Chapter 874: Pressure and Pointing It Out

As a General, even though General Miles is currently under investigation, he does not need to live in a prison or a detention cell.

He still resides in his detached villa located within the military district.

Yes, within the military district, there are detached houses and villas provided specifically for officers; General Miles's villa is the innermost one, and also the largest and most luxurious.

He sits on the sofa, his face calm and composed, showing no signs of the frustration or decadence one might expect from someone under review.

On the other side of the sofa, three other Navy generals are also sitting.

"According to the news I got from Old Wood, among the several charges they currently hold, the one that could have the greatest impact on you is likely dereliction of duty."

"They say you did not follow wartime regulations to disperse the picket ships to the surrounding waters, and failed to provide timely early warning."

"This charge can be big or small; we will continue to push hard and strive to ensure you aren't too heavily affected!"

General Miles closes his eyes slightly, "I heard that they actually knew long ago that the Dantrans were coming to attack New Jincheng."

When he says this, the other three Navy generals in the room are stunned for a moment, and then they frown, "You can't just say things like that."

"If others find out and latch onto it, your trouble will be even greater than it is now!"

The speaker means that if there is no evidence, then it shouldn't be said.

Moreover, it is best to pretend not to know about such taboo intelligence; once someone knows that you know, they will be curious about how you found out.

Why were you inquiring about state secrets, and what was your purpose?

Perhaps it is currently just a charge of dereliction of duty, but when he tells others that he knows some things behind this incident, it will no longer just be dereliction of duty; there might also be a charge of stealing state intelligence, which is a heavier crime and could potentially lead directly to the electric chair.

Therefore, if you can avoid saying it, it is best not to reveal any information about the intelligence he knows to the outside world; once someone gets a hold of your pigtail, the trouble will be huge.

Of course, besides all this, General Miles is willing to believe that all of this might really not be an act, that it is real!

After New Jincheng was attacked, the Federation quickly set up this joint investigation team, which gives General Miles a feeling of being targeted.

Because this matter did not fall on someone else, others might behave with indifference, but he has no way to be indifferent.

He used a great deal of personal connections and relationships to obtain a somewhat uncertain piece of news, saying that the federal government might have known long ago that the Dantran joint fleet might have combat missions in the East Ocean, but there has been no news from the Ministry of Defense.

But if you ask for any actual evidence, the person who passed this news to him cannot provide any evidence.

Intelligence of this kind of top-secret nature has records for every step of the handling process and can be traced; once intelligence is leaked, the intelligence department will investigate layer by layer.

Today you can leak intelligence to people in the Federation; tomorrow, could you leak intelligence to people in other countries?

Therefore, the informed source gave him an ambiguous answer; don't even think about evidence or anything like that, as this is already the limit!

It is precisely because he knows it is meaningless, even if he really had evidence, it would be useless; at this moment, General Miles sighs, shakes his head, and says nothing more.

"I won't talk nonsense to others."

Another Navy general also does not want to delve into this topic; they just want to gain more control over the war, not... become an enemy of the Assembly, so they don't want to chat much about such taboo topics either.

"Let's talk about this later; the most critical thing now is how to protect you."

General Miles purses his lips, "I will arrange for a few officers of sufficient weight on my side and let them sacrifice themselves."

The people of "sufficient weight" he refers to are those members of families within the military on his side. There are two simplest ways for the federal government to take down General Miles's military faction.

Either move General Miles away from this position; no matter who replaces him, it is impossible to let these important positions be firmly controlled by General Miles's people.

The military superior has absolute governing power over the subordinate; the newly arrived Commander-in-Chief will certainly replace everyone in key positions within a very short time, so the contradiction will become a contradiction between the new Commander and General Miles, while simultaneously solving the problem of General Miles firmly holding onto the power of this naval fleet.

But doing this also has a disadvantage, which is that the newly arrived Commander-in-Chief will be able to establish a faction belonging to the new Commander before long.

This is somewhat inconsistent with the federal government's ideas; they don't want to have just solved one General Miles only for another General or something to appear, so this is not a smart choice.

The other method is relatively simple, which is what General Miles is considering: he clears out some important positions within the military and lets people from the federal government and the Ministry of Defense be inserted, thus achieving the ultimate goal of mixing sand into the entire naval fleet.

Every move of the military will be seen by these officers and then reported to the Assembly.

There will be many people around him who monitor him at all times, who will try every possible way to make him make mistakes, big mistakes, and then come to "execute" him.

This is already the biggest concession he can make, which also makes his complexion look very bad; if ideological unity cannot be formed within the military, some new factions will soon appear internally to contend with him.

Seeing that General Miles's mood is very bad, the other Navy generals also do not speak.

After a while, they say, "Wait until the public opinion of this period is over, then find a way to send them to the front line; the fighting on the front line is so intense, it is acceptable to people if some accidents happen."

General Miles nods in response, "That's the only way."

He sighs, "I dragged you all into this; if it weren't for me..."

The oldest of the three generals laughs heartily, "Miles, don't think too much; even if you weren't in trouble, they would find trouble for us through other methods."

"This time they won, but next time, it might not be them!"

"Besides, the federal government wanting a cleaner military isn't an idea that just appeared today; even if you weren't here today, could you hide from tomorrow, could you hide from the day after tomorrow?"

"Cheer up; the upcoming war still needs you!"

In times of distress, these words are most useful and can reignite people's fighting spirit; their chat content quickly shifts to the war itself.

"The Ministry of Defense has approved an additional military expenditure for the Army, and this time the number of Army soldiers will have another huge increase; they plan to fight all the way to Dantran!"

"Some soldiers have already shouted that they want to plant the federal flag on the roof of their tallest building; the Army's strength is still constantly becoming stronger, but we have been spinning in place."

General Miles conversely comforts this Navy general, "Wait until the new warships are launched, and the Navy will usher in an unprecedented huge expansion!"

Another Navy general shakes his head, "Just this is not enough."

"If we cannot shift the main battlefield from land to the sea, we can never be the Army's opponent."

"Do you know the Wallace brothers?", he suddenly mentions a name that General Miles is not very clear about, and the others are also not very clear; they shake their heads one after another.

This Navy general continues, "The Wallace brothers were the first to propose the idea of using airplanes in war; the Ministry of Defense plans to try it."

Speaking of this airplane, it is actually not a fresh thing, just limited by the technological development of the era, the airplane's load-carrying capacity is very limited.

It cannot have too much load-carrying capacity; counting the pilot, engine, and fuel, there is not much space and load left for it.

People have always wanted to apply it to the field of war, and until now, it has only been used for land reconnaissance.

On the frontal ground battlefield, one can occasionally see its figure, flying a circle over the battlefield, and then going back.

Short range and no load-carrying capacity limit it from becoming a weapon of war.

"The Wallace brothers recently launched a new engine; they can let the pilot on the airplane carry an additional seventy to eighty pounds of weight."

"Then they made a slide rail and hung mortar shells on it..."

Before he finished speaking, the person next to him asks back, "Then why don't I just use a mortar?"

"That is even more convenient; at least we don't need to build a runway for the airplane, and we don't need extra supplies."

General Miles also nods in agreement; he also thinks that this airplane seems to have no particularly good effect on war.

Whether it is close-range strikes or long-range strikes, there is artillery that can do the job.

Perhaps for precision strikes, it can provide some value, but precision strikes often make the airplane a disposable item.

As long as it comes down, rifle bullets might be able to hit it, and machine gun bullets can definitely hit it, which has made the airplane always very awkward.

Seeing that they are all so dismissive, the Navy general who first mentioned this matter can only shrug and spread his hands, "Alright, this matter still needs to be studied."

Just when these few people are chatting with great enthusiasm, a Captain walks over quickly, "General Miles, gentlemen generals, something has happened; some soldiers and officers have been taken away by the investigation team."

The person speaking has an anxious face, which makes General Miles vaguely feel that something is wrong; he asks hurriedly, "Why does the federal government want to take them away?"

The Captain speaking has a somewhat gloomy expression, "They say these people are involved in corruption."

When hearing this news, the expressions of the generals in the room finally change.

Dereliction of duty, for those in high positions, as General Miles just said, he can find a few key characters to take the blame for him.

Isn't the federal government saying now that the patrol ships that should have been patrolling and guarding in the sea area were not sent out?

He can completely push this matter to the specific officer in charge, saying that he had already ordered it, but the officer was slack; it was the officer who didn't do it, not him.

This way, General Miles would bear a charge much lighter than dereliction of duty: neglect of duty.

Just neglect of duty; apologize, and then handle this matter, and it will pass.

But corruption is different; whether it is official corruption or officer corruption, it is a big case in the Federation, a serious crime, and there is actually no difference between embezzling one dollar and embezzling one million.

Hearing this, they all know that this time the Assembly is completely planning to kick him down; General Miles's complexion also becomes exceptionally ugly.

He lets the Captain leave, then sits on the sofa with his eyes closed for a long while, then suddenly stands up, "I'm going to make a call; gentlemen, you chat first."

If he could sit still before, then now, he cannot sit still.

Of course, even though corruption is a serious crime in the Federation.

But this charge cannot topple high-ranking government officials and high-ranking military generals.

At their level, for example, General Miles, for example, Senator Cleveland, ordinary laws, and even the Constitution, no longer have any binding power over them.

In fact, let alone them, a few years ago, those wealthy people in the Bay Area were already uncontrolled by law and acted recklessly.

Even if they killed people every day, that was not a crime; in the eyes of people at the same level, that might just be their unfriendly bad taste.

The only thing that can truly topple them is political infighting, only the failure of political struggle!

They lost in the struggle, so a small charge that might be inconspicuous in the eyes of many people can make them face the law, for example, false accusation and not zipping up one's pants.

They didn't really make a mistake, or rather, were sanctioned by law for a crime, but failed in political struggle.

Just like those criminals facing the executioner, they cry bitterly to repent for the crimes they committed, begging for people's forgiveness.

It is not that they really realized they were wrong, just afraid of death.

The corruption case also cannot judge General Miles, but this corruption case being exposed actually represents an attitude of the Assembly; they just want to press General Miles down.

Dereliction of duty can't handle you?

It's okay, we'll arrange a corruption case.

Corruption can't handle you?

It doesn't matter, we can arrange another charge; he can't defend against all of them.

As long as there is one mistake, what he will face is the abyss, is hell!

He needs to talk to others now.

The soundproofing effect of this villa cannot be considered particularly good; for example, the gap between the door and the floor, there are still some sounds that can come out.

The few generals by the sofa all heard the roar full of anger from General Miles in the study, and the emotions of the few people also became much more depressed.

They also feel dissatisfied with these behaviors of the federal government, and also very dissatisfied with the Army.

Everyone is just competing for control of the war; they actually implemented such retaliation?

This makes the Navy generals have some extra thoughts—this matter is not over!

At the same time, in Denuozhou, after half a year of offense and defense, the Lansi family has completely stood firm in the eastern region of Denuozhou, and they have begun to supply goods to further places.

This will inevitably affect the local leading enterprise, Jinbiao Wine Industry.

Jinbiao Wine Industry is also providing alcohol to gangs to obtain more considerable and astonishing returns; their scale is also expanding, and under the operation of Mr. Lisi, they have a few gangs that completely obey Jinbiao Wine Industry to do things for them.

The friction between the Lansi family and these gangs, as well as Jinbiao Wine Industry, has also begun to occur frequently, and Jinbiao Wine Industry quickly introduced a capital competition model, fighting a price war.

"... From February to now, the price of their low-end whiskey has dropped by a total of eleven dollars, and I heard that they will lower it by another dollar starting next month."

Aierwen is reporting to Lansi about some situations that have occurred in Denuozhou during this period, and Lansi listens very carefully.

"Our goods are transported from Likaizhou, and the cost itself is higher than their cost."

"And because we also have to split the accounts with those politicians, our costs are now difficult to lower."

"Now they have grasped this point and lowered the price to a very low level; if we continue to fight a price war with them, for every bottle of wine we sell, we will lose one to two dollars."

"In the cities within our control, there are also some gangs that purchase goods from them, and we find it difficult to restrain this behavior."

Gangs are organizations driven by the most primitive desires; their purpose is actually exactly the same as capitalists, which is profiteering.

It's just that capitalists will use methods that are better disguised, while the means of gangs are generally a bit rougher.

After Lansi finishes listening, he asks, "What about the Prohibition Bureau?"

"They might have also found key figures; now the Prohibition Bureau here either arrests or doesn't arrest, and we can't occupy any advantage."

The State Prohibition Committee itself is not a state-managed department; this is a department directly vertically managed by the Assembly, and they are directly responsible to the Federal Prohibition Committee.

It is not only Lansi who can find relationships; Jinbiao Wine Industry has been doing this for so many years, and they can also find relationships.

Originally, the Prohibition Bureau there would investigate Jinbiao Wine Industry's wine, but now with their non-interference, the Prohibition Bureau also doesn't investigate, or they investigate Lansi's wine, and they will definitely go to investigate a batch of Jinbiao Wine Industry's wine, to achieve fairness and justice.

How can an outside high-cost enterprise compete with a local low-cost enterprise in a fair and just environment?

Aierwen cannot handle this matter, and he can only ask Lansi for help.

Lansi considers for not much time, "Light their factory; this way we don't have to worry about them being able to continue lowering prices."

Aierwen cannot help but laugh and ask after listening, "Is this appropriate?"

"I heard you said at the family meeting that we are not just a gang!"

Aierwen and some people couldn't come back, but they all knew what Lansi said at the meeting, which is why there was such a phone call.

Lansi also answers with a smile, "Indeed, we cannot just be a gang, but we never said that we are not a gang!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 875 =====