Shadow Empire

Chapter 677 Report
"...I will keep an eye on these matters. I know a Major General Bruni in the Ministry of Defense. Can he handle the people in the Ministry of Defense?"

Admiral Miles shook his head. "He is just an errand boy. This matter needs to be approved by several lieutenant generals in charge of this matter."

Major General Bruni’s rank is not actually that bad. After all, he is a major general, which is at the top of the pyramid in the military organization.

But in the eyes of Admiral Miles, he was indeed just an errand boy, and in some ways he was not as powerful or high-ranking as a colonel with real power in the army.

The value of civilian generals is only to avoid conflicts when managing the army due to "civilian control over military affairs".

In different periods, countries, and systems, there have been problems because of politicians managing the military, so when it comes to the federal government, they use military to manage military.

It may seem redundant to confer the rank of general on politicians in the Ministry of Defense, but it is particularly effective for middle and lower-level military personnel.

Even though they were dissatisfied with the fact that many of the civilian generals had never been on the battlefield, they still treated them as "their own people".

So Major General Bruni is just a middle-level politician without real power. It is not surprising that Admiral Miles looks down on him.

He knew that Lance didn't know the lieutenant general of the Department of Defense, and then said, "I may go to Golden State after the New Year, and you can come with me."

"I'll introduce these people to you then."

Lance nodded, "That's best. We can sit down and talk. There's no end to making money. A frank discussion can help us avoid any unpleasantness over these small amounts of money!"

Admiral Miles also agreed.

If someone told him that tens of millions a year was a small amount of money, he would sneer and think that the other person was talking nonsense (see "The Black Stone Code" for the explanation), but if that person was Lance, he would believe that the other person was telling the truth.

Lansdu has announced that Jingang City’s annual liquor market is worth 200 million yuan. Even if the profit is only 25%, it is still a profit of 50 million yuan!
But he also reminded that "there is nothing I can do about Congress."

"General, you don't have to worry about this. I know some people in Congress."

Admiral Miles looked at Lance meaningfully. He now attached great importance to Lance to more than one level.

He can make money and is willing to spend money. In addition, he has begun to build his own network of relationships in both the military and political circles. In the future, he may become a shadow family that has a far-reaching influence on the federation!
This is not because Admiral Miles is praising him too much, but because he really feels the same way.

His nephew was in his twenties and became a major under his care, but look at what Lance was doing in his twenties?
They are trying to corrupt him, corrupt senior generals in the Department of Defense, and have already corrupted some senators in Congress. If he doesn't fall halfway, he will definitely become a big shot in the future!

"You're always so polite. I told you to call my name!"

Last time, Admiral Miles reminded Lance not to act so unfamiliar and to call him by his name directly.

But that time he was pretending to be sincere and polite. He was just being reluctant to do so since he was not familiar with each other yet.

But this time, he meant it sincerely.

Lance could also feel it, so this time, he did not continue to maintain that polite but distant attitude.

Even after talking about bribes of tens of millions, if they are still unfamiliar with each other, then there is definitely something wrong with one of them.

After Lance and Admiral Miles finished discussing business, they talked about what happened in the afternoon.

"Do you know what's going on out there?" Lance asked.

Admiral Miles did not hide his words. "Yes, they said the police killed a lot of refugees. I remember they were your people."

Lance nodded. "Some minor problems can be solved quickly, but nothing can be guaranteed."

"If something happens that is beyond our control..."

Admiral Miles immediately followed up by saying, "Call me, you have my number."

Compared to 30 million a year, getting a call and a scolding from someone at the Ministry of Defense is just that.

For a senior general like Admiral Miles, there is basically nothing he can't do as long as it is not treason.

Not to mention sending soldiers out to maintain order in the city, even if they really killed some people, it would be because they attacked the army first.

This is actually another important reason why Lance came here. If they are really no match for the Bay Area in this internal struggle in Jingang City, then there must be a final voice.

Everything must serve the war, everything must give way to the war; this is the biggest trend at present.

Under this trend, both the Bay Area and the state government will be crushed by this trend.

But this can only be used as a backup plan and cannot be used right away. A dagger is always most intimidating when held in the hand, just like the most disturbing thing about a bullet is not the moment it is fired from the muzzle, but the moment it is in the barrel.

As for taking action himself, he would not consider it unless it was absolutely necessary. The social hierarchy is different now than in previous years.

The barbarians run around naked, and the whole society is more tolerant and inclusive of their behavior.

But if someone in a big city runs around naked, someone will come to cause trouble for him.

When you are at the bottom of society, you can fight and kill, but when you reach the middle and upper classes of society, what counts is your skills, not who has bullets and who doesn't.

It is easy for you to break the rules, and others will also bypass the rules to deal with you because you trample on the rules unscrupulously.

After briefly chatting about going to Golden State after the New Year, Lance took the initiative to stand up and say goodbye. It was already past nine o'clock, and Admiral Miles had to rest.

Admiral Miles called his nephew back and asked him to send Lance away, and specifically instructed him to send him to the gate of the military base.

The reason was that the patrols were more strictly managed at night, and they didn't know Lance, so they didn't want to get into trouble.

In fact, there was no need to consider this situation at all. There was a pass in his car, and with just one phone call, the patrol would not cause trouble from the headquarters.

What he did was actually a gesture of goodwill.

Although Admiral Miles' nephew didn't know what they talked about, he knew very well that there were not many people he could send to the gate of the base.

Either those people are senior generals in the Department of Defense, not "small characters" like Bruni who run errands, or they are senator-level politicians in the Department of Defense.

Lance was neither a senior general in the Department of Defense nor a senator in Congress, and no one had ever heard of him. At this moment, he was full of curiosity about Lance.

If someone told him that his uncle only wanted to make tens of thousands of dollars, or hundreds of thousands a year, and asked him to do this, he would be the first one not to believe it.

What's the problem?
He was full of doubts, but he agreed with a smile, then he led Lance to the parking lot very enthusiastically and really intended to take him out.

Lance was polite to him and asked him to go back first, but he didn't agree, so he wasn't polite anymore.

There was some distance from here to the gate of the military base, so he sat in Lance's car.

"Mr. Lance, this may sound a little presumptuous, but I haven't introduced myself yet."

"Adrian, Adrian Miles, Lieutenant Commander."

He held out his hand, and Lance shook his hand and introduced himself with a smile, "Lance White, nice to meet you, Major Adrian."

Adrian waved his hand and said, "Just call me by my name. You are not from the military, so we don't need to call each other by our ranks."

He used a little trick to avoid some social issues and quickly brought the two sides closer without appearing abrupt.

Adrian was a sociable guy, and he picked a topic that didn't take that long to get him through the trip from the parking lot to the gate of the naval base - tourism.

He also mentioned that he would have a vacation in the near future and hoped that Lance could find a tour guide to take him around the real Jingang City.

He didn't ask Lance to accompany him, as that was obviously unrealistic and too "arrogant", so his request was simple and unpretentious and would not make people feel uncomfortable at all.

After the two exchanged contact information, the car almost arrived at the gate of the naval base, and Adrian took the initiative to get out of the car.

The soldier on duty saw that it was Adrian and immediately let him go. "So... Mr. Lance, see you later!" He bent over and looked through the window at Lance in the back seat, not acting like a "second-generation military man" at all.

Lance also reached out and grabbed the hat and lifted it slightly, "See you later!"

Adrian patted the roof of the car, the driver slowly stepped on the accelerator, and the convoy quickly drove away from the naval base.

He stood in the light at the door until he could no longer see Lance's convoy, then he straightened his clothes and turned to walk towards the headquarters.

At this time, Admiral Miles had not rested yet. There was a place to rest in the command center, but his family was still in other places and had not come with him. He also did not ask his family to come because it was too dangerous.

No one thinks that the Dantra Military Alliance has the ability to directly attack the Federation mainland, but what if?
As the first line of advance to the south and the most important military port, the probability of it being attacked is much greater than that of Jinzhou!

If an attack happened, it would be absolutely terrible, so he simply left his family in the Golden State.

Without his family, he was too lazy to spend the night in the villa. It was more to his liking and safer to stay in the rest room of the headquarters.

Adrian came back from outside and closed the door.

"Sent away?" Although it was a nonsense, Admiral Miles still confirmed it.

"Send him away!" Adrian walked closer to him, "Do you value him very much?"

Admiral Miles nodded. "He can bring more strength to the family. Whoever can do this is qualified to be our friend."

"The federal government's disgust with factionalism and its determination to destroy these factions are growing stronger and stronger. Isn't this war an opportunity?"

"Sometimes, for some things, we need to give more consideration and think about the way out."

Factionalism and regionalism exist not only in local governments, but also in the military.

These are also passed down.

Those gentlemen in the oil paintings may not have thought that the power in their hands would become a kind of "family inheritance" and be inherited by generations of descendants.

They would never have thought that their descendants would have internal struggles because of the power they inherited from each other.

After hearing these words from Admiral Miles, Adrian vaguely realized that Lance was important.

Even more important than him, the admiral's nephew!
The next day, all kinds of newspapers were sold out, and some weekly magazines also printed related news. Although it was a very peaceful city, the smell of gunpowder was filled for everyone to smell!

The front-page headline of "Jingang Today" was an empty grocery store with a pool of blood on the ground, the glass windows had been smashed, and the goods inside had been looted.

Next to this photo is a middle-aged or elderly person sitting in front of the camera wearing only a pair of large shorts.

His hair had been shaved bald, and the nurse's workmanship was only average, leaving it shaved in various depths, as if it had been gnawed by a dog.

But you can also clearly see some areas that are obviously cleaner, as well as some wounds that are still swollen and red, and some tightened threads that look a little weird.

There were marks of wounds and stitches on his face, chin, shoulders, arms, forearms, waist and abdomen, and outer thighs.

The first half of this report is in the form of an interview with the store owner. The reporter uses very straightforward language that everyone can understand, but also has a bit of depth, to let people know what happened.

"Those people rushed into my shop. They looked a little panicked. I asked them if they needed help, but one of them took out a steel pipe and hit me on the head."

"Other people started to rob my store. I shouted for help, but they treated me even more brutally. I thought I was going to die there!"

“It wasn’t until I woke up that they told me that it was the police who saved me.”

“When I woke up, I realized that those people were refugees from the New Port area. Some people said that they should not be stopped.”

"Can we just let them continue their atrocities without stopping them?"

"I don't think the police were wrong to shoot me. I want to thank them for their decisiveness. Maybe if they had been a little later, I would have died."

"On the contrary, I deeply doubt the position of those who think that what the police did was wrong!"

When people turned to the second page, there were some more photos, photos of the demolition site of the old industrial area, the dead bodies lying in pools of blood, no longer resembling human beings, and their real conditions were attached below.

"Behind every deceased person is a complete family. They were once happy, or they were struggling to move forward on the road to happiness through their own efforts."

"But everything stopped on a certain day in December 1023. Under the instigation and planning of some people, they became victims of the capital gang seeking more profits."

"Behind every death is a broken family. I dare not interview their family members. I dare not face those painful and desperate eyes."

"Because I'm afraid they will ask me why people condemn innocent people and defend those thugs?"

“This is not what justice looks like. This is not what fairness looks like.”

“We sympathize with refugees and are willing to accept them to live in our cities, but that does not mean that refugees are superior to us.”

"If they are refugees or foreigners, we should take care of their feelings. Even if they hurt us, we cannot stop them."

"Then I am undoubtedly disappointed with this society and the federal government!"

"But fortunately, we have a qualified mayor and a courageous police chief. They dealt with the rioters and saved innocent people. They should not be condemned."

"Those who create these things are to be blamed..."

The report directly pointed the finger at the interest groups in the Bay Area, and of course the term "capital gangster" also began to become popular.

Defining itself as “interest groups that exploit, plunder and create terror through capital,” the term will soon become a “hot word” that becomes popular across the country and even the world.

These things will also become the background for this word to become popular.

People will be interested in the environment in which it was produced, and some people are destined to be nailed to the pillar of shame!

Early in the morning, many nosy citizens united together. They appeared on the outskirts of the New Port area, holding signs that read "Get out of our home", "You are not welcome here", "Go back to hell", and protested against the refugees.

A lot of people came, at least a thousand, and it seemed like the number was increasing.

This is one of Mayor Williams' counterattacks. "Public opinion" is something every politician is striving for, but when it is not large enough and not united enough, it is bullshit.

But when it begins to coalesce into a force to be reckoned with, every politician must confront it.

There were also many police officers on the scene to maintain order, but compared to the "calmness" of the police in the past, this time the police were carrying submachine guns or rifles, and they looked at the refugee group with great vigilance.

More media came to Jingang City overnight. They were eager to obtain first-hand information here, and many reporters were taking photos on the scene.

Also early in the morning, Lance was woken up by the ringing of the phone. He had dealt with some work matters after returning home last night and went to bed late.

He squinted his eyes at the dim sky outside the window, frowned, sat up, and went to the study.

The call was from Tom.

"What the hell is going on over there?" he asked.

Lance briefly explained the situation, and Tom frowned after listening. "How are you going to deal with this?"

Lance didn't answer him right away, but instead asked, "Is it you who cares about this, or is it the Senator who cares about this?"

"Of course Senator, there are reports that Williams wants to deport refugees?"

"There are refugees in many cities now, and they don't get along well with the locals. If Williams does this, it may trigger a chain reaction and cause us to run into some trouble on international issues!"

(End of this chapter)