Chapter 65

Ye Wenlin calmly replied, "Now you should say, if it really is space pirates, then that's great."

Fu Luo was stunned for a moment, then carefully considered it and realized something - she, or rather the entire Second Department, had dealt with space pirate groups appropriately, knowing both themselves and the enemy, to the point of fighting pirates with ease and harmony. When it came down to it, they actually had General Zhao's human-shaped legacy, Yesi, to thank for that.

Yesi was a pirate ancestor. When it came to space pirates who had been stubbornly refusing to change their ways for decades, he was like a Northeasterner fighting a robe - every hit was accurate.

But without Yesi, aside from Ye Wenlin and others in the special forces who had previously carried out space anti-piracy operations and had contact with some wandering pirates, who else knew the first thing about space pirates?

How could they tell the difference between genuine and counterfeit goods?

In the eyes of ordinary people, space pirate groups were a bunch of extremely vicious things - some not only acted viciously, but also had quite creative appearances.

But the people currently fighting on the front lines all knew that the pirates' temporary rampancy was not a long-term threat. The humans of the star system were the real enemy.

"Wait a minute, let me say something. If we send someone to rescue this thing, can we break even? Is it worth it?" Chief of Staff Zhang Liping opened his mouth with a heavy accent.

His words happened to represent the thoughts of a large number of people. As soon as he finished speaking, someone immediately echoed, "That's the question. We have just established a foothold in the Saturn system, and finally stabilized this foothold. The defense network is not yet complete. What if we send someone to rescue and expose the location of the fortress? Colonel, I'll say something unpleasant. Right now, we are building sand castles by the ocean. If you lie on the ground and look, it seems majestic, but when the tide rises, everything will be gone."

"I'm not saying, Cao Kun is really interesting too. With so many giant ships and followers in the Space Combat Third Department, he let his team become like this, and still has the face to ask for help? If he had any shred of manhood left, he should take off his belt and find a place to hang himself!"

At this point, there was already a hint of slandering colleagues. Yang Ning finally raised his head and gave the speaker a cold glance, causing the young C-level soldier to automatically blush and shut his mouth.

"Are you finished?" Yang Ning asked.

He was inscrutable, and people couldn't tell for a moment whether he was happy or angry, let alone what this leader was thinking. They could only remain silent in trepidation for a while.

Yang Ning said to Dong Jialing, "Quartermaster, temporarily shut down other equipment. I'm holding a short, fully closed meeting for just twenty minutes."

The external and internal communication systems were quickly shielded, leaving only an emergency alert port open. The surrounding screens went dark, the conference room went dark, and then the conference table automatically started up, turning into a huge touchscreen.

As a result, as soon as the communication was turned off, Yang Ning immediately became enraged, "Put away all your kindergarten-level conspiracy theories. Do you still think this is an impregnable space fortress where you can play house? Have you watched too many palace intrigue TV shows?"

Everyone was frightened by him. Yang Ning's attitude had always been respectful to his superiors but strict with his subordinates. Although he was quite tactful in his conduct, he couldn't be said to have a lot of "iron-clad integrity", but this kind of principle still easily won some favor. So when the pro-war and pro-peace factions clashed back then, everyone heard about what he did on the ground. Although they all felt that this person acted ruthlessly and left no room, they didn't have too much ill will towards him.

He had never closed the door and spoken so harshly to his subordinates before. The conference room was silent as a grave for a while.

"What's the purpose of building the Saturn Fortress? To turtle in here and declare ourselves kings? What do you mean by whether the rescue can break even? Zhang Liping, are you selling cabbage? Still haggling over the price!"

Zhang Liping fidgeted left and right uneasily and dejectedly lowered his head.

"You can only see one centimeter under your eyelids. Are you mice or do you need a pair of nearsighted glasses?" Yang Ning's temple veins bulged as he casually threw his handheld reader. The young C-level soldier who had just spoken pompously didn't dare to dodge, and took the hit. "Who gave you the right to gossip behind the backs of your superiors? Can the Second Department still accommodate you, sir?"

The group was huddled like quails, sitting in a row as silent as cicadas in winter. Ye Wenlin felt it was about enough and lightly coughed - after all, he belonged under Zhao Youxuan's command and was not originally from the Second Department. Yang Ning had to give him some face.

"Colonel Yang, we only have twenty minutes."

Yang Ning sat down with a cold face, fiercely glaring at the young C-level soldier, but finally restrained his anger.

He lowered his head and pulled up a file from the touchscreen on the conference table. A person's ID photo was enlarged to A4 size. From the perspective of the attendees, every wrinkle on his face could be clearly seen.

Fu Luo recognized this person - the commander-in-chief of the enemy star system. She had seen him twice through video.

It was that legendary chatterbox.

"This is a file from the database that the Dagger brothers exchanged their lives for." Yang Ning's voice lowered, his words returning to steadiness, as if the person who was furiously angry just now wasn't him. "This person is the overall commander of the enemy forces in the star system, named Howard Graf, 116 years old, born after the war, a 'born and bred' person of the star system. He made no achievements in his early years and engaged in clerical work, publishing many papers. Only after the age of 60 did he begin to show his edge in the military, becoming a famous military theorist. Later, as a member of the current pro-war faction in the other star system, he climbed to today's position over 50 years. A few days ago, I received a report from Captain Ye about General Graf-"

Yang Ning glanced at Ye Wenlin, "He told me that Graf is a monster."

Ye Wenlin stared at the photo on the table for a while, "Looking so ugly, of course he's a monster."

Everyone's expressions relaxed a bit. Having just been washed by the flames of anger, their humor threshold instantly lowered collectively. Seizing the opportunity to break the tension, they quickly offered smiles to show Captain Ye their appreciation.

"We have all personally experienced the entire war. I don't want to dwell on the past bitterness and think only of the sweetness. Let's focus on the present and the future. I have two questions for you all now: First, if we lose the war, will this Graf order the killing of all the people on Earth? Second, as we all know, the space pirates' way of thinking is very unconventional. Graf's cooperation with them in the beginning was a bit like making a pact with the tiger for its skin and inviting the wolf into the house. Is this not one of his major missteps?"

Ye Wenlin's reading notes often have such self-questioning and self-answering. Fu Luo, having seen it many times, habitually opened her mouth to answer: "It's impossible to kill all the people on Earth, otherwise their occupation of Earth would be meaningless. The people of the other star system do not engage in production. Their goal is to rule the Earth, not to purge it. As for the space pirates..."

Fu Luo frowned slightly, vaguely having some ideas in her heart, but they were not very clear and she couldn't express them.

Ye Wenlin glanced at her: "Come, let's be more down-to-earth. I invite you all to imagine, if you were an ordinary person living on the ground with a family, living a good life, and aliens suddenly invaded Earth, what would you do? Of course, I believe there would be many who are greedy for life and afraid of death, but there would also be quite a few who would dare to pick up kitchen knives and rolling pins and go out on the streets to fight them, right?"

He paused and continued, "Then I invite you all to imagine again, if you were one of the people from the other star system, what would you face after landing on Earth? Hey, student Fu Luo, it's your turn to speak."

The vague thoughts in Fu Luo's mind immediately became clear, as if the fog had been blown away by a strong wind: "The resistance they face will be endless. When one person dies, the hatred will spread to all his relatives and friends, and when one generation dies, the hatred will also be inherited by the next generation."

The more severe the oppression, the more intense the rebound. The people of Earth are not very friendly to their own government, let alone this group of aliens who would become the focus of national hatred and family enmity.

If ordinary people thus become warriors, then Earth will become the burial ground for the people of the other star system.

"In other words, the role of the space pirates is to divert some of the hatred for them in the future?"

"Not only that," Yang Ning said, "if handled properly, they may even become the saviors of the people of Earth."

Fu Luo couldn't imagine what this "proper handling" would entail, but she just inexplicably believed that if it was Yang Ning, he could do it - then the monster commander-in-chief of the other star system, Graf, might also be able to do it.

"So we don't have that much time to close the door and play fortress-building games." When Yang Ning said this again, he appeared calm and composed. He lightly tapped the table, "Back to the point, please pay attention to the word 'besieged' in the distress signal from the Third Department. Everyone has been following me all the way, so please tell me how many times have we experienced situations that can be called 'besieged'?"

The word "siege" itself is already a long-term and even stalemated concept. It may be common in land battles, but it is rare in space battles with "high energy, high speed, and shocking destructive power".

Fu Luo said, "This kind of probing, coercion, waiting for the other party to run out of ammunition and food, emphasizing 'winning without fighting' is the way of fighting by regular armies to save military expenses, not the style of the space pirates."

With the conversation reaching this point, it was no longer necessary to make it clearer.

Now it was obvious that the regular army of the other star system was impersonating the space pirates, besieging the Space Combat Third Department of the Chinese Fortress in space and wearing them down bit by bit, and if at this time, the Earth Allied Forces, who had already lost people once and disappointed everyone, retreated again and turned a blind eye to the distress calls of their comrades-in-arms—

Then perhaps the struggling Allied Space Forces could be preserved, but the most critical ground battlefield at present would inevitably slide towards failure.

The morale of the army could not be dispersed, and the morale of the people could not be dampened even more.

Fu Luo suddenly understood the meaning of Ye Wenlin's previous words - the game had reached the mid-stage, and now it was at the point where one careless move would lead to a complete loss.

Before the war, they were just a small General Staff Office for top-down transmission of orders. At this time, however, they had already become the brain of the main force of the Allied Space Forces.

"I will personally make a trip for Major General Cao Kun's request for assistance," Yang Ning said. "Mobilize four giant ships and their accompanying fleets to go with me. The quartermaster will arrange it. It needs to be fast, ready to depart within two hours. At the same time, within these two hours, I need you all to give me an emergency briefing and arrange more than four rapid communication channels to provide support in case of emergencies, with the first premise being not to expose the headquarters of the Saturn Fortress. Any questions?"

"Yes, sir!"

Yang Ning slightly nodded to indicate Dong Jialing to lift the lockdown: "Dismissed - Fu Luo, come with me."

The suddenly named Fu Luo was stunned for a moment before reacting and hurriedly followed. The Ye Wenlin, who had just appeared very wise, immediately seized the opportunity to make all sorts of suggestive expressions at Fu Luo.

This person was really relentless when it came to being a jerk, not missing a single opportunity.

After thinking about it, Fu Luo felt that Ye Wenlin had taken her as his scapegoat for so many years, with her being secretly in love with him for so long without him knowing it, so he couldn't really be considered an outsider. Therefore, she no longer stood on ceremony and calmly stepped on Ye Wenlin's feet as she walked past...

...and happily ground the heel of her hard-soled military boot a little.

Yang Ning brought her into his office, raised his hand to indicate for her to close the door properly, and his other hand was already pressing on the communicator, quickly entering a string of codes. Fu Luo was shocked to see a familiar face appear on the communicator.

"Teacher Wang?"

It was none other than the head of the secret service, Wang Yansheng.

"I'll keep it short," Yang Ning said without any pleasantries or greetings, directly getting to the point. "You should have also received the distress order from the Third Department. In this situation, I have to go personally, otherwise it would seem neglectful. The Second Department will have a hard time and get no thanks. We'll set off in two hours. I'm leaving Fu Luo with you."

Fu Luo: "..."

Wait, why does that sound so wrong?

Fu Luo felt that she had become some kind of "secret weapon" that was being left behind, but as a "weapon," she still didn't know her purpose.

Wasn't Colonel Yang just righteously criticizing them for their lack of loyalty to their comrades? Now this private... uh, no, frequent private communication with Director Wang, what are they planning again?

Wang Yansheng's gaze shifted to Fu Luo, a slight smile on his face: "Oh, little girl, a lieutenant colonel now, not bad."

Fu Luo squeezed out a smile at him. Just as her mouth was half open, Yang Ning's next sentence nearly stunned her: "Before I welcome Cao Kun and the comrades of the three departments back, we must take action, otherwise, when the time comes, if someone relies on their relationship with the ground to point fingers at me here on Saturn, the situation will be difficult to control."

Fu Luo suddenly felt her neck rusting, and with difficulty, she creakily turned towards Yang Ning. Take action to do what?

Wang Yansheng laughed, "Everything is ready, we just need the right opportunity."

"Don't worry," Yang Ning gave Fu Luo a breezy smile, "It's just that in order for the power of the four armies to not be interfered with by some forces, certain people should retire early. I can't take care of things here, and there aren't many people I can trust and rely on. You were personally brought up by me, so temporarily watch over things for me. Fortunately, the early preparations are almost done, and you're familiar with Teacher Wang, he will tell you what to do."

We can't disband and dishearten the army and people, but some people still need to shut up early... is that what this means?

Fu Luo: "..."

In her heart, tears flowed in silence. She could only silently send brain waves that no one could receive to the distant Earth: "Mom, I seem to have joined an illegal activity called 'rebellion' here..."