Now that it has been decided to increase the group's income by selling illicit salt, it is natural for some participants to ask whether it is also possible to take out similar iron tools that are also subject to government control and sell them on a large scale - after all, the government has slightly looser control over iron tools than table salt.

However, this proposal did not receive the approval of the majority of participants. In particular, the brothers of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Military Affairs unanimously opposed this proposal. Li Junwu said: "At present, the scale of steel smelting of the team is not very large, in addition to meeting the production of its own weapons and various tools, it also needs to take a small part to complete the iron and weapons supply contract with the left-behind government. Although there can be some savings every month, but the number is limited, and the Ministry of Science and Technology must also leave some iron and steel as strategic reserves, in case there is any unexpected situation in the future, and the materials department can not provide enough steel in time for emergency use. Therefore, unless the team's steel smelting output increases significantly, it is still not appropriate for us to expand the supply of external iron materials at this stage. ”

"However, the existing production capacity of the materials department has basically reached the limit, and if we want to increase production, we can only build new iron-making furnaces and steel-making furnaces." Yu Wende added next to him.

Since what Li Junwu said was true, and Yu Wende's statement that "to increase production requires the construction of a new blast furnace" is not a simple matter to be realized, and in addition, in the near future, the "Flying Dragon Army" is afraid that it will continue to expand its army, and its demand for weapons will only increase, so it is impossible for the proposal to sell iron materials to the people on a large scale to be adopted by the conference.

After solving the important problem of increasing the income of the team, other departments will continue to report on the work of their departments in the previous year.

The next report was made by the Military Department, and Qian Yuanshan made a speech on behalf of his own department. He first made a report to the meeting on the relevant matters of the Military Department in the previous year, and gave a detailed account of the implementation of the "Tempering No. 1 Operation" and the process of expanding the "Flying Dragon Pioneer Battalion" into the "Flying Dragon Army." Subsequently, Qian Yuanshan proposed to the conference the work of the military department in the new year. Among them, the most important one is that the Military Department intends to officially carry out the "No. 2 Tempering Operation" from the end of this month, and pull the newly formed "Flying Dragon Army" to the border area between Liao and the Northern Han in batches, and train them in actual combat in the form of "fighting grass valleys," so as to increase the actual combat experience of the soldiers and prepare for the big battle that may occur in the near future.

For this jihua of the military department, the opinions of the participants were not very unanimous. Although most people still support this Jihua from a long-term perspective - after all, everyone has great hopes for the possible Youzhou War in the near future, and I believe that the crossing team is fully capable of taking this opportunity to make a splash and establish a meritorious service and lay a foundation in this troubled world. However, there are still a few people who disagree.

The vast majority of these opponents are motivated by economic and political considerations, believing that the implementation of the "Temper No. 2 Operation" is far more complicated and difficult than the previous "Temper No. 1 Operation". On the one hand, the "Flying Dragon Army" is now "Wujing Township Ding" to the outside world, and the form of raising troops in the "Grass Valley" is usually suitable for the army in the border areas of Liao, and the "Flying Dragon Army" far away from the border wants to use this as an excuse to go west into the Northern Han Dynasty, which seems very far-fetched, and there are many obstacles to whether it can be successfully completed.

On the other hand, even if the rules can be solved, the distance between the two places is not an easy problem to overcome. In the "Operation Tempering No. 1" some time ago, the farthest marching distance of the "Flying Dragon Army" was only more than 200 miles, and it did not even come out of the scope of Youdu Mansion. The shortest distance to the west into the Northern Han Dynasty is more than six or seven hundred miles, during which it has to pass through the two states of Wei and Ying, and it is impossible to do it in two or three months. This is a far cry from the situation when the "Operation Tempering No. 1" was as short as 10 days and as long as half a month. Such a long marching distance and such a long time to go out is not only a test of the commander's ability to control the team, but also a test of the ability to cross the team's logistical support.

The brothers of the military department answered all these opinions raised by the opponents. Qian Yuanshan said: "What the brothers said just now has a certain truth. However, the Ministry of Military Affairs has taken these into account when formulating the operation. As for the so-called 'legitimacy of action', you brothers need not worry. Because according to the 'Tempering No. 2 Operation' Jihua formulated by the Ministry of Military Affairs, the 'Flying Dragon Army's westward march to the Northern Han Dynasty for military training will not be under the banner of the townspeople, but will be broken into pieces, disguised as a large caravan or Northern Han refugees, to deal with the checkpoints at various checkpoints along the way. After arriving at the secret assembly point in the Northern Han Dynasty, he restored the uniform of the 'Flying Dragon Army' and operated in the Northern Han Dynasty as a bandit and horse bandit. ”,

Qian Yuanshan's jihua not only failed to convince the opponents, but instead attracted their doubts, and one brother asked: "It's okay to pretend to be a caravan, as long as you are careful on the road, there should be no problem." If you pretend to be a wanderer from the Northern Han Dynasty, will it be too dangerous, after all, when the Liao people went south to plunder, the population was also an important target of plunder. Now that the target of the captivity is within the territory of their own Liao State, won't they be even more unscrupulous in robbing and plundering? ”

"Please rest assured brothers," Qian Yuanshan explained, "The military department naturally knows that the Liao people have the habit of going south to plunder. Therefore, before formulating the corresponding jihua, we had already ordered Gu Anjia, Zhou Libo and others, who were responsible for recruiting displaced people, to conduct many experiments through the committee. Gu, Zhou and others led hundreds of Northern Han refugees to walk back and forth several times on the official roads and paths from Liangxiang to Lingqiu and even the Liaohan border area. During this period, except for a few checkpoints that will snatch the property of the displaced people indiscriminately, most of the other checkpoints will open one eye and close one eye after receiving the money and let these homeless people pass. Moreover, whether it is a person who grabs something or does not rob something, these checkpoints do not have a detailed examination of the displaced team. It was on the basis of such experiments that the Ministry of Military Affairs put forward the idea of disguising the 'Flying Dragon Army' as refugees from the Northern Han Dynasty and blending into the territory of the Northern Han Dynasty. ”

Speaking of this, Qian Yuanshan paused, and seeing that the brothers did not raise any new objections to his explanation, he continued: "As for the issue of logistics support, this should not actually be a condition for deciding whether to implement the 'Operation Temper No. 2'. Because, in itself, it is one of the contents to be exercised and tested in this operation. If this operation does not test the logistical support capability of the 'Flying Dragon Army', its role will be greatly reduced.

When it comes to specific safeguards, the Military Department proceeds from two aspects. On the one hand, it is to learn from the traditions of the Liao army, and to achieve the goal of 'feeding the war with war' by means of 'beating grass and grain' and collecting grain on the spot. On the other hand, it is to use the existing logistics support of the 'Flying Dragon Army' to set up several military stations along the way for the transportation and support of logistics materials.

Of course, our military stations cannot be set up blatantly. The idea of the military department was to select several suitable locations along the way, set up secret transfer stations, and then the soldiers of the logistics battalion dressed up as caravans to transport the supplies into the territory of the Northern Han Dynasty in the form of relays. As for the location of secret transfer stations, the Ministry of Military Affairs has also selected several sites. Except for one or two of the more hidden valleys, the rest are a few cottages occupied by bandits and grass bandits along the way. On the way to the Northern Han Dynasty in the first batch of 'Flying Dragon Army's disguised as homeless people, these cottages will be swept away one by one, so that the logistics battalion that will follow up will establish a military station. ”

Although Qian Yuanshan's explanation dispelled the concerns of the vast majority of opponents, the motion on "Operation No. 2" still did not win the support of all the brothers -- although this did not affect its passage at the plenary meeting. And there is only one person who insists on opposing this bill, and that is Yang Xin, who is an alternate member of the committee -- fortunately, Xu Shaoan attended the plenary meeting through radio, otherwise Yang Xin, who has the right to vote in the committee, is likely to make the passage of this bill very troublesome.

However, unlike other opponents, Yang Xin's reason for opposing it was neither a matter of so-called "legitimacy" nor a logistical issue, and the reason why he opposed this bill was entirely out of personal feelings -- he had been guarding the border against the Liao State for many years, and was called "Yang Invincible" by the Liao soldiers, and Yang Ye, a famous Northern Han general in the history of his previous life, was his sworn brother of Yang Xin. Yang Xin, who knows the combat effectiveness of the "Flying Dragon Army" very well, naturally understands what kind of fate Yang Ye will have once the two sides clash. Therefore, Yang Xin has always opposed this bill since the Military Department proposed the "No. 2 Operation". Although he was at a disadvantage of 1:3 in the Committee's attitude towards Operation Temper 2, he made his position clear to the other three members. Moreover, even though the plenary meeting had voted on the bill today, he still made it clear to the assembly after the vote that he had reservations about the motion and did not approve of the military department's action.

The other brothers naturally understood the reason why Yang Xin insisted so much, so everyone understood his attitude. However, understanding is understanding, since the relevant resolution has been passed at the plenary meeting, everyone will not fail to implement it because of Yang Xin's opposition, and the specific executor of this resolution will naturally fall on the head of the Ministry of Military Affairs.

Just when Qian Yuanshan was about to accept the committee's authorization to carry out the "Temper No. 2 Operation" on behalf of the Ministry of Military Affairs, Yang Xin, who had always opposed this jihua, suddenly changed his mind. He proposed to the Committee that he would like to be part of the Forward Command and participate in the operation.

Yang Xin's explanation for the 180-degree turn in his attitude is also very simple - since he can't stop the execution of this action, he has no choice but to retreat and participate in the action himself, so that he can have the opportunity to take action when necessary to save the life of his sworn brother Yang Ye.

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