Chapter 406 The Frustrated General

"Amber, do you know something?" Seeing Amber thinking for a long time because of the old emperor's question, Isabel couldn't help but ask.

"No, nothing. I just feel a little strange. It's obviously abnormal that no news has been revealed for such a long time."

Amber shook his head and replied. He naturally couldn't say that he had read the original script and knew that under normal circumstances, the Star Dragon Empire would have mourned for a long time.

"Does the Intelligence Analysis Center need to strengthen intelligence collection on the Star Dragon Empire, especially the imperial family and senior officials?"

"Yes, you can turn some of your attention to it first. The old emperor's situation always gives me a hunch that something will definitely happen inside the empire later. Regardless of whether it will affect us Atlas, it is definitely right to plan and collect information in advance."

Isabelle nodded thoughtfully, then lowered her head and operated on her personal terminal, and finally looked at Amber again and said:

"I just made a quick assessment. If we need to carry out this work, we may need more technical support."

Isabelle's tone was a little hesitant and uncertain. She had actually noticed that under the 'shadow' of Atlas, there has always been a powerful person with strong network technology capabilities to provide support.

This "powerful man" almost single-handedly supported the digital construction of Atlas, and also provided powerful network intrusion support.

At first, Isabel thought that this "powerful man" was Amber herself, but as the company's scale expanded rapidly and Amber's affairs became more and more busy, Isabel knew that there must be someone else.

But since Amber didn't say it on his own initiative, he must have his reasons and considerations, so she didn't intend to ask.

But now if we want to start collecting intelligence on the imperial family and senior officials, the Intelligence Analysis Center will inevitably need the technical support of this "powerful man".

On the other hand, Amber actually knew what Isabel might have noticed. As her bedmate, she is also one of the people who knows most of her secrets.

But this smart woman never asked about this, which was very gratifying to Amber. He had to sigh that this imperial female spy who met by chance on Robert IV did a good job in this regard.

"No problem, I will arrange more technical support for your intelligence analysis center, and borrow the "communication cooperation business" to deploy autonomous information collection devices in the empire, and you will also be in charge of it."

"OK, then I will deploy it later and start intelligence collection as soon as possible."

Isabel casually put a strand of hair behind her ear. This feminine action made Amber stare at it twice more unconsciously.

After noticing Amber's sight, Isabel couldn't help but chuckled, and then propped her hand on her chin.

"Do you want to continue listening to the report, or..."

"Listen to the report." Amber said decisively, without a trace of hesitation in her words.

"Hmph~ boring"

Isabel rolled her eyes in annoyance, and then saw the next item, "According to the information collected by the public relations department, the Federation should impose sanctions on us in the near future, and several major military giants seem to be planning to start attacking us in the military equipment market."

"I expected it long ago. I would find it strange if they didn't take any action~" Amber was not surprised by this news. If the Federation had not made any move, he would have found it unusual.

"Then what countermeasures should we take?"

"No, just operate normally. If the Federation announces a sanctions plan, just make a public statement to protest."

"Ah?"

"Believe me, they are the ones who are anxious now."

Amber smiled, as if she remembered something funny, and then continued: "When they are anxious, they will naturally be in chaos. We just need to deal with them as they move."

——

Federation, Capital, Army Headquarters.

In the office of Army Commander-in-Chief, five-star General McLean, the atmosphere seemed a little anxious at this time.

Lieutenant General Van Fleet, who had just returned to the capital system a few days ago, was looking at Merion, who was also his teacher and old leader, with an unwilling look on his face.

"Teacher"

"I've told you so many times that you should call your position when you are outside."

Merion put down the cup in his hand, with an irresistible tone in his tone.

"Okay, Commander! I know I am a defeated general and should not refuse the decision of the headquarters. But... even if you demote me, let me be a brigade commander or battalion commander and continue to fight on the front line! At worst, I would accept it if I was directly demoted to a private, but now you want me to manage logistics and supervise the production of army equipment"

Van Fleet began to complain to Merion like a bamboo tube pouring beans. After the hearing held yesterday afternoon, the lieutenant general received a new transfer order early this morning.

This transfer order did not let him return to the front line to command the battle, nor did it take off his star, but let him stay in the rear as an official supervisor to supervise and guide the production of army equipment of major military enterprises.

The reason is that he has gained a wealth of practical experience on the front line, and has a macro-level view of the actual performance of many weapons and equipment on the battlefield. He can assist major military industrial enterprises responsible for supplying equipment to the Federal Army to optimize and upgrade their products.

It seems to be a relatively important logistics position, but in Van Fleet's view, such a decision is just to hide him, a defeated general.

That's why after receiving the transfer order, he immediately came to the army headquarters and wanted to seek an explanation from Commander Merion.

"Look, he's in a hurry."

Merion looked at his former student and couldn't help but tap him with his hand as before.

"No, Commander, I admit that I did make a major mistake in the conflict with the Atlas Group, but in the previous landing operation against Pyla IV, even if I had no credit, I still had hard work, right?

The attack force uniformly allocated to me by the headquarters was less than two-thirds of what it was during the pre-war deduction. But with this lack of troops, I still managed to take down the Para 4, right? "

"Van Fleet."

"Yes, Commander!"

Mylian's voice was not loud, but Van Fleet still reflexively stopped talking.

"No one will forget your contribution, but you must know that your capture by Atlas has had a great impact on the Federation in the public opinion environment, and the conflict on Para 4 has also directly affected the Federation. "Do you know how many people in Congress want to send you to a military court?"

"I"

"Van Fleet, I kept you behind to protect you. The public's memory is very short, but now you are on the cusp of the storm, do you understand?"

Mylian didn't give Van Fleet a chance to speak and continued:

"There is always a shortage of people on the front line, and even less of a commander. You always have a chance to go back. So what you have to do now is to accept the order and stay in the rear honestly. Don't create any more traps for me! What else will happen? If there is a problem, even I may not be able to protect you!"

The words of the old leader directly blocked everything Van Fleet wanted to say. Although he was still unwilling to give up, he also knew that he could not cause any more trouble to Mylian.

"I understand, Commander"

Finally, the somewhat frustrated Army Lieutenant General stood up, saluted Merion, turned around and walked out of the office.

When the door to the office was closed again, Melion stared at the door with complicated eyes for a long time before dialing a number without a contact signature on his personal terminal.

"I'm still staying. I don't want my own students to be sent to military courts, so you guys should be more careful and don't let him find any clues."

The other side of the call seemed to say something, which made Merion's brows immediately knitted together, and his voice became low and filled with anger.

"I don't need to report so much to you when I do things."

On the other side, Van Fleet, who walked out of the army headquarters, looked up at the sky. The planetary environment in the federal capital was extremely well managed. He rarely saw the clear and clean blue sky and white clouds in front of him on the front line.

But such a view could not make Van Fleet's gloomy mood any better. A military-branded executive car stopped at the door of the Army Headquarters Building. Van Fleet's orderly quickly got out of the car and opened the door for him.

"General, where should we go next?"

"give me"

Van Fleet was about to say, 'Send me home,' but a new message that popped up on his personal terminal stopped him.

The sender of the message was Vice Admiral Guterres, who was sent back with him by Atlas. The content of the message was also very simple:

"Do you have time? Let's meet and chat?"

There was also an address attached to the end of the message.

Van Fleet stared at the message for a moment, finally sighed, and then said to his orderly:

"Send me to a place. I sent you the address."

——

"You navy guys really have a laid-back attitude. Even now, you still have the energy to find a bar."

Van Fleet looked around at the bar he was currently in, and couldn't help but marvel:

"With this decoration and this location, it shouldn't be cheap, right? Hey, I'm really curious as to how this bar owner can be so talented and find such a place to open a bar in the capital, where land is at a premium, and in the core administrative area."

"I opened this bar myself."

Guterres, who was sitting opposite Van Fleet, said calmly, but a hint of joy in his eyes revealed his inner joy at the moment.

"?" Van Fleet was stunned when he heard this sentence. It took him a long time to react, and then he slapped the table and said:

"No, where do you get so much money? The Navy's salary is not much higher than our Army's, right? Could it be... some kind of gray income?!"

“My parents’ legacy.”

Guterres' temper today was surprisingly good for some reason. He showed no sign of anger after hearing Van Fleet's question. Instead, he picked up a bottle of expensive-looking wine and poured it for Van Fleet. .

"My parents were once well-known businessmen, but when they died in an accident, I had just entered the Federal Naval Academy and had no intention of dropping out to manage the business, so I cashed out the inherited stocks and sold the group. I exchanged a large amount of money for it, and finally used it to open this tavern. Thanks to the care of my colleagues in the Navy, the business was pretty good."

"Then why do you continue to stay in the Navy? If you say so, aren't you already financially free?"

"When you suddenly get a sum of money that you can't use up on normal expenses, you will want to start searching for the meaning of life. Besides, things like giant ships and cannons are obviously not something that ordinary people can get if they have money. own."

Guterres spoke calmly, as if he were a philosopher.

Van Fleet, who had just picked up the wine glass and took a sip, raised the corners of his eyes uncontrollably after hearing his words.

"The first half of your sentence will make people have the urge to punch you."

"Then I'm really sorry."

Seeing that the other party had brought him a lot of valuable wine, Van Fleet suppressed the urge to punch the Vice Admiral in front of him, and then said seriously:

"Forget it, let's get down to business. Why did you suddenly come to see me?"

Seeing that Van Fleet was getting down to business, Guterres tapped the terminal a few times, asked all the waiters to leave, and then activated the 'black box mode' of the box.

"Did you not receive any decent punishment, but were left behind?"

"how do you know?"

"Because I am too." Guterres tapped his chest.

"Marshal Trafalgar personally told me in the remote communication that he hopes I can stay behind temporarily and be responsible for supervising the construction of the navy's new warships."

Upon hearing this, Van Fleet suddenly became happy, with a gloating expression on his face.

"Hey, you were also sent to manage logistics?"

"It seems to be pretty much what I thought." Guterres did not directly answer Van Fleet's question. "Our two defeated generals were directly hidden in the snow."

After hearing this, Van Fleet obviously became a little disappointed. He picked up the wine glass and drank it all in one gulp, complaining:

"If I had known that I would be treated like this when I came back, I might as well have stayed in Atlas."

"Van Fleet, be careful what you say."

"That's right. Although we have overturned in the gutter this time, the rear did not provide any valuable information about Atlas before the war, and we don't know that they have so much equipment that has begun to produce technological differences. We were completely caught off guard.”

"I mean, Atlas didn't say he wanted to invite you to stay, right?"

"."

Seeing Van Fleet choked by himself, Guterres rarely smiled. He picked up the wine glass and clinked the glass with Van Fleet, who had a black face, and continued:

"But I think the military may have other intentions behind leaving the two of us behind to supervise the production activities of these military industrial enterprises."

"Elaborate."

"According to my sources, Atlas has recently received a large number of orders for various equipment, which has had an impact on the established military industry companies to a certain extent, so these companies are also now looking for ways to produce various new equipment." Guterres said calmly.

"Then what does this have to do with the two of us?"

"The biggest business target of these military industrial enterprises is the federal army. I guess the military department may be worried that they will make some illegal actions in order to pursue progress during production and research and development activities, so they let the two of us keep an eye on it."

"It means that our new positions are really not just empty positions?"

"Most likely."