Chapter 187 Internal Purge, We Must Fight Back
Sailing at full speed with the wind and the current, a large fleet can move much faster than sailing against the current.
Not to mention that in this river with high waves and fast currents, the treasure ship sailing downstream is moving very fast.
The soldiers of the Restoration Army traveled day and night on a large fleet since the day they set out. Just after noon on the fourth day, they arrived at the naval base where the remnants of the Jiehu were once stationed.
"Great Commander!"
Huang Zhanglong, the commander of the Xuanwu Army's combat battalion who stayed behind, immediately led his men to the Qingshi Pier of the Navy Base upon hearing the news. He asked curiously, "How come almost all the soldiers are here?"
"Has something big happened? Who are we going to go to war with?"
It’s no wonder that he was curious, mainly because Huang Zhanglong had not yet received the order to participate in this battle.
Not to mention the Renaissance Army, there is currently no convenient means of transmitting information such as sending messages by spirit pigeons.
Even if there was, given that the military intelligence this time was too important, Li Dingguo would not leak the strategic intention of this expedition to the naval base seven or eight thousand miles away before the large fleet he led personally arrived at the destination.
After all, this sneak attack is too important.
Once the news was leaked out, it would not be possible for us to ambush the enemy's large fleet in the river bend, but we would be easily caught in the trap by the enemy.
The true details of this military attack are currently only known to a few top-level senior officials in the Renaissance Army's headquarters. The other soldiers, including the commanders of each battalion, only know that the entire army is about to start another major war.
But who is the enemy? Where will the battle begin? They are all unclear.
"Huang Zhanglong, immediately assemble the soldiers of the Xuanwu Third Battalion and follow our fleet to the destination!"
"Once we arrive at the designated battlefield, we will convey the order for this battle to you!"
To be on the safe side, Li Dingguo still did not reveal the truth to Huang Zhanglong and gave the order directly.
The current personnel of the Fuxing Army come from all corners of the country and are quite mixed.
There must be spies from Shanxi merchants or people with ulterior motives hiding among our own soldiers and civilians. This is unavoidable in any way.
For example, among the rebel forces inside the Great Wall now, no matter which force they are from, there must be spies from all parties hidden among them.
In the history of the Earth, during the entire process of the uprising at the end of the Ming Dynasty, more than 70% of the rebel leaders died from unexpected causes such as hidden arrows, betrayal by spies and traitors, and internal power struggles!
This is enough to show that even though Li Dingguo's new army was far outside the Great Wall, it could not avoid the presence of people planted by some people with ulterior motives, hiding among the military and civilians.
The actual situations of all rebel uprisings in history are almost the same, without exception.
Li Dingguo guessed that the general situation of his Fuxing Army had already reached the ears of those big Shanxi merchants and some interested people.
So half a month ago, he deliberately asked Chang Liyun to leave the Xuanwu Camp and secretly set up an Internal Affairs Department that was only responsible to himself, specifically responsible for clearing out the hidden dangers within the Fuxing Army and those hidden spies and spies from all parties.
He even equipped the newly established Ministry of Internal Affairs with ten level three and one hundred level two Ironback Demon Wolves.
The purpose is to use their keen intuition and strong perception of danger to make it impossible for the hidden spies of the Restoration Army to hide.
Since the Ministry of Internal Affairs selected 300 elite soldiers from the entire army and secretly formed a team, the comprehensive internal investigation conducted in the past few days has killed at least more than 100 spies from various enemies through arrest and interrogation!
Although it is still impossible to eliminate the existence of a few spies in the Renaissance Army, it has achieved great results.
Li Dingguo even ordered Dahuang and Xiaohuang, two top-grade spirit dogs that had reached the pinnacle of level three spirit beasts, to hang out in the base of the Fuxing Army more often whenever they were free.
Once any abnormality is detected, the hidden enemy will be immediately found and killed or captured.
Unfortunately, the two top-grade spirit dogs, Da Huang and Xiao Huang, have not yet broken through to the fourth-level spirit beasts.
If they successfully break through to level four in the near future, their mental strength will be greatly increased, forming the power of divine thoughts, and their perception of danger and keen sense of smell will increase at least tenfold.
By then, those enemies with evil intentions will be able to escape their perception and search, and the doom of the enemy spies and spies from all sides will be here.
Li Dingguo has decided that after the mysterious spiritual root seedling has accumulated special life energy for a month, he will take Da Huang and Xiao Huang to go to its side for a retreat, absorbing the accumulated magical life energy to help them break through to the fourth-level spiritual beasts.
Once they achieve the breakthrough they desire, it will be time for a comprehensive investigation and purge of the Renaissance Army.
"Yes, Commander-in-Chief!"
Huang Zhanglong was feeling bored, but his eyes lit up when he heard this. He quickly agreed, jumped up and left, and summoned the soldiers of the Third Battalion of Xuanwu to line up and board the ship to set off.
About half an hour later, the large fleet continued to set sail, heading downstream towards the island in the middle of the river about a hundred miles downstream.
The distance of a hundred miles was covered by the speeding fleet in just a quarter of an hour.
Led by the pilot of the medium-quality treasure ship Xuanwu No. 1, the large fleet arrived at the northern part of the huge island in the middle of the river. They formed a column without stopping and sailed into the river bay that was tightly covered by tall and dense reeds.
After the large fleet had anchored, Li Dingguo announced that they had reached their destination and informed the commanders of each combat camp of the strategic purpose of this trip.
It was not until this time that the officers and soldiers finally understood that the enemy behind this expedition was actually the upcoming fleet of wealthy merchants from the interior!
More than 200 personnel from the Military Intelligence Department and the Internal Affairs Department who were hiding on various treasure ships soon discovered that more than 20 soldiers were behaving abnormally and had strange expressions. They immediately took action to arrest these 20 soldiers!
After severe interrogation, it turned out that these guys were, as expected, spies sent by the big Shanxi merchants to infiltrate the Fuxing Army.
"Kill all these bastards and bury them directly in a pit on this island in the middle of the river."
Li Dingguo quickly learned the details and calmly spoke to Chang Liyun who came to report.
"Commander-in-chief, there must be a very small number of enemy spies hidden deeply among the soldiers here. I will continue to have people patrolling in secret at all times. If anything goes wrong, they will be arrested immediately!" Chang Liyun's face was cold, and she immediately took the order and left.
She has always been known for her calmness. Compared with Wei Jinfan, her character is even colder and her methods are extremely cruel. She can be said to be a real killer without blinking an eye.
It was for this reason that Li Dingguo appointed her to the important position of head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
"Big brother!"
Xiao Douya said angrily, "These Shanxi merchants and various forces are too disgusting! They always resort to such shameful means!"
"After a year or two, when our strength has really grown, we can just rush into the interior and wipe them out directly, so that they don't have to come and annoy us so often!"
"When the time comes, I will smash their heads off one by one!"
Not to mention Xiao Douya, even Hongmei could not have imagined that there were so many spies and informants from all sides hidden within her own Fuxing Army.
If Li Dingguo had not noticed something wrong in time, there would not be too many secrets for us in the future.
Fortunately, Li Dingguo has always remained highly vigilant, and many secrets are only known to him, even Xiao Douya and Hongmei are not aware of them.
He was very clear: the reason a secret is a secret is because only one knows it.
Once some secrets are told to Xiao Douya and Hongmei, not only will they be meaningless, but they will also harm them.
Some of his big secrets are destined to be known only by himself in this life and cannot be shared with others.
Under his frequent instructions, some secrets known to the three of them were kept very well confidential, and the two girls did not tell anyone else.
Even though there are many spies and informants in the army, the true background and secrets of the Renaissance Army will never be heard by the enemies.
All the other party could find out was the basic information that Li Dingguo wanted them to know.
The apparent strength of the Renaissance Army cannot be hidden, and it does not matter if these facts, which are known to both the military and civilians, are leaked out.
Sometimes, showing some of one's own strength to the outside world would deter forces from all sides and make them dare not act rashly, thus buying a lot of valuable development time for the Renaissance Army.
"Little Bean Sprout, don't be so angry."
Li Dingguo said calmly, "This kind of situation is inevitable in the end of any dynasty. It's generally the same."
"But it's soon."
A divine light flashed in his eyes, "In three to five years at most, it will be time for us, the soldiers of the Renaissance Army, to settle accounts with these unscrupulous merchants and various hostile forces."
"Look at how complacent they are now. They are constantly plotting and scheming, which makes people feel very sick. These forces will not be complacent for long. The butcher knife of our Renaissance Army will fall on their heads in due time."
"Little bean sprouts, red plum."
Li Dingguo then ordered, "Now is a critical and extraordinary period. Success or failure depends on this one move."
"To be on the safe side, both of you should go to the army to take charge."
"At the latest, we should wait until tomorrow morning. Once the enemy's large fleet arrives, that will be the time for us to launch a surprise attack. This is a rare opportunity for our army to double its strength."
"Remember, both of you, in this battle, the key is one word: fast!"
"Before the enemy's treasure ship can react, rush to the enemy ship as quickly as possible and don't give them the opportunity to activate the protective magic array shield!"
"I will personally lead the two thousand warriors of the Royal Guard Battalion to attack that top-grade treasure ship!"
"You two, along with Cao Yongxiang, Wei Jinfan, and Tang Huai, will each be responsible for the rapid capture plan of an enemy medium-quality treasure ship."
"As long as the first round of ship-grabbing operations is successful and we capture that top-grade treasure ship and a few mid-grade treasure ships, the remaining enemies won't be able to escape. We will catch up with them one by one with the absolute speed of the top-grade treasure ships. There will be no more suspense!"
Li Dingguo was very clear that in this round of ambush and raid, the faster the raid on the enemy, the better.
"Yes! Commander-in-Chief!"...
Xiao Douya and Hongmei accepted the order in unison, then turned around and flew away.
What Li Dingguo said was right. The most important thing for them now was to each take charge of the army, make preparations for launching a surprise attack, and keep a close eye on every move in the army.
We cannot allow some deeply hidden spies to expose our ambush plan.
Xiao Douya even decided to personally take two top-grade spirit dogs, Da Huang and Xiao Huang, with him to patrol all night without sleeping, not giving the enemy any chance to turn the tables.
This battle is of vital importance to the Renaissance Army, and no unexpected situation is allowed to happen.
Once this battle is successful, the strength of the Renaissance Army will see a surge, and it will have enough confidence to deal with the open and covert attacks from all sides in the future.
At that time, it was not the other side that was plotting against them, but the Fuxing Army was trying to turn defense into offense.
I am always in a passive state of being beaten, and I just have to endure it if I don't have the strength.
As long as they had the power to fight back, given Li Dingguo's personality, how could he keep swallowing his anger?
It is inevitable to launch rounds of retaliatory actions against the enemy.
(End of this chapter)
