Chapter 680: Report

"... I will watch these things and do them; I only know a Major General Bruni in the Ministry of National Defense; can he handle the people in the Ministry of National Defense?"

General Myers shook his head, "He is just an errand boy; this matter must be nodded by several lieutenant generals in charge of this aspect."

Major General Bruni actually cannot be considered very bad; after all, it is a major general rank, which is already the tip of the pyramid in the military establishment.

But in General Myers's eyes, that is indeed just an errand boy, and even in some aspects, he is not as powerful and high-ranking as a colonel with real power in the army.

The value of civilian generals exists only to avoid contradictions due to "civilian management of military" when managing the army.

Different periods, countries, and systems have all had problems because politicians managed soldiers, so in the Federation, they manage soldiers with soldiers.

Giving politicians in the Ministry of National Defense a rank to become a general seems to be doing something extra, but it is extremely effective for middle and lower-level soldiers.

Even if they are dissatisfied that many of these civilian generals have not been on the battlefield, their attitude toward them is to treat them as "their own people."

So this Major General Bruni is just a middle-level politician without real power; it is not strange that General Myers looks down on him.

He knew that Lans didn't know the lieutenant generals of the Ministry of National Defense, and then said, "After the New Year, I might go to Jinzhou once; you can go with me."

"When the time comes, I will introduce these people to you."

Lans nodded, "This is the best; we can sit down and talk; money can't be earned up; talking frankly can avoid us being unhappy because of these small amounts of money!"

General Myers also agreed very much.

If someone told him that tens of millions a year is a small amount of money, he would sneer and feel that the other party was talking nonsense, but if this person is Lans, he believes that what the other party said is the truth.

Lans already called out the liquor market scale of 200 million a year in Jincheng; even if the profit is only twenty-five percent, that is a profit of 50 million!

However, he also reminded, "I am powerless about Congress."

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

General Myers looked at Lans with deep meaning; he now raised the importance of Lans by more than one level.

Can make money, willing to give money, plus now he has started to build his own relationship network in both military and political circles; maybe later he will be another shadow family that has a far-reaching influence on the Federation!

This is not General Myers blowing him up too much; it is his true feeling.

His nephew is twenty-something, and only became a major under his care; but look at what Lans is doing in his twenties?

Thinking of ways to corrupt him, corrupt senior generals of the Ministry of National Defense, already corrupted some senators of Congress; if he doesn't fall halfway, he will definitely become a big figure later!

"You are always so polite; I said, call my name!"

Last time, General Myers reminded Lans not to be so distant and call his name directly.

But that time he was fake sincere and real polite; it was just a reluctant social engagement under the meeting.

But this time, he was sincere.

Lans could also feel it, so this time, he didn't continue to maintain that polite but distant state.

Tens of millions of bribes were talked about; if they were still distant, then one of them definitely had a problem.

After Lans and General Myers finished talking about business, they started talking about what happened in the afternoon.

"Do you know what happened outside?", Lans asked.

General Myers didn't cover it up, "Know, they said the police killed quite a few refugees; I remember they were your people."

Lans nodded, "Some small problems, they can be solved soon, but no matter what, you can't guarantee one hundred percent."

"If some problems beyond our ability occur..."

General Myers immediately continued, "Call me; you have my number."

Compared to three million a year, being scolded by people from the Ministry of National Defense is just like that.

Like senior generals like General Myers, as long as it is not treason, basically there is nothing he cannot do.

Let alone letting soldiers go out to maintain the order of the city, even if they really killed some people, it was because they attacked the army first.

This is actually one of the important reasons why Lans came here; if they are really not the opponent of the Bay Area in this internal struggle in Jincheng, then there must be a voice that can settle the matter.

Everything must serve the war, everything must make way for the war; this is the biggest general trend at present.

Under this general trend, whether it is the Bay Area or the state government, they will be crushed by this general trend.

But this can only be used as one of the backhands, and cannot be used directly; the dagger is always most deterrent when held in the hand, just like the bullet is most uneasy not when it is shot from the muzzle, but when it is in the chamber.

As for him doing it directly, he doesn't consider this unless it is a last resort; now the social level is different from the previous few years.

Barbarians running around with their butts naked, the whole society is more tolerant and inclusive of their behavior.

But people in a big city running around with their butts naked will have people coming to find trouble with them.

When at the bottom of society, you can fight and kill, but when you reach the middle and upper levels of society, you compare wrist, 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 talking about going to Jinzhou after the New Year, Lans took the initiative to bid farewell; it was already past nine o'clock, so let General Myers rest.

General Myers found his nephew back and asked him to send Lans away, and specifically instructed to send him to the gate of the military base.

The reason is that the patrol management is relatively strict at night, and they don't know Lans, so as to avoid encountering trouble.

Actually, there is no need to consider this situation; there is a pass on his car, and only one phone call is needed, and the patrol will not provoke this trouble coming out of the headquarters.

He did this, actually, it was also a performance of showing favor.

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

Either those people were senior generals of the Ministry of National Defense, not the "small roles" like Bruni who ran errands, or they were politicians at the senator level of the Ministry of National Defense.

Lans is neither a senior general of the Ministry of National Defense nor a senator of Congress, and he has never heard of him being a front-stage figure for anyone; he was full of curiosity about Lans at this moment.

If it is said that his uncle only did this for a few tens of thousands of dollars, hundreds of thousands a year, he would not believe it first.

Where is the problem?

He was full of doubts, but also smiled and agreed, and then very enthusiastically led Lans to the parking lot, and really intended to send him out.

Lans was polite with him and let him go back first, but he didn't agree, so he wasn't that polite.

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

"Mr. Lans, it's a bit presumptuous to say, I haven't introduced myself until now."

"Adrian, Adrian Myers, Navy Major."

He stretched out his hand, and Lans held his hand and also introduced himself with a smile, "Lans White, very happy to meet you, Major Adrian."

Adrian waved his hand, "Just call me by name; you are not a person in the military, we don't need to call military ranks between us."

He used a small trick to avoid some social calling problems, quickly pulled closer the relationship between the two sides, and didn't appear abrupt.

Adrian is a guy good at socializing; he chose a topic that didn't need such a long time to pass the topic from the parking lot to the gate of the naval base—tourism.

And he mentioned that he had a vacation in a while, hoping that Lans could find a tour guide to take him around the real Jincheng.

He didn't let Lans accompany him; that obviously wasn't realistic and was too "arrogant," so his request was plain and simple, and wouldn't make people feel uncomfortable at all.

The two left contact information for each other, and the car was almost at the gate of the naval base; Adrian took the initiative to get out of the car.

The soldiers on duty saw it was Adrian and immediately let them pass. "Then... Mr. Lans, see you later!", he bent his waist and looked at Lans in the back seat through the car window, not looking like a "military second generation" at all.

Lans also reached out and grabbed his hat and raised it slightly, "See you later!"

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

He stood under the light at the gate until he couldn't see Lans's motorcade, then tidied up his clothes and turned to walk toward the headquarters.

At this time, General Myers hadn't rested yet; there was a place to rest in the headquarters, and his family was still in other places and hadn't followed, and he didn't let his family come over, because it was too dangerous.

Everyone didn't think that the Dantela Military Alliance had the ability to hit the federal mainland directly, but what if?

As the first line of the southward advance, the most important naval port, the probability of it being attacked is far greater than Jinzhou!

Once an attack occurs, it is absolutely terrible. So he directly let his family stay in Jinzhou.

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

Adrian returned from outside and closed the door.

"Sent away?", although it was a nonsense sentence, General Myers still confirmed it.

"Sent away!", Adrian walked to a place closer to him, "You value him very much?"

!

General Myers nodded, "He can bring more strength to the family; whoever can do this has the qualification to become our friend."

"The federal government's hatred of mountainism and the determination to destroy these mountains are getting stronger and stronger; isn't this war an opportunity?"

"Sometimes some things, we need to make more considerations, consider the retreat problem."

Not only does the local government have mountainism and regionalism, but the army also has this situation.

These are also inherited.

Those gentlemen on the oil paintings might not have thought that the power in their hands would become some kind of "family inheritance," inherited by descendants generation after generation.

And wouldn't have thought that their descendants would also have some internal struggles because of the power inherited in each other's hands.

Hearing these words of General Myers, Adrian faintly realized that Lans was important.

Even more important than him, the General's own nephew!

The next day, all kinds of newspapers were completely sold out, some weeklies also followed up to print related news; it was clearly a very calm city, but it was filled with the smell of gunpowder that everyone could smell!

The front-page headline of "Today's Jincheng" was an empty grocery store, with a pool of fresh blood on the ground, the glass display window had been smashed, and the goods inside were looted.

Beside this photo, there was a middle-aged and elderly man sitting in front of the lens wearing only big pants.

His hair had been shaved off; the nurse's craftsmanship could only be said to be average, deep and shallow, just like being gnawed by a dog.

But one could also clearly see some obviously cleaner areas and those wounds that were still swollen and red, as well as the thread ends that were tightened and looked somewhat uncomfortable.

On his face, chin, shoulders, arms, forearms, waist and abdomen, as well as the outside of his thighs, there were wounds and traces left by stitching.

The first half of this report used an interview method to talk to the shopkeeper; the reporter used very straightforward language, which everyone could understand, but also had some depth, letting people know what happened.

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

"Others started to loot my shop; I shouted for help, but it was exchanged for their more brutal treatment; I thought I would die there!"

"Until I woke up, they told me that it was the police who saved me."

"I only knew after I woke up that those people were refugees from the Xingang District, and some said we shouldn't stop them."

"But if we don't stop them, are we just going to let them continue their atrocities?"

"I don't think the police's decisive shooting was wrong; I want to thank them for their decisiveness. Perhaps if it had been a moment later, I would have been dead."

"On the contrary, I deeply suspect the stance of those who think the police did the wrong thing!"

When people turned to the second page, there were more photos, photos of the demolition site in the old industrial area, the dead lying in pools of blood no longer looking human, with their true circumstances attached below.

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

"But everything stopped on a certain day in December 1023. Under the incitement and planning of some people, they became the sacrifices for capital gangs seeking more profit."

"Behind each deceased person is a broken family. I dare not interview their families; I dare not face those painful and desperate eyes."

"Because I am afraid they will ask me why people condemn the innocent them to protect those thugs?"

"This is not what justice looks like, not what fairness looks like."

"We sympathize with refugees and are willing to accept them living in our city, but that does not mean refugees are superior to us."

"If just because they are refugees, are foreigners, we have to cater to their emotions, even if they hurt us, we cannot stop them."

"Then I am undoubtedly disappointed in this society, in the federal government!"

"But fortunately, we have a qualified mayor, a police chief with courage. They solved the thugs and saved the innocent public; they should not be condemned."

"Those who should be condemned are those who manufactured these events..."

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

It was defined as "interest groups that exploit, plunder, and create terror through capital." This term would soon become a "buzzword," popular nationwide and even worldwide.

Along with these events, it would also become the background for this term to start trending.

People would be interested in the environment that produced it; some people are destined to be nailed to the pillar of shame!

Early in the morning, many meddlesome citizens united. They appeared on the outskirts of the Xingang District, holding placards like "Get out of our home," "You are not welcome here," and "Go back to hell," protesting and demonstrating against those refugees.

Many people came, at least a thousand, and it looked like there was a trend of more and more coming.

This was one of Mayor Williams's counterattacks. "Public opinion" is something every politician is fighting for; when it is not enough, not united enough, it is just a fart.

But when it begins to gather into a force that cannot be ignored, every politician must face it squarely.

There were also many police at the scene maintaining order, but compared to the "calmness" of the police in the past, this time the police were all carrying submachine guns or slinging rifles, and looking at the refugee group very vigilantly.

More media came to New Jincheng overnight. They were eager to get first-hand information here, and many reporters were taking photos at the scene.

Also early in the morning, Lanse was woken up by the ringing of the phone. He had handled some work matters after returning last night and had gone to sleep relatively late.

He squinted his eyes to look at the dim sky outside the window, sat up with a frown, and came to the study.

The call was from Tang Mu.

"What exactly happened over there?", he asked.

Lanse briefly explained the matter. After listening, Tang Mu frowned, "How do you plan to handle this matter?"

Lanse did not answer him immediately, but instead asked, "Are you concerned about this matter, or is the Senator concerned about this matter?"

"Of course it's the Senator. Some reports claim Williams is going to expel the refugees?"

"There are refugees in many cities now, and they aren't getting along that well with the locals. If Williams does this, it might trigger a chain reaction and cause us some trouble in international issues!"

(End of chapter)