Chapter 972: Leaving, Distrust, and Larger-Scale Fighting

Fernandez smiled and said, "Is it because you don't interfere, so we also cannot interfere?"

He didn't cover up the thorns in his words at all, just nakedly displaying his sharpness!

However, these rhetoric didn't work very well on Lansi, because Lansi wasn't considered a politician yet, and his face was thick enough.

Or rather, as long as one is a politician, one can ignore these sarcasms and taunts. If one can't even pass this hurdle, one isn't qualified to become a politician.

Lansi responded with a smile. He didn't speak; this question actually wasn't very suitable for a clear statement in language.

"What a domineering Federation!" Fernandez sighed, "Are my wife and children in your hands?"

Lansi didn't deny it, nor did he admit it, "Your two children are very sensible. They didn't do anything they shouldn't have done along the way, reducing a lot of trouble for us, and also reducing unnecessary trouble for themselves."

This sentence already made it clear that his family was in Lansi's hands.

The more it reached such a critical moment, the more stable Fernandez's emotions became. Everyone had already "shown their cards."

No unknown, no need to scare himself, the best outcome and the worst outcome were placed together, and what remained was the choice.

He pondered for a moment, "What if I say 'no'?"

Lansi revealed a very regretful expression, "People will not remember the contribution you and your family made to world peace, Mr. Fernandez."

"This world is forgetful. Perhaps it won't be long before your President and your country will also stand on our side."

"You will become the 'stubborn elements' who obstructed us from realizing a beautiful tomorrow, and you won't even be considered heroes."

"People will spit on everything you did in front of your grave, if they can find your grave."

He crossed his legs, tilted his body slightly to one side, and pressed his elbow on the armrest of the sofa, "This is the general trend, Mr. Fernandez."

"Anyone who resists the general trend will eventually be crushed into powder under the wheels of history."

Lansi's words made Fernandez feel a kind of power he hadn't felt before, the power hidden in language.

At this moment, he seemed to be able to see history turning into a huge wheel rolling forward, and everything that blocked its path forward would be crushed to pieces.

He thought of many things, for example, those conservatives in the Republic of Jiede, who were also the former vested interest groups, those privileged classes.

They were the most opposed to reform because reform touched their core interests. After persuasion failed, they directly launched a coup.

But it was a pity that the coup didn't succeed because this is the power of the "historical trend."

The trajectory of world development is like this, no one can resist it, and those extreme conservatives were almost completely purged.

Leaving some conservatives behind without dealing with them was the decision of the former President.

Absolute power not only brings absolute corruption but also brings absolute decay. He didn't want his children and his family to welcome a fool in some generation, making their efforts of so many generations return to zero again.

So leaving an opposing voice was to warn those behind them that they still needed to be careful and vigilant.

Looking back at the whole process of Jiede's development, it was as if there was a force pushing them to do every single thing, every single thing that seemed perfectly correct from now on.

Then what about the future?

Will it be like what Lansi said, that he and these people trying to resist the Federation will become the extreme conservatives of the past, becoming people who obstruct the arrival of the correct era?

And then be crushed to pieces?

He didn't know. He remained silent, and Lansi didn't urge him to make a decision either.

Now the chips were in his hands, and he held the initiative, so "respecting" the opponent was raising himself.

After a long while, Fernandez seemed to try to find that crack between ideals and reality, "She and the children are innocent."

Lansi nodded, "I don't deny this point, but when you join this game, you should understand."

"The winner takes all, not just you sitting at the table, but everything behind you."

He shook his head slightly, "I thought you already had the awareness the moment you sat at this gambling table. I didn't expect you to have no awareness."

"But you are not completely without the opportunity to choose."

"Is it to sacrifice yourself and your family for your friend's ambition and desire to maintain his power?"

"Or return to the family, go back and reunite with your family, and then run in the direction of the historical trend, instead of being someone who goes against the current."

"Or, you can consider joining the Federation. Now there are many people in the Federation who are very interested in Jiede's people and things."

"You are the President's close friend, a high-level government official. You know much more than we can collect."

"Three choices, don't say you don't have the opportunity!"

Lansi's words dispelled his last thought. His original idea was that he was worthy of friendship, worthy of the country, and worthy of his ambitions, ideals, and persistence.

As long as Lansi said he could let his family go, then he would fight against the Federal people to the end.

But now, it seemed there was no meaning anymore. His whole person quickly changed from a straight spine to a hunched back.

Perhaps seeing his hesitation, Lansi placed his hands on his thighs, looking very steady, "So what is your choice?"

"Mr. Fernandez?"

Half an hour later, Fernandez returned to his office. He locked himself in the office for a while, lay on the sofa, looking at the ceiling, his mind in a whirl.

Many things, many people, many voices and images kept switching. He didn't even know what he was thinking about or what he was thinking.

It was as if a storm had erupted in his mind, until after a considerable period of time, the storm gradually subsided, and his thinking returned to normal.

He sat up again, went to the desk, and dialed the Jiede President's phone number.

"Fern?"

"It's me. I've already talked with Lansi."

"My wife and children are in their hands. He proposed a condition, asking me to take people back to Jiede and not come over anymore."

"Only by doing this will he return my family to me."

After he finished saying these words, there was no feedback sound from the receiver, always maintaining silence.

The longer the silence lasted, the more he felt some sadness in his heart.

Although he knew this was Lansi's "open conspiracy," and Lansi had even predicted the result, but at the moment it really happened, he still felt some pain.

Yes, the country and the nation are indeed more important than a few people in a family, but even if it is false concern?

He thought of the sentence Lansi said: all the reforms in the Republic of Jiede were based on maintaining the power of the President's family.

They were not truly devolving power to the people; that was just a small trick of the rulers to fool the people.

If they really wanted to become more advanced, they should completely hand over power to the people, instead of always keeping it in their own hands.

Wouldn't it be good if the President was also elected?

Although the Federation has numerous problems, at least the mayor, governor, and President are all elected by the people.

Although this might involve some small problems, there is no problem in the overall direction.

Power comes from the people; the people are the masters of the country!

The Republic of Jiede, which looks progressive, is actually a country more hypocritical than the Federation, because as long as it involves the interests of the rulers, they will become another person.

Just like at this moment, how much Fernandez wanted to hear the President, his close friend, tell him to give up all this, take the children back, and think of other countermeasures.

Even if it was fake, hypocritical, he would feel very comfortable and might go to extremes on impulse.

But he didn't say anything, just maintained silence.

After about two or three minutes, the President asked, "You come back first." In fact, Fernandez also knew very well what this "go back first" meant. He knew his classmate and close friend too well.

He would also arrange for others to come over. This time, the people arranged, including his family, would be protected more tightly, or simply not give Lansi and them the opportunity to solve problems in this way.

In Jiede, some people are thirty or forty years old and haven't married yet. They seem to have dedicated their lives to building the country. Of course, in reality, they live happy lives that people can't imagine in places people can't see.

These people want to get more opportunities to climb higher, so they must come to Lapa.

Fernandez didn't refuse; he agreed, "Okay, I will pack up and go back soon."

Not long after he hung up the phone, the office door was knocked with a bang, and Diego's voice came from outside, "Fernandez, I want to chat with you!"

He heard people say that Fernandez took Lansi's car and left the Presidential Office, and then took Lansi's car back to the Presidential Office. Undoubtedly, this Presidential Advisor from Jiede, whom he trusted, didn't persist for long before being "corroded."

At least that's what he thought.

In the screening process promoted by Fernandez, he had already discovered many people who had been bought in the Presidential Office.

Although Fernandez's opinion was to continue to retain these people, after all, as long as these people who had been discovered and proven to be defectors were controlled well, even if there were many here, it would be difficult for them to know the news they didn't want to leak.

And if they wanted to reveal some wrong intelligence, they could also pass it to the Federal people or other forces through these people.

But Diego couldn't hold back his temper and killed almost all these bought people who had been discovered. Only under his strong request were two or three people left.

He could imagine how angry Diego was at this moment.

But this is what Lansi wanted to do: make the Presidents on both sides find it difficult to trust him.

He came to the door and opened the office door. Diego pushed the door in very impolitely. The pushed-open door almost hit him.

"I heard you took Lansi's car and left the Presidential Office?" Diego swayed and walked a few steps in the room, suddenly turned back and looked at Fernandez and asked this question.

Fernandez didn't deny it, "It is indeed like this. My family was kidnapped. It was Lansi who kidnapped them. I had no choice; I had to go and talk to him."

Listening to his frank confession, Diego was a bit at a loss instead.

He actually hoped more that Fernandez would refute him, quibble, and not admit it, so he could fiercely take out those witnesses and material evidence and slap them on his face, questioning him why he made the betrayal.

But Fernandez said all the problems at once and also admitted to seeing Lansi, which made him suddenly not know what to do.

After a while, he asked, "What did you talk about?"

"We talked about..." Fernandez looked at Diego who was still standing, "Are you sure you don't need to sit down and listen to me?"

Diego looked at the sofa and sat down.

"We talked about some things. I wanted to find my family. He gave me some conditions, including the condition of leaving Lapa."

Diego's emotions at this time were complex. He hoped that Fernandez could tell him that he and Lansi reached an agreement.

He hoped he would say that he and Lansi didn't reach an agreement.

The former is that he hoped to find a suitable and legitimate reason to simply not use this person anymore. He is very suspicious. Once he develops suspicion about a person, it is difficult to change this view.

Now he admitted himself that there was some agreement between him and Lansi, so he had enough reason to inform the President of Jiede that this person must be replaced; he would not continue to stay by his side.

At the same time, he hoped that Fernandez could say that he refused all of Lansi's conditions, which would make Diego feel better. At least not everyone would give up their persistence in the face of coercion and inducement.

They should firmly stand on his side.

They were contradictory. He stared straight at Fernandez's eyes, seemingly wanting to find the answer he wanted from his eyes.

But it was a pity that Fernandez's eyes were very firm, and he couldn't see those fluctuating expressions.

He sighed, "Sorry, Mr. President, it is very difficult for me to continue to serve you and the Lapa government."

"Jiede has already requested me to go back to report on my work as soon as possible, so..."

"And you don't need to worry too much, Mr. President. If there are no accidents, someone will soon come to replace my work."

Diego looked at the small eyes in his eye slits, which were full of anger. He wanted to say something, but didn't know what to say. In the end, he could only stomp his foot and then sway and stumble away.

He transferred all his dissatisfaction with Fernandez to the Federal people. At least on this point, he still performed like a normal person.

Along with the news that Fernandez was about to leave Lapa spreading, the morale of the government army also had some problems. Some soldiers among them started to suspect that the Asian Alliance had abandoned Lapa.

This made them unable to concentrate fully on the battle, and also caused some attrition.

Even worse was that the news that the government army had little ammunition also started to spread. Now huge pressure was on Diego, making him unable to breathe!

When there was Fernandez, he felt unprecedented relaxation; he didn't need to do anything, and Fernandez could handle everything well.

Now losing this traitor, instead, made him a bit at a loss.

At the same time, there were two more people who could be called "old friends" who had already taken their whole families to the Federation for tourism. When they returned, only they themselves were left.

More and more people started to not be optimistic about Diego. His performance was truly disappointing. Instead, there were a few people among the anti-government armed forces who attracted more people's attention.

This also gave Diego an urge to perform. He now urgently needed a huge victory to boost morale and at the same time make people realize this point.

He is the ruler of this country; he was before, he is now, and he will be in the future.

He wanted to pick an opponent for himself, for example, Ross, for example, Pedro.

Fernandez quickly packed up his things and left. Losing him and some Jiede officers, the government army became much clumsier. Originally, they could suppress some anti-government armed forces, but now it had become evenly matched.

Perhaps not being able to beat these anti-government militants was just a matter of time.

It only took three days to travel from Lapa to Jiede by train. After Fernandez returned to Jiede, he proved to Lansi that he had returned as agreed.

Not long after, he saw his wife and two children.

When the husband and wife met, naturally there was a sense of luck of having survived a disaster. When the children saw their father return, they also took the initiative to come over and hug his legs.

At this moment, he seemed to have some relief. Perhaps family is what he should pay more attention to.

After returning to Jiede, he only saw the President once. The two people who originally talked about everything and could chat for half a day by just finding a topic, now, except for the most basic greetings and reporting work, couldn't find other topics to chat about.

That day's time together was extremely uncomfortable; for both of them, it was like this.

When Fernandez finished saying everything he had, the two sat on both sides of the desk, looking at each other, until the President said he had to work, and Fernandez took the initiative to get up and say goodbye. The wording between them was like strangers!

They didn't lose to time; they lost to their own identities.

From that day on, he never saw the President again, and there was one very special thing, which was that the President didn't arrange any work for him again, whether it was high confidentiality or some miscellaneous work, none.

However, he didn't care much about this aspect. He just wanted to return to his family now.

Most of his nearly forty years of life were used on ideals and pursuits. The time truly used on his family was pitifully little. He had to make up for his family!

The words Lansi said to him finally played some role. He seemed to be able to see a bit of "the trajectory of history moving forward" or something like that.

Perhaps, the Federation is really the "general trend"!

During this period, because the anti-government militants knew that the ammunition reserves in the hands of the Lapa government army were not much, they went from passive resistance to actively seeking more battles, in order to consume the ammunition in the hands of the government army.

Such a method was very effective. The number of exchanges of fire became more and more frequent.

The ammunition consumed every day became more and more, which also meant that the time and opportunities left for Diego to choose were not much.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 973 =====