On December 30, 1882, with the sound of a shrill whistle, a steamer slowly entered the mouth of Dagu in Tianjin.

With the bustling flow of people, a middle-aged man with a square nose and a square mouth and dressed as a businessman strolled up to the dock, followed by two retinues. This person is none other than the 35-year-old Army Major General Kawakami Caoroku, deputy director of the Japanese General Staff Headquarters and the chief person in charge of espionage reports on China.

Kawakami became a general at such a young age, which is rare in the Japanese army. On the one hand, it is because he is indeed outstanding, especially for the establishment of the intelligence organization system, which can be said to be the founder. On the other hand, within the Japanese Army, there was a debate over whether to learn from Germany or France, and there was support for Aritomo Yamaguchi and Oyama Iwa, and opposition to Takero Miura and Yujo Soga. He was on the right track, which also made him even more prosperous.

Soon, in the teahouse next to the pier, Kawakami met the receptionist in disguise, Mitsutomi Kamio, the military attache of the Japanese Consulate in Tianjin. In fact, Mitsutomi Kamio was originally an officer of the General Staff Headquarters, and he has always used his identity as a military attache of the embassy as a cover to carry out espionage and infiltration work.

Mitsutomi Kamio reported the latest situation to Kawakami Caoroku: Industrialization is underway in various parts of China, and the speed of development is alarming, which is worrying, and time is running out. He also mentioned that because Sichuan was classified as a special zone, the supervision was very strict, and it was difficult to carry out the work, so Ishikawa Wuichi and Takahashi Ken and others had to withdraw first, and now they are all in Songchang Foreign Bank, and the work is going smoothly.

Kawakami stressed the situation in China, the social contradictions are acute, the economic development is difficult, the pressure on military spending is huge, and there is an imminent war with China.

They were spying in the teahouse, unaware that on the upper floor opposite the teahouse, several pairs of vigilant eyes were watching them through binoculars.

Subsequently, Kawakami Caoroku took his entourage and stayed in a hidden hotel. He wandered around during the day, going in and out of department stores, haggling in fluent Chinese, and at night going back to the hotel to rest, exactly like an ordinary businessman.

Two days later, on the night of January 2, Ishikawa arrived at the hotel, where he reported to Kawakami that he had received a top-secret piece of information.

Ishikawa said: In the past year, China has been secretly importing a large number of machine guns from France. These machine guns were first stored in the Tianjin Machinery Bureau, and then distributed to various units, with a total of hundreds of guns.

Kawakami is six shocks, this number is not small, and it will be an extremely terrible blow on the battlefield. Although the Japanese Army also has machine guns, which are British-made hand-cranked Catlin machine guns, they are inferior to Haqi Kaisi in all aspects, and the number is extremely small. It is estimated that there are only a few divisions in the entire division, how can there be hundreds of them like China.

The reason for this is first of all because the Japanese army is very unimpressed with this weapon, it is inconvenient to aim, it is swept everywhere, the waste of bullets is too serious, it is inconvenient to carry, and it is difficult to maintain.

More importantly, for economic reasons, this weapon and ammunition are consumed too quickly, too much money, and the hit rate is not high. Japan's military spending is already tight, and it is difficult to support the huge consumption of such weapons, and the so-called "can afford to afford it."

Judging from this intelligence, China is about to practice "firepower supremacy."

According to Ishikawa Wuichi, the source of this information was a secretary of the Ordnance Bureau named Wang Kaijia. The Ordnance Bureau is strictly supervised by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and it is impossible for this Wang Kaijia to enter the warehouse. However, under the bribe of Ishikawa Takeichi, he peeked at the records of the machine guns and found that more than 100 of them were transferred to the northwest region.

According to his understanding, most of the main forces of China's army are deployed on the North China Plain, and so many machine guns are transported to the northwest, and it is absolutely impossible to equip some patrol battalions.

Could it be that China has secretly deployed other troops?

This matter is not trivial, you must know that the intelligence detected by the Japanese General Staff Headquarters before only said that the elite units of the Chinese Army are four divisions and two brigades. The operational jihua that has been formulated is based on this foundation.

If China secretly conceals a large number of troops, then it can be seen that China harbors a great strategic plot against Japan, and this information must be immediately reported to Japan.

He encouraged Ishikawa Wu a few words, and immediately handwritten an order to Ishikawa, telling him not to go back to Matsuchang and go directly to the branch of Leshantang in Tianjin, where there is a secret radio station, which can directly send reports to Japan.

After Ishikawa left, Kawakami Cao's six pairs of followers sighed that they were lucky, and within a few days of arriving in China, they cracked "the treacherous conspiracy of the Shina people and made miraculous contributions to the empire." The two entourages hurriedly flattered.

But the next morning, Kawakami felt that something was wrong, because after a whole night, Ishikawa Wuichi hadn't come back to die. A moment later, Mitsutomi Kamio arrived, and Kawakami told him the information, ordering him to return to the consulate immediately and send a report to the country.

This time, Kawakami Cao Liu's eyes were saved, and he climbed to the roof of the hotel to observe, and sure enough, he found that Mitsutomi Kamio had been followed!

Kawakami Caoliu was frightened, how did he get targeted?

At this time, he knew that the danger was at stake, so he killed the innkeeper with his entourage, changed into the boss's clothes and tights, carried a basket, and swaggered out from the front door of the hotel. But he asked his entourage to change into his own clothes, rushed out through the back door, and fled in the direction of the Tianjin consulate.

When he arrived at the vegetable market, Kawakami felt that no one was following, so he immediately turned around and fled to the Tianjin wharf, and used the pass he carried with him to buy a ticket to Yantai, Shandong.

It wasn't until he sat in the crowded cabin and watched the ship start to start that Kawakami Caoliu's heart relaxed, and at this moment, even the original unpleasant smoky smell in the cabin made him feel comfortable.

As long as he escapes from the surveillance, he is confident that he can return to China soon, but he doesn't understand, what point of his stuffing is exposed, which will arouse suspicion? Or is the Japanese spy here simply under the surveillance of the enemy?

This speculation made him shudder, if the Chinese government had known about these Japanese spies, but just didn't arrest them, would there be any other purpose than paralyzing the Japanese?

In connection with the machine guns that did not know where to go, the more he thought about it, the more frightened he became, not only did he completely lose confidence in Japan's intelligence network, but he even believed that in the face of such a terrible and insidious enemy, Japan's strategic thinking toward China must be reconsidered.

Just as Kawakami was thinking nonsense, the steamer was stunned, and a voice shouted: "All stay biedong, temporary inspection!" ＂

Then, amid the tumultuous chatter, several people entered the cabin and began to inspect them one by one.

Kawakami felt that the Chinese government was cunning and incredible, and did not inspect at the dock, for fear of startling the snakes, and waited for the ship to go to sea before checking, so that he could not even escape.

After a while, the inspector came up to him and asked, "What are you here for?" ＂

"Businessman, do some small business. ＂

"Who's that? ＂

"Tangshan. ＂

"Tangshan? Come, you are tired, sing a Tangshan children's rhyme. Why, no? Then, it's okay to have a section of Tangshan Luozi, but it won't? Don't just keep your head down, really? That's good, it's up to you, look at your beating nature, come with us. Erdezier, good guy, let's make meritorious contributions! ＂

Major General Kawakami Soroku, deputy chief of staff of the Imperial Japanese General Staff Headquarters and head of Japan's spy report on China, was arrested because he could not sing Tangshan nursery rhymes.

What awaits him will be torture.

Ding Yuntong was reading the secret telegram from London at this time, and the four cruisers built in Britain had been received, asking for instructions on the next move. In fact, these fast cruisers were already built in July 1882 last year. Ding Yuntong sent Lin Taizeng, Lin Yongsheng, Yang Yonglin, and Sa Zhenbing as the captains of the four ships to receive the fleet. As for the name of the ship, Ding Yuntong named it Qilin, Bai Zhen, Teng Snake, and Bai Ze respectively.

And the two ironclad ships built in Germany are also almost finished. Ding Yuntong sent Liu Buyun and Deng Shichang to receive it, and the captain of the Qinglong Ship was held by Lin Luzhong, and the post of commander of the domestic fleet was temporarily held by Shen Shoukun, the captain of the White Tiger.

In addition, these two new ships will be named Suzaku and Xuanwu respectively, so that the four ironclad ships are exactly the four divine beasts, the Green Dragon, the White Tiger, the Vermilion Bird, and the Xuanwu. Of course, the combat effectiveness is not the same, the Qinglong is the original Atarante, which has been in service for more than ten years, including the Beidou, these old ships have a speed of only 11 or 12 knots, and how to coordinate tactically is also a problem.

In any case, after a long wait, the real core of the fleet was finally completed, like a long tunnel, after the torment of longing to penetrate, he finally saw the light of the exit, and the excitement made him unbearable.

After thinking about it, Ding Yuntong felt that the suspense should be kept until the moment of Zuihou, he ordered the four cruisers to fly the Portuguese flag, go to the port of Lisbon to anchor first, and at the same time let the Ministry of Foreign Affairs contact the Portuguese side, if Portugal agrees, the fleet will fly the Portuguese flag and can dock in the port of Lisbon, China will give the most preferential remuneration, with the Portuguese side to make a price; At the same time, the lease term in Macau will be increased by another five years.

In addition, in the future, two more warships from Germany will also be berthed in Lisbon.

It is also necessary to authorize the fleet to fly the Portuguese flag on the way back to China.

If the Portuguese side does not agree, then immediately tear up the previous agreement, take back Macao, and ban the circulation of Portuguese goods in China.

Ding Yuntong believes that the other party can make the right judgment.

His Jihua is to let a "Portuguese fleet" come to Asia at the most critical moment, to the Sino-Japanese battlefield, which will surely bring a great "surprise" to his dear Japanese friends.

On the army side, the newly formed Guards Army, which is now hidden in the Great Northwest, has a total of three divisions and one brigade. It is expected that by the second half of next year, it will reach five divisions.

Together with the existing four divisions and two brigades, the total strength will reach about 120,000. Of course, this is only a front-line fighting force, in fact, there are at least twice as many personnel in charge of logistics support, transportation, and so on. In addition, tens of thousands of patrol battalion troops are also needed to carry out guards, security guards, patrols, etc. in the rear.

It is hastily estimated that the number of people mobilized in the future war against Japan will at least exceed 500,000.

As for the commanders of the various divisions of the Guards, Ding Yuntong is also in the process of drafting.

Of course, in this process, Ding Yuntong wanted to know about the Japanese spy who had just been arrested, according to the report of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there are many signs that this person is definitely a senior general, Ding Yuntong is very curious, who will this person be?