The film and television world begins with the battle for the throne in Kowloon

Chapter 597: Formation of the Royal Guards (Part )
Li Yan raised three fingers with a serious look and shook them: "I will only give you two to three months to classify these five hundred people and replace the original military system with this system. You must also learn to leave the logistics, survive alone in the wild, hide your identity, gather intelligence, and establish a stable network for transmitting intelligence."

"We also need to design a secret code unique to the East Factory to ensure that even if an outsider obtains the intelligence, they will not be able to understand the content."

"Two months later, we will begin to gradually disperse people. Within three months, except for the managers who maintain the operation of the system, all frontline intelligence members will be deployed to the grasslands."

Su Dingfang and Liang Jianfang did not take it seriously at first, thinking that they were veterans in the army and were knowledgeable. Although Li Yan was the crown prince, he relied on his bloodline to get to the position, and he was only in his teens. How much advice could he give?
But as Li Yan spoke, their expressions became more and more solemn, so that in the end they were just listening.

They had arranged spies in the army before they had been in the army for a long time, but they were small in scale, crude in operation, simple in tasks, and the spies at that time had a small range of movement. They were all scouting for the enemy near the main army, and sometimes they had to fight life and death with the spies of the enemy army, capture prisoners for interrogation, and collect some basic information for the next war.

This large-scale, systematic secret operation mode is completely different from before. It does not require armed combat, but cleverly uses identities to inquire about and collect intelligence.

Su Dingfang asked with a sullen look on his face: "Your Highness, if you are talking about training soldiers to charge into battle and capture cities and strongholds, Lao Liang and I have been soldiers all our lives, so we are naturally not afraid of it."

"But this is too professional, and we don't have much experience ourselves. If we fail in our duties, it will be a small matter. But we can't afford to delay the emperor's northern expedition!"

Li Yan smiled lightly: "It doesn't matter, so I will temporarily take on the role of the commander of the Jinyiwei, and I will also be responsible for the early stage construction and operation."

Thinking of this, Li Yan said modestly: "Of course, I don't really understand it either, and these are just theoretical talks. It's just that I have ideas and theories, and you two understand actual military operations, so let's discuss it together."

"The East Factory was just established, and there are no old rules to refer to. We are trying to come up with a set of things that can be actually operated based on the current conditions and specific goals and tasks, and then teach those soldiers."

"In fact, these ordinary scouts in the army also have their own unique ways of surviving, gathering intelligence and transmitting information. We can collect these from them, summarize and revise them, and then popularize them one by one according to their specific tasks and responsibilities, and slowly put our East Factory into operation."

After Li Yan finished speaking, he asked Wenjun, who was serving beside him, to bring writing brush, ink, paper, inkstone, an oil lamp, a bowl of hot water and some sugar.

In front of Su Dingfang and Liang Jianfang, he sprinkled the sugar into the hot water to melt it, then picked up a pen, dipped it in some thick sugar water, and wrote the three words "Jinyiwei" on the paper.

Then he blew gently until the sugar water dried up, leaving only a faint mark on the paper. Then, under the puzzled gazes of the two people, he crumpled the paper into a ball until the water marks were disrupted by the paper marks and nothing could be seen.

Then he showed it in front of the two veterans, asking them to make sure that there was no handwriting on the paper. He then took it to the oil lamp and carefully heated it. After a while, in the astonished eyes of the two veterans, the three words "Jinyiwei" could be clearly seen on the paper.

Su Dingfang looked excited. He took the paper and looked at it carefully. The three words "Jinyiwei" slowly cooled down and disappeared without a trace after leaving the temperature of the oil lamp, which made Su Dingfang dumbfounded.

Liang Jianyan also excitedly grabbed the paper and, imitating what Li Yan had just done, heated the paper under the oil lamp. After a while, the three words "Jinyiwei" appeared again.

The two of them seemed to have discovered a new world. After asking Li Yan for permission, they picked up the brushes and started trying. After a lot of effort, they finally realized that there were too many things in this world that they didn't know. If they passed information in this way, they would not be able to discover it even under their noses.

Li Yan finally reminded: "At present, only the three of us in the entire Tang Dynasty know this method, so it must be classified as a highly confidential information of the Jinyiwei. Only very reliable personnel above the level of Baihu have the authority to know and use it. Once it is leaked, it will be useless."

"If this method is well protected, it can remain unknown to the world for decades."

"What the prince said is true!"

Liang Jianfang added: "Moreover, in the future, all the ways of transmitting information designed by Jinweiyi must be designed with extremely confidential permissions. For methods like this, members below the 100 households actually don't need to know about it. It's better to spread it by word of mouth."

"Only the centurions of the few centurions' offices on the border can gather intelligence and pass it on to the headquarters in this way."

Su Dingfang also excitedly suggested: "Yunzhong, Dingxiang, and Suizhou are too close to each other. There is no need to set up three hundred households. In my opinion, we should set up one each in Yunzhong and Suizhou, and Lingzhou in the northwest and Mayi in the northeast. This will be enough."

"We can select a hundred households and put it under the direct jurisdiction of the headquarters. We can build a post road to the north that belongs to our Jinyiwei to transmit information between Chang'an and these four hundred households. We can also set up a hundred households in Jingyang City, 20 miles north of Chang'an City." "In this way, the intelligence from the north does not need to be sent to Chang'an City. It can be directly summarized in Jingyang and then sent to the city calmly. This way, Chang'an will not be alerted and attention will not be drawn."

"Yes, the two generals are indeed experienced!"

Li Yan exclaimed in admiration, saying that when it came to the specific operations here, these two people were indeed experienced and their considerations were much more thoughtful than his.

Liang Jianfang said, "Also, Prince, we can find a place between the Jing and Wei rivers north of Longshouyuan and build a large manor as the training ground for the East Factory to train soldiers who are completely different from ordinary soldiers in outdoor survival. This will avoid attracting too much attention in the West Inner Court where the imperial guards gather."

So the three of them started to contribute to the newly established department, and under the discussion of these three cobblers, a department that would terrify the entire era in the future began to slowly take shape.

In the following time, Su Dingfang and Liang Jianfang, nominally holding the positions of the Sixth Rate of the Eastern Palace, actually began to adjust the training program according to the discussion between the three, select the locations of each hundred households, set up various institutions of the Jinyiwei from scratch, and set up operating rules.

They also began to count the caravans heading north from Chang'an City. At the beginning, the Eastern Jinyiwei had no experience in commercial operations, so they might have to join these caravans in the name of small merchants.

Only the major wealthy families in Chang'an City have the strength to organize caravans to the north and the Western Regions. Moreover, only the big families and tycoons have the ability to break through the checkpoints and bandits on the road and organize large-scale guards.

But what should small businesses do if they also have needs?
They would pay a portion of the commission and send people to escort their own small caravan carriages to travel to various places with the large caravans. Although this was more costly, it was safer.

For large caravans, it also invisibly increases the size of the caravan and spreads the cost, which is the best of both worlds.

Moreover, these caravans each have their own business scope, target areas, and familiar customers. They go to the grassland to transport daily necessities such as salt, tea, brocade, porcelain, etc. from the south to the grassland, and then exchange them for cattle, sheep, horses, or herbs and furs from the grassland. The profit goes several times round trip.

The East Factory's "business" had just begun, so they purchased a batch of goods and disguised themselves as small merchants and joined the large caravan. This not only concealed their identity but also allowed them to make some money, killing two birds with one stone.

The Jinyiwei had just been established and there were a lot of things to do. The two assistant guards would come to ask for advice every now and then, and Li Yan would always take time to chat with them.

Then he would take his ten attendants with him, study in the morning, and practice archery and horse riding in the parade ground in the afternoon. Sometimes he would discuss some classic battle examples with these future famous generals, and every now and then they would have a barbecue party in the woods next to the parade ground.

After a month of getting along, the prince became known to be kind, magnanimous, considerate of the soldiers, and rarely scolded others with a stern face. Gradually, the ten guards became familiar with Li Yan, especially on the parade ground, where everyone competed in horse riding and archery, and sometimes the guards were organized to play Cuju.

Several teenagers who were less than 20 years old and had just reached adulthood were like being dropped into a university campus. The Chongwenguan was filled with books, richer than the collection of any aristocratic family. Li Gang, Lu Deming, Kong Yingda and others were all well-read and respected scholars with profound knowledge.

Everyone was of learning age, absorbing knowledge to their heart's content, sweating out their passionate youth, and had a stronger sense of identification with the prince.

While Li Yan was managing his own small power, at the court, after more than a month, Li Ke's negotiations in Suizhou finally came to an end, although Jie Li demanded 300,000 dan of grain and 100,000 pieces of silk from the Tang Dynasty.

But Li Ke used his courage and wisdom to exchange for only 1,000 dan of grain and 500 pieces of silk to bring back the 30,000 soldiers and civilians who were captured in the Suizhou battle.

As soon as the news reached the capital, it immediately excited the officials in the court. This saved the Tang Dynasty a lot of expenses. The officials of the Shu King's line were overjoyed and spread Li Ke's achievements everywhere. They agreed to go to the north gate of Chang'an to welcome Li Ke and his party who returned triumphantly.

At this time, Li Yan was reporting to Li Shimin in Chengqing Hall on the preparations for the Jinyiwei, and Li Shimin asked him questions from time to time.

In fact, Li Shimin was generally aware of what had happened in the Eastern Palace in the past month. Except for the time when Li Yan discussed the internal affairs of the Jinyiwei with the two commanders, Heng Lian knew everything else, including that Li Yan had sent dozens of guards to all corners of the country to find servants of the same age.

(End of this chapter)