After a long while, the discussion gradually subsided and eventually disappeared completely. The group reached a consensus and all looked at Yu Mao.
"For major matters, we can discuss and decide together, so you don't need to worry about that. Moreover, this has nothing to do with whether you relinquish your decision-making power." Yu Mao put down his notebook and gently tapped the table. "First, as the supreme commander, your personal safety is paramount. Considering your special circumstances, you are allowed to participate in the battle. Second, whether Yu Zhen will continue to serve as commander after his return will be discussed based on his own wishes. Third, major matters involving the interests of the military need to be discussed and decided by the committee. We have reason to believe that you are fully capable of handling matters within your authority."
"Isn't this second point just stating the obvious?"
Yu Wei curled his lip. He didn't believe that his father, with his love of freedom, would want to be this damn chairman after he came back.
He now strongly suspects that Yu Zhen simply didn't want to do it anymore, so he found an excuse to dump this huge mess on him.
"The committee has already responded to this, so there is no need to reply again. Do you have any further questions?"
Yu Mao raised an eyebrow, sat back in her chair, and took a sip of water from her glass.
"Why has this leadership transition been initiated? Has something happened to my dad?"
This is the question he wants answered. He can accept that Yu Zhen can't stand this boring life and chooses to disappear, he can accept that Yu Zhen runs away from home because of a conflict with Lin Ling, and he can even accept that Yu Zhen cheats on his wife and is kicked out of the house...
He can accept many answers, but he cannot accept the most likely fact.
“He…he…” Yu Mao sighed, picked up his notebook, stood up, and looked at Lin Ling: “Ling, why don’t you tell him?”
After saying that, he pushed back his chair and left the meeting room.
The others also stood up and left one after another.
Only Lin Ling and Yu Wei remained in the conference room. Lin Ling sighed, walked over to Yu Wei, and explained as she untied the rope.
“He has been missing for about six or seven days. We have searched all the places he might have gone, but we have not found him.”
"The day after I left? Dad, why didn't you tell me?"
Yu Wei found it hard to accept. He had been missing for so long, why hadn't anyone told him?
"Do you know how much of an impact this news will have if it gets out?" Lin Ling sighed and patted Yu Wei's collar. "It's not that I don't want to tell you, it's that I can't."
"Besides, the current situation does not allow us to allocate a large number of manpower to search for your father's whereabouts."
"Dad, are you hiding something?"
Yu Wei felt that everything was too strange. No sooner had he left than Yu Zhen disappeared at Chu Yunmu's wedding.
Immediately afterwards, the usually low-profile rebels launched a major offensive against the Alliance-controlled territory, and their weaponry level skyrocketed. However, given the military's crackdown on arms smuggling, the rebels had no chance of acquiring weapons of mass destruction. He had also checked, and the weapons lost in Jinlai were insufficient to support such a large-scale war.
Furthermore, judging from the current situation, the rebels' weapons are technologically advanced, including laser weapons whose design blueprints were once classified as top secret, which is simply unbelievable.
Faced with the theft of a large number of blueprints and manufacturing information, the military and the weapons research institute did not take any remedial measures, but only strengthened the protection of some information.
All indications suggest that this may not be an ordinary war, but a conspiracy.
With Chu Yunmu's wedding as the dividing line and Yu Zhen's disappearance as the marker, the relationship between the alliance and the rebels officially entered a point of irreconcilable conflict, and war was imminent.
"You're overthinking it." Lin Ling smiled, his hands in his coat pockets, his perfect smile flawless: "Your father's disappearance, the outbreak of war, it all happened so suddenly."
"The alliance and the rebels have a long-standing feud, and a fierce battle is bound to happen sooner or later. The reason we focused on cracking down on arms smuggling before was to prevent the rebels from suddenly launching an attack after they have acquired too many weapons, which would leave the alliance unable to respond in time and miss the opportunity to fight."
"The blueprints were stolen? The defenses of the Weaponry Research Institute and the Information Management Bureau's Communications Center are at the highest level, so why were they so easily breached?"
Yu Wei was still unwilling to give up; he wanted to find out exactly what Yu Zhen and the others were plotting.
“There is no foolproof, absolutely secure protection system in the world. There are always mountains beyond mountains and people beyond people. Even the most advanced security measures will have loopholes.” Lin Ling leaned against the table, his knees slightly bent. “We have done statistics. Before the outbreak of the war, the information system of the Military Research Institute was subjected to hundreds of millions of attacks every day. They could have nothing better to do than run a single attack system all day long, but we can’t.”
“Design, research and development, manufacturing, every step requires a lot of manpower and resources, there is simply no time to deal with a bunch of crazy people who are taking welfare and loafing around.”
"Besides, don't you think it's a waste to spend all your time on this?"
“But it turns out that all of this was necessary.” Yu Wei lowered his eyes, still not understanding: “If the blueprints hadn’t been stolen, even if the Zhou family had put the materials for manufacturing weapons on the market, it wouldn’t have made a splash, and the rebels wouldn’t have been able to recruit soldiers and manufacture weapons on such a large scale…”
“You’re wrong. Even if the blueprints hadn’t been stolen, the rebels would have developed it on their own.” Lin Ling patiently explained, “Why didn’t you consider that the rebels might be governed by a system similar to the Alliance, with each department having its own responsibilities?”
"What the league can do, they can do too, it's just a matter of time."
"So, the blueprints weren't stolen at all, but you deliberately released them?" Yu Wei was on the verge of collapse. "Are you crazy?! Doing this will not only cause panic among ordinary people, but will also lead to the collapse of the entire social order."
The alliance's rule was short-lived and inherently had many problems; this incident exposed the system's flaws.
The most pressing issue is public security. The alliance lacks professional security forces, and most of the police officers are retired military personnel. These people are good at fighting wars, but they are completely incapable of mediating disputes.
Another group consists of local young people selected by the local police station. Putting aside their professional skills, there have been many cases where they have chased thieves to their deaths.
“But as you’ve seen, the effect of doing this is very significant.” Lin Ling’s smile faded, and his expression turned serious. “The grudges between orcs and ordinary people have been brewing for a long time. The Alliance is unwilling to waste its energy fighting orcs or mediating disputes, and mobilizing civilian forces is the most effective way.”
Ordinary people might tolerate orcs due to differences in size and physical strength before they have weapons, but once they possess the power to kill orcs, evil will devour all reason.
Whether driven by personal vendetta or for the benefit of all ordinary humanity, they will take up arms and fight.
This is also an important means for the alliance to contain the rebels.
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