You want me to take out a loan to practice cultivation? I'll just pay off the debt physically.

Chapter 109 Annihilation of the Southern Border Aristocratic Alliance (5k)

[Faced with the Federal Secretary's angry retort, the Federal Office staff hesitated to speak.]

Finally, he sighed and chose to remain silent.

After all, he couldn't refute what the commander-in-chief said.

Although he was eager to admit that corruption was rampant within the Federation, and that they were doing such things right under the Secretary-General's nose, they were still much more restrained.

Officials at the federal center have become quite restrained.

Officials who are assigned to other provinces have countless ways to make money.

"A goose is plucked as it flies by, an animal leaves its skin as it runs away"—this isn't just a saying.

However, he still didn't reveal these things to the Federal Minister.

[What if the Chief of Staff thinks this is a big problem and starts related activities within the Federation? Wouldn't he then become a traitor to his own class?]

[In June of the 128st year of the Supernatural Calendar, you reached level 47.]

[In the same month, with the White Eagle Empire Emperor's anticipation, you once again led him to fleece the Winter Empire.]

[Subsequently, at your request, the Emperor of the White Eagle Empire provided you with a batch of large-scale military equipment, and also secretly sent you a forbidden military weapon.]

Of course, large-scale military equipment can be provided free of charge as a form of personal emotional support, but forbidden military equipment is expensive and therefore must be charged for.

You did not refuse, and signed another loan agreement with the White Eagle Empire in the name of the Red Heart Society.

[Don't even mention interest-free loans; even if it's usury, as long as the White Eagle Empire dares to lend, he dares to sign the papers.]

You've never forgotten the history of the Red Heart Society's rise to power.

Although the world is different, and the power you wield is different, you believe that it was the path you painstakingly built up, not a dark history, but something to be cherished and remembered.

Faced with the powerful White Eagle Empire, the Winter Empire could only rage in vain.

Even if war breaks out, they will choose the Federation or one of the other countries, not the White Eagle Empire.

[Through the infiltration of the Winter Empire's special intelligence team, classified information was obtained from the White Eagle Empire's royal family that a significant portion of the Winter Empire's economic losses had flowed into the Federation.]

[The Emperor of the Winter Empire was enraged and immediately dispatched a large army to the southern border, ordering the Federation to bear all the Winter Empire's recent losses.]

[Including compensation for emotional distress to the royal family of the Winter Empire!]

This greatly puzzled the Federation. The White Eagle Empire was cutting into your flesh, so why were you coming to the Federation instead of the White Eagle Empire?

Do you think we're easy to bully?

In June of the 128th year of the Extraordinary Calendar, the national war between the Federation and the Winter Empire broke out ahead of schedule on the southern border defense line.

This time, thanks to the cooperation of the Federal Military, a large number of Southern Border troops, led by their commanders, secretly joined the Red Heart Society.

If initially joining was forced, or rather, it was simply a matter of going with the flow.

However, when the Red Heart Society distributed cultivation techniques and secret methods to them, and also sent them various precious and extraordinary products that they couldn't normally use as basic necessities, they wavered.

[Is there really such a great organization in the world?]

Not long after, Lin Xue, the president of the Red Heart Society, personally arrived at the Nanjing defense line to direct the battle.

[As you instructed, she needs to take advantage of this national war to recapture all the Federation's southern border troops and warbands in the shortest possible time.]

Of course, with the cooperation of the military high command and various federal families, this undercurrent of military takeover proceeded very smoothly.

[In July of the 128th year of the Extraordinary Calendar, you transferred troops from the Guardian Warband and secretly integrated them into the Federation's southern border defense forces and warbands.]

To avoid attracting the attention of the Federal Headquarters, you have renamed the guardsmen of the escort regiment the "Instruction Regiment," placing them within the Southern Border Defense Force and its regiments as instructors.

Initially, the Federation military and its high command, comprised of members from aristocratic families, were unwilling to cooperate.

However, under the Red Heart Society's iron-fisted methods, those unwilling to cooperate simply vanished from this world.

Even if some people sensed something was wrong, the Federation's lower- and middle-ranking soldiers and chapter members cooperated very well under the Red Heart Society's combination of harsh measures and persuasive tactics.

[They would even take the initiative to knock out and tie up their superiors after sensing their lack of cooperation.]

No one should try to stop them from having a better future!

Even if it's your own superior, that's unacceptable!

Most importantly, if one's superior is not a member of the Red Heart Society, and doesn't greet them with a raised hand salute or shout "Victory to the Red Heart Society!", then they are not part of the same organization.

[Another point is that these newly arrived officers, who are also the instructors, actually lead the charge on the battlefield.]

As rank-and-file soldiers, they simply lacked sufficient supernatural resources for their cultivation.

In terms of brain capacity, the original federal officials might not have been as intelligent as them.

There are still many intelligent people in the world.

Whether smart or ordinary, everyone prefers a commander who leads the charge, not a lousy commander standing in the rear, belly up, yelling "Charge!"

Leading by example is always the best way to boost army morale.

[And the Federation army, having undergone a complete transformation and received a fresh infusion of blood from the Red Heart Society, began to experience a dramatic change in its combat capabilities.]

In August of the 128th year of the Extraordinary Calendar, the commander of the Winter Empire was quite puzzled because he discovered that the combat strength of the Federation's Southern Border Army had undergone a dramatic change recently.

From the outset, the Winter Empire's 300,000 troops were able to overwhelm the Federation's 500,000 troops.

[But as the game progresses, it can gradually become a draw.]

[The Winter Empire is now in a disadvantageous position, being outnumbered and outgunned by the Federation army!]

He saw in the federal army a level of excitement and exhilaration he had never felt before.

That's the taste of faith!

This is completely different from the lifeless and decaying atmosphere of the Federation army before!

Most importantly, how did so many new types of military equipment, ranging from small and medium-sized to large and super-sized, suddenly appear?

The Winter Empire's intelligence network's invasion of the Federation can be considered quite successful.

Under these circumstances, the Winter Empire's understanding of the Federation's various military assets is arguably clearer than that of the Federation's General Office.

[It was under these circumstances that the Winter Empire dared to launch a war against the Federation, attempting to resolve its escalating internal conflicts by plundering the Federation's land and resources.]

But what's going on now?

The combat capabilities of the Federal Army are completely different from what the intelligence organizations have gathered!

[Damn intelligence agents!]

They must have embezzled the organization's funds. When he gets back, he'll personally lead troops to surround that foolish intelligence agency.

This unexpected turn of events, reported by the commander, immediately caught the attention of the Emperor of the Winter Empire.

Soon, a major reshuffle occurred at the top of the Winter Empire's intelligence organization.

In October of the 128th year of the Extraordinary Calendar, the Red Heart Society, with Nan Yun Province, Nan He Province, and Xi Shan Province as its core, began its expansion towards nine provinces within the southern border's sphere of influence, in coordination with the southern border army.

Because of the powerful families' recent alliance, your expansion plan is to develop quietly.

[The powerful families in the local provinces, due to their limited control over the Federation and their own low social standing, adopted a strategy of winning some and attacking others, even when the other side fully cooperated with the Red Heart Society.]

[The powerful families in the Federal Center, once the Red Heart Society's various plans are exposed, will inevitably provoke a counterattack from the opposing side.]

[Especially in the previous timeline, the Federal aristocratic families were willing to sell out national interests, resorting to territorial concessions and reparations to bring in other imperial armies to annihilate the Red Heart Society.]

Furthermore, other imperial families were also somewhat afraid of the Red Heart Society's actions, fearing that their own countries would be influenced by it.

Therefore, if the Red Heart Society wants to flourish in the shortest possible time, it will inevitably clash with the Anti-Red Heart Alliance.

So let's take advantage of this period of stability and accelerate development!

However, the way the aristocratic families in the Southern Border behave is completely different from that of aristocratic families in other provinces.

Your policy of silence is completely ineffective when dealing with them.

They have an extreme affinity for their clan, and based on the Red Heart Society's practices in other provinces, they judged that the Red Heart Society's arrival was solely for territorial expansion and to cut off their livelihood.

Therefore, the prominent families from several provinces joined forces, mobilized their networks, and called back all the members of their families.

[Among them are team members, military personnel, battle group members, and even high-ranking figures such as the deputy commander of a battle group.]

From the massacre of the Xishan family, they saw the consequences of fighting alone.

[If they are not united, they will only be divided and devoured by the Red Heart Society!] [Most importantly, the Red Heart Society leaves them no way out, and the Federal Headquarters is unreliable, so they can only rely on themselves.]

To ensure their own safety, they allocated a large amount of extraordinary resources to reward and strengthen the hastily assembled battle group army under their command.

Under these circumstances, they actually managed to raise a fairly strong army.

However, against a regular army of 20,000 men like the Red Heart Battle Group and the Guardian Battle Group, and against a super battle group where everyone cultivates advanced techniques and receives terrifying enhancements from all sides, it is ultimately like a mantis trying to stop a chariot—utterly overestimating their own strength.

Within ten days, this army, hastily assembled by the aristocratic families of the Southern Border, was completely annihilated by the Red Heart Society.

[However, the power revealed by the Red Heart Society during this war has made the Federal Headquarters very uneasy, especially since the Qin family has noticed something amiss.]

You've already started making arrangements for this.

[In the same month, you began expanding the Red Heart Army in the three provinces deeply controlled by the Red Heart Society.]

Driven by their loyalty to you, their identification with and resonance with the Red Heart Society, and their hopes for the welfare and benefits of the Red Heart Army, a large number of Red Heart Society members rushed to sign up after hearing about this.

Within a few days, the initial recruitment of 500,000 loyal soldiers was completed.

[Afterwards, soldiers from the Guardian Regiment served as instructors at all levels of the Red Heart Army, while soldiers from the Red Heart Regiment became mid- to high-ranking officers in the Red Heart Army.]

Under your skillful command, an army of 500,000 has begun to take shape.

[Especially for the Red Heart Army's various standard weapons, and all the corresponding medium and large-sized military equipment, they were quickly transported from the Red Heart Army factory.]

For the military, individual ability is actually not that important.

What truly matters is obedience to command and the effective use of military equipment. If a strong sense of teamwork is cultivated, coupled with a spirit of self-sacrifice and powerful weaponry, then this will become an incomparably powerful army.

In November of the 128th year of the Extraordinary Calendar, the Southern Border army, under the command of Lin Xue, defeated the army of the Winter Empire.

This marks the first time in the Federation's centuries-long history of conflict and war with the Winter Empire that it has achieved such a major victory on the main battlefield.

Three days later, an even more explosive piece of news shocked the entire Federation.

The Southern Army broke out of its fortified positions and bypassed the massive Winter Line, a defensive line built by the Winter Empire over thirty years, using a novel tactic known as blitzkrieg.

[Then, emerging from the Atlon Forest, they circled around and attacked Kevic, the second largest city on the border of the Winter Empire.]

The news of the fall of Kevici City to the Southern Army not only stunned the entire leadership of the Winter Empire, but also set the entire world on the brink of chaos.

Even the Emperor of the White Eagle Empire has taken notice of this matter.

After all, the Winter Defense Line, built by the Winter Empire over thirty years, was unprecedented in the world in terms of the amount of resources consumed and the scale of its construction.

After its completion, the royal family of the Winter Empire declared it the world's most magnificent, widest-covering, and most effective war defense line.

As long as the Winter Defense Line stands, the Federal army will never be able to cross it.

Under Lin Xue's leadership, the Frostwinter Empire's winter defense line has become a huge joke.

[What use are all the defensive measures, array patterns, massive military weapons, and elaborate barriers set up by expensive barrier masters within the defense line?]

If a weapon cannot be deployed, it is no different from scrap metal.

In other words, if the world's largest and most magnificent defensive line fails to stop the enemy, then that line essentially becomes a farce.

However, after learning that the Red Heart Society was behind it all, a huge question mark rose in his mind.

What is the Red Heart Society up to?

[Wasn't the Red Heart Society taking all the military equipment, machine tools, and high-precision instruments from him intended to instigate a rebellion within the Federation?]

How did you lead the Federation to such a resounding victory?

[Could it be that they intend to use their immense prestige within the military to subtly undermine the Federation from the ground up?]

We can't just overthrow the Federation and then create another one, can we?

Thinking of this, the Emperor of the White Eagle Empire's expression stiffened slightly.

At this point, his most sensible course of action would be to consult Dane, a ninth-tier professional from the White Eagle Empire.

But now that the facts are clear, and given the enormous benefits he received from the Red Heart Society, he's simply pretending this never happened.

There's another, less important reason: if this matter were exposed, it would damage his imperial image.

This is so embarrassing!

In December of the 128th year of the Extraordinary Calendar, with the million-strong army of the Winter Empire returning to reinforce them, Lin Xue led the Southern Border Army to abandon Kevic and instead crossed the Udon River to launch an attack on Cisco City, one of the wealthiest cities in the Winter Empire.

The Winter Empire's million-strong army arrived to find nothing. Even as the commanders were still arguing about whether Kevic City was a ruse by Lin Xue, news arrived that Cisco City had fallen to the Federation's southern border army.

This sudden news left the commander completely bewildered.

Even if we don't retreat to the southern border defenses despite being blockaded by a million-strong army, we must hold the major defensive lines near Kevici City.

[But Lin Xue did the opposite, abandoning what everyone considered a safe location and launching an attack on Cisco City, which was poorly defended.]

If Lin Xue's initial success was a coincidence, her subsequent successes prove her exceptional military talent.

Currently, a battle-hardened army of the Federation has infiltrated the heartland of the Winter Empire.

This is an extremely distressing situation for the entire high command of the Winter Empire.

Just as the ninth-rank professional from the Winter Empire was about to make a move, the two ninth-rank professionals from the Federation, Elder Jun and Elder Jian, silently released their soul domains to confront their opponents.

This made the Ninth-Rank cultivators of the Frostwinter Empire's eyes narrow. In this state of national war, if these two Federation Ninth-Rank cultivators were here, then the other three must be nearby as well.

Thus, the two sides entered a stalemate at the ninth level.

[That same month, under orders from the Emperor of the Frostwinter Empire, several high-ranking spies from the military arrived at the Federation General Office and directly revealed their identities as spies to the Federation Chief Executive.]

This was the first time the elderly federal minister had ever encountered such a situation.

[The Winter Empire's spy, who finally infiltrated the military and rose to the high ranks, is just being used as a pawn like this?]

However, when he saw the intelligence provided by the Winter Empire, especially the fact that the Red Heart Society had completely grasped the relevant information about the Southern Border Army, his expression changed drastically.

This news instantly alerted the Qin family and other top families in the Federation.

They were well aware of the Red Heart Society's methods of slaughtering aristocratic families.

Therefore, when they learned that the Red Heart Society would control the Southern Army, they instantly reached a consensus.

We must not allow the Red Heart Society to continue developing like this!

Otherwise, the fate of the Xishan aristocratic families will be the same as that of other aristocratic families tomorrow!

The Qin family patriarch publicly stated that the Federal Military Headquarters was no longer the military headquarters of the Federation, but rather belonged to the Red Heart Society.

Therefore, they must take action!

[In January of the 129th year of the Extraordinary Calendar, the Federal Central Army surrounded the military headquarters.]

Soon, the Minister of War and several deputy ministers were charged with treason, tried by a military court, sentenced to death, and executed three days later.

That evening, the Federal Central Prison was hijacked by a mysterious powerful figure.

All high-ranking military officials accused of treason have mysteriously disappeared.

The Federation was thrown into turmoil.

Anyone with a modicum of political acumen understands that the political landscape of the Federation is about to change!

The following day, the Federal Headquarters and the Winter Empire jointly issued a statement declaring that there were no conflicts or contradictions between the two countries, indicating a state of war.

[Immediately following this, the Federal Headquarters, in conjunction with the New Military Headquarters, issued twelve emergency withdrawal orders to the Southern Border troops.]

Retreat immediately!

[The entire army must immediately withdraw from the territory of the Winter Empire!]

From the moment they receive orders from the military, anyone who refuses to accept command from the military will be considered a traitor!

From this day forward, all family members and relatives will be implicated and punished!

All the benefits and privileges within the Federation, and all the advantages that the Federation military should enjoy, will vanish the moment the transfer order is refused.

【this!】

[This is also the first transfer order issued by the new military headquarters!]

The saying goes, "A new broom sweeps clean," and the first fire of that came down on the southern border army.

(End of this chapter)