Shen Rongxuan stepped aside, and a dark figure stood in front. This was Bureau Chief Chen. He nodded downwards, then pointed at the photo with a thin stick and said:
"This is the captain of the Grasshopper, Lieutenant Qiu Qiu. Okay, next picture."
There was another girl.
"This is Engineer Officer Second Lieutenant Li Wenmei. The next picture."
Xiuxiu's photos.
"This is the communications officer, Second Lieutenant Shangxiu. The next picture..."
Looking at Xiuxiu's photo on it, Xiang Xiaoqiang understood: Dongchang had concealed Xiuxiu's identity as an agent and the fact that she survived by being a substitute, and the external department still said that all twelve people had been kidnapped.
After the information about the twelve girls was finished, Director Chen briefly introduced how the submarine crashed last night and how the crew members were captured and then escaped. He spoke very concisely and did not mention Xiang Xiaoqiang’s name at all. He just said, “I was "A latent person in Dongchang made a plan to rescue him," and the credit goes entirely to Dongchang himself.
Although Xiang Xiaoqiang felt unhappy, he knew that he could only say this in front of so many civil and military ministers, so he could understand it. Then Director Chen focused on the kidnapping of the submarine crew this morning. From what Xiang Xiaoqiang heard, basically It was just as good as what Jiang Meilu introduced to him.
"Director Chen," Shen Rongxuan added, "we can also introduce the information we just received to your Lordships."
"Yes," Director Chen bowed and gestured, "Put the map down."
A map appeared on the big screen. Although it was hand-drawn, it seemed to be for military use. It was very thin and marked with contour lines.
"My lords," Director Chen said, "this is Pukou Town."
Then he pointed to the place circled with a red pen:
"According to intelligence, the members of the 'Grasshopper' are now being held in Pukou. It is here, still in the garrison headquarters compound, in the building near the stick. And we judge that they will be in Pukou at least until noon tomorrow. "
No one spoke. After a while, Lord Zheng broke the silence:
"Haha, why?"
Director Chen quickly moved in his direction and said respectfully:
"Master Hou Mingjian, it's like this, there are not enough trains. The puppet Qing Dynasty is planning to allocate at least a thousand guards to escort the prisoners this time. Calculating the 88-passenger carriages that the Qing army usually uses to transport troops by rail, this means that the troop transport vehicles alone will cost 11 To 12 cars. Including the prison car, at least 12 cars. If the 14th Gege follows the train back to Beijing, then add a box. So there will be 13 cars. Not counting the dining car. But the railway in Pukou At the station, most of what my intelligence officer saw were freight cars. Only six passenger cars were found in total. They were all attached to different trains and were about to depart at any time. Therefore, there were not enough trains. This was one of the reasons. .
"Secondly, according to reliable information, the Fourteenth Princess of the Puppet Qing Dynasty is worried that the Pukou Army will be severely infiltrated by us, and has asked the Puppet Emperor to mobilize troops from other places. This place should be Xuzhou. Xuzhou is the closest military town to Pukou. A large number of elite troops are stationed in Xuzhou. In addition, Xuzhou is also a major railway hub, which can vacate empty carriages in batches within a day. However, the fastest time from Xuzhou to Pukou is seven to eight hours, which is half a day, plus the Xuzhou garrison receives According to the Qing's usual efficiency, it would take half a day at the fastest. Even if they issued an order this afternoon to transport the prisoners, it would still take at least half a day. Tomorrow at noon. So we judge that the prisoners will be at Pukou before tomorrow at noon."
"Well," Shen Rongxuan was very satisfied. After waiting for a moment for everyone to digest, he asked again, "Sir, do you have any questions?"
After a moment of silence, a voice in the darkness asked coldly:
"Director Chen introduced so many things and asked all of you to do the math for a long time. What problem do you want to explain?"
"Oh," Director Chen said with a slight smile, "it's Mr. Yushi Chang."
"That's right," the voice said proudly, "it's none other than Chang."
"Oh, Mr. Chang," Director Chen said with a smile, "I'm sorry, I asked Mr. Chang to 'calculate for a long time', but I didn't want to explain anything."
Chang Yushi sneered:
"Oh? So you, Dongchang, are teasing all the adults here?"
"I don't dare," Director Chen said with a smile and bowed, "I'm just telling you the basic situation for your adults' reference. If you don't mean to play, then I'm just teasing Chang Yushi."
There were snickers everywhere, mixed with slight coughs.
Chang Yushi banged the table, causing the lid of the tea cup to jingle. In the darkness, he could only hear his breathing heavily. After a moment, he said coldly:
"Okay, this censor is not familiar with you."
Xiang Xiaoqiang didn't know why, but he felt very relieved when he heard Director Chen choked the censor. It was probably because he had assumed the role of "East Factory Personnel".
Right, you should be a little more arrogant, so that you have the momentum that Dongchang should have. It is best to be like the classic sentence of factory governor Cao Zhengqin in "New Dragon Gate Inn": "Do you want an imperial edict? Come on, let's write one for him!" Just enough to feel it.
After waiting for a moment, Shen Rongxuan said lightly:
"Bing - new."
"Yes." Chen Bingxin, director of the First Bureau, bowed and stepped aside.
Shen Rongxuan coughed and smiled:
"Everyone, Director Chen just said the basic situation, that is, from now until noon tomorrow, the members of the 'Grasshopper' will be in Pukou, but after noon tomorrow, it will be hard to say."
An old man on the left said loudly:
"Mr. Shen, I have a saying that I don't know whether to say or not."
Shen Rongxuan quickly bowed and said:
"Oh, Mr. Xu, please speak."
This is the Foreign Minister Xu Yuanzhen. The old man is in his sixties, white-haired, skinny, with a goatee, and reading glasses. The light reflects from time to time in the darkness, like the eyes of some animal, sparkling.
The old man was not polite and sipped his tea:
"If I understand correctly, what Director Chen or Du Gong Shen means is: Sirs, if you want to save people, you must hurry up. While a few girls are still in Pukou, act quickly and you may be able to save people. Come here, otherwise we will escort you northward at noon tomorrow and there will be no chance. Is that what you mean?"
After a moment of silence, Shen Rongxuan said:
"That's basically what it means."
"Okay, that's what I mean. Then I don't understand. Why did you say that there will be no chance at noon tomorrow? I have a good mind, so I'll do the math: the railway line from Pukou to Beijing is more than a thousand kilometers. I'm afraid of the Qing Dynasty. We sabotaged the railway and never dared to go faster than 30 kilometers. We had to add coal and water on the way, so it would take almost two days and nights to get to Beijing. Since there was such a long time and such a long route, and we were ambushed along the way, wouldn't we have a good chance of winning? Some?"
Shen Rongxuan smiled and said:
"You can let Captain Huang of the Parachute Commando talk about this issue."
"Yes," a soldier stood up straight, his voice relatively young, "Mr. Xu, this method is not feasible. Of course we can ambush along the way, but the number of troops that can be transported is limited and it is difficult to form an advantage.
, Secondly, even if the attack is successful by chance, we will never be able to withdraw if we go deep into enemy territory."
The old man stroked his beard and nodded:
"So that's it. With a thousand soldiers escorting the Qing Dynasty, it's difficult for us to gain an advantage. So in Pukou, there are 60,000 soldiers stationed by the Qing Dynasty. How many people do we need to send to gain an advantage?"
As soon as these words came out, there was total silence. After a while, Captain Huang said:
"Master Xu misunderstood. What Xiaguan meant is that we don't have to have a military advantage, but we must be able to withdraw. In the operation in Pukou, although there is no military advantage, there is only a river across the river. No matter whether we succeed or not, we will win."
It is easy to withdraw. If we go hundreds of miles into enemy territory, we can certainly parachute dozens of people to attack the train, but even if we succeed, what will these dozens of people take back?"
Xu Yuanzhen stroked his beard again and said:
"Well, that is to say, although it is easy to do it along the railway line, there is no hope of withdrawing it. Although it is difficult to do it in Pukou, there is hope of withdrawing it."
Captain Huang breathed a sigh of relief and said:
"Master Xu Ming Jian."
Xu Yuanzhen laughed and said:
"Haha, I am overly worried. I think Dongchang is somewhat sure of the rescue operation. Director Chen, please tell everyone what the security situation on the other side is like."
…
Xu Zhien whispered coldly:
"We shouldn't have invited these politicians here at all tonight. If they were just people from the Metropolitan Procuratorate, they wouldn't be able to cause much trouble. Now that two cabinet ministers are sitting here, we have to rely on God's blessing if we want to rescue them."