Inside the Marshal's Mansion of the Duchy of Ryan.

General Andrei, Chief of the General Staff of the Rhine Army, reported to Marshal Zhu Yifu.

"Major General Huangfu's intelligence is completely correct. There are indeed corrupt officials within the General Staff." General Andrei said with some self-reproach, "Marshal, this is a mistake on my part, and I am willing to accept the organization's punishment."

"Now is not the time for self-blame, but for figuring out how to mitigate the losses," Zhu Yifu said. "What is the current situation at the General Staff?"

"The false intelligence that Major General Huangfu sent to the General Staff was quickly leaked. Following the clues left by this false intelligence, we uncovered a group of spies within the General Staff."

"A batch?"

“Yes.” Andrei said with some heartache, “Including a lieutenant general deputy staff officer, three major general staff officers, and 10 staff members below the rank of colonel, all of whom have been turned by Fass.”

"Has even the General Staff become this corrupt?" Zhu Yifu was somewhat lost in thought.

"Marshal, if I may be so bold, these spies have one thing in common: they all joined the General Staff after you left the military," Andrei said with some indignation. "Although we haven't found any evidence yet, they are definitely connected to the Senate."

"Since there is no evidence, we cannot make wild guesses."

"Marshal! I don't believe that Phasi alone has the ability to turn so many of our high-ranking commanders against us! If even the General Staff is like this, I can't even imagine the situation in other departments!" Andrei said emotionally. "In recent years, the Senate has frequently visited Phasi under the guise of peaceful development and has had close ties with Phasi's high-ranking officials. It's hard to guarantee that they haven't made any deals in private."

"But we have no evidence..."

"Marshal! Our Seventh and Eighth Space Fleets, drawn from the Asiatic Star Region, were ambushed by the Phos Space Fleet as soon as they completed their jump in the outer public star region. Is this just a coincidence?" Andrei said with immense grief and indignation. "Our army, our soldiers, died so meaninglessly! They didn't die on the battlefield, but at the hands of those vampires in the Senate who manipulate power and politics!"

“Andrei, calm down.” Zhu Yifu patted Andrei on the shoulder. “You are an excellent soldier, without a doubt, but you are not a qualified politician.”

“Based on what you just said, they have every reason to put you in a hopeless situation,” Zhu Yifu said calmly. “A qualified politician should not reveal his or her intentions to his or her opponent before he or she has sufficient means to destroy her. At the very least, he or she should maintain a good relationship with her or her opponent on the surface.”

"Marshal, I..." Andrei felt somewhat ashamed.

“Alright, Andrei, we won’t discuss the Senate until we find sufficient evidence,” Zhu Yifu said. “What do you plan to do next?”

“That’s precisely why I came to see you, Marshal,” Andrei said. “Even though our General Staff has uncovered a number of corrupt officials, I can’t guarantee that these are all the cases. I’m not entirely sure. Under these circumstances, any order issued by the General Staff carries the risk of being leaked.”

"This has made us afraid to do anything, and the General Staff is almost paralyzed." Andrei said worriedly, "Major General Huangfu went through a life-or-death ordeal to destroy the Fars General Logistics Command, but the enemy easily 'destroyed' our command. Marshal, I don't know what to do next."

“The General Staff cannot be shut down. The front lines need our orders to act, even if they are wrong, it is better than no orders at all.” Zhu Yifu thought for a moment and said, “After you go back, immediately set up a staff group to act as the General Staff.”

"The staff group should be composed of trustworthy people from within the General Staff, with a number of about 8 to 10 people. It should not be too many, as there is a risk of leaks. The people selected must be highly loyal, and it is better to have fewer than to have unqualified people."

"In the future, when the General Staff formulates operational orders, it must take into account the possibility that the orders may be intercepted by the Fas at the next level. Therefore, we must use open strategies and proceed steadily."

"yes!"

"And what about what you just said about destroying the Fars General Logistics Command?" Zhu Yifu seemed very interested after explaining the General Staff's operational strategy. "Tell me the specifics."

"Marshal, this is truly an interesting matter." General Andrei's previous gloomy expression vanished, replaced by a beaming smile. "What the outside world knows is that Major General Huangfu led the 'Shadow Fang' Special Operations Brigade in a surprise attack on the General Logistics and Equipment Department of the Fas Khan Army's Milan ground forces, but that is not actually the case."

"Oh? Didn't you just say that the Qingyi sent you the battle plan, and that's how you tracked down the spy within the General Staff?" Zhu Yifu asked.

“In fact, the battle had already begun when Major General Huangfu sent the operational plan to the General Staff,” Andrei continued. “'Shadow Fang' did not receive prior approval from the General Staff, and the reason for this was the request of Zhang Fan, the acting brigade commander of the 102nd Airborne Brigade.”

"Acting brigade commander? Zhang Fan?" Zhu Yifu was taken aback. "Is he the private who killed Domir Khan?"

“Yes, that’s him!” Andrei laughed heartily. “Because he’s the only one left in the 102nd Airborne Brigade, and according to the Soldier’s Wartime Regulations, he’s acting as the brigade commander.”

"What's even more amazing is that he rescued the student soldiers that the military had been searching for, and led this company of new recruits with no combat experience to travel over a thousand kilometers in two months, penetrating deep into the rear of the Fas Khan army, and destroying the Fas Khan General Logistics Command in one fell swoop!"

"So that means it was actually this recruit company that destroyed the Fars General Logistics Command?" Zhu Yifu asked thoughtfully.

“Yes, Major General Huangfu’s ‘Shadow Fang’ was actually more of a support unit for the retreat.” Andrei nodded. “It was indeed this recruit company that destroyed the command post.”

"According to what you just said, it was Zhang Fan who first discovered that there were spies from Fas within the General Staff, so Qingyi used a scheme to lure them out with false information and expose them?"

"Yes, according to Major General Huangfu's post-war report, this is indeed the case."

"So where is this Zhang Fan now?" Zhu Yifu was becoming more and more interested in this private.

“He has already left Milan.” Andrei said, handing a document to Zhu Yifu. “He submitted his retirement application to the military.”

Zhu Yifu took the document in his hand and carefully flipped through it page by page.

“His combat points are enough to qualify him for Ryan citizenship. He is a mercenary and is not subject to the military’s minimum three-year service requirement.” Andrei said, then changed the subject, “But we do not intend to approve his application; we intend to convert him to an active-duty officer.”

“For someone whose heart is no longer in the army, forcing him to stay is actually pointless and may even have the opposite effect.” Zhu Yifu spent some time reading the documents in his hand.

“But Marshal, it’s such a waste to let such a good soldier leave the Ryan National Army,” Andrei said. “We can raise his rank, give him better treatment, and even allow him to choose the unit he serves in, so he doesn’t have to go to the front lines. I believe…”

“I believe he will still refuse,” Zhu Yifu interrupted Andrei. “If he needed these, he wouldn’t have refused ‘Shadowfang’ in the first place. This retirement application… can be approved.”

"Marshal, this is such a pity..." Andrei sighed.

“Leaving the army doesn’t mean you’ll stop doing military things.” Zhu Yifu picked up a pen from his desk and signed Zhang Fan’s discharge and naturalization application form. “I’ll arrange a new job for him.”

Since Zhang Fan is an "outsider," the government will arrange a new job for him after he becomes a citizen of Ryan.

Andrei was also curious about what kind of work the marshal would assign to this private, so he quietly stood next to Zhu Yifu and watched him give instructions.

"Marshal." Andrei stared blankly at the application form Zhu Yifu had signed, then reminded him, "This job requires at least the rank of Major General, and he's only a Private..."

“If you read this report carefully, you will understand that he is fully qualified.” Zhu Yifu handed a report to Andrei.

Every soldier in Lane must submit a discharge report upon retirement, which is somewhat similar to a school graduation thesis. It can be a reflection on one's military career, a review of a battle experienced personally, an analysis of classic battle cases, or even a research paper on the current military situation.

This report represents the insights and growth of Ryan soldiers during their military careers, and its level usually reflects the soldiers' overall quality. Therefore, it is also an important reference for the military in the placement of soldiers upon demobilization, and every Ryan soldier attaches great importance to it.

But Zhang Fan didn't care about all that. He just copied a similar article from China, changed the country names, and replaced them with Ryan and Fass before sending it out.

“Even if we agree, the Senate will not. They have an inherent aversion to our decisions,” Andrei said. “Moreover, according to the authority of our General Staff, we can only promote him by three ranks at most. Anything beyond that requires the approval of the Senate.”

“In the name of the Milan Defense Forces Command, promote Zhang Fan, the acting brigade commander of the 102nd Airborne Brigade, to the rank of second lieutenant.” Zhu Yifu suggested, “Whether from the data of the battlefield recorder or the actual situation on the battlefield, this reason is reasonable and justifiable. Promoting a second lieutenant will not attract too much attention from the Senate.”

“I will personally write a letter of recommendation to Erwin so that the lieutenant can also take this job.”

“Continue to publicize the victory of destroying the Fas Khan Army’s Milan General Logistics Command in the name of ‘Shadow Fang’. That recruit company has been taken over by the acting brigade commander of the 102nd Airborne Brigade and absorbed into the training camp by Shadow Fang, so it is not inappropriate to attribute the credit to ‘Shadow Fang’.”

"besides……"

Zhu Yifu pointed to the report in Andrei's hand.

"This report should be anonymously printed and distributed to the entire Ryan Army in the name of the General Staff for study. It should also be included in the Ryan National Army's new year's military theory textbook and become a compulsory course for military academy students."

Is this report that important?

But Andrei knew that the Marshal's strategic vision was absolutely correct. He took the report that Zhu Yifu handed back and re-examined its contents:

On Protracted War