Chapter 884: Naked

General Diaz watched Lans and the two people carrying boxes behind him walk in. What he didn't know was that his expression at this moment was the same as General Miles's when he first met Lans.

He didn't even stand up, just sat in his chair.

It was just that he didn't appear so arrogant. He didn't lean back more, cross his legs, and look at Lans with arrogant and contemptuous eyes, but sat upright with a smile.

His hands were placed on the table in front of him. From his face, expression, and eyes, one couldn't see much arrogance.

But in his bones, he was still somewhat arrogant.

Lans had people put the things next to the chair opposite General Diaz, and then let the two leave.

He walked over and shook hands with the General, then sat opposite him.

"I hope you were satisfied with the small gift last time."

Lans's opening remark was very direct. General Diaz always maintained his smile. "It was okay."

After he finished saying this "it was okay," he had no further statement. Lans wasn't angry either. It wasn't that every person who gave you benefits had to be considered a good person, and you had to welcome them with a smiling face.

In fact, from General Diaz's perspective, he had already performed very well. At least he was still willing to pretend to act, acting as if he were a kind person, instead of acting like his predecessor, who didn't even act at all when he came up.

Lans made a gesture, intending to bring up the two boxes. General Diaz nodded.

Soon the boxes were lifted and placed on the table, and then Lans opened the buckles around the bottom of the boxes, as if they were placed upside down on the table.

The buckles of both boxes were opened, and then he lifted the handle, lifting the boxes up.

The boxes that lost the bottom support naturally revealed the things inside. Even though General Diaz was well-informed, when he saw these neatly stacked banknotes, he still took a deep breath.

Two piles of banknotes, a foot wide, over a foot long, and more than half a foot high, two piles!

These two piles of things, which might only cost a few hundred dollars, firmly attracted General Diaz's gaze. It took him quite a while to move his gaze away from these banknotes.

He looked at Lans with a puzzled expression on his face, as if he were saying "what does this mean."

Lans put the two empty boxes at his feet, sat back, and took out a cigarette. "Do you mind?"

The initiative, inadvertently, shifted.

In fact, Lans didn't fear General Diaz, because behind him was Congress, the Department of Defense. General Diaz could at most give him some embarrassment and make him unhappy, but couldn't really do anything to him.

No matter which world, which cultural background, the provocation of "military men" against "literati" would be seen by "literati" as the beginning of a war!

Here, it was no exception.

The masters in Congress had always believed that soldiers should be loyal to Congress, loyal to the country. They didn't need to have their own thoughts or anything else; they just needed to obey.

Just not obeying was already a crime, let alone trying to provoke Congress.

No one who had done this had a good ending!

Lans was not a member of Congress, so he was relatively weak compared to General Diaz, but he wasn't without any reliance. As long as there was a chance, he could also reverse the passive situation.

He glanced at the desktop lighter on the table. It was a gunboat. He didn't need to do it himself to know that he only needed to press one of the switches, and the gunboat's cannon muzzle would spark, and then the fire core inside would be lit.

Desktop lighters were always able to be ingenious. Of course, some were specially customized by people.

Lans didn't use this desktop lighter, but took out a match. He held the cigarette in his mouth, crossed his legs, and tilted his head slightly, letting the corner of his mouth with the cigarette be on top.

With a *shhh* sound, the match was lit, and a cloud of smoke with a gunpowder smell rose into the air.

But the smoke didn't go far before it was burned clean by the flame.

He shook his hand, extinguished the match, and put it into the ashtray.

A puff of smoke, inhaled deeply, and exhaled a lot.

"This month's dividend." Lans pressed his hand holding the cigarette onto one of the piles of banknotes. "Physical therapy."

General Diaz's gaze fell on the money again. He stared at the money for seven or eight seconds before taking his gaze back. "I remember this money should have already gone into Miles's pocket."

Because this money went through military expenditure, the budget for military expenditure was made a year in advance, and the appropriation would be made directly after it was made.

Except for special projects, such as building warships.

Building warships was phased appropriation, or there were large construction projects.

Others, like these free physical therapy ones, were all one-time appropriations.

Its own cost was not high, and Congress would not be stingy in being generous with smaller amounts.

So the physical therapy fee for the whole year was directly appropriated.

After Lans got the money, he would give the money for General Miles directly to him. After all, everyone knew that this money was in Lans's hands.

If he held it and didn't give it, or gave a sum every month, it would give people a feeling that he was using this money to pinch General Miles.

Compared to others, this money didn't count as a big project at all, so Lans directly appropriated the money, and would never wait or give it in installments.

This also made General Miles, who had only worked for half a year this year, have already put the money for the second half of the year into his pocket.

This money was taken away by him, and Lans might now call to ask him to spit out half of the money.

So, he took out another sum of money and gave it to Diaz.

Of course, he would make this matter very clear.

"General Miles is General Miles's. When he worked here, he also took good care of our business, so every year when the budget came down, this money would be directly transferred to him."

"We didn't know things would develop to this step. This money is just a souvenir I give him for leaving Jincheng."

"As for you, General Diaz, here, as long as it is what you deserve, not a cent will be less, even if I pay out of my own pocket to subsidize you."

"This is the rule!"

General Diaz raised his hand and rubbed his forehead. "Rule." He repeated the word that Lans emphasized.

Honestly, the previous golden warship, plus these two piles of money on the table, looked like there should be three or four hundred thousand.

He had heard, heard people say that Lans was very popular in Congress, and now he knew.

Anyone who could do this, no matter where they were, would be very popular.

"Every month."

Lans added another sentence, which made General Diaz couldn't help but feel moved.

This was much more than earning by cheating ammunition subsidies through fake exercises.

It was also more than privately selling standard weapons that were declared scrapped.

He took a deep breath, although he didn't want to admit it, he had to admit that this person, Lans White, indeed had something.

However, he was still insisting. He wanted to see where Lans's "limit" was.

It wasn't that he was making things difficult for Lans, but that he and Lans didn't know each other at all. Just contacted, rashly accepting such a large bribe, he would feel a bit uneasy.

It wasn't his greed that was uneasy, but feeling that Lans might have some other ideas.

You know, the "ultimate blow" that finally crushed General Miles and made him take the initiative to compromise and plead guilty to Congress was "corruption"!

"I don't know, I just feel I shouldn't accept this money." General Diaz showed a regretful expression. He said the words against his will with great effort.

All military generals had roughly the same problems.

If they wanted to get money, they could only get it from military expenditure.

And this method of getting money didn't necessarily mean they could get much money. Like the military equipment part, it wasn't that the money was handed over to the military, letting the military buy it themselves.

Congress had a Military Committee, and the Military Committee would decide which company's products to buy for this year's military purchase, and how much.

Then they would directly connect with these military industrial enterprises.

The role the military could play in it was to recommend—"The soldiers all say that the equipment of xxx military industrial enterprise is very easy to use!"

But sometimes the Military Committee wouldn't listen to them. They would find some random reason to muddle through, and then order products from another company.

They had the ability to get money, from military expenditure, but couldn't get particularly big money, and the speed of getting money was relatively slow.

This actually had a very intuitive piece of evidence. In the Federation, people could see many generals who were not wealthy. They might have worked in the military for a lifetime, and when they were old, they were actually just at a level above the middle class.

This also included some officers and so on.

But there was no Senator who was poor.

When they came down from the position of Senator, not to mention that everyone was comparable to a big capitalist, at least they had a net worth of millions or tens of millions, and this was still the kind that mixed the worst!

So refusing the money given by Lans was indeed very difficult.

Just like General Miles, he was very arrogant, he looked down on people like Lans who came from mud-legged backgrounds, but Lans gave too much, so much that he had to take the initiative to welcome Lans.

It wasn't that he really felt Lans was his confidant, but that Lans gave too much, and he had no way not to change his attitude.

The power of money was the same as the value it displayed. The greater the value, the greater the power of money!

Lans shook his head. "General Diaz, I respect every soldier."

"Especially now, in wartime."

He inhaled the cigarette with a *hiss*, his body was exceptionally relaxed, relaxed from the inside out.

As long as a person could maintain a relaxed state, it could make the confidence on him become more obvious.

"Because soldiers use their lives to defend the interests of the Federation and the people!"

Hearing this sentence, even if General Diaz was not very willing to echo Lans, he couldn't help but nod, saying it was too well said.

"But what does this have to do with whether I accept this money or not?" he asked.

Lans smiled and spread his hands. "It has a lot to do with it."

"General Diaz, the soldiers are still very young, they have things they are greedy for, no one hopes that they will still be a novice when they die."

"This project can very well let them relax, let them focus more on military training, and help them have more opportunities to survive in the war."

"We also did a survey. Since the building behind appeared, there have been fewer fights in the military camp. People have places to vent their energy, and they have become easier to manage."

"This project was promoted by General Miles and me. Now General Miles has temporarily left here, and his military confidants have also left."

"People will feel some... worry about the things left over from General Miles's period, worrying about whether there will be any changes."

Lans leaned forward and flicked the ash, continuing to say, "In fact, what you are accepting is not money, but a continuation of a rule."

"If people see that you have accepted the money, they will realize that some projects and some rules that appeared during General Miles's period will not change."

"They don't need to consider whether they can adapt to the new environment. They just need to be like before."

"Training, eating, resting, releasing pressure, and listening to the commander!"

"I can guarantee that as long as I leave your office empty-handed, the soldiers in this base will love you even more."

"You are not accepting dirty money, black money, you are soothing their emotions, increasing some benefits for the soldiers, and at least leaving no regrets for them before they face war and walk toward the gunfire."

Listening to Lans's words, General Diaz began to fall into deep thought. He held his chin with his fists, frowning and looking at the money.

According to Lans's statement, it seemed that he really couldn't not take this money?!

He himself actually didn't reject this idea, but... he didn't like the current passivity.

But Lans's words made sense again. For a while, he himself couldn't make up his mind.

At the same time, he thought of another question. Lans put the officers and soldiers in his words. What did he want to express?

Did he want to say that his infiltration into the base was very strong?

Or did he want to say something else?

In fact, being a general is not that easy. If a general cannot take care of the interests of his subordinates, these officers and soldiers will not necessarily really support him.

After hesitating again and again, he finally agreed.

"You are a very interesting person, Lans."

When he said this, Lans knew he had accepted the money.

He was never afraid of greedy people, he was only afraid that people were not greedy enough.

The relationship between the two sides had a better foundation. After General Diaz sent Lans to the door, he returned to his desk.

He picked up the two empty boxes on the ground, then covered the money, then buckled the buckles, and then put the boxes in the corner.

He let his adjutant come in and asked him to pay attention to some changes in the military camp.

Lans brought things and left empty-handed, which indeed attracted the attention of some people. Soon some soldiers walked into the building behind with smiles.

When this news was reported back, General Diaz frowned.

His adjutant asked, "Should I let the military police get them all out?"

General Diaz raised his hand. "No, no need. I just feel that Lans's erosion of this military camp is much deeper than I thought."

Regarding this question, the adjutant was silent for a while, then said softly, "This is Jincheng, General."

General Diaz's gaze fell on him, and the adjutant went further and said, "This is the base camp of Lans and the Lans family. As long as the soldiers can go to the city, what they see, hear, and come into contact with is hard not to be associated with Lans and the Lans family."

"I heard a rumor."

"As long as the soldiers have their dog tags, they will have some preferential treatment in the business places opened by the Lans family, including casinos."

Soldiers are allowed to leave the military camp during holidays, and they can go to the city to play.

People are actually the kind of creatures with the least opinions. It can be seen from the fact that humans can be easily persuaded.

If they had opinions, they wouldn't be so easily persuaded.

So when these soldiers live in an environment where everyone praises Lans and the Lans family, and mythologizes him in some aspects, they will also subtly change some ideas.

Including those therapists, when they help the soldiers relax, some soldiers will also ask about these relatively difficult-to-speak-of questions.

But none of them would hate Lans, but instead expressed respect for Lans.

It was Lans who gave them job opportunities that other women dreamed of—stable jobs, not being bullied, and stable income, and also regular free physical examinations.

Soldiers come into contact with such an environment more, and they will also feel that Lans is a good person and should respect him, not despise him and confront him.

Although they wouldn't stand on the opposite side of General Diaz because of Lans, they would have a worse impression of General Diaz because of the contradiction between Lans and General Diaz.

Lans gave them free sex, free wine, respect, and discounts.

If they can't get along with such a good person, it can only be said that General Diaz is difficult to deal with.

This kind of thing happens in non-wartime, he doesn't care. In such a dictatorial place as the military, he is not afraid of the grassroots soldiers messing around.

But now it is wartime, and the one who really goes to the front line is not him, the general, but the soldier under him.

At this moment, he finally understood a little bit about what the "rule" Lans said meant.

That is an invisible wall, a palace, but also a cage.

If people don't want to break their heads and bleed, the best way is to follow the rules.

The news spread very quickly in the military camp. By the evening, the building behind the military camp returned to liveliness. After dinner, the soldiers had an hour of free time.

Many of them chose to go to the building to relax and release, although it might only be a few minutes or ten minutes.

But the restlessness in the body would disappear because of these few minutes or ten minutes!

Walking out of the room, the soldier who was tidying his clothes while walking had a satisfied smile on his face. "Thank you, Mr. Lans!"

The girl in the room put a card in a proper place for safekeeping. This card could be exchanged for money.

She also cleaned herself while sighing, "Really want to thank Mr. Lans..."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 885 =====