"Do you want to experience Daphne's jealousy?"

Yang Ming asked with a smile.

"Of course not."

Atro raised an eyebrow and crossed one leg over the other, speaking softly:

"My third uncle said, you might only be here for a while, so we should cherish this time. What do you want to do? I know of a great ocean view spot, and there are some famous nightclubs nearby known throughout the Emperor Star Circle.

"Of course, if you want to bring Princess Daphne along, that's also fine. The royals are much better at having fun than us."

"I'm here to work."

"Are you serious?"

"Of course, my goal is to reorganize the Military Intelligence Bureau's external operations and achieve something here," Yang Ming laughed, "And incidentally, help you deal with a few competitors before I leave."

"Uh, I have no competitors, there are plenty of vacant positions at the upper levels of the Military Intelligence Bureau right now. It's because the outbreak of war requires manpower, so the original structure hasn't been adjusted."

Atro appeared thoughtful:

"If you want to achieve something, reorganizing the Military Intelligence Bureau's external operations is actually not wise, because it takes a long time. I can tell you frankly, without five to ten years of effort, it's very hard to fill that gap.

"But if we do something that His Majesty likes and benefits the Empire, that's different. It not only has immediate effects but also earns us political capital."

Yang Ming leaned sideways: "Target the nobles?"

"Yes, I have a large amount of evidence here of the Great Nobles embezzling military funds from local defense forces, but the forces involved are vast and varied. I don't have the weight to act recklessly."

Atro began to speak eloquently:

"Hanton, you might not be very familiar with the problems here.

"The local defense forces, at first glance, seem to have no connection with the Great Nobles who own territories. But according to a decree the Empire issued long ago, when local defense forces over-allocate for the protection of noble territories—meaning they increase warships beyond the standard—the resulting overspending is shared by the Empire's government, local finances, and the Great Nobles who own local territories in a 5:3:2 ratio. The method the Great Nobles often use is to have their private fleets included in the local defense forces' expansion and maintain their ships with the Empire's money.

"However, this is merely a relatively conventional and less harmful practice.

"When the hereditary nobility involve themselves with local defense forces, various acts of embezzlement and theft of local military funds become commonplace and very prevalent. The last time the insect crisis erupted, there was a serious issue of local fleets being underpowered and paper combat strength unable to reach designated battlefields.

"Now our front lines are at war, and there's a huge gap in military funding. I think it's time to reap a wave of these filthy rich swine."

Atro paused.

"Only you can do this, Hanton."

Yang Ming nodded, sitting there deep in thought.

Atro really didn't disappoint him.

This guy can be said to have no sense of the big picture at all.

With battles on the front lines, the most important thing is to maintain unity and stability at the rear, not to mention that there are thousands of private ships from the nobility currently reinforcing the front lines.

At this time, using the local military funding black hole to target these nobles would be equivalent to wiping out these private naval assets, wouldn't it?

Wouldn't that just add more internal fire within the Empire?

However, Yang Ming was still quite cautious.

The logical threats were looming overhead, and he couldn't afford any missteps now.

"My suggestion is to ask our third uncle."

"Uh, alright," Atro was somewhat troubled, "Hanton, my brother, my idol, we two can handle this. My third uncle will definitely be very conservative, we just need to inform His Majesty in advance."

"Our Military Intelligence Bureau is a department under the Military Department," Yang Ming said earnestly, "His Majesty's favor has a time limit, look at me, the Military Department's trust and support are what's most important for you."

Atro leaned back.

He wasn't about to call the old Emperor a fool...

"I'll contact them tonight."

"Alright, I'll rest for a while first," Yang Ming stretched lazily, "Take me to my place."

"Follow me," Atro laughed, "I even have a little surprise prepared for you."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.