Empire of Shadows

The rainstorm came quickly and went quickly. In just a dozen minutes or so, the curtain of water between heaven and earth was completely gone. The entire human world seemed to have been thrown into a washing machine by God and washed once. Everything was so clean.

Looking at the empty military port, with only some tugboats left, the painter’s expression became much more grave.

He waited for a while, left his home, and came to a nearby phone booth, and dialed a number.

”I wanted to ask if your art gallery has any free holidays recently. I would like to rent it to hold a personal art exhibition,” he held a cigarette in his mouth.

He rarely smoked. As an agent, a spy, he had to avoid anything that could leave a mark on him.

The smell of smoke was one of them.

Of course, he did not completely not smoke. Sometimes he would still smoke, for example, before taking a shower, standing on the balcony and smoking a cigarette, waving his hand to the girls on the side of the road under the glow of the setting sun. It couldn’t be more pleasant.

Now he was smoking, in a phone booth, because his mission was over, and he could be himself again.

Doing this kind of work was not romantic at all. Although the movies now were all playing romantic stories, in fact, it was not romantic at all.

Every day he lived in unease. Any slight movement would make him sensitive. He suspected that if nothing happened again, he would turn himself into a madman!Sometimes his painting would suddenly become very manic, which indicated that his mental state was obviously a little off. He also knew that there might be a little problem with his mind, but he could only persevere.

Fortunately, everything had ended at this moment.

The call was not directly dialed to the Federation. Neither the Federation nor Dantra had the technology to lay a submarine cable across the entire East Ocean.

This call was dialed to Ander. The person in charge of contacting him was now on the Ander side.

He didn’t know how this message would eventually get back to the Federation. He only cared about his current situation.

The call was quickly answered. ”This is the Good Helper City Rat Extermination Company. If you are suffering from the harassment of rats, cockroaches, and termites, we are your absolute good helper!”

”May I ask what I can do for you?”

The painter really wanted to laugh, but he still had to follow the rules, even if this person was the one who was in contact with him.

As long as he did not follow the rules, the other party would not only not record this message, but might also immediately evacuate.

He became a little more serious. ”Do you handle wild boars?”

The guy on the other end of the line did not speak immediately. After about a dozen seconds, the person who had answered the phone said in an uncertain voice, ”Gentlemen, wild boars are not within our scope of work.”

”I can add money.”

”This has nothing to do with money...”

”All of it!”

After waiting for a few more seconds, the person who had answered the phone still refused to serve him. ”If you are sick, you can go and see a mental hospital. Are you crazy?”

The painter took a puff of his cigarette and slowly exhaled, as if he were exhaling all his depression and dissatisfaction. ”It’s this world that’s crazy!”

The other party directly hung up the phone. The painter also slowly hung up the phone. He knew that his mission, at this moment, had finally ended!

After the operator of this rat extermination company in Ander had hung up the phone, he had dialed another number and had conveyed a set message in a secret language.

Then another group of people, by means of sending a telegram, had transmitted this message to the territory of Slad. The next day, it had appeared on the desk of an office official in the Department of Defense.

It was still in the format of a secret language. Besides the painter and his superior, and also the supervisor in charge of this operation, no one else knew what this message was.

The supervisor took out his own codebook, and compared it with the meaningless content on it, and finally deciphered the core of the secret message.

A few minutes later, a very small number of people, including Mr. President, knew this news.

The Dantra’s naval allied fleet had already been fully mobilized.

Senator Cleveland, who was in a meeting, was fully focused on the meeting itself when his chief of staff suddenly pushed the door open, walked to his side quickly but without making a sound, and whispered a few words in his ear.

Senator Cleveland then nodded slightly and then raised his hand.

The person who was reading the material stopped. Everyone’s gaze was focused on him. ”I have something to do. You guys continue. Just tell me the result when you get back.”

He said a few words of apology, and then stood up and left the office with his chief of staff.

Not long after, he had arrived at another place by car, a private manor.

Mr. President was already here. Besides Mr. President, there were also the Secretary of Defense, and two of the military’s top generals.

There were also four people from the congressional side here. When they saw Senator Cleveland, they all took the initiative to greet him. Senator Cleveland, while apologizing, sat down on the vacant sofa.

”The situation is like this now. They have been on their way for a day. According to our prediction, they will arrive at the easternmost part of Yalan in about a week, and will appear outside Golden Port City in nine days.”

”In other words, we still have eight days to press the stop button for this matter!”

The speaker was another senator. Senator Cleveland and Mr. President did not speak, and the others were also the same.

This plan... there was no need to press the stop button.

The speaker shrugged. ”It seems we have all chosen another path.”

The military was not a monolith. There were still factions, and also gangs.

In the past, the conflict between them might have been about money.

The annual military expenditure of the Federation was just that much. In the absence of a war, and without the possibility of a war breaking out, the military expenditure was just that little.

If the army took a little more, the navy could only take a little less.

As it happened, whether it was the army or the navy, their equipment was a big money-eater.

For example, those warships, the large-tonnage ones, the price of one of them could make the army’s lungs explode.

The two sides had argued, and even fought, over the military budget at the congressional hearings more than once or twice.

Soldiers!

When their temper flared up, they would take off their belts and whip each other.

After the outbreak of the war on the Tanfit continent, the relationship between the two sides had improved for a period of time, but just for a period of time. With the army constantly making merits, the Presidential Palace, the Department of Defense, including Congress, all intended to have the army lead the war, to give them more command power.

To have the navy cooperate with the army in combat, the initiative was completely in the hands of the army.

From the perspective of the Presidential Palace, the Department of Defense, and Congress, the war on the Tanfit continent was mainly a land war, centered around the historical and ethnic issues left over between Slad and Dantra.

There were rivers there, but a battleship certainly couldn’t get in, and even a larger ship couldn’t get in, so the navy could only play some role in the coastal areas. The war still had to be led by the army.

But the navy’s side did not agree. Everyone was an equal federal soldier. Why should the navy listen to the army’s command?

And how to calculate the merits of the war?

Everyone actually knew very well in their hearts that the army would definitely get the most merits, and the navy could at most get an assist.

If their luck was not very good, they might not even get an assist, because they really did not have much, or any direct, help for the war.

But the navy had always been trying to create an advantageous side for themselves. The Federation had just joined the war for a year, and the conflict between the army and the navy had already begun to emerge.

The two generals who had come to attend this meeting were both army generals. They also knew this news, but they had not told the navy.

For them, only when the navy had lost a great deal of face would they realize how stupid their idea of wanting to lead the war was!

So they didn’t mind giving them a push on this matter.

Seeing that everyone had neither agreed nor objected, and had tacitly agreed in a silent manner, Mr. President swirled the wine glass in his hand and took a small sip.

These were all the best wines, from a private wine cellar. The kind of commercial wine from outside simply couldn’t enter this manor.

”Then what are we here for?” he looked at the people on the congressional side. ”With this time, it would be better for me to go and hit a few shots on the lawn!”

He was talking about playing golf. He liked to play golf. He even had an indoor golf course in his office. Although the length was not long, it could still let him have a little fun during his work breaks.

The Senate Majority Leader shook his head. ”We still have to talk about some of the subsequent situations. According to our previous plan, we can use this reason to increase our investment in the war, and to take over the Star Islands and the Yalan region in the process.”

Everyone nodded one after another.

Although the Federation’s internal propaganda was that they were winning every battle on the battlefield, as if they had never lost a battle, and the federal public’s enthusiasm for the war was also very high, this did not mean that the public would support them to continue to invest in the war.

This was actually a very fucking problem.

If the battlefield was lost, then the public would be afraid to continue to invest in the war, which would not only lose wealth, but also a large number of young lads, which the federal families could not bear.

But if the war always showed a good side, and was always victorious, the federal people would also not be willing to continue to increase their investment in the war, because what they were paying now was already enough to deal with this war. Why should they increase their investment in the war?

The federal people might not be good at addition and subtraction within twenty, but they were very sensitive on the issue of suspecting whether the government was playing some tricks.

This had resulted in the federal government having no reason, and also not getting the support of the public, to continue to increase its investment in the war.

But now the situation of the war was so good, and the federal government was trying to gain more say within the Slad military alliance.

Once the war was led by the Federation, then next the federal government would consider getting more benefits from the war!

They could demand that the Dantra people compensate them with more resources, more technology, more population, and possibly even to station troops in Dantra, thus establishing a springboard to directly threaten the situation of the entire Tanfit continent!

To take a step back, and not to be so ambitious, if they could lead the war, then after the war was over, not only would they be able to get a lot of reconstruction orders from the countries on the Tanfit continent, but they could also dump the Federation’s industrial products on these countries.

Just because such a not-yet-fully-developed market had appeared, the Federation’s domestic economic problems had been immediately alleviated.

The economists had believed that the great economic depression would last for ten to twenty years, but it had just begun and had not yet had time to let the federal people see its power before it had begun to leave!

This was not because the president’s policies were good, nor was it because the ability of the governor or the local rulers was good. It was purely because they had fucking run into a good time!

Even a pig, if you put it in the position of a ruler, as long as it does not interfere with the free market, the economy will inevitably get better!

To want to maintain all of this, you must get the lead, more say, and also the power to set new rules!

So how to get the public to agree to continue to increase their investment in the war?

Very simple, let them feel the pain!

Not the pain of not being able to win, but the pain of being ambushed by this despicable and shameless little person.

This is a kind of provocation!

And provocation will make the bad-tempered old federal people support their government, to teach this disobedient little fellow, Dantra, a lesson!

What the Senate Majority Leader had said was what they had discussed before. Naturally, no one would have any other ideas. This was in the interest of everyone here.

Many of the low-level public always feel that the ruling class is evil, is bad.

In fact, just in terms of who is more willing for this country to become stronger, there is no doubt that the ruling class is more eager for this country to be better, to be stronger than the lower class.

Because this represents that they can control more resources, control more wealth and power!

”The north has also been a little restless recently. From the intelligence analysis we have obtained from the back, it is possible that they have already had contact with the Dantra people in private.”

The Secretary of Defense had distributed some intelligence documents to them. Senator Cleveland had also gotten a copy.

He took out the reading glasses that were in his breast pocket. Recently, he had been in meetings and reading documents all the time. Now he felt that his eyesight had deteriorated a little.

The doctor said that this was just a manifestation of fatigue. As long as he did not overuse his eyes for a period of time, and did not stare at those words in dim light, his condition could be alleviated.

But the problem was that this was precisely the one thing he could not do.

Whether in the office, or at home, he needed to deal with a large number of documents or browse some materials. He couldn’t let himself completely relax for a ”period of time,” unless he was no longer a senator.

He frowned and looked at the material in his hand. This was the troop movements of the three northern countries in the recent period.

They had begun to conscript. The border, which had originally been almost a decoration, was now also stationed with some troops.

From the information obtained by the intelligence personnel, the main work of the three northern countries at present was still ”preventing an invasion,” and not wanting to go to war with the Federation.

But for the gentlemen here, just a defensive posture also meant that they were no longer safe.

Some people, in order not to be hurt, had held a knife in their hands, but in the end, it had become a sharp weapon for them to take the initiative to hurt others!

To have a weapon in hand and a murderous heart is not a joke.

Whether it is a person, or a country, as long as the weapon in his hand can make him feel safe, then they will soon have the desire to invade.

”This matter indeed needs to be treated seriously. Perhaps we can have a chat with them.”

”Diplomatic means, and then deterrence,” Senator Cleveland expressed his own view. He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.

The Speaker of the House also gave the same view. ”No matter if the Dantra people have lobbied them or not, we need to do some public relations on these matters.”

At the same time, he also mentioned, ”If you also have the same view, then it would be best if we could arrange this matter as soon as possible.”

”I’m worried that once we send troops to the Yalan region, these northerners will refuse to have peace talks with us.”

The others had also thought of the reason why he had said so. After all, an aggressor is more frightening.

At this time, Mr. President also talked about the Yalan issue again. ”For us to directly send troops to occupy their territory, will it be too... direct?”

”After all, this land will eventually become the territory of the Federation, and the people who live there will also become citizens of the Federation. If we are too overbearing and unreasonable, it will have a great impact on our subsequent rule.”

”It may also have a certain impact on the north.”

The Senate Majority Leader, who was also a member of the Socialist Party, responded to this question. ”But it is very difficult for us to use a relatively gentle means to deal with the people of Yalan. If we don’t clean up the local indigenous regime, they will become a trouble!”

They had already regarded the Yalan region as a part of the Federation. They were going to wave the banner of ”freedom” to help the Yalan people to achieve their liberation!

At that time, they would let them have a referendum, and let the people make a loud voice!

Of course, this referendum did not mean that they had abolished the existing ruling system, but whether they were willing to join this warm big family of the Federation.

I’m sure they are very willing!

So this required cleaning up the current group of rulers, and it was best to do it in a not-so-intense way, a not-so-formal way.

Senator Cleveland took out a cigarette. They had talked about this problem last time. The original rulers certainly couldn’t be left.

But the problems brought about by the massacre of the federal natives had not yet been completely solved. Even if they had tampered with history, it was not enough. After all, there were still some people who were alive.

As long as these people were alive, the personal museums they had founded would constantly tell people how the federal people had treated the original inhabitants of this land.

For example, to make them into wallets, leather boots, leather jackets, and the like.

So this time they also didn’t really want to carry out a large-scale massacre on the local regime of Yalan. This would make them not so just.

Senator Cleveland already had an idea in his mind. ”We don’t have to do it ourselves. We can find someone else to do it. The effect will be the same. That will be enough.”

The others looked at him. Mr. President shook his crossed leg. ”Tell me your thoughts.”

Senator Cleveland took a very short time to sort out his thoughts. He said, ”We can use some non-official forces...”

In his mind, the shock brought by the unified attire of the Lance Family had appeared. He felt that perhaps Lance could give him a surprise on this matter!