Chapter 1 Intelligence Bureau

The series of events surrounding the airship was naturally reported to Ye Tao by the intelligence bureau at the first opportunity. Submitting the same materials to Danyang for Tan Xiaopei's review was merely a routine procedure. All political and military orders from the Northern Frontier were issued through the Northern Frontier Pacification Office. In urgent situations, the governor's office adjacent to Northern Liao could make temporary adjustments, but it had to report to the Imperial Court and the Northern Frontier Pacification Office... This was something Tan Xiaopei had emphasized several times during court meetings recently. As Ye Tao transformed his original aggressive offensive into a constant accumulation of strength for confrontation, some reckless individuals who didn't understand the situation impeached Ye Tao for having disloyal intentions. However, Tan Xiaopei, traveling light, flew to the Central Army Garrison to visit her grandson, had a brief discussion with Ye Tao about the war situation, and repeatedly emphasized Ye Tao's jurisdiction in the Imperial Court. This finally allowed everyone to see the closeness, understanding, and trust between this strange monarch and subject pair.

Nie Rui of the intelligence bureau was also quite satisfied with this situation. Although many of the intelligence bureau's tasks were issued to him by Ye Tao via telegram, rather than demanding control over the informants, Ye Tao frankly told him about his arrangements in Northern Liao, of course, limited to him alone. Only then did Nie Rui learn about the background of Kong Xinhua, such a popular figure, and the people around him. From that moment on, the intelligence bureau orchestrated no less than thirty operations, large and small, to cover for Kong Xinhua. Finally, after two conflicts near Yanjing, they successfully witnessed Kong Xinhua become a rising star in Northern Liao, an important link capable of maintaining close contact with the Northern Liao central authorities. Sometimes, Nie Rui felt that if Ye Tao specialized in intelligence work, things would be much easier for him. The Song family of Chunnan had now become Ye Tao's close partners. Although the Song family's businesses seemed to be fiercely competing with the Seven Seas Trading Company, the Jiuzhou Trading Company, and the Ye Family Workshop, the Song family's businesses had become pioneers in technological innovation for various civilian products in Chunnan. Nie Rui knew that there were twenty technicians from the Ye Family Workshop in the Song family's workshop, as well as hundreds of craftsmen of various levels. The two families had already begun very close cooperative development in the Nanyang and Yazhou areas, where the forces of Chunnan could not reach. The Song family had many farms in the south, and they were much more familiar with the large-scale cultivation of tropical crops than Ye Tao and Old Man Qi brought over. Thanks to the Song family's support, the rubber production in Yazhou was now able to meet Ye Tao's minimum needs. In the Xiling court, Sun Boping, the Minister of Revenue, whose position was sensitive and important, had been loyal to Ye Tao for many years. Furthermore, the Leiyin Demon Sect had become an important civil force in Xiling. With religious fervor and careful training, the Leiyin Demon Sect could even raise a team of around 50,000 people in a short period of time, completely at the command of the Leiyin Demon Sect's high-level priest group. And these high-level priests... Thinking of these people, Nie Rui felt a headache. Each of these people was more eloquent and persuasive than the last, but they were just Ye Tao's personally taught disciples. It was conceivable that if Ye Tao weren't in charge of the military and political affairs of the Northern Frontier and didn't have the energy, he would have done even better himself, and Xiling would probably unknowingly be surnamed Ye.

This deployment against Northern Liao was equally amazing. The timing of Kong Xinhua's appearance, as well as the series of operations before and after, were ingenious and accurate, hitting Northern Liao's vital point. Northern Liao had been wary of Dongping's airships for more than just a day or two. Using airship technology to provoke their nerves was more than appropriate. As the head of the intelligence bureau, Nie Rui knew very well that the intelligence instructions from the north were much more professional than those from the Imperial Court. Moreover, intelligence was not warfare. After switching from military service to the intelligence bureau for a few years, Nie Rui understood this principle. Many pieces of intelligence could not be obtained by sacrificing personnel, and a temporary sacrifice might not lead to success. On the contrary, it might expose a long-dormant mole and his entire supporting network. However, the mission directives from the Leizi Northern Frontier Pacification Office always prioritized the preservation of moles, specifying what they hoped to obtain as a top priority, what was secondary, and what was tertiary. If the other party did not leave any opportunities in these areas, then the minimum they hoped to provide were indirect situations for reference. Each time he thoroughly understood the mission directives sent by Ye Tao, Nie Rui benefited greatly and became more and more aware of the intelligence profession. With Nie Rui's feedback and learning, when the Imperial Court focused on arranging intelligence matters for Chunnan and Xiling, it also began to consider long-term interests more and would not get bogged down in some minor details.

However, the mission directive that Ye Tao sent this time was indeed giving Nie Rui a headache. Ye Tao hoped that through him, he could arrange an incident on the southeastern front to allow Northern Liao to obtain a relatively complete wreck of a Dongping active military airship, but without allowing any loss of crew members. As for the reason, Ye Tao also attached a personal letter with the mission directive, explaining his intention to use the airship to consume the national strength of the three countries and divert their attention. Ye Tao clarified that, at this stage of the war, due to the various defects of the airships, they could not actually bear the brunt of the battle. Combat ultimately had to be resolved on the ground. However, compared to Dongping, which could use ample financial resources and low costs to assemble a relatively large airship fleet, for other countries, airships were definitely expensive and sophisticated high-end goods. Each additional airship the enemy built would at least require them to provide necessary armaments, salaries, and other attacks for one hundred fewer soldiers, while he could guarantee that Dongping would have no problem with air supremacy. Ye Tao did not need to make such earnest explanations; Nie Rui would have done it anyway. He was just worried that making things too deliberate would be unattractive. Therefore, after some planning, he assigned this series of tasks to a group of people and had them run to the northeast of Northern Liao to meet up with Tan Weiran and Chi Lei, letting them arrange such things.

Tan Weiran was suddenly faced with such a task and was also at a loss. Fortunately, he was very familiar with the combat usage of airships, and Chi Lei, as the number one scout in the world, was no stranger to the use of airships. After careful planning, they finally decided to carry out this task in the most recent large-scale offensive. They were fighting fiercely with the Eastern Route Army. Although the Eastern Route Army performed better than they expected, making it difficult for them to expand their territory and allowing their not particularly sufficient cavalry units to gain ample room for maneuver, they were still doing a good job overall. Since the Dongping navy brought a portion of infantry that could well undertake the defense of the port passes, they could concentrate on fighting the enemy in front of them. The barbarian tribes were closely united around the two, and after receiving a large number of weapons, cavalry battalions of the northeastern tribes were built one after another. These tribes had personally witnessed Tan Weiran and Chi Lei, who had traveled thousands of miles to support them, carry out several ingenious and brave operations, and they had also felt the excellent style of these soldiers on weekdays. They increasingly admired the strength and demeanor of Dongping, and they were no longer satisfied with transporting supplies for the army, but hoped to participate in front-line operations. Before each cavalry team set off, the tribal elders would specifically instruct them to absolutely obey the command of Tan Weiran and Chi Lei. They were very good at combat, and the deep-seated hatred for Northern Liao accumulated over many years and generations continued to manifest. Each of their operations was incomparably brave. In fact, sometimes Tan Weiran and Chi Lei did not need them to fight so bravely at all. For the Dongping cavalry, who were accustomed to light cavalry mobile warfare and reconnaissance, finding opportunities, and delivering fatal blows, they would often not fight in front of the enemy's superior forces. However, from the time the tribal cavalry entered the battlefield until now, they had several times used a battalion of one thousand men to resist the entire camp of the Northern Liao Eastern Route Army, and the final result was not bad. There was even one time when reinforcements from both sides kept joining the battle, and a small-scale battle of thousands of people eventually evolved into a fierce battle of nearly 100,000 troops on both sides for two days, and both sides paid a heavy price.

The Eastern Route Army and the Imperial Guards were naturally in a dilemma, greatly annoyed by this war of attrition, but the tribes were ecstatic. Their losses were definitely not small, but with the large number of military supplies provided by Dongping, with the very torturous month of short-term training, and with their strong fighting spirit derived from deep-seated hatred, they could actually fight like this with Northern Liao independently. For them, this was definitely a remarkable achievement. After that battle, the tribes demanded to undertake more combat missions, and Tan Weiran and Chi Lei, who had gained confidence, also began to gradually transform the previous small-scale shocks into mobile warfare of encirclement and never gave up the opportunity to annihilate the enemy in organized units in a short period of time, fighting fiercely. At this time, they originally planned an airship offensive, preparing to rely on a total of twenty-seven airships that could only be concentrated for a short period of time on their side to carry out a large-scale air raid on the Eastern Route Army and the Imperial Guards, and then launch an attack in the chaos, at least eating up another 20,000 or so Northern Liao troops. In such a battle, allowing an airship to "crash" and then inadvertently fall into enemy hands was really not a difficult thing.

Tan Weiran and Chi Lei were both very scheming guys. Except for the necessary people, such as the airship crew members and a team of personal soldiers responsible for picking them up back to the camp, they did not announce this matter to the army. Although the two of them mobilized four battalions before and after to rescue the airship crew members and prevent the airship wreckage from falling into enemy hands, this battle was confusing for both sides. Some low- and mid-level officers of Dongping could not help but sigh that the two adults were still a little too rash and impulsive, so that the enemy slipped away at the last moment, and their efforts were in vain; while the Northern Liao side was a little scared. Although they got the airship wreckage, the bombing they suffered during the transportation process further damaged the airship's components, but they transported the airship out of the war zone no matter what, and sent it directly to Yanjing via a special route... The subsequent award order made them feel that everything was worth it.