Counterfeit Hero

The bandit army surrounded the 31st Army Base.

This news was like a nuclear bomb, blowing the entire Fei Alliance Military into a state of utter confusion.

The Supreme Command and the Feiyang Army contacted Admiral Bernadotte at the first possible moment, hoping to prevent the situation from escalating. President Hill of Chuckna and President Francis of Feiyang also urgently summoned Leray’s Ambassador and the military liaison officers, requesting that President Flavio of Leray use his authority to stop any reckless actions by the bandit army’s First Armored Division and Second Armored Division.

In response to these requests, First Admiral Bernadotte of the Leray Army and President Flavio of Leray merely stated coolly that, first, the bandit army had shown no sign of going to war with the 31st Army; they were merely conducting exercises, and most of their soldiers were on leave.

Second, the bandit army did not directly belong to the Leray Federation, but was the unit of Federation Vice Admiral Tian Xingjian. This was General Tian Xingjian’s private force acquired after obtaining the friendship of the Mars Faction Mutual Assistance Alliance. More importantly, as early as the tenure of President Hamilton, Congress had already passed a resolution authorizing General Tian Xingjian with independent command authority.

Let alone the fact that this unit was not even on the Leray Military Department’s order of battle; even if it were, it would be useless. Before the end of the war, the Leray Government and military had no command authority over it. The sole Commander of this force was General Tian Xingjian. If one wished to halt all actions of this unit, then either annihilate them, or wait until General Tian Xingjian woke up and issued an order.

Two paths, take whichever you like; the Leray Federation would not interfere.

This astonishingly tough reply immediately threw the entire Fei Alliance into an uproar. At the same time, Marshal Hastings’ statement on this matter shocked people even more.

"Let them test each other. Compared with the 31st Army, I’m more optimistic about the bandit army."

While people were still carefully savoring this brief sentence from Hastings, what followed made them realize that the storm was not about to arrive—it had already begun.

On November 2, a major espionage case suddenly broke out in the Feiyang Republic. A man named Jamie Fox, director of the political department of a certain military district in Feiyang, came under investigation over a leak case. It was then discovered that he was a Western Alliance spy embedded within the Republic, and that the spy network he had laid over the years permeated the entire Feiyang Army.

At the very first moment of the case’s exposure, Admiral McKinley suddenly ordered the summoning of more than three hundred mid-level officers for indefinite investigation, while appointing an equal number of other officers to temporarily take over the positions of those under investigation in order to maintain stability in the army.

This blow was extremely heavy and utterly unreasonable.

Anyone with eyes could see this was a naked act of retaliation against the Leefer Legion.

The more than three hundred mid-level officers were all the backbone of the Leefer Legion. Whether they were guilty or not, a single summons transferring them away would deal a severe blow to Leefer’s factional strength. Even when Leefer immediately moved, accusing McKinley of deliberately creating panic and demanding the immediate release of the officers under investigation to maintain military stability, it had no effect whatsoever.

The Military Department, which had been exceedingly polite to the Leefer Legion after its victory in the Catalonia campaign, promptly issued a formal written order, harshly condemning Leefer’s remarks and demanding that Leefer concentrate all his energy on the Ryan front, not meddle in affairs beyond his station; the Military Department’s internal review work naturally had its own plans. As a Front Army Commander, Leefer had no right to interfere.

Leefer’s voice disappeared, but members of Congress soon raised doubts about the espionage case, demanding that Admiral McKinley explain the arrest of more than three hundred mid-level officers. However, before the proposal put forward in the morning had even been debated, that very afternoon these congressmen were arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau on suspicion of embezzlement and bribery and taken in for investigation.

Six congressmen, plus over twenty mid-level officers who were shot dead during the arrest operation for "resisting arrest"—with a wave of his hand, the Military God gave Leefer, whose wings were far from grown enough to set the rules of the game, a resounding slap in the face. This time, almost everyone shut their mouths. Because many people knew that, in fact, the Military God Hastings had not yet personally acted; the one who moved was only his granddaughter, the future heir of the Hastings faction, Margaret.

This kind of bully’s playstyle was simple and effective.

After Margaret survived a deadly attack by the skin of her teeth, some forces that had been neutral remained silent. Those were the rules of the game: since you failed to put the other side to death, you had to bear the consequences that followed. Had Margaret died, then even with Hastings still in office, given his current physical condition, a large number of forces would have chosen to side with Leefer.

But the almost foolproof assassination operation failed, and what it brought others was a completely different signal. Everyone knew both sides had already bared their swords, and no one was willing to place their bet right at the beginning of the duel.

No matter how highly they rated Leefer, people would, because of this failure, sense an extremely dangerous omen.

At the very least, the Hastings faction was still very powerful for now, and at the very least, this slap from Margaret told everyone how she differed from her grandfather.

An eye for an eye, blood for blood! She used this method to show everyone what she was capable of doing.

This operation demonstrated not only Margaret’s ruthlessness, but also her meticulousness. To say nothing of anything else, this very list of more than three hundred mid-level officers was enough to make people tremble. Who knew whether there weren’t several other such lists in the hands of this witch.

The warning contained in this act of revenge was extremely strong. The more than three hundred officers were all middle-ranking. She did not touch the upper or lower tiers at all. And those more than twenty officers who were killed were all well-known as Leefer’s fanatical believers. For many years, they had worked for Leefer with tireless devotion. And now, just as this war was beginning, they had already become sacrifices.

More than twenty kills, not a single failure, not a single loophole. As for the charges of embezzlement and bribery against the six congressmen, the evidence was ironclad.

Without quite sufficient preparation, Margaret could not have delivered this slap. Yet she not only landed it, she landed it in a way that made everyone else’s hearts pound with fear.

This slap had already reminded everyone to reassess their decisions with caution.

The impending clash between the bandit army and the 31st Army drew even more attention. As Margaret’s rumored ambiguous friend, and as a unit that even Hastings specially approved to receive the very first batch of Twelfth Generation Mecha, what sort of revenge did the bandit army intend to carry out for their leader?!

For a time, everyone held their breath.

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Catalonia, Evergreen Vine Star System.

Inside the Feiyang Military Base, soldiers, Mecha, and military trucks shuttled back and forth. From the training ground came, from time to time, harsh shouts, the sound of synchronized marching, deafening roars, and the thunder of Mecha in combat drills.

The soldiers of the Leefer Legion, who had just ended the Catalonia battle, were immediately thrown into even stricter training. Ahead of them, even harsher battles were waiting.

On the balcony of the base building, a figure stood with hands clasped behind his back, like a sculpture. Every time the warriors saw that figure, their morale surged higher.

He was their idol, their spiritual faith.

Leefer quietly watched the sea-like mass of soldiers roaring on the training ground below. On his face, pale to the point of seeming sickly, his brows were deeply furrowed.

Everything happening in Hanjing and at home had already let him catch a whiff of danger.

For years, he had been trying to challenge Hastings. In his view, Hastings had long since lost the qualifications to be a military leader. That old man had been living off the merit of his achievements thirty years ago, and under his leadership, the Feiyang Army had become more and more like a vulgar, mediocre force. The soldiers blindly worshiped this so-called Military God, and the army was flooded with officers of very poor ability.

The entire Feiyang Republic was content with the status quo. Aside from using its status as a superpower to skim some benefits from regional conflicts, it had completely lost its drive, to the point of being overtaken by the Binart Empire at a superhuman speed.

Leefer had always believed that if, after that great war thirty years ago, the leader had not been Hastings, the current Feiyang Republic would be a completely different picture. This war would not exist, because there would be no opponent capable of provoking Feiyang.

A victorious army must rely on continuous victories to keep its blood boiling, and Hastings had already lost the desire for victory thirty years ago.

However, Leefer had no intention of making his move at this time.

In his eyes, the terminally diseased Hastings had already lost the favor of time. When anyone can no longer occupy an advantage in time, for his enemy to strike first is an extremely foolish act.

At least, before he had the conditions to launch a fatal blow, Leefer would not move.

Everything that happened in the Chuckna Capital was not at his instigation. This was a spontaneous, surging tide, coming from the Vice President of Chuckna and the national security advisors who wanted Chuckna to stay out of it, from the opposition parties who joined them in opposing the President and the Military Department’s hardline policy, from radical junior officers, and from the bigwigs inside Feiyang who were already impatient to enter the post-Hastings era and re-divide spheres of influence.

Once their wills converged on a single point, a reaction akin to nuclear fusion was inevitable.

Leefer would not risk hurting himself to control such a reaction. He simply watched in silence. Standing in the middle of this battlefield between the Ryan Republic and the Naga Federation, commanding a army that belonged to him alone, he did not care what was happening elsewhere.

He just hadn’t expected that the Fatty from the bandit army would also be in that vehicle. Nor had he expected that Margaret would actually escape that calamity and strike back so quickly.

As for the more than three hundred officers arrested at home, Leefer did not care. At least for now, even if Hastings personally took the field, he could not possibly extend his hand into the Ryan Republic.

What he cared about were the bandit army and the 31st Army!

The signal sent by the bandit army was very simple: they did not need war; all they wanted was to tear the skin of "invincibility" off the 31st Army, a Level 1 Forces unit belonging to the Leefer Legion, in a blood-soaked fashion! In front of everyone, they wanted to dismantle the bones of this Iron Army and beat them into a mangy cur!

And this was precisely what Leefer cared about most.

This was not merely about so-called Honor, or fame... it was about the faith that sustained the entire Leefer Legion!

Thinking of the intel he had received, the combat footage of those ten Bandit Army Mecha on Canglang Star, Leefer’s gaze grew even darker.

"Tell Faset," Leefer said without turning his head, and the staff officer behind him, who had been maintaining intense focus, swiftly took out his notebook and recorded Leefer’s orders, "conflict is unavoidable. Concentrate our strength, aim to win in a single blow, and do not give the other side any chance to drag things out. Refuse small-scale engagements; if necessary, we can open fire first. Since they’ve come knocking, we might as well make it a big affair."

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In the study, looking at President Hill and Admiral Feng Zhi, who both wore bitter smiles, Hastings and Li Cunxin, who had just rushed back to Hanjing, exchanged a glance and couldn’t help laughing.

"Pass on my order: immediately confiscate all weapons of the bandit army’s First and Second Armored Division, and at the same time, confiscate all weapons of the 31st Army. Both sides may retain their Mecha with the weapons dismantled."

Placing a piece on the board, Hastings smiled and said, "Then, you don’t need to bother with it either. Just let them make a fuss."

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. One Chapter first, the big Chapter will be delivered tonight.

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(To be continued. To find out what happens next, please log on to www.qidian.com, where there are more Chapters. Support the author, support legitimate reading!)