Pioneer Lord: Starting From Daily Intelligence

Chapter 1174: Chapter 185: Shocking Project Deal and Thrilling Corruption (Part 3)

He finally mentioned the armor, and immediately pointed the spear at the ”quality” issue, with a tone of indignation and ”sudden realization”: ”The result! The problem has been exposed! The ’Star Iron Armor’ supplied by those damned contractors! It cannot withstand the test of real combat at all! According to reports from withdrawn officers and quartermasters... many armors deformed improperly or even... shattered under the heavy blows from the green skins! The protection performance seems... seems to have declined rapidly! This is absolutely abnormal!”

Smith’s voice was filled with ”anger from being deceived”: ”There must be a problem with the materials or craftsmanship! It’s a serious case of cutting corners! Those unscrupulous contractors disguised inferior products as the ’Refined Level’ Star Iron Armor that the council spent heavily to procure! They have betrayed the trust of the council, causing our soldiers to lose the protection they should have in critical moments! The council is extremely furious about this and has already set up a specialized investigation committee to root out these imperial parasites and punish them severely!”

Once again, he portrayed himself as the deceived party of justice, not mentioning his role as the main beneficiary.

He finally tried to downplay the losses and blamed the enemy’s ”cunning” and ”unexpected” equipment issues: ”Therefore... in such an extremely unfavorable terrain, encountered a numerically superior, extraordinarily cunning, and tactically unexpected ambush and encirclement by green skins, coupled with... er... some equipment not reaching the expected protection standards during combat, there were performance defects due to non-combat design reasons... the Third Legion indeed... suffered considerable losses.”

”Specific casualties are still being counted, but to preserve the empire’s viable forces and avoid total annihilation, the legion had to execute a difficult but orderly breakout after inflicting serious damage on the green skins. Of course, this is a setback, but the green skins also paid a heavy price! Once we clarify the equipment problem, straighten out the supply chain, and replenish our forces, we will definitely completely eliminate the threat of Oka Mountain!”

Again he used terms like ”considerable losses,” ”serious damage,” ”orderly breakout” to gloss over the defeat, blaming it on ”green skin cunning,” ”unfavorable terrain,” and ”shameless fraud by contractors.”

Su Li sighed and asked, ”What is the investigation committee’s result?”

”Let me answer that,” Zoe continued, ”I am a member of the investigation committee. We have already signed and approved an investigation result, confirming the cause of the problem. It’s because the supplier named fine-level armor ’Refined Level Star Iron Armor,’ passing off inferior products, hence gaining a massive amount of wealth, leading to this tragedy. This is a meticulously plotted scam, and the investigation committee believes President Roger is the mastermind behind this scam, so currently he is being summoned to the council for questioning. But regrettably, according to the response from Gray Market Trading Company, President Roger had already departed with a caravan, heading inside the Count’s Territory within the empire one day before our decision to summon him.”

”You know, without passage rights, our Marle Castle army cannot enter the imperial noble’s territory to conduct cross-border captures.”

My heavens!

It could be operated like this?

Su Li’s eyes opened wide instantly, truly an eye-opener!

Name a set of ordinary armor ’Refined Level Star Iron Armor’?

And then no one else bears responsibility? Everything is reasonable and legal! Finally, President Roger takes the fall for it all. And then the problem is President Roger runs to other territories, leaving Marle Castle powerless?

The problem is, President Roger wasn’t originally a Marle Castle merchant, he’s an imperial person, so as soon as something goes wrong, he runs out of Marle Castle’s jurisdiction. Even if it’s within arm’s reach of Marle Castle, Marle Castle’s law enforcement doesn’t dare run into an imperial count’s territory to capture the other party’s esteemed guest.

And during this process, Commissioner Smith managed to rake in over a million Golden Crowns!

Over a million Golden Crowns!

With 500,000 Golden Crowns, you can buy a count’s title in the Border Prince’s Territory from the Imperial Elector Council.

Su Li till now, with thousands of troops, fought fiercely, overcoming obstacles, battling the Demon’s Chosen One, and engaging in heavy combat against the Green Dragon Legion, confronting Legendary Knights, facing numerous Chaos Warbands, slaughtering countless green skins, beastmen, and skeleton soldiers, plunged in blood-soaked heavy armor and emerged repeatedly from the mountains of corpses and seas of blood and still didn’t earn 1 million Golden Crowns. He’s reluctant even to pull out 100,000 Golden Crowns to buy a Baron.

As a result, internally and at the top levels of the empire, corruption is mind-boggling. Commissioner Smith merely moved his lips and could earn over a million Golden Crowns!

Yet, Smith is still unsatisfied, shaking his head, with a tone filled with regret over his ”bad fortune,” ”You say this mess... who could have expected it? Who could have anticipated the council just completed this massive ’Refined Level’ Star Iron Armor deployment and then... then encountered this grand expedition disaster?”

”If... if only it were delayed by a year or so,” he lowered his voice, wrapped in a nearly greedy assumption, unconsciously twirling his fingers as if counting those unreceived gold coins, ”waiting for those contractors to supply a few more batches, the council stockpiling more... wouldn’t that be great?”

The muscles in his face twitched slightly, that’s the physical pain of narrowly missing out on immense wealth: ”Result... sigh! Precisely the first batch of massively equipped troops, precisely the Third Legion... precisely encountered those damned green skins at Oka Mountain! If we hadn’t caught up in this unfortunate grand expedition, hadn’t run into this hard battle, let those ’Refined Level’ rotate out slowly, afterwards purchase the truly top-tier goods here... wouldn’t that be smooth! How much trouble could the council save! We... uh, I mean, Marle Castle’s finances could be more relaxed... is the Marle Castle City Guard Army used for fighting? It’s to let Marle Castle’s citizens feel guarded!”