Although the officer surnamed Qian was wearing the military uniform of the Ning Army, he was an active soldier of the Chinese Army, and he was secretly sent to Ning Guo to serve as a military adviser to Li Haotong.

This kind of secret dispatch would be difficult to detect if it were not for someone who knew the inside story, and even if the British asked one by one, they would not be able to ask why.

Because the Ning Dynasty was very different from other East Asian countries, first of all, it was a country founded by Chinese, the ruling class was all Chinese, and the official language was Chinese.

At the same time, all aspects of the political and military system of the Ning Dynasty were basically copied from the Chinese Empire, and if you didn't know that people came to Mandalay, it is estimated that they would think that the Ning Dynasty was a subordinate territory of the Chinese Empire.

Most of the officers in the Ning army were also all Chinese.

Therefore, when the Chinese army secretly sends military advisers, if they do not say it themselves, in fact, it will be difficult for outsiders to detect that they are actually military advisers of the Chinese army.

In addition, in order to prevent other forces in Ning Guo from knowing and interfering at this time, Li Haotong directly forged the identity of the real officer for this batch of military advisers, and the Qian Guotang in front of him had the rank of major in the Ning Army.

After Qian Guotang saw the visitor, he immediately showed joy, the young man in Chinese costume in front of him was none other than his classmate from Hangzhou High School, named Jia Haofeng.

The origins of these two people are similar, Qian Guotang was born in a scholarly family, his great-grandfather had been lifted, the official was a Taoist, and his grandfather and father were also admitted to Xiucai, but his grandfather was not admitted to the examination in his life, and he did not donate to the official, but his father did not pass the examination for a long time, donated a county, and spent a lot of money to find a county magistrate in Jiangxi, but after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement. His father resigned and returned home decisively in order to avoid trouble, and he was the magistrate of the county for less than two years.

After returning to his hometown in Jinhua, he learned from others and invested in a ham workshop, but soon closed down due to poor management, and his family was sick and calamito in the next year or two, and finally exhausted the only amount of money. In the end, he had to return to his hometown and live on dozens of acres of land inherited from his ancestral home, and his family was not even as wealthy as those rich peasants.

This is in simple words: the Qian family is a broken scholarly family.

Jia Haofeng is similar, he is also a big landowner, but his home is in southern Anhui, during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, not only did he have no family property, but even his father and several family members were either killed by the Taiping army, or starved to death on the way to escape. In the end, Jia Haofeng fled to Hangzhou with his mother and two younger sisters and lived in his brother-in-law's house.

From the wealthy gentry landlord to the fence, this is a great stimulus to Jia Haofeng in his youth, so he studied very hard, his brother-in-law saw that he was good at reading, so he also funded him to enter a new school, and later supported him to study in Hangzhou High School, you must know that the cost of studying in a higher school is quite large. His brother-in-law is just working as a shopkeeper in a trading house, and it is already very difficult to support a large family with income. has to provide Jia Haofeng to go to high school, which is not an easy task.

In order to alleviate the burden on the family, his mother, who was born in a beautiful family, even started needlework.

And Jia Haofeng also lived up to everyone's expectations, although he was not able to get close to the Army Military Academy he hoped for, but he was admitted to the Imperial University, and after being admitted to the Imperial University. Although the burden is still very heavy, he is in love with the Royal Bank's academic loans, and he also works part-time jobs on weekdays, which finally reduces the burden on his family.

These two people's family backgrounds and experiences are somewhat similar, so they also had a lot of friends when they were in Hangzhou High School.

The two graduated from Hangzhou High School that year. Qian Guotang has a heart to make contributions, and the social status of officers after the establishment of the empire is extremely high, and it is the easiest group of people to win the title of nobility, so applying for the two major military academies has always been the first choice for the best group of young people in the empire, and Qian Guotang is no exception, in order to restore the glory of the family, he was finally admitted to the Royal Army Military Academy after many competitions.

Now he still remembers that when he received the admission letter, not only the whole village cheered for him, but his father, who was still old, personally sacrificed to the ancestral hall.

Then he was connected to the banquet of many gentry and officials in the county, if he hadn't decided to marry early, it is estimated that someone would have married him on the spot.

Even though the whole scene is not as good as the scene of those scholars in the Ming and Qing dynasties, it is not weak, and in the hearts of contemporary people, being able to be admitted to the two major military academies is more valuable than the lifting of people in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

In fact, this is not easy, the empire has a huge territory and a large population, and the total number of students admitted to the two military schools every year is only 1,000, plus the students in some developed areas have more advantages, so some poor counties cannot get a military cadet in a few years.

And his classmate Jia Haofeng also planned to apply for the Army Military Academy at first, but his physical fitness was poor and he failed to pass the physical fitness test, and finally applied for the Imperial University and was successfully admitted, studying foreign languages.

If the two major military academies are the cradle of training officers, then the Imperial University is the cradle of training officers, and basically 80 percent of the graduates of the Imperial University will enter the political circles, and most of the graduates of foreign arts will enter the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and develop in the direction of diplomats.

The 'Imperial Secretariat', which claims to have concentrated the largest number of young people in politics, except for those in the middle and high-level positions, at least half of the other middle- and lower-level positions are occupied by graduates of Imperial University.

After they graduated, they naturally went to work in the Army and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In the following years, although they met with other classmates a few times, they were busy with work, so naturally they couldn't see each other, and they had less contact with each other.

But I didn't expect to see you in Mandalay far away from my homeland today!

When this old classmate met, although it was inevitable to say a few words to win over their feelings, the two of them also knew that it was an emergency moment for the situation, so after just asking a few words, Qian Guotang asked: "At this time, you are not on the side of the legation, why did you come here!" ”

"I came to see Li Hou on the orders of Lord Hao!" Jia Haofeng said.

"Oh, I didn't expect you to be able to take on such a heavy responsibility, it seems that you have been doing well in the past few years!" Qian Guotang said as he led Jia Haofeng into the door.

Jia Haofeng shook his head lightly: "I'm just a first-class attaché now, and I'm comparable to you." It's all majors! ”

Hearing Jia Haofeng say that he was already a first-class attaché, Qian Guotang was a little surprised, and hurriedly shook his head and said: "Where am I a major, this is just the identity of Ning Jun's side, I can't count, and now I'm just a lieutenant!" It's you. I don't see it, you're a first-class attaché, I'm afraid it won't take a few years to become the consul of the sole party! ”

It is normal for Qian Guotang to be surprised, the official rank of the diplomats of the empire is somewhat different from that of ordinary government officials, ordinary officials, if they serve in a department, whether it is a local or central agency, they are basically called section members, deputy section chiefs, section chiefs, deputy division chiefs, division chiefs, deputy directors, directors, etc. The chief official of the local government is the chief official who continues to be called the prefect of the county, the county cheng, the prefect, the tongzhi, the Taoist, the political envoy, and the governor.

However, these two are only titles, not the distinction between official ranks. A director of a central agency is also a Taoist at the most when he is released, and sometimes he is even a political envoy.

On the side of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the personnel in the department are also called section members, division chiefs, department heads, etc., but in the case of personnel stationed abroad, there are ordinary employees and diplomats, and ordinary employees are either in their own country or in the local country, and there is no official organizational relationship. Just an ordinary employee, mainly doing some ordinary paperwork or sundries, etc. And the words of a formal diplomat. From highest to lowest, they are: Third Attaché, Second Attaché, First Attaché, Consular Counsellor, Consul, Minister Counsellor, Minister, Minister Plenipotentiary.

Generally speaking, the three levels of attachés are engaged in some auxiliary work and cooperate in foreign affairs, and the consul is generally the head of the local consulate, such as the Yangon, San Francisco, and Hawaiian consulates, and the consular counselor is the deputy of the consulate at this level.

The Minister is the head of the national legation. Responsible for negotiating a country's foreign affairs, such as the minister to the United Kingdom, the United States, France, etc., and sometimes the minister to neighboring countries will also serve as the minister, for example, the minister to the United Kingdom is concurrently responsible for the affairs of small European countries such as the Netherlands and Belgium, and the minister to the United States is also responsible for the foreign affairs of Hawaii, Mexico and the entire South American countries.

The Minister-Counsellor is the Minister's deputy.

Minister Plenipotentiary. In fact, the scope of the area in charge is similar to that of the minister, but there is one more dispatch, usually "the minister with plenipotentiary for the affairs of a certain place", the power is much greater than that of the ordinary minister, and he is a diplomat who has the power to conclude treaties and start local wars, and can basically be regarded as the direct representative of the emperor.

At present, there are not many plenipotentiary ministers in the empire, only three, one is the minister to Japan and the other is the minister to the United States, but the full power of the minister to the United States is limited to Hawaii, and its dispatch is the 'minister plenipotentiary for Hawaiian affairs', and its military and treaty authority does not involve the United States, Mexico and other countries.

The second is the envoy in Ningbo.

Minister and Minister Plenipotentiary, the difference between the minister and the management area has nothing to do with the administrative level, the difference is only in the size of the power in the region, for example, Hao Mubai is the minister plenipotentiary in Nanjing, but his status and importance are naturally not comparable with the imperial minister in Britain.

And this classmate of his own is already a first-class attaché at a young age, and if he stays up for a few more years, a consular counselor will be in hand, and this level is usually the second-in-command of a local consulate, if the consul returns to China to report on his work or is unable to exercise his powers for other reasons, then the consular counselor can temporarily act in charge of consular affairs.

According to the common concept, the status of this kind of consular counselor at the local level is basically equivalent to the level of Taoist in the local government, because according to the relevant regulations of the empire, when meeting with foreign consuls, they are generally officials above the level of Taoist officials, and some important consuls usually have to meet with provincial governors or political envoys.

It's really more popular than people, you have to know that it has been a few years since you graduated, but this rank promotion is as slow as a dog, and when you graduated, you were a second lieutenant, and you have only been promoted one level to become a lieutenant in the past few years.

And this classmate of his own, it is estimated that he is a third-class attaché at a step, and the speed of promotion is much faster than most people, and the others are estimated to be still struggling at the level of section member and deputy section chief, but he has been able to meet with Li Haotong, a central official from other countries, in other countries and discuss the future of a country.

Qian Guotang had to sigh at this time, although it is said that the civilian officials in the empire are inferior to the officers in terms of status, but diplomats cannot be counted here, these people will not be promoted soon, and the chance of being knighted is also a lot greater than that of ordinary civilian officials.

Since the unification of the empire, the empire's newly crowned nobles are pitiful, excluding a few imperial relatives, and ordinary courtiers have been awarded few titles, adding up to only a dozen, and the diplomats on the foreign ministry side have monopolized three places, none of the other departments of the cabinet, although the number of military places is a little more, but they are all some old generals, it can be said that they have survived by relying on their proud qualifications, and they have really relied on their newly acquired military merits in recent years.

In recent years, there have been too many demons of the diplomats of the empire, basically several foreign ministers are famous at home and even in the world, much more famous than the ministers of the imperial cabinet, then Li Bocang is the most typical representative, one person controls the entire Japanese political situation, and the influence in Japan can be said to be incomparable.

This Qian Guotang sighed in his heart, and on the other hand, he also brought Jia Haofeng to Li Haotong.

When Jia Haofeng saw Li Haotong, he found that the Marquis of Ningguo, who was about the same age as himself, looked tired and full of worry.

After seeing Jia Haofeng come in, he just nodded, Li Haotong has a lot of contacts with the people of the Imperial Legation in Ningbo, to a certain extent, he and Hao Mubai can be regarded as political allies, so he is more familiar with the staff of the embassy, although Jia Haofeng is only a first-class attaché, but there are not many diplomats in the empire, like the Legation in Ningbo, there are only six people who can be called diplomats above the attaché, among them there is also an army attaché, and the others are some ordinary employees.

Subsequently, Jia Haofeng had a secret conversation with Li Haotong, and after more than 20 minutes, Jia Haofeng came out again, but after he came out, he didn't see Qian Guotang, obviously he had left beforehand.

Immediately, Jia Hongfeng did not delay time, and directly got into the carriage and returned to the legation under the escort of a number of cavalrymen who came together.

He naturally didn't know that now his classmate Qian Guotang was already leading the troops to the front line! (To be continued.) )