"Miss Zhang, I haven't seen you for a long time..."

Chu Qi sat under a tree in the Richmond Manor. He racked his brains to think about the content of the letter to Zhang Zhier, but it was hard to write.

Richmond has become the capital of the Union, with a large number of politicians, merchants and civilians gathered to become a big city and a military camp. The generals trained militias without inexperience and then sent them to the front line. Some families in southern states even all the labor force served in the military, and more than 100,000 soldiers were active on the long front line. The food and firewood consumed every day were unimaginable.

What makes people feel most desperate is that no politician dares to assert that the war can end in a few months.

"What are you doing?"

A figure appeared behind Chu Qi, but was Feng Yuruo, who was helping the Alliance train non-commissioned officers.

Chu Qi did not avoid suspicion: "I have been on the front line before, and I have not been in the mood to calm down and write letters. I only have time now."

He also wants to maintain his relationship with Zhang Zhier. If the Civil War ends or he is transferred back to his hometown and is run away by Zhang Zhier, it will be like a Waterloo for him.

Feng Yuruo said: "Just use the telegram directly. Our Ming Empire took the initiative to undertake the construction of Pacific submarine cables, and the message could be transmitted to the imperial city in one go."

Chu Qi replied: "Telecom is based on the number of words. If you want to make a long statement, you can save money by writing a letter directly. Moreover, the telegraph must be handled by a telegrapher. It is quite embarrassing to be seen by others."

Feng Yuruo sat opposite: "If you have a way to send your letter back to the imperial city, then you can send me a message back."

Chu Qi nodded: "Of course, our Jinyiwei has its own station and ships to deliver letters for our members. The telegram is in danger of being eavesdropped. If our members convey letters from home through telegrams, everyone's identities would have been exposed long ago."

Feng Yuruo heard that the Jinyiwei had his own unique way to send the letter back, and suddenly realized: "So that's it."

"How are you training non-commissioned officers in the Union here?"

"They have rushed to form a new army equipped with rifles and steel cannons, and they still need to participate in actual combat to gradually adapt to new tactics. A force can only grow through actual combat. However, I believe that they can defend the defense line of the Alliance and prevent the Alliance from being annexed by the United States. If the United States goes south again, it will face significant losses."

"You are so confident in the soldiers of the Union who are equipped with our Great Open Firearms?"

"That's of course, the Nanyang Shogunate also used the Type 225 rifle and breech-mounted steel cannon. They were not inferior to any soldiers of European powers in the Naval Battle of Malacca 11 years ago. The Alliance might become the second front-line vassal of our Ming Empire after the Dongyang Shogunate. Their morale is higher than that of the second-line vassals such as Goryeo and Annan."

Feng Yuruo's evaluation of the soldiers of the Alliance is quite high.

In the eyes of the generals of the Ming Empire, the Oriental Shogunate and the Alliance should be better than Annan and Goryeo, but it is not easy to turn the Alliance into its own vassal.

"The culture of the Union is incompatible with us, and it is not easy to turn it into a vassal, unless they are allowed to hate the United States and Europe, and they will always be on our side."

Chu Qi thought to himself that the Ming Empire had conquered the Kingdom of Goryeo, Annan, Dongyu, Siam, the East Shogunate, and the Kazakh Khanate. In order to turn them into real vassals, it took two hundred years to control the Dongyang Shogunate for more than 30 years and the Kazakh Khanate for more than 20 years.

This can only be effectively controlled if their territory borders the Ming Empire and is influenced by the Ming culture. A coalition state, a country with different cultures, wants to turn it into a vassal state unless the other party's economy is extremely dependent on the Ming Empire. Economic control should be closer than military alliances.

While Chu Qi and Feng Yuruo were chatting, the Jinyiwei came back from outside and whispered a few words beside Chu Qi, which made his face change slightly.

Seeing that something was wrong with his expression, Feng Yuruo asked him, "What happened?"

"Lincoln replaced a group of officials from the War Department, who were responsible for coordinating the mobilization of soldiers and generals, which means that our intelligence sources are much less, and we even need to buy a group of people again." Chu Qi learned of this news, and his intelligence network was affected by Lincoln's personnel mobilization.

Not everyone will be bribed, not to mention that bribing a group of Washington officials will cost a huge price.

Feng Yuruo asked worriedly, "Will the defense line in the north be affected?"

Chu Qi replied: "It is impossible to say that it is not affected. The bribed officials are like our eyes placed in Washington. Once our eyesight is affected, we will not be able to know the other party's personnel transfer and military dispatch in time. In other words, if the Alliance wants to block the offensive of the United States, the intelligence advantage will decrease. Lincoln and others must have noticed in the previous battle that we have mastered the information of their troops in advance, and there are traitors around them."

As the representative of the Ministry of War, Feng Yuruo knew how important intelligence is to carry out operations: "Fortunately, the first batch of aid from our Ming Dynasty has arrived, and the Alliance countries also have a new army. Even if the intelligence advantage is weakened, it should not be affected much."

"I will find a way to buy new members."

Chu Qi was not discouraged when facing Lincoln's counterattack. Any senior management realized that some of his subordinates were bribed by the enemy would definitely be a major change, but in the end there would be fish that missed the net, and then he would find a way to build a new intelligence network.

Soon, another piece of information that Chu Qi cared about came back from Washington. The cabinet prime minister of the Empire of Sun Never Settling was visited by Parmeston, and he had already met with Lincoln.

"It doesn't matter if it's incomplete information," Chu Qi ordered.

"I thought it was already quite hard for me to help the Alliance train non-commissioned officers, but I didn't expect that you would have a lot of troubles." Feng Yuruo said.

"It's okay on weekdays, but I just happened to learn that Lincoln was launching a counterattack. He might get assistance from the Sun-Down Empire, and the north and the south will return to balance again."

Even if Chu Qi had not learned what Lincoln and Parmeston were talking to, he could guess that this time Parmeston must have supported Lincoln on behalf of the Sun-Don't Setting Empire and other European powers, and would inevitably send aid to the United States.
Chapter completed!