CH 83

Fallen Sun (2)

In these small matters, Old Marshal Chen gave Jiang Jianming a lot of power. Soon, the door of the commander-in-chief’s office opened, and Jiang Jianming came out with his new military uniform in his arms, and waved to Zheng Yue who had been sitting outside anxiously for a long time…..and calmly led the person away.

Time was running out, and Jiang Jianming himself was an “act without delay” character. He asked Zheng Yue to take him directly to the Golden Sun Wheel stationed branch building located in the first district of Aslan Star City.

The two got off from the air vehicle, and a majestic tall building stood in front of them, with glass windows reflecting the sunlight.

“It’s here.” Zheng Yue pointed to the gate, “Little Excellency, please.”

For Zheng Yue, he had undoubtedly experienced ups and downs in his life in the past few days.

At this moment, he was laughing and followed behind Jiang Jianming, guiding the way while briefing him, accepting the status quo very well, and even the address “Little Excellency” was called incredibly smoothly.

The architecture of the Golden Sun Wheel Army was significantly different from the Silver Big Dipper’s Far Interstellar Space military fortress. The steel fortress of Silver Big Dipper covered a large area, almost forming a star city by itself. The rough muzzles, watchtowers, starship ports and other facilities were placed there, which was shocking when viewed from a distance.

Although Golden Sun Wheel’s military building was built in a relatively sparsely populated area, it was still stationed in the bustling Imperial Capital after all, and the visual effect was more like a modern high-tech towering building.

The two entered the building and walked inside. Golden Sun Wheel soldiers and officers that were standing tall and in an upright position passed by them, and occasionally someone would cast a few curious glances at Jiang Jianming, who had an outstanding appearance.

Zheng Yue pressed the elevator for the Little Excellency, and made a gesture of letting him go in first. “I will take you to your office first, then afterwards I will take you to meet the highest person in charge of this branch, Lieutenant General Luther.”

The mirror of the elevator reflected a young man in a platinum military uniform, with a white military cap pressing down his loose black hair, with exquisite facial features and a calm and elegant demeanor.

Similarly, this was still an imperial military uniform. Compared with the black and silver tones of the Silver Big Dipper, Jiang Jianming’s body wearing the standard of the Golden Sun Wheel seemed to have lost a bit of piercing coldness and instead added an extra noble aura.

“Little Excellency, I used to guard quite a few big figures in the Golden Sun Wheel before, but you, having such a temperament, it’s really rare.”

Zheng Yue couldn’t help but look at Jiang Jianming again. It stood to reason that he was an “unemployed vagrant” who had been stripped of his military rank. It was a taboo to speculate on his benefactor and commanding officer. However, the Little Excellency’s gentle attitude always made him talk on and on. “May I be presumptuous to say a sentence, what exactly is your identity? Even if it’s inconvenient to say it directly, can you reveal it a little bit?”

“How to say……”

Jiang Jianming lowered his head, looked at his hands wearing white leather gloves, and couldn’t help but chuckle.

Old Marshal Chen should have guessed that he would immediately agree, and even prepared gloves for him.

“I am indeed an ordinary military officer, really. It’s just the coincidence of marriage that let me climb into quite a lot of relationships that are either wealthy or noble.”

Zheng Yue rubbed his hair in confusion. “Hiss, predestined relationship by coincidence…”

The relationship between the Commander-in–Chief Old Marshal Chen, is it also something that can be explained by coincidence?

Golden Sun Wheel’s high-rise building had a total of eighteen floors above ground and underground. The elevator stopped at 8F, and they walked out.

Jiang Jianming recalled that the room number that the old marshal had arranged for him was 813, and he turned around and said, “By the way, Major Zheng…”

Zheng Yue: “No, Little Excellency, just call me by my name, or just call me Old Zheng.”

Jiang Jianming: “Okay, then…Old Zheng, you mentioned that when you were trying to track down this matter, your superiors put pressure on you?”

Zheng Yue sighed, and his eyes darkened, “Yes, it was the Staff Officer Duke who warned me at the time, but the relationship between Golden Sun Wheel’s superiors and subordinates is much more detailed than that of Silver Big Dipper. There may be superiors behind superiors. Who is behind the scenes? I can’t figure it out.”

At this moment, two military officers with their arms hooked to each other’s shoulders and laughing were coming over. One of them saw Zheng Yue and then whistled, “Hey, isn’t this Old Zheng! How, it wasn’t long before you were swept out yet you already found a way back? You have ability ah!”

The other looked at Jiang Jianming with ambiguous eyes, “Which family’s young master is this, entering Golden Sun Wheel at a young age? Old Zheng, why don’t you introduce this brother?”

Zheng Yue’s face was as dark as the bottom of a pot, and cursed, “Get lost!” The two officers didn’t care either, as if it was just a casual joke, and walked over laughing and joking.

Jiang Jianming turned his head and watched the two officers disappear around the corner quietly, without saying anything.

Zheng Yue was the first to feel embarrassed, scratching his brown hair with a muffled voice, “Alas……letting you see something laughable again. In fact, at the beginning of its establishment, Golden Sun Wheel was indeed an elite army on par with Silver Big Dipper. It’s a pity that later… “

Jiang Jianming: “Later?”

Zheng Yue fell silent. Jiang Jianming thought he didn’t want to talk about the scandal of his own army, but when he walked to the door of the room 813, he suddenly said in a low voice, “The sun’s fall of the Golden Sun Wheel, it is on the fifth, that is, during the last Holy War.”

Jiang Jianming opened the room with his authority and listened quietly to the man behind him.

“Little Excellency, you are from Silver Big Dipper, you should be very clear about the saying ‘Silver Big Dipper conquers the Far Star, and the Golden Sun Wheel protects the empire’.”

Zheng Yue said, “But there was an exception to this in history. That was the fifth Holy War. Only that time, the great emperor ordered soldiers from the Golden Sun Wheel. Two hundred thousand, a total of two hundred thousand people, almost the total number of Silver Big Dipper troops in the previous four expeditions, all of which are the elites of the Golden Sun Wheel army.”

The two walked into the room one after the other. This was a single-person office. It was bright and clean but not too big. There was only a sofa, a coffee table, a set of desks and chairs, as well as a nearby bookshelf.

Zheng Yue spoke in a heavy tone, opened the curtains for Jiang Jianming, and straightened the tables and chairs.

“At present, the empire is trying its best to obscure the last expedition in the history books, but those who remember it still remember it, and if wanting to find out, one will be able to find it.”

“What empire’s grand plan and hegemony, what open up territories and conquer the universe for mankind….. all were just to cover up shame. The end of the Holy War, it was a complete tragedy.”

“Those elites who went to the Far Interstellar Space, including the great emperor himself, none of them returned.”

The corner of Jiang Jianming’s eyes twitched slightly.

This period of history, he once read it in the library collection. Later, he also chatted with His Royal Highness Ryann, it was nothing more than discussing the pros and cons of the Holy War.

But this was the first time that someone specifically mentioned it to him, after Ryann disappeared into the depths of the sea of stars.

Zheng Yue supported himself on the back of the seat and laughed at himself, “I’m in the shrinking faction, Little Excellency.” 

“After the disastrous defeat of the fifth Holy War, the Golden Sun Wheel never recovered. My grandparents were all victims of that expedition. My mother became an orphan when she was very young. She had a bleak childhood and suffered from a lifetime of illnesses. “

Zheng Yue lowered his head and gnash his molars, then said hoarsely, “At present, Silver Big Dipper sends a wave of troops to the Crystal Nest every year, and within the empire, there will be a group of parents who have lost their children, and children who have lost their parents. I really can’t accept it…….Paying such a high price, just to satisfy the so-called conquest desire of the superior.”

Jiang Jianming didn’t speak for a long time, quietly waiting for Zheng Yue’s breathing to calm down beside him.

After a while, he asked, “In the last Holy War, how far did the great emperor’s expeditionary army go?…..Was their final destination that place, the Crystal Nest?”

Zheng Yue took a deep breath. “…I don’t know.”

Jiang Jianming remained silent for another two seconds, and stroked his shoulder. “Do the things in front of you first.”

“Ah, that’s right,” Zheng Yue rubbed his face, calmed down his emotions, and said, “I’ll take you to meet our lieutenant general.”

Jiang Jianming shook his head. “No need. Help me find a larger conference room and call the officers at or above colonel level here.”

The black-haired young man chuckled meaningfully, crossed his white-gloved index fingers on the desk, and said leisurely, “Let’s have…. a group meeting first.”

Half an hour later, the largest military conference room on the 10th floor was densely packed with people.

As far as the eye could see, the place was full of senior officers wearing Golden Sun Wheel military uniforms, there were even several experienced generals who had been on the battlefield for a long time.

All of these people’s faces were as deep as water, and they looked at the “inspector” who suddenly dropped from the sky with different expressions.

Jiang Jianming stood in front of the conference table situated at the front and adjusted the microphone to a suitable position with his eyelashes drooping.

Strange gazes and whispering voices came from all directions, yet his expression remained motionless, then he opened his lips calmly——

“I’m meeting you all for the first time. I’m Jiang Jianming, specially appointed as temporary inspector of the military department. On the orders of Commander-in-Chief Chen Hanke, starting today, we will conduct a thorough investigation and supervision of the irregularities in the Golden Sun Wheel army in the three districts.”

The young inspector held the microphone indifferently, his clear voice echoed in the conference room, but his words had a taste of a little casualness, “Hoping for everyone to cooperate.”

The conference room was slightly quiet for three seconds.

Then the whispering voices came back, and the suspicious eyes gradually turned into doubts.

“This Excellency is too young, with such a tender face, he must be in his twenties.”

“A name I’ve never heard of before.”

“I think the name sounds familiar.”

“Oh yes! Just a few days ago, Bran…cough cough cough.”

Someone coughed hard to cover up halfway through the conversation, and waved his hands, “Um, it’s nothing, just……he should be a rich and powerful young master who likes to pretend to be poor. Eight out of ten, are using their qualifications to accumulate military merits.”

Confusion immediately appeared on the faces of the people around. “What…what strange hobby does he like?”

Lieutenant General Luther was a thin old man with sunken eyes and a serious face. Sitting in the first position in the first row below inside the conference room at the moment, he looked unabashedly at the unfamiliar officer standing in front of the platform.

At the same time, the faces of the other senior generals also began to turn disdainful.

Someone even blatantly snorted twice and scoffed.

“……”

Zheng Yue stood upright beside Jiang Jianming with his hands behind his back and squared his shoulders, but he couldn’t help being a little worried at the moment.

Even though the Little Excellency has a noble status, he is still young and inexperienced after all. If you can’t hold the ground in front of these old fritters, I’m afraid it will be difficult in the future…

Thinking of this, Zheng Yue couldn’t help thinking to himself with regret: He should have stopped things like holding a collective meeting as soon as it came up.

“Inspector.”

Soon, someone lazily made a sound, “Hmph, good, inspector.”

An officer wearing unilateral electronic glasses stood up, causing the chair to rub against the floor, making a screeching sound.

Jiang Jianming shifted his gaze over. He saw a middle-aged officer with eagle eyes and a sharp mouth. The blond hair on the top of his head was sparse, but was nevertheless permed into curls. It was tied with a gentleman’s braid popular among nobles, and his face was full of lofty arrogance.

“Then, please, Inspector Excellency, at least familiarize yourself with the common sense in the army before the meeting. We have our jobs and we are very busy.”

The middle-aged officer intentionally lengthened the tone of the word “very busy”, as if teaching a mischievous child with a strong sense of sarcasm.

He raised an index finger and pointed down vigorously, “You must know, in this military building of the Golden Sun Wheel, about 420 military-related processes of different levels are currently running simultaneously. Every second of delay, the loss of the empire’s finances is worth tens of thousands of coins, can the Inspector Excellency afford it?”

Such an undisguised provocation made the whispers and inhaling noises in the meeting room louder.

Zheng Yue was so angry that his thick eyebrows stood upright on the spot, he was about to stand up and shout a command to stop, but Jiang Jianming raised his hand. “Very well said.”

A kind of steady aura invisibly exuded from his body. Jiang Jianming smiled lightly, and the tall and straight platinum military uniform on his body seemed to have become awe-inspiring.

Zheng Yue took back the foot that was about to step forward in a daze, and the rest of the officers in the meeting room peeked at the prosecutor, and couldn’t help but shut their whispering mouths.

They saw Jiang Jianming take two steps down, one hand propped up at the conference table, and stared at the provocative officer. “Then that is to say, if there are any unresolved errors in the military building of the Golden Sun Wheel, about 420 different levels of military-related processes will continue to run in the wrong way.”

“For every second of delay, the empire’s finances of tens of thousands of currency points will go to waste, even making a wedding dress for the enemy. And afterwards we will have to spend hundreds of thousands of currency points per second just to make up for the losses—right? “

(t/n from “making a wedding dress for others”- working hard for others, or others benefiting from your hard work)

The middle-aged officer with sparse hair stared wide-eyed in surprise and anger. He didn’t expect that this young officer, who was still naive and ignorant, instead of being intimidated, made such a sharp counterattack.

He was extremely angry and laughed back, held his electronic glasses with one hand, and his spit were flying wildly. “Why, it has only been less than half a day since Inspector Excellency stepped into our Golden Sun Wheel, yet have already discovered such a serious problem—Is it a serious problem that everyone needs to be called together to take care of it!?”

The next development was beyond everyone’s expectations.

“Yes.”

Jiang Jianming nodded calmly. “You are right.”

A burst of inhaling sounds echoed one after another in the conference room, and several generals frowned.

One of them approached the aged Lieutenant General Luther, and said in a low voice, “Old General, this inspector is too crazy, unexpectedly saying a lot of nonsense.”

The other person also shook his head and sighed, “Since it was sent by the old marshal, it may be that he has some ability and courage. It’s a pity that he is young and is unable to hold back.”

The provocative middle-aged officer outright laughed. 

He looked at Jiang Jianming with contempt for a fool, and asked with a grin, “That’s terrible. Then I ask the inspector to enlighten me, on what this so-called problem is?”

Jiang Jianming slowly raised his right hand.

Everyone’s eyes couldn’t help but focus on this hand.

The palm wrapped under the white glove was folded, and the four fingers merged together. The tip of the index finger flashed under the light of the conference room, and calmly pointed at——

The heart of the provocative officer.

“You.” Jiang Jianming said calmly.

The conference room became completely silent.

Before everyone could react, Jiang Jianming turned around and asked Zheng Yue, “What’s his name?”

Zheng Yue’s forehead had been drenched in cold sweat for a long time, he swallowed his saliva, bracing himself, then said in a low voice, “This is Staff Officer Duke.”

“Okay, Staff Officer Duke.”

Jiang Jianming looked down at his wrist device, “It has been eight minutes since you questioned me, and this is still before I issue any orders.”

“If I waited until I actually found the problem before calling everyone, then the approximately 420 different levels of military related processes you mentioned will run in the wrong state for at least eight more minutes, and I will waste eight precious minutes responding to your questions.”

“And when the situation is truly urgent, let alone eight minutes, eight seconds may decide the life and death of 800, 8000 or even 80,000 people.”

Jiang Jianming sneered lightly, he withdrew his hand and put it behind his waist. “Who can be responsible for this, can you?”