the most important thing?"

Glancing at Li Jiaping strangely, Zhou Shaoping nodded and said.

"Yes, sir! The most important thing is that Dashuai is not injured! ”

"Speaking of which, those revolutionaries are stupid enough!"

Li Jiaping took a sip of tea and looked at the snow falling outside the window.

"I've heard that you were selected to the staff office when you were in the winter because you answered questions that you couldn't answer in the standard?"

Li Jiaping's smile was contagious, and when he smiled, his entire face, especially around those friendly eyes, rippled layer by layer, and anyone who met for the first time would be moved by his straightforwardness.

"It's just numbers that some staff officers have to learn."

Zhou Shaoqi replied humbly, and at the same time had some good feelings about this person who welcomed him personally.

Listening to his answer, Li Jiaping shook his head.

"I can't remember those numbers, and no one in the entire staff office can remember them!"

As he spoke, he took a sheet from the table.

"After the marshal came back, he had been to this examination school and everyone, and no one could report those numbers in one bite, and the marshal said, such a talent as Gongjie is exactly what the staff office needs, so you came here, why are you disappointed?"

Zhou Shaoqi smiled again.

"Back to sir, it's not disappointing, it's not bad in the staff office!"

"The staff office has no power, and the status of the staff officer is not high, unless you can win the favor of the chief officer, you will never be able to stand out in the staff office."

Li Jiaping held the teacup in both hands, and put an insincere expression on his face.

And Zhou Shaoqi laughed out loud.

"If that's the case, then why is Brother Pingyuan staying in this staff office? Everybody knows you'......"

"Know I didn't go to Right Town?"

Li Jiaping smiled, and then looked at Zhou Shaoqi seriously.

"Do you know that Zuo Zhen is now going to be supplemented by the "young and strong" selected from the banner soldiers? ”

"Huh? Just heard a thing or two! ”

"After the New Year, the left and right towns may be changed to one or two towns, and one town will be the Praetorian Guard, which will be commanded by the banner officers, and the right town will be the second town...... Will a staff officer like me be able to compete with those officers who have been in command since childhood? ”

Li Jiaping's answer made Zhou Shaoqi only feel a little surprised, he was too frank.

"Rather than that, you might as well stay in this staff office, right?"

Li Jiaping said with a smile, in fact, there were some other considerations why he did not go to the commander of the army.

"The German Army has ordered the General Staff Department, and the new army will be organized and trained in the future, and it is natural to set up a staff headquarters."

glanced at Zhou Shaoqi seriously.

"And the marshal Xiang Xide system, the introduction of the staff office is to prepare for the establishment of the staff headquarters, and when the staff headquarters is established in the future, the military order will come from the staff headquarters, so staying in the staff office can also be said to have a bright future!"

It wasn't until this meeting that Zhou Shaoqi understood Li Jiaping's intentions, he told himself in another way that since he came to this staff office, he had to settle down, and the future of this staff office was promising.

Promising!

People have different understandings of these four words. Zhou Shaoqi just smiled and didn't say anything.

Seeing that he didn't speak, Li Jiaping stood up and walked towards a desk, turned his back to Zhou Shaoqi, flipped through the paper rolls on the table for a long time, and then walked to the table and slapped a newspaper that had turned yellow for a long time with his broad palm.

"Gongjie, look at this newspaper!"

After taking the newspaper and looking at it, Zhou Shaoqi saw a report in the newspaper that "the negotiations between Russia and Russia have reached a deadlock again." This is not news, and the negotiations between the two Russian powers on the issue of "Manchuria and Korea" have been going on for half a year, and this cannot but be called a great shame for the Qing Dynasty, because the two powers are talking about the land of the Qing Dynasty, but as the owner of the land, they do not express a single opinion.

"Last month, the Russians offered to sell us the southbound branch of the South Manchurian and Eastern Railway for 250 million rubles, and Russia directly annexed the main line of the North Manchurian and Eastern Railway......"

"What!"

As soon as he heard the news, Zhou Shaoqi was shocked and angry, and he didn't expect that there would be such a thing.

"Don't be angry, although this court is extremely stupid and weak, it will only cede land and pay reparations if it loses the war, not to mention that there are three powerful countries in Britain and the United States to support it, so it's just a fantasy of the Russians!"

The chief's words made Zhou Shaoqi's body shake, as if he had just woken up from a big dream, and he wanted to understand the meaning of the chief's words.

"Sir,"

Li Jiaping just continued.

"As far as it seems now, this battle between Ben and Russia is settled! Just fight in Manchuria! ”

"Sir, let's ...... then"

Zhou Shaoqi was shocked and worried.

"Could it be that the imperial court is ready to reject Russia and refuse to say!"

"Humph......"

His answer almost didn't make Li Jiaping laugh out loud, he forced a laugh, and even showed a helpless sigh in his eyes when he looked at Zhou Shaoqi, and then asked in a mocking tone.

"When do you think our Great Qing Kingdom has this backbone?"

Then he affirmed.

"Well, three years ago, I had this backbone, the old woman went crazy and declared war on the thirteenth, such courage is really difficult for ordinary people to reach, but that battle, will not defeat the last bit of backbone of the Great Qing Kingdom!"

"Yes...... Oh, yes! ”

Zhou Shaoqi replied vaguely and embarrassedly, his face turned red in an instant, and his hands were clenched into fists, for the soldiers, maybe this is a real shame, other countries are at war on the territory of the Qing State, but the Qing State is.

"About this battle, the DPRK is arguing, Beiyang is also arguing, this winter is over ahead of schedule, that is, the relationship between the community, as long as there is a fight, we are caught in the predicament of "attaching Russia to disturb my southeast with the navy, and annexing the Russian army to disturb my northwest", no way, the country is not as good as others, if we are a strong country, do the Russians dare to occupy Manchuria? Xiao Yuben dared to make ...... Say this fart doesn't use it! From the Queen Mother to the civil and military ministers of the Manchu Dynasty, who dares to say that they will refuse! ”

Li Jiaping's words were mocking, but there was some shame on his face, so that he spoke with disrespect.

"No, the court pondered, well, on the one hand, because I am Asian, and on the other hand, because I promised to return Manchuria to us in the future, in order to break the situation of Russia's monopoly of the Northeast, the court will decide, this dispute between Russia and Russia, we maintain a neutral attitude on the surface, but secretly we are united to reject Russia, so the marshal and the Aoki military attache of the legation agreed that we will provide intelligence help for the army."

"Intelligence help? What kind of information help do you provide to me? ”

Zhou Shaoqi interrupted the chief's words a little disrespectfully, and asked curiously.

Smoking a cigarette and lighting it, Li Jiaping didn't say anything, nor did he smoke, just thinking about something quietly there, but Zhou Shaoqi could see some irrepressible anger on his face, which was obviously unacceptable to the chief. It's acceptable for yourself.

"In accordance with Aoki's request, 16 capable young officers were selected from the Beiyang Supervision and Training Office, and 31 intelligence officers secretly formed a mixed detective and spy team, led by the commander Shoutian Liyuan Shaozuo, to Lushun, Dalian, and other places to spy on the Russian army's military activities, especially the strength of the Russian Eastern Fleet."

After taking a puff of cigarette, Li Jiaping looked at Zhou Shaoqi and said seriously and seriously.

"Dashuai left this matter to me, I have already chosen a candidate, but now that you are here, I want to change someone and let you follow you!"

"Sir, I'm ...... I ......"

Zhou Shaoqi did not expect that he had just come to this staff office, and he would take such a task, which was definitely not a task he liked, under the command of himself, to carry out military intelligence activities against the occupying army on his own land, and the purpose of obtaining military intelligence was to let another invader defeat another invader, and finally rely on the "generosity" of another invader to recover some benefits.

"What am I, I let you go, on the one hand, to spy on the military intelligence of the Russians, and on the other hand, to ......"

Li Jiaping's voice sank slightly, and his emotions suddenly became a little excited.

"In the First Sino-Japanese War, the reason why the people were able to win, in addition to the weakness of the Huai Army, there is also a reason that the people of the people reported espionage on me [***], which can be said to be well understood, so far, my country has never had a talent and organization specializing in intelligence espionage, I let you go, that is, let you go to follow the person to learn a little, learn how they spy on intelligence, and when we come back, we will use what we learned from me to establish our own military intelligence agency, do you understand?"

Li Jiaping, who had a serious expression, walked to the table again, and then asked Zhou Shaoqi to follow. He lowered his head and spread out a map, which was not a military map, but an ordinary topographic map, and there was even Russian on it, but from the perspective of the terrain, Zhou Shaoqi still recognized that this was a map of Manchuria.

"Look here!"

Li Jiaping drew on the map with his hand, and then stared at Zhou Shaoqi.

"Even if I win this battle, they will take the Kwantung Prefecture, which is a leased territory of the Russians, if they win, I will naturally accept this privilege, if the Russians win, within 20 years, we will inevitably fight for the Northeast and the Russians, and then we will have our own intelligence work, so you have to go and learn from them, whether you like it or not, you have to learn from them! Do you understand? ”

"Yes! Sir! ”

Although he was not very reluctant, Zhou Shaoqi still nodded and obeyed the order after understanding the chief's intentions.

"Sir, when are we leaving?"

"Tomorrow you will go to the capital!"

(To be continued)