The heads of four different intelligence agencies in Jinling City gathered together, which is naturally unlikely to happen in normal times.
After all, these four intelligence agencies usually do their own thing, and at the same time, some conflicts will break out because of the overlap in business.
For example, the conflict between the Military Intelligence Division and the Military Affairs Division is not small. The Military Intelligence Division has always believed that the Operations Division can just stay in the controlled areas within the empire and play counter-espionage. It has to go to the Mingting-controlled areas to cause trouble. This is obviously over the top.
When these four intelligence agencies were in Jinling City before, although there was some cooperation, most of them were handled by the people below.
But today is different!
Now the forward troops of the King's Division of Da Chu have reached the outside of Jinling City, and the main force of the King's Division is only dozens of kilometers away. It will take less than a few days to reach the outside of Jinling City.
The Great Chu Empire's attack on Jinling City is imminent, and at this time, their intelligence departments also need to cooperate with the military to make their own contribution to the capture of Jinling City.
After the person in charge of the Military Intelligence Department also entered the room, the meeting did not start immediately. Instead, after waiting for about half an hour, another man in his late twenties and late twenties, dressed as a scholar, came in.
After the man came in, the people from the Military Intelligence Department stood up first, clasped their fists in a slight military salute and said: "Xiaguan Military Intelligence Department Jinling Station Chief Zhao Xi has met Mr. Wang."
Immediately afterwards, the other three people also stood up to pay their respects.
Wang Qi looked around, then nodded slightly and said: "Well, for the sake of safety, I went to the city and delayed a little time to keep you waiting."
Zhao Xi said: "Master Wang is serious. As a clerk in the Secretariat, Master Wang has a lot of money. To venture into the city at this time is already very admirable. It doesn't matter if I wait for a while!"
Wang Qi glanced at Zhao Xi, then nodded slightly, but secretly despised him in his heart.
This Zhao Xi is a member of the Imperial Guard of the Ming Dynasty, and he is very familiar with things like officialdom and favors. No wonder some people say that Zhao Xi was able to take the position of chief of the Jinling Station of the Military Intelligence Department not because of his true ability in intelligence affairs, but because of his ability in intelligence affairs. The one who flatters the superior.
Wang Qi has never been happy with people who rise to power by flattering others.
I miss him Wang Qi, who studied hard for twenty years in Hanchuang, and successively passed the exams for Ming Dynasty students and candidates. Last year, he first became a local official from Longhou, was promoted to prefect, and finally was transferred to the Hanlin Academy as an attendant. From then on, it can be regarded as a whole life. into the ranks of senior imperial officials.
Although the rank and authority of the Hanlin Academy's Attendants in the Chu Empire were different from those of the Ming Dynasty, they were still important positions.
The Hanlin Academy of the Great Chu Empire, although this institution has the same name as the Hanlin Academy of the Ming Dynasty, it also has positions such as the Hanlin Academy's Master of the Academy, the Assistant Lecturer, the Assistant Reader, the Assistant Lecturer, and the Assistant Reader.
But their grades and powers are completely different.
The Hanlin Academy of the Ming Dynasty is a traditional Hanlin Academy. Its power itself is not very big. The main reason is that officials with Hanlin background are more likely to be promoted and have the hope of joining the cabinet.
After going through the Hanlin Academy step by step, and reaching the level of bachelor's degree, they often go directly to the six ministers or even the six ministers, and then join the cabinet.
However, Hanlin Academy officials do not actually have much actual power before they are promoted. Therefore, the Ming Hanlin Academy is an institution where the nobles raise their hopes. The Hanlin Academy within it will either rise to the top in one step or die...
The Hanlin Academy of the Great Chu Empire was different. The Chu Hanlin Academy was neither noble nor prestigious, but an institution that actually handled affairs.
The Hanlin Academy of the Chu Empire was reformed from the Counselor's Office of the early General's Mansion. It was originally a pure private secretarial organization of Luo Zhixue, and it was no exception after it was reformed into the Hanlin Academy.
The Chu Hanlin Academy has 16 departments, corresponding to various military and political ministries, and there are also a lot of staff. The entire Hanlin Academy currently has nearly 300 staff members to assist Luo Zhixue in handling various military and political affairs.
There is one bachelor in charge of the academy, the second rank, who is at the same level as ministers of various ministries, who directly participates in government affairs, and is also the minister who serves as co-organizer of affairs.
The Hanlin Academy has one serving bachelor and one serving lecturer, each of whom assists the master of the academy in handling many affairs of the Imperial Academy. They are all of the third rank, at the same level as the directors of various departments and the chief envoys of each province.
Downward is a group of nine departments, among which the Secretariat is quite special.
The director of the secretariat is actually served concurrently by a bachelor of lectures.
In addition, there are four ministers and four ministers each. These eight people are collectively called lecturers and are the fourth rank.
Their main job in these lectures was to follow the emperor in shifts in order to receive the emperor's inquiries at any time, and generally did not participate in other affairs.
In modern terms, they are Luo Zhixue's secretaries.
Under the lectures, they are ordinary staff members, with different grades, but the highest is only the seventh grade.
As for each subject, the chief of each subject is generally awarded the fifth rank, and the deputy chiefs are awarded the fifth rank.
Each department has staff members, the highest of which is no more than the seventh rank.
These Hanlin Academy officials, especially those above deputy section chiefs, must have experience in governing.
In addition, there are no two levels in the Hanlin Academy: the sixth grade and the sixth grade. This means that the internal promotion channel from section member to deputy section chief is actually disconnected.
Therefore, it is impossible for an ordinary section member to succeed in the Hanlin Academy directly, because the deputy section chief level is stuck.
In addition, the section chiefs of each section are only at the fifth rank, while the lecturers above are at the fourth rank. There is another gap between the fourth rank and a gap, so the section chiefs cannot be directly promoted to lecturers.
The reason for the disconnection was that Luo Zhixue wanted to maintain the circulation of officials in the Hanlin Academy and avoid seniority promotions, which turned the Hanlin Academy into a stagnant water.
This is not only true of the Hanlin Academy, but in fact most of the other institutions in the capital and even provincial institutions in the Great Chu Empire are the same. There will be gaps in the setting of job grades, making it impossible for officials to keep climbing up in the same institution. .
Luo Zhixue hopes that officials will be transferred between local and provincial or Gyeonggi agencies when serving in order to accumulate more administrative experience, and can also select talents through this transfer.
As for Wang Qi, as one of the attendants of the Hanlin Academy Secretariat, he was a close official of the emperor and would be on duty following Luo Zhixue from time to time.
According to common sense, it is impossible for Wang Qi, an attendant who often follows Luo Zhixue, to appear in an enemy-occupied area like Jinling City.
But this is related to Luo Zhixue's work style. Luo Zhixue often directly ordered the lecturers to carry imperial edicts to deal with a specific matter.
Before Luo Zhixue registered the Wang family as queen, he sent an attendant to Xiangyang with a secret order to beat the Wang family and tell them to crawl on their feet and not cause trouble.
This time, Wang Qi ventured into Jinling City, also following Luo Zhixue's order.
He entered the city to see Li Yuankui!
Not only to meet Li Yuankui, but also to secretly meet with other senior civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty in the city who were willing to surrender to the Chu Empire. On the one hand, they were to finalize a detailed plan for what the Ming army would do in the city anyway, and on the other hand, they were to represent Luo Zhixue and feed them. The next reassurance is, for example, a promise of official position and rank.
The reason why Luo Zhixue caused so much trouble was that he did not want Jinling City to suffer too much war damage.
Luo Zhixue also hoped to capture Jinling City and make this city the official capital of the Chu Empire. He also hoped that after moving the capital, he would be able to directly move into the residences of several princes in the city, and at the same time, various ministries in the capital would also be able to have their own homes. Suitable office location.
If the attack is too violent and directly destroys the city on a large scale, or even if someone sets a fire, then Luo Zhixue will be left in ruins.
Luo Zhixue had no plans and no money to build a new capital. He didn't even plan to build a palace, otherwise he wouldn't have paid attention to the palaces of the Dukes in the city.
As for the Nanjing Imperial Palace in the Ming Dynasty... although it is still there, it has long been uninhabitable.
However, in order to avoid damage to the buildings in the city, that is actually secondary.
The most important thing is that it is about to snow. Luo Zhixue does not want his army to attack Jinling City on a snowy day. This will inevitably cause an abnormal attack and increase his own casualties, which Luo Zhixue cannot accept. .
At the same time, he was unwilling to wait for a period of time and wait for the weather to improve before fighting again. If he could not wait for a long time, the gentry and dignitaries in the city would continue to flee north through the Yangtze River, taking away a large number of people who would soon belong to the Chu Empire. Take away all the money and food.
That is even more unacceptable.
That's all his money!
How to quickly capture Jinling City while controlling casualties has become a problem that Luo Zhixue needs to consider.
This issue cannot be considered from a purely military perspective.
Instead, other aspects need to be taken into consideration, such as the high-ranking civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty in Jinling City.
At this time, Luo Zhixue happened to hear that Li Yuankui was preparing to cause trouble with the Military Intelligence Department, and he suddenly became interested. After asking in detail, he took this matter very seriously.
In his opinion, if this matter is done well, then the Battle of Nanchang can be repeated.
In the previous Battle of Nanchang, the Military Intelligence Department co-operated with the troops stationed in the city. Some of the Ming troops in the city who rebelled directly opened the city gates and welcomed the main force of the Chu army into the city. In an instant, the city defense of Nanchang was reduced to nothing.
If Li Yuankui and others were involved in the attack on Jinling City this time, and then opened the city gates or even led the way, then the subsequent siege operations would be much simpler.
Therefore, he sent his personal secretary and attendant Wang Qi into Jinling City to be responsible for liaison and coordinating the forces in the city to cooperate with the army to attack the city.
Wang Qi himself also attaches great importance to this.
If he does well this time, he will be able to achieve feats as a civilian official in the Battle of Jinling City that are difficult for ordinary generals to achieve, which will be of great benefit to his future career.
Serving as a fourth-rank official is definitely not the end of his career!
Wang Qi also hopes to go one step further and even become a minister or even join the cabinet.
