Pushing the Military and the Government

"That's it? That's how you muddle it through?"

If Xing Feng didn't accept his apology, he would seem unreasonable or even like a coward. But the factor that Lin Xian seemed to have missed was Xing Feng's boy, Yun Che. When Xing Feng was in a difficult situation, his boy wouldn't sit by and do nothing. He wouldn't let Lin Xian get away with setting his man up.

"Now, it might sound harsh but to sum up everything that you just said, you just want us to risk our lives for you, you didn't mention one word about our rewards. Yes, you did throw out the concept of a land-contract system, but it sounds like an empty promise to me. You represent the authorities of the base, since when you're into wordplay?"

Ignoring the embarrassed look on their faces, Yun Che sneered and continued, "In my opinion, what Captain Xing asked is reasonable, in fact, it's just one of the basic requests. This is a joint operation, 100 people from each army and 100 from us. We're equal, we are supposed to be partners. We superfunction possessors shouldn't be fighting for you for nothing. And we as captains have every right to know all the personal information of your soldiers in this cooperation so that we can make the optimal plan. What's wrong with that? Why would we cooperate with you if you didn't even respect the basic cooperation norms? Or maybe you just want us to be your cannon fodder, huh?"

What Yun Che said had revealed the selfish intention of the base authority and stirred up the anger in every superfunction possessor. Think about it, it was indeed an arduous quest, but the military owned nearly a hundred thousand soldiers and a great amount of firearms. The military was able to occupy the provincial capital if they wanted to, let alone a seed bank, why were they here asking for superfunction possessors' help? The simple answer was, they didn't want to lose too much, the superfunction possessors were their cannon fodder.

"Captain Yun is right. It's a joint operation, why can't we have the information on your side? Loser Squad shall withdraw from this operation if there's no basic information transparency."

Having figured it out, Lei Dashan, the captain of Loser Squad who had a friendly relationship with Chaoyang and Peak, stood up for them. There was no way they became free cannon fodder for the authorities.

"We Letto Squad demands information transparency as well."

"Breeze Squad, as well."

"Us, too!"

After Lei Dashan became the first one to advocate Peak and Chaoyang, the other squads, too, took their stand. Even the individuals stood up against the authorities. The confrontation between the superfunction possessor community and the base authority had formed. Things weren't looking good, Lin Xian, Wang Guoan and Jiang Wanshan all put on a wry face. Mo Wenyang, however, remained flippantly insouciant.

"I'm with you, guys. Information transparency is the foundation of our cooperation. The military mustn't be autocratic. Worry not, superfunction possessors, for Mo Army is on your side despite their opinions."

How could Mo Wenyang miss such a great opportunity?

It might sound hypocritical if Lin Xian or Wang Guoan had said it. But it sounded convincing from Mo Wenyang's mouth because he seemed to have taken a neutral position for all this time. Actually, he even was kind of in favor of the superfunction possessors. No matter how much of an undependable person he seemed to be, people took his word for it to some extent. Obviously, Mo Wenyang buttering up the superfunction possessor community only upset Lin Xian and Wang Guoan more, especially now they were facing the defiance of superfunction possessors.

"Ahem, please calm down, everybody. Major General Wang and Lin just said they are willing to share the information. If you have any problems, we can discuss them. For a major operation like this, we must reach a consensus on every decision. The government won't send our people to death. Let's be calm and focus on the quest."

Seeing the standoff continue, Jiang Wanshan tried all he could as a mediator. Nevertheless, he didn't forget to say good words for the government. What a slick fellow.

"I hope we do have a say during the rest of the discussion."

Having achieved the first-stage goal, Xing Feng sat back in the chair after taking a deep look at Lin Xian and Wang Guoan.

"OK, let's discuss. First things first, what's in it for us, Mr. Jiang? We'll be risking our lives out there, we can't do it for nothing, can we? Unlike you civil servants with a cushy job, we've all got families to feed."

Before Yun Che sat back in his chair, he made this joke that wasn't meant to be funny at all. Normally, people would take what he said for a joke but on this occasion, everybody knew he was serious. They wouldn't discuss the quest until they were given a rewarding scheme. All superfunction possessors were happy that Yun Che brought it up whereas the delegates, except for Mo Wenyang, pulled a long face. But in order to fix their image, they had to suck it up even if they might get ripped off.

Xing Feng saw to the big picture and Yun Che handled the details. Their collaboration was perfect. It was about time for the delegates to smarten up because there were more traps waiting ahead of them.

"Ha, Captain Yun, the base is sincere about the cooperation, you won't fight for free. We just haven't gotten around to it."

After a hollow laugh, Jiang Wanshan guzzled his tea so as to quench his simmering anger.

"Oh, is that right?"

Yun Che now acted like he didn't care despite being demanding just now. Jiang Wanshan wished he could throw the teacup into Yun Che's face if he could. "Yes. We know it'll be an arduous quest, so whether it's a success or not, every participator shall be rewarded with 50 kilograms of rice and a badge as a free pass, no crystal nuclei shall be needed when you go in and out of the base. But of course, compensation will be given to the casualties or their family if there is any. What do you make of it, two captains?"

Jiang Wanshan only asked Yun Che and Xing Feng because all the other superfunction possessors would follow their decision.

"Meh. Sounds OK."

Yun Che gave a nod as his approval. He didn't care for the 50 kilograms of rice, what he was after was the badge. Ever since the secret of crystal nucleus was disclosed, the base couldn't collect crystal nuclei through giving out quests to naive superfunction possessors anymore. So they'd come up with another rule: whether you were a superfunction possessor or an average person, you must hand in two low-level crystal nuclei when going in or out of the base. For large squads, it sure was a bad deal. Even Peak, which had less than 10 people in the squad, had to hand in quite a number of crystal nuclei in a month. What Yun Che needed the most at the moment was crystal nucleus, he wanted to save as many crystal nuclei as he could. He didn't expect the base to offer anything better anyway.

"If Captain Yun is fine with it, I don't have a problem."

This time, Xing Feng became the co-star. Needless to say, they didn't really care for the rewards because they got all the stuff they needed. All the other superfunction possessors nodded in approval. First of all, the 50 kilograms of rice was better than nothing. Secondly, they, too, needed the crystal nuclei. Thirdly, it was a great opportunity to level themselves up.

"So this is settled then. Let's move on to the quest itself. About Captain Xing's demand, what will you do, major generals?"

Feeling relieved, Jiang Wanshan turned to the three major generals and asked the unnecessary question. Mo Wenyang just shrugged. Wang Guoan nodded emotionlessly. Lin Xian forced a smile. "No problem. Since you asked, we'll try to be cooperative. I hope the first military-civilian joint operation can be a great success."

What else could he say? The conference came to this point because he underestimated how assertive Xing Feng was and how slick Yun Che was.

"Now that the initial agreement has been made, all we need to do is execute."

"Wait!"

"Phew, finally!" Jiang Wanshan only cheered inside for a second, it was snapped off by someone. With a bad feeling, Jiang Wanshan looked back. Wang Guoan and Lin Xian, too, turned to Mo Wenyang who made a sound out of the blue. Our General Mo sat straight with a very serious attitude and said with a very serious tone, "Considering it's the very first military-civilian joint operation, to show the sincerity from the military to our dear superfunction possessors, I propose that I, Mo Wenyang, lead the military troops. What do you think, everybody? Two major generals?"

Finally, the conference got to the point where they wound up the show. If Mo Wenyang got the leadership and made it possible for every squad to benefit from the operation, it wouldn't be difficult to acquire the control over Superfunction Association in the future.

Apparently, Wang Guoan and Lin Xian didn't expect Mo Wenyang would make the proposition during the conference and with such a seemingly plausible reason, they gnashed their teeth in exasperation. Even Jiang Wanshan was unhappy with it. Mo Wenyang's purpose was obvious, once Mo Army had control over Superfunction Association, they'd be the greatest force in the base. Once the balance was broken, it was bad for Wei and Wang Army, as well as the government that had been taking advantage of the competition among the three armies.

"As far as I know, you're the only child of your parents, the generals of Mo Army and Captain Xing's cousin. I'll be more reassured if you lead the military troops."

When the delegates were thinking about how to resolve the conundrum, Yun Che spoke up again. And he bluntly mentioned the topic that everybody was trying to avoid——The relationship between Xing Feng and Mo Wenyang. These high-ranking guys weren't idiots, they knew the superfunction possessor community held Chaoyang in high esteem. Once these superfunction possessors learned that Mo Wenyang and Xing Feng were cousins, they'd naturally pick Mo Army's side.

Dammit!

The delegates of Wang Army, Wei Army and the government took a mean glare at Yun Che who screwed up their plan!

"Really? I never heard you mentioned it, Captain Xing."

Having discerned that something was going on, Lei Dashan asked, acting like he was surprised. All the other superfunction possessors just sat there and listened in silence. Xing Feng just replied, "It's not something that deserves to brag about. Chaoyang is Chaoyang, Mo Army is Mo Army, we're independent of each other, though I do prefer working with Major General Mo. After all, we know each other and his mother is my aunt. At least he won't try to fool me, right?"

"Haha!"

The conference room burst into laughter right after Xing Feng made such a humorous remark. It had become obvious which side these superfunction possessors were on. However, Lin Xian, Wang Guoan and Jiang Wanshan couldn't put up with the triumphant smirk on Mo Wenyang's face.

"Indeed, Captain Xing. But each army will send one hundred soldiers, Major General Mo alone won't be able to lead a mixed troop, will he? And actually, the fault is on me, Wei Soldiers are notoriously wild and rude, even I cannot manage them sometimes."

Lin Xian would rather lower himself to be a laughingstock than let Mo Army get the upper hand. By default, neither of them was supposed to bring up the leadership issue, since Mo Wenyang had broken the rule, they had to fix the problem.