Monday morning.
The office door was knocked.
Jiang Ye had just finished breakfast and was reading a large newspaper. The newspaper was cut by Su Yueming's junior secretary, selecting the most valuable articles from different media on various planets to specially supply to Jiang Ye.
"Come in!" Jiang Ye lowered the newspaper, revealing his face.
The office door opened, and Tian Rao hopped in.
Wearing a beige knit dress, her fair white legs were particularly striking. After only a few days, Tian Rao's skin seemed even more supple. As she walked closer, Jiang Ye realized she had put on makeup.
Tian Rao had a pair of shiny handcuffs on her wrists, with a combination lock box attached to the other end. Clearly, it contained something extremely important. Anyone who wanted to snatch the box would have to first cut the handcuffs or sever her hand. kanδん
"Jiang Ye, you need to rein in the guards on your warship. A young white soldier in the corridor just stopped me and asked for my contact information. When I asked why, he said he thought I was pretty and had a good figure, and wanted to be friends. Friends, my ass!" Tian Rao pouted and sat down opposite the desk.
"The guard had a number on his chest. Did you see the number?" Jiang Ye frowned slightly.
"001726," Tian Rao said.
Jiang Ye picked up his phone and immediately made a call. "Guard Captain, guard number 001726, confinement. I'll deal with it later."
Tian Rao raised her hand, placed the combination lock box on the desk, then took a shiny little key from her knit dress pocket and opened the handcuffs.
Next, she dialed the combination, and with a click, opened the box. Inside were files sealed in fireproof bags.
"What is all this?" Jiang Ye asked. "The customs and traditions of Wheeler Star? Resource distribution?"
"No, information on the warlords of Wheeler Star." Tian Rao flashed a proud smile, clearly proud to bring such a grand gift.
Jiang Ye was astonished. He stood up, took out the files, and began to flip through them one by one.
The information in the files was mainly divided into two categories: one was the overall situation of the warlord forces, and the other was personal information of the warlord leaders.
The former included many things, such as the size of the territory occupied on Wheeler Star, the approximate quantity of weapons and equipment, the population within the territory, the economic situation, and so on. It even included judgments on the personalities and internal cultures of various forces. For example, for the "Dalton Joe Warlord Force," the description was: "No ambition for hegemony, serious internal divisions, but the divisions mainly revolve around whether to surrender to a nearby major warlord or fight to the death awaiting recruitment by the Galactic Empire."
In addition to this, there were also war situations for each warlord force. Some warlord forces were very aggressive, fighting battles every few days, their territory growing larger and larger. Some warlord forces were weak but loved to play, lacking strength themselves and going out to fight, only to be almost wiped out. Some warlord forces were extremely cautious, even migrating to avoid conflict, showing all sorts of human conditions and diverse situations.
Some past battles even listed casualty figures. Some casualty numbers were followed by parentheses, "(This warlord force claimed only ten casualties in this battle, but local residents said they were ordered to dig mass graves, digging pits large enough to bury over four hundred people)."
As for the personal information of the warlord leaders, it was even more surprising to Jiang Ye.
First, there was a large pile of photographs.
The quality of the photos varied. Some were very formal headshots, looking like profile pictures on a dating website. Some were clearly propaganda photos from within the warlord forces, with the warlord leader standing on a high platform giving a speech, his posture and momentum like a deity. There were also candid shots, which were the most outrageous, depicting all sorts of strange and fantastical scenes. Warlord leaders eating, warlord leaders dozing off, warlord leaders urinating against a wall, warlord leaders sitting on the edge of a bed in just their shorts trimming their toenails, warlord leaders using the toilet, and so on. There were even some explicit bedroom photos, and who knew how they were taken.
Then came the scattered personal information.
The content of each warlord leader's personal information varied greatly. Some were only half a page, containing irrelevant information such as age, marital status, blood type, height, and weight, making it no different whether you knew it or not.
Some, however, had over thirty pages, in the smallest font, with densely packed, detailed descriptions of various information. From their experience of raising an army to their public speeches, from the identities of their wives and even their brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law to the secrets of factional struggles within their forces, the detail was astonishing, almost like a short biography.
"This is the intelligence on the warlord forces that can be gathered so far. I don't understand military matters, so I'll leave it all to you. Have your people analyze it. If there's any further intelligence, I'll send it immediately." Tian Rao pursed her lips, her expression quite somber. "This intelligence was hard-won, it's stained with blood."
Jiang Ye was taken aback, and nodded gravely. "This intelligence is of immense value. Their blood will not have been shed in vain. You handle the aftermath, and tell me if you encounter any difficulties."
"This small matter doesn't require your trouble. I will definitely handle the aftermath. They are all backbone members trained by our company," Tian Rao said. "Let me tell you the key points, which were also analyzed by our company's intelligence system personnel."
"Okay." Jiang Ye listened attentively.
"Our company currently has contact with three warlords, and has already opened factories in the territories of two of them, and is about to open a factory in the territory of the third. By next month, there will be seventy thousand of our employees on Wheeler Star, and these employees will have one hundred and thirty thousand family members. Most of these family members do not have stable means of livelihood and rely on our company's employees for support. In other words, a total of two hundred thousand people are closely related to our company."
"Impressive," Jiang Ye nodded in admiration.
"However, the three warlord forces we are currently dealing with are all incapable of achieving greatness," Tian Rao said. "If you want to support one of them, it will be very difficult."
"What do you mean by incapable of achieving greatness?" Jiang Ye asked. "Is it in terms of strength or ideology?"
"Ideologically incapable. The leaders of these three warlord forces are all cruel and debauched individuals. Bradley Saxon killed his two younger brothers and keeps over twenty concubines, many of whom are other men's wives. There is currently intelligence indicating that a mutiny is highly likely to occur within the next month, but the few second-tier leaders who might instigate the mutiny are also not good people. After replacing Bradley, they will likely become even more extreme. Before Bradley, four leaders have already been killed, it's like a curse."
"Harrison Caulby likes to kill surrendering enemies and prisoners. Previously, when he fought, he occupied the territories of several small warlords and captured a large number of civilians. All men taller than an assault rifle were beheaded, and I won't elaborate on the fate of the women. The civilians under Harrison Caulby's rule are terrified and are trying to escape to the territories of other more benevolent warlords. My feeling is that Harrison's warlord force will not last long. Even if it grows, it will have no justice whatsoever, and it will be impossible to gain the support of the people as a planetary leader."