“It is exactly for the sake of the big picture of the Imperium that I cannot make such a statement.”
Emotionlessly, Lei Chenghu said, “The so-called ‘incident of the Blood Oath Alliance’ is an out-and-out absurd scheme that is done either by certain malicious guys in the Council of Elders or by the Alliance of the Holy Covenant, our most dangerous enemy. There is no room of concession for me regarding the issue.
“The reasons why I refuse to make such a public statement are as follows. Firstly, the incident of the Blood Oath Alliance hasn’t been sorted out yet. It even remains unknown whether or not the Blood Oath Alliance is the culprit. How could a small organization of young radical officers have organized such a precise and large assassination and even controlled an assault warship?
“There must be forces of higher levels behind the assassination. It was certainly not as simple as the blatancy of some radical officers from the frontline as you described!
“Secondly, your investigation report, in which you accused the officers under my lead of joining the Blood Oath Alliance in secret and conspiring with their comrades in other troops in the frontline, is the opposite of facts and teeming with loopholes!
“They are all distinguished young men and the future pillars of the Imperium. At such a critical moment, I will not take an ambiguous stance and make a confusing statement that will corrupt their future and the Imperium’s.
“Thirdly, and most importantly, in either the Astounding Thunder Fleet or the other troops that have fought bloody battles in the frontline, even if some soldiers have established certain discussion groups because they are dissatisfied about the reality, I find it completely understandable, and I support them personally.
“It is true that they are soldiers whose duty is obedience. They should not be involved in nasty politics.
“But they are also the Immortal Cultivators. The great events of the world, the enterprise of the Imperium, the future of mankind… They are all the natural responsibilities of the Immortal Cultivators that they must shoulder without evasion!
“Therefore, even if the final investigation suggests that it is indeed the Blood Oath Alliance that planned and implemented the assassination against Elder Dongfang Tuo, I don’t think there is any need to expand the investigation and arrest. The blames that the Blood Oath Alliance should take must be limited to the Blood Oath Alliance. They have nothing to do with the other discussion groups of young officers.
“On the contrary, not only do I disagree with the decision to expand the investigation and search to other groups, but I also believe that those groups should be allowed to surface, and the young officers should be given a channel to speak to the Council of Elders in public.
“The complaints of the soldiers in the frontline on the dark reality in the rear can never be completely resolved by the destruction of a few groups.”
Dongfang Bai’s eyes were glittering. He seemed to be both angry about Lei Chenghu’s speech and happy about the many “loopholes” in his words. Preparing to consolidate Lei Chenghu’s rebellious theory, he remarked with a fake smile, “I did not know Marquis Liaohai held such an attitude toward the groups of the radical officers in the frontline. However, what do you mean by ‘dark reality in the rear’? Isn’t the Imperium thriving under the leadership of the Council of Elders and His Majesty and arriving at the peak in the past thousand years, with nothing but brightness in the future?”
“Even such a shameless, useless scoundrel who knows nothing but instigations and conspiracies like you can be promoted to a key place in the expedition army just because of your backgrounds and become a lieutenant admiral of the Imperium’s army who is even qualified to be involved in such an important national affair as the regrouping of the expedition army. Isn’t it exactly the dark reality?”
Lei Chenghu said coldly, “There is no need to trick me. I know that countless people are watching this ridiculous ‘investigation’ right now. I take responsibility for every word I said. Even if I were standing on the podium in front of the Council of Elders right now, I would still stand by what I said!”
“You—”
Dongfang Bai gnashed his teeth so hard that his eyebrows were almost rising. Rolling his eyes for a long time, he finally managed to put on a gloomy smile. “Marquis Liaohai, is it clear to you that the purpose of this meeting is to prove your innocence with the Blood Oath Alliance and other groups of young radical officers? We are trying to defend you, and we do not believe you are the leader of the Blood Oath Alliance or you instigated the rebellions of the officers in the frontline. But your words are filled with sympathy for the Blood Oath Alliance and other groups of young radical officers, and you are even vaguely endorsing their action. You are making it very difficult for us!”
“You’re right.”
Lei Chenghu did not even bother to look at Dongfang Bai’s trap but simply stepped into it without any hesitation. He admitted frankly, “I don’t agree with the Blood Oath Alliance’s assassination against Elder Dongfang Tuo, and I do not want to see the glorious triumph ceremony of the Imperium’s army to be deteriorated into a bloody mess. However, regarding the ideas of many young officers’ groups in the frontline, including the Blood Oath Alliance’s, I do not object to all of them.
“They have been fighting in the frontmost, and they know the situation of the war and the enemy best. The base and the Council of Elders in the rear must listen to them carefully. If that were done earlier, the incident of the Blood Oath Alliance would never have happened.”
Dongfang Bai grew excited all of a sudden. With a drop of cold sweat dripping from his forehead, he asked, his voice shivering, “Marquis Liaohai, would you like to specify how you do not object to all the ideas of the young officers? We know that one of the essential ideas of the radical groups such as the Blood Oath Alliance is to strongly oppose the reorganization of the expedition army. Instead, more soldiers must be mobilized to the frontline, and more resources must be shipped there too. The independence of the expedition army should also be increased!
“Just now, you turned down the offer of the leadership of the Coalition Command Headquarters. So, does it mean you second the idea of the expansion of the expedition army too?”
“Yes.”
Lei Chenghu said calmly, “I agreed to leave the Astounding Thunder Fleet for the capital together with you because I wanted to state my firmest attitude in the Council of Elders before the five hundred elders. The expedition army must not be reorganized or disbanded. Instead, it should be further expanded. The soldiers in the frontline should also be given more autonomy so that we can control the war more promptly and search for the main force of the Covenant Alliance for a decisive battle!
“I didn’t know that I would be sent to this place.
“However, many elders must be watching this meeting. So, it will be the same if I talk here.”
There was nothing but dead silence in the air.
All the three investigators were dumbfounded. They never thought that it would be so easy to trick Lei Chenghu into saying the most disturbing words for all the four Kurfürst families.
The expedition army absolutely would not accept reduction or reorganization, and it demanded further expansion!
It also asked for greater autonomy!
What was Lei Chenghu, the man that had been praised by countless soldiers in the frontline as the “God of War”, thinking exactly?
Dongfang Bai took out a handkerchief that was as smooth as silk from his pocket and wiped the cold sweat on his forehead softly.
He couldn’t help but feel intimidated, as if he had gone fishing only to find that he caught a shark.
“Why?”
With everything coming to this moment, he became prudent and asked cautiously, “Marquis Liaohai, you should understand the subtle situation that the expedition army is in very well, right? We have secured a crushing triumph in the counterattack, and the rear’s support for the war has reached limits too. It is time to rest and digest the fruits of victory.
“War is logistics, and our logistics cannot supply another decade of war anymore. It is time to take a brief rest and refresh ourselves.
“Such a simple logic may be too difficult to understand for the young radical officers in the frontline, but I don’t think that an experienced general such as yourself does not know it.
“So, what is the real purpose of continuing to expand the expedition army? Please explain to the special investigation committee and the Council of Elders.”
Lei Chenghu stared at Dongfang Bai for a long time, before he burst into such great laughter that his tears were almost running out. “Who told you that we had secured a ‘crushing triumph’? Even the soldiers who fight in blood on the frontline do not dare to say that. People like you who know nothing but bragging in the rear have been telling lies for such a long time that you have even deceived yourselves!
“I have been fighting the Covenant Alliance for my entire life, and I know their styles and methods as clearly as I know my fingers. In the Imperium’s counterattack over the past ten years, except for the battles that were for the purpose of consuming the available forces of our army, the fighting will of the Covenant Alliance was much weaker than the past in most of the battles. Cases were not rare that they collapsed at the first engagement of fire, not having the fearless and relentless determination of the zealots at all.
“It is highly unreasonable that the Covenant Alliance’s morale dropped to such an extent in only several years. It is more like that our enemy is preserving their strength.
“Today, we seem to have recovered dozens of Sectors and hundreds of resource planets, but a fairly large part of them were forsaken by the enemy voluntarily after all the infrastructures on the planet was destroyed and the resources were taken away. As a result, those planets could not output soldiers and productivity for the Imperium in the next couple of years.
“After a great waste of soldiers, food, and other resources, what we have achieved is only a certain amount of strategic depth. However, in the wars today where the main way of projection is space jump, the so-called strategic depth matters little.
“Therefore, there is no ‘crushing triumph’ at all. The Imperium right now is like a boa that has just swallowed an elephant but is coveted by a new enemy. This is the most dangerous moment.
“Therefore, whatever the cost is, we must continue dedicating resources to the frontline and expand the expedition army until we find out the main force of the Covenant Alliance and destroy it. Only after we annihilate the main mobile forces of the enemy can we digest the fruits of victory in peace.”
“The Imperium is already doing its best!”
Dongfang Bai gnashed his teeth. “To support the super war that involves dozens of Sectors, too many people in the farmlands and mines in the rear have died, and too many riots have been raised!”
“War means deaths. After such a long time of warfare, what is being tested here is exactly the determination of fighting. If the victory can only be secured with the lives of fifty billion people, let fifty billion people die. If a hundred billion must be devoted to the cause, a hundred billion it will be! Only in such a way can the remaining people survive and build a brand-new Imperium!”
Lei Chenghu said coldly, “If there is a riot, just suppress it brutally. I don’t think the useless soldiers staying in the rear are incapable of taking care of a few hominoids or Cultivators, are they?”