Chapter 99

Lin Yuan said, "There's no need for the grand ceremony of appointing a general. Let's save that money. However, we can spread this news. They will expect us to launch an attack after the ceremony, so their defenses will be lax. This is precisely our opportunity to achieve the element of surprise in the campaign."

Emperor Guangxu thought for a moment and said, "Still, Minister Lin has many good ideas."

Lin Yuan said, "I came this time to hope that His Majesty could coordinate the resolution of the weapons issue for the newly recruited soldiers."

Emperor Guangxu said, "How should I coordinate?"

Lin Yuan said, "Your Majesty knows that it's too late to buy weapons from abroad now. We can only produce them ourselves. However, the major arsenals like the Anqing Arsenal and the Jiangnan Arsenal belong to different factions, and I can't command them. I hope Your Majesty will issue an edict to have them produce a batch of firearms and artillery as soon as possible to supply the front lines."

Emperor Guangxu said, "That's easy. I'll just talk to Zhang Zhidong and the others."

Lin Yuan knew that Zhang Zhidong was a senior figure of the Xiang Army and the founder of the Jiangnan Arsenal. With his word, it would naturally be effective.

As Lin Yuan left the palace, he thought, "To win a war, weapons alone are far from enough. War is a large system, and every detail can determine the outcome. For example, during the Battle of Sarhu at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the sleeves of the Ming army's uniforms were tightly fitted around the wrists. In the cold winter, many soldiers' hands were frostbitten, greatly reducing their combat effectiveness. The Qing army's sleeves were long, so the soldiers could put their hands inside and avoid frostbite. This detail, to some extent, influenced the course of the battle."

What a war needs, the soldiers are the most authoritative to speak about. So he went to the camp of the Northeast Army. These people were all refugees from the northeast. As soon as Lin Yuan entered the camp, he saw an empty parade ground where a few old soldiers were sitting, cleaning their guns. In those days, military uniforms did not have rank insignia or other identifiers. Lin Yuan knew they were old soldiers mainly from their age.

Lin Yuan walked over, sat down next to them, and said, "Hello, old brothers."

In those days, there was a saying, "A good man does not join the army, and good iron is not used to make nails." In the minds of people at that time, a good man should study to earn a title, or live a simple life farming. Soldiers were often ruffians or even criminals sent to the army, so the social status of soldiers was very low. When the old soldiers saw someone treating them with such respect and dressed in fine clothes, they immediately stopped their work and looked at Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan asked, "Have any of you fought the Japanese?"

As soon as he said this, the old soldiers sighed. One said, "Don't mention it. We did fight, but we lost badly. Otherwise, we wouldn't be hiding here."

Lin Yuan knew this old soldier was speaking in Northeastern dialect, where "ge la" means "place" and "mao zhe" means "hiding."

Another said, "Hiding is hiding. There's no choice. Who can we blame for not being able to beat the Japanese? The road for transporting food to our camp was cut off by the Japanese. The brothers went days without food or water, and when they were starving, they would grab a handful of snow to eat."

"Starving" is also a Northeastern dialect, describing extreme hunger.

The old soldier continued, "Our food is too complicated to prepare. We have to build stoves and boil water. The Japanese food is much better. They have rice balls, and the Mongolian cavalry is even better. They chop up meat, stuff it into sheep intestines, cook it, and dry it. It's easy to carry and doesn't spoil easily."

Another old soldier said with disdain, "You just went hungry, what's the big deal! We lost in a way that was truly infuriating. Once, we were ordered to garrison a place called Xujia Village. No one knew where Xujia Village was, but we couldn't disobey orders. The captain said, 'Let's go and see. If we meet locals, we'll ask them.' So we set out, and after half a day, we finally saw someone. It was our cavalry, who told us that Fengtian had fallen. We followed them back in confusion."

Lin Yuan asked, "Didn't you have a map?"

The old soldier asked, "What's a map?"

Lin Yuan said, "It's a picture with place names and other information."

The old soldiers shook their heads. Lin Yuan thought, "If they don't even have a map, this war can't be fought!"

One old soldier said, "That's nothing. Let me tell you a funny story. We were running back from Fengtian and met a group of patrolling soldiers in Jinzhou. They were all wearing our Qing army uniforms, but they spoke gibberish, and not a word could be understood. We thought they were Japanese spies and almost attacked them. Later, we found out they were from Hunan, so we couldn't understand a word they said."

After chatting for a while, Lin Yuan got up to leave, noting down the problems the old soldiers had mentioned. Food and maps seemed to be the key issues to address.

Soon, Lin Yuan came up with an idea. He thought about contacting the Beijing ship to use the maps on board. However, he realized this wouldn't work because the maps on the Beijing ship were drawn based on 21st-century China. Although the terrain and topography wouldn't have changed much in the past hundred years, the changes in villages were significant.

For users, maps with village names and conditions were more important because commanders could obtain information about resupply from them. This was especially crucial for an army with serious logistical issues.

Lin Yuan couldn't help but think of a solution. He went to Zhang Hua and asked, "How did your talk with the chamber of commerce president go?"

Zhang Hua said, "It went well. The president agreed to provide some funds. What about you? What are your plans?"

Lin Yuan nodded and said, "I plan to draw a batch of large-scale maps for the front-line units."

Zhang Hua said, "Drawing maps is a complex task, but now we have aerial photography and radar detection technology. The Beijing ship has many existing maps. We can remove the human information, such as villages, cities, and buildings, from the Beijing ship's maps using technology, and then add new human information. The changes in terrain and topography should not be significant, so a slight correction should be fine."

Lin Yuan said, "I thought the same, but we face a problem. We can't tell the names of these villages from the sky."

Zhang Hua nodded and said, "That's our biggest problem. If the names of the places are inaccurate, our maps will be useless."

After thinking for a while, Lin Yuan said, "I have an idea. We can take pictures from the air. Many large cities are known to everyone. Then we can ask locals about the relative positions of the villages to the known large cities, and we can determine the names of the villages. It's like a jigsaw puzzle, starting with a known piece and gradually piecing together the whole picture."

Zhang Hua nodded and smiled, "This is truly the most grandiose jigsaw puzzle in history."

Next episode preview: Will Lin Yuan's plan work? How will Lin Yuan solve the logistics and supply issues?

Stay tuned for the next episode.

Page flip AD starts

Page flip AD ends