Chapter 1280: Overseas Garrison

"Deploy troops?" President Porter frowned, "Doesn't my bureau's Department of Defense and the military have some — military outsourcing with some companies?"

The Secretary of State nodded and said, "What you mentioned does exist, but these military outsourcing arrangements are all set up in Tantef, where the situation still has some friction and conflict, requiring stronger guarantees."

Although the war has ended and people have returned to rebuilding their homes, hatred — especially that of the lower classes — does not end just because the war is over.

Sometimes observing all the wars in this world reveals a very interesting phenomenon.

At the outbreak of war, the ruling class often shows a greater tendency toward warlike actions and demonstrates to the people their loyalty to national interests, an emotion of launching war to defend national interests.

But once the war ends, regardless of victory or defeat, they quickly free themselves from this emotion, as if those previously emotional people were not them.

It's like — squeezing a pimple until it's about to burst, then suddenly pinching oneself with a fingernail, everything freezing at that moment!

Instant termination!

On the contrary, society's lowest strata will hold long-term hatred and hatred toward the other side of the war, possibly even for their entire lives.

This is actually a very common phenomenon, and the reason for its prevalence lies in the fact that for upper-class people, war is a "business," a political business — people don't always conclude, isn't war the extension of politics?

For these high-ranking individuals, war is merely the process of moving pieces on a chessboard, shifting a piece from one square to another — nothing more.

They generate no extra emotion from this act, from moving the pieces.

But the lower classes are different, because they themselves are the pieces; due to war, they lost their homes, lost their relatives, lost many things, even everything.

Therefore, they will hold this hatred and resentment for a longer time.

They don't know whether they should hate their rulers, but they know that hating their enemies is definitely correct.

The Slavs and the Dentans deeply hate each other, and the problems between their two nations have existed for hundreds of years, possibly even longer.

Adding this war, strictly speaking, neither side are the biggest winners, so their mutual hatred has not eased due to war dividends; this applies to either side.

Officials may have already laid down so-called hatred, begun actively restoring production and cities, but the lower classes still view each other with hostility; some extremists even attempt to assassinate each other's civilians, or engage in violent acts.

These cannot be stopped, and officials also turn a blind eye — whether Slav or Dentan, as rulers, these "great artists" clearly understand that if they don't give these civilians an outlet to vent emotions, they will eventually turn their anger toward the ruling class.

Compared to the ruling class's own precious lives and the stability of their power, they would rather these lower-class people, filled with strong emotions, kill each other until the matter ends.

This also affects the federal capitalists' business in Tantef; they also harbor hatred toward federal people, to varying degrees, including some Slavs as well.

Therefore, under the push of the Department of Defense and the military, they launched a military outsourcing program.

On one hand, through civilian armed forces to solve these companies' problems, avoiding escalation of potentially uncontrollable situations — this is civilian action, not official, leaving room for maneuver.

On the other hand, it's also to avoid further provoking both sides; compared to stationing large garrisons to continue controlling and suppressing local emotions, these military outsourcing companies handling affairs is simpler and less likely to provoke local backlash.

Lans also established a private security company that received an order from the Department of Defense, arranging at least thousands of armed personnel to carry out missions within Slav territory.

It looks like five thousand is a lot, but when scaled to the entire Tantef continent, it's actually not many people.

Although the Azure Blue region also has "resistance," these resistances are "civilized resistance," like the Jed Republic forming some kind of Asian alliance, attempting to undermine federal infiltration into the Azure Blue region through political means.

They have not used any extreme measures, so there's no need to station troops here or arrange armed personnel.

But this time, the situation seems to have undergone some changes.

After President Porter listened to the Secretary of State's brief introduction of the situation here, he asked, "How is Congress considering this?"

The Secretary of State shook his head, "Congress hasn't yet discussed this issue; for now, it's merely a diplomatic matter," and hasn't reached the point requiring a decision, but I need to give you a heads-up in advance."

This is the standard procedure; actually, the Secretary of State could avoid telling the President and directly throw this issue to Congress, but doing so would clearly be inappropriate —

The Secretary of State's position is not quite the same as other cabinet members; the Secretary of State needs presidential nomination, then Senate approval, but only requires a "simple majority," meaning over fifty-one percent in favor.

Given the current Liberal Party's control of the Senate, they can easily achieve direct approval of the President's nominee.

The Federation is like this — always making people vote, but the key to voting is who makes the nomination, who is nominated.

Therefore, strictly speaking, the Secretary of State is also the President's person and must be a die-hard supporter; otherwise, the President wouldn't casually nominate a Secretary of State to make things difficult for himself.

"You've done well — ", President Porter paused, "Let Congress consider this matter; once there's a result, I'll just sign it."

In the Federation, military action requires review and approval by the Federal Congressional Military Committee before implementation; although the President has the authority to sign special orders, presidential orders can only be short-term military actions, not exceeding three months.

If military action exceeds three months, then Congress has the right to intervene and halt the action; if it's overseas military action, then the entire military action plan cannot exceed one month.

So even if President Porter himself wanted to agree, ultimately he cannot make the decision directly — this requires a Congressional vote, and moreover requires a "majority vote," meaning over sixty-six percent in favor.

This is just one of many tasks; soon he was absorbed by new work content.

That afternoon, these messages were sent to the Senate, and each senator received a report related to these messages.

"Dispatch troops to the Azure Blue region to protect the legitimate rights and interests of federal merchants there?", Senator Cleveland, wearing glasses, glanced at the document in his hand and flipped through it casually.

Tom sat in the chair opposite him, still holding half an apple, "Yes, I also heard about this from some merchants."

"The pro-Federal sentiment in the Azure Blue region is fermenting; some federal merchants' safety is threatened, their property faces the risk of being looted, plus some extremist organizations — so — "

He pursed his lips, "They want the federal government here to give them some help."

Senator Cleveland continued reading the document in his hand, reading while asking, "Do we have such a need here?"

After the Chief of Staff was sent out by him to serve as the Speaker of his home state, Tom has now become the new Chief of Staff, or rather, the Chief of Staff.

After all, the position of Chief of Staff is too formalized, too officialized; a senator, by specification, doesn't need this position.

Many things are now handled by Tom.

Strictly speaking, it's hard to distinguish whether it's better to go serve as the local district Speaker or to stay by Senator Cleveland's side — one is among the top few locally, while the other is right next to the center.

But regardless, for Tom, this is a tremendous advancement; now, the connections of the people around Senator Cleveland are basically handled by Tom as an intermediary.

He is responsible for organizing these "supporters"' demands, after all, these big capitalists spend money every year, no matter how much.

They are not truly willing to support the development of the Social Party, or support Senator Cleveland as a person, but rather hope these funds can be effective when they need them.

Actually, from this perspective, there's no difference between Congress and the mafia — they also collect protection money, in legal form, with pleasant names, putting this money into their own pockets.

The mafia does the same — collect money, handle affairs.

But capitalists are harder to deal with than ordinary people; ordinary people, after giving money to the mafia, are satisfied as long as they're not bullied, whereas capitalists not only want these parties to guarantee their own and their business's safety, but often also make demands to satisfy themselves.

Tom nodded and said, "There are some, or to varying degrees, they've suffered some losses, but these losses aren't too big, you know — those truly wealthy people couldn't possibly go to Azure Blue themselves."

Senator Cleveland put down the document in his hand, then took off his glasses; he now has some presbyopia, not that he can't see without glasses, but wearing them makes vision more comfortable and clearer.

He understands what Tom meant; those truly working in the Azure Blue region are so-called "managers" and such; for big capitalists, eliminating them is merely a severance payment, possibly even not paid, or defaulted on.

For them, the loss is merely a sum of money, not a life, or several lives.

Therefore, their demands are not particularly strong.

What is truly strong are those capitalists who are not yet too large; they seek to become greater financial powers, so they often focus intensely on a single investment, personally overseeing it, unlike the large conglomerates that span most industries.

Senator Cleveland pondered for a moment, "I don't know anymore. Tell them Congress will soon discuss this issue, and I will do my best to advance this discussion."

Look, this is to make those merchants understand that their spending is meaningful; they are currently in difficulty, and Senator Cleveland wants to find a way to help them.

As for whether he led it, or merely raised his hand when needed, those merchants may not be clear, nor do they need to be; they only want a result.

Now the result given to them is that they spent money, and then Senator Cleveland said he would do his best to help them achieve this plan, and then the plan was realized!

What could be more trustworthy than him?

No!

Therefore, next year they still need to continue funding Senator Cleveland and the Socialist Party!

This matter was quickly brought to Congress for discussion, as it concerns overseas military operations, thus requiring a majority vote; Senator Cleveland also voted in favor.

Actually, as long as it does not involve some party's core interests, the federal Congress is still quite harmonious.

Once the news was passed, the Department of Defense and the military began preparations, and the Secretary of State also started contacting the ambassadors of those countries, discussing related issues about sending assistance to them.

For example — who will pay the expenses, and so on.

They indeed have no money, and it is highly unlikely they can come up with this sum, but the federal government has a complete set of plans tailored for these people.

They will lend money to these people, then have them pay this military expense, and then take over their state-owned assets, squeezing out profits!

News that a portion of the army might be deployed to the Azure Blue region to perform military duties quickly spread through the army, and Little Porter also heard about it after evening training ended.

" — I heard that management there is much looser than here, and considering the need to face possible military actions at any time, at most drills twice a week, with the rest being free rest!"

"The cost of living there is also very low, and the girls are very enthusiastic; I heard from my friend that there, only a can of meat is needed to exchange for an eighteen-year-old girl's first time — "

In such a closed military environment, such news is often the most popular, along with those vulgar stories.

Originally, Little Porter had no interest in overseas military duty; he now plays the role of a damn awful character, and he has no desire to go to a poor place to suffer.

But now, hearing his comrades say this, he feels this matter — perhaps has some potential!

First, after going to the Azure Blue region, there is no need for frequent drills, allowing more time for rest.

Second, there, no one can restrain oneself, and there are more young, enthusiastic, beautiful girls, and furthermore, it does not require much money!

? ￠o

He also heard people say about Azure Blue that a single boat ticket can get a beautiful, well-built girl to offer everything!

To escape that impoverished place, girls in their teens are even willing to marry fifty-something federal poor men, in exchange for the chance to leave "Hell"!

Isn't this — men's paradise?

Little Porter felt a bit moved, he took a puff of smoke, "If, I mean if, if we could go — "

His comrades all widened their eyes staring at him, "If you can get us to go, the battalion will follow your lead from now on!"

Someone spoke up, and soon others followed.

In this terrible military district, they have actually had enough; the federal army is not as comfortable as imagined, here it's just damn like being in prison.

Now, in federal prison, one doesn't even need to do physical labor; it's just restricted labor, turning prisoners into labor force — this clever idea hasn't been fully explored yet.

But in the barracks, one still cannot leave here, serving for years, and damn it, one must follow a schedule and drill plan stricter than prisoners'; this is still not as good as prison!

But if one could go overseas, without so many rules and regulations, how comfortable would that be?

Little Porter deeply inhaled a puff of smoke; even if he is unwilling to admit it, he must admit this point.

Long military life has made him and these people develop a more stable and reliable friendship.

"Wait for my good news!"

Later, he called his uncle and shared his thoughts with him.

Afterwards, his uncle contacted President Porter when he had free time.

"Little Porter said he heard we are sending troops to Azure Blue to maintain local security; he said, as a member of the Porter family, he should bear his responsibility when necessary, and he wants to apply to you, to voluntarily participate in this military operation."

President Porter listened and then asked, "Do you think he is telling the truth?"

This "uncle" couldn't help but laugh and said, "He just wants to escape the boring life and training here; I know him too well!"

President Porter also quite agreed with his view, "Although he is a good-for-nothing, his way of expression has no problem."

"Since those media reports highlighted his service in the military, and that he did it well, fewer old veterans have come to bother me; they all went to the Department of Defense."

"This is indeed a good opportunity; we all know Azure Blue has no danger, but we can emphasize the danger and uncertainty of this job, so people see that even my grandson, when the country needs him, must step forward!"

He said this, paused, then considered for a while, "Tell him to wait anxiously for news; as a reward for his obedience over the past year or more, I will let him have his wish."

Soon, the Department of Defense received news from the President's office regarding arranging a battalion to join this overseas military operation; they had no good reason to oppose it, and moreover, behind this matter lay presidential political propaganda; only someone with a bad mind would block the president on such a matter that does not involve core interests.

The next day, Little Porter's battalion received dual notifications from the Department of Defense and the military, they were selected to participate in this overseas military operation plan, for a duration of six months.

After six months, they will be withdrawn and replaced; whether they will go again depends on the situation.

That night, they held a celebration; these people also secretly brought in over a dozen call girls from outside, made them wear military uniforms, and had Little Porter play "soldiers' games" with them extensively.