CHAPTER 811: CHAPTER 811: DAILY LIFE OF THE ALLIANCE FOREIGN AFFAIRS DEPARTMENT

The next morning.

The Alliance Building was as busy as ever.

Especially the foreign affairs department’s office area.

Since the Sticky Community opened the currency electronic settlement channel for member states, there have been different new faces coming here every day to "report" and ask if their settlement can also be connected to this system.

After all, most of the money issued by survivor settlements in the Wasteland actually has no circulation value.

For example, the Red River Alliance issues Red and Blue Tickets.

If it could be exchanged into Silver Coin or Cr, Dinar, even Falling Leaves Province’s Golden Lion Coins or Golden Camel, or even Poluo Province’s West Winds Coins, that would be excellent.

Though economic cooperation is not the work of the foreign affairs department, establishing diplomatic relations is indeed a prerequisite for cooperation.

If, in the past, the Alliance still needed to search other settlements in the Wasteland and proactively promote itself to the outside world, with the conclusion of the Battle of Heaven, this situation has completely reversed — it is now the settlements in the Wasteland that actively seek the Alliance in River Valley Province.

In a certain sense, Chu Guang is indeed fulfilling his initial promise — City of Dawn is becoming another form of an Ideal City.

Although the facilities of the former are far less luxurious than the latter, even survivors who have not settled in this settlement or those who have never been here can benefit from its prosperity.

And this characteristic is something the Ideal City does not possess.

As usual, the Alliance’s Foreign Minister Cheng Yan arrived at his office right on time for work, and casually tossed the intelligence sent by the Guards Corps into the drawer.

It was unexpected that this information would soon become useful.

And just as he anticipated, shortly after he had just sat at his desk, before the chair even warmed up, footsteps sounded down the hallway outside the door, quickly followed by those footsteps stomping in.

With it came the rough voice—

"Minister Cheng, I want to know what exactly is going on with your train!"

The one who came was Centurion Bennott, the Army’s ambassador to the Alliance, his secretary trailing behind, clearly showing this guy barged straight in here.

The angry face was hung with dark circles, evidently not sleeping well last night, yet perhaps worried about missing out, he still chose to disturb right as work started.

Cheng Yan didn’t feel any surprise about Bennott’s arrival, rather if he didn’t come, Cheng Yan would be curious about what tricks these Weilante people were up to.

Cheng Yan first gave his secretary a "go handle other things" look, then leaned back in his chair.

Watching the furious big nose with calm amusement, he crossed his fingers on his knees and said amicably.

"Dear Centurion Bennott, what happened that has you so distressed?"

Seeing this guy still pretending ignorance, Bennott squinted and glared at the indifferent guy.

"I received news, last night you guys reloaded the military supplies that were originally to be delivered to personnel in Bister Town onto the train."

"I heard about this," Cheng Yan nodded in a concerned fashion, "I heard our train is repaired again."

"Repaired? Is the problem about being repaired or not!" Bennott nearly pointed at the guy’s nose while angrily saying, "Don’t tell me all your drivers drank too much on the same day! Why are all your trains headed in the opposite direction!"

Speaking, he propped his hands on the table and said word by word.

"Aren’t you guys all about contracts? This is not what was agreed upon in the contract, you’d better give me an explanation!"

"An explanation hmm..."

Cheng Yan chuckled lightly, casually pulling open the desk drawer, retrieved a file bag and tossed it onto the table.

"Then please explain to me first, Centurion Bennott, what’s the matter with these things."

Seeing the file bag, Bennott’s heart went "thud" and cursed quietly.

Really, fear brings what you fear!

Though already guessed what’s inside, pretending ignorance, Bennott still calmly picked up the file bag and opened it.

Inside were drone aerial photos, besides that, a thumb-sized hard drive.

Looking at Bennott’s twitching brow, an inconspicuous smile flickered at Cheng Yan’s lips as he gently placed a holographic computer pen imported from Ideal City on the table.

"The hard drive contains recordings and images of how the arms departing from the Civil Official Wasteland were transported to Poluo Province. You can take them back and study at leisure, I have plenty here... Or I can play them here for you with my device."

"No need."

Just the photos were sufficient to form a complete evidence chain, playing the hard drive contents would be self-humiliation.

Completely torn faces, Bennott no longer disguised, threw the file bag onto the desk in front of Cheng Yan with a dark expression.

Truth be told, Cheng Yan quite admired the guy.

Despite having his secret shenanigans exposed, the tough expression on his face hadn’t changed a bit.

In terms of shamelessness, if Weilante people claim second, no one dares claim first.

"...Those are our weapons, where we transport them is our business! Not for you to stick your nose into!"

Having guessed this guy would say this, Cheng Yan spread his hands out, mimicking his tone said.

"Well the railroad is ours, where we take it is our business too, why come complain to me then?"

"You!"

Bennott glared eyes wide, clenched fists, but finally didn’t pound them on the desk, forcefully suppressing his anger.

The stockpiled arms in Civil Official Wasteland were astronomical, even using the Alliance’s logistical supply lines took half a year.

If he was to find a way to remove them himself, it would be nearly impossible! Otherwise, they wouldn’t have needed to borrow the Alliance’s railroad initially!

Besides, keeping them in Civil Official Wasteland wasn’t viable, not to mention weapon maintenance issues, leasing storage alone costs considerable money.

Moreover, if these weapons couldn’t be removed, the ten thousand troops couldn’t go home either, logistical expenses were no minor expense.

Though there’s a need for army station in Haiye Province, one ten thousand troops is sufficient, no need to station so many people.

And most crucially, these equipments aren’t the Civil Official Group’s scrap, but Eastern Legion’s assets!

Eastern Legion didn’t give these props for free, they wanted them to exert pressure on the Alliance through Armed Empire, forcing the Alliance to make concessions in issues like "trophy division", at least obtaining technology regarding "Perfect Life Form" held by Torch Church.

The result was only transport a sixth when the Alliance discovered, causing five-sixths of the arms detained within the Alliance’s territory.

This matter was clearly messed up!

Thinking of this, sweat seeped from Bennott’s brow, despite hesitation he ultimately bowed his head.

"...Mr. Cheng, we indeed handled this matter improperly, I assure you it will not happen again in the future."

"It’s not about handling it properly or not, it’s that you have already breached our contract," Cheng Yan stared intently at Bennott, continuing in a serious tone, "If I remember correctly, our contract stated that these weapons are to be transported to the territory of the Eastern Legion, and we are responsible for the transport from Brocade River Province to the western part of Luo Xia Province."

"Yes..."

"But now these arms didn’t cross the Great Desert but instead turned east and went directly south."

Seeing Bennott’s stiff expression, Cheng Yan continued with a faint smile, "If your understanding of contract compliance is that we must strictly adhere to the contract while you can renegotiate anything written in black and white at will, then I’m afraid I can only express regret."

"Wait... I know we handled this issue somewhat improperly, but I still hope we can solve this problem. After all, you wouldn’t want to see so many armaments and troops stranded within the Alliance’s borders, right?" Bennott’s tone carried an unintentional hint of threat as he said this.

Truth be told, he had enough grounds to be threatening.

After all, a force of over a hundred thousand, coupled with triple the ammunition, could form an extremely formidable power anywhere in the Wasteland.

Yet upon hearing this, Cheng Yan squinted his eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean nothing, just concerned about any potential mishaps."

Looking at Cheng Yan’s squinted eyes, Bennott nonchalantly continued.

"The Eastern Legion is not as easy to reason with as we are. You’ve detained so many of their munitions and troops stuck on the front line. Do you think they will let it go without a fight?"

Cheng Yan raised an eyebrow slightly.

"Oh? What could they possibly do if not let it go?"

"What could they do?" Bennott sneered at him, questioning, "How could you ask such a foolish question? What do you think could happen—"

"I think if they haven’t suffered enough yet, they can try again," Cheng Yan rose from his desk, staring directly into his eyes, speaking in an indifferent tone, "I’d like to see what these over a hundred thousand can do on our turf, whether they could turn the skies or what."

Bennott glared angrily at Cheng Yan, appearing as if he were about to erupt but ultimately did not lose his temper.

Cooperating with the Alliance on the Sticky Community related issues was a strategy set by the Marshal, and although he had a certain degree of decision-making power as the Ambassador to the Alliance, he couldn’t change the overarching strategic direction as a mere Ten Thousand Leader.

Besides, he belonged to the Civil Official Group.

The expansionists had been wiped out, and within the Eastern Legion, not many high-ranking members supported expanding eastward beyond the Great Desert; no one would accompany him in madness.

"Let’s wait and see."

His intense anger turned into ruthless words, and Bennott finally just gave Cheng Yan a hard glare before turning and walking out the door.

"Let’s just wait and see then."

Listening to the heavy door closing, Cheng Yan smiled faintly, tossed the folder back into the drawer, and then made a call to Chu Guang in the southern seas.

Once the call connected, he immediately reported.

"Mr. Manager, the legion’s messenger came over just now."

Chu Guang asked immediately.

"What did they say?"

Cheng Yan continued.

"Bennott expressed dissatisfaction with us, but there were no substantive actions, after all, they breached first, and canceling the transportation contract is to be expected."

Cheng Yan paused, then continued seriously.

"But that being said, given the legion’s nature, I don’t believe they will just let it go... I still suggest you don’t push them too hard."

Even though he had displayed a tough stance while communicating with Bennott earlier, it was merely a diplomatic posture.

The legion’s notorious bullying of the weak was well-known; showing any sign of fear would get them treated like idiots... much like how the Empire was treated.

In fact, much like Bennott, he personally didn’t agree with being too harsh in actions.

Ultimately, just as Centurion Bennott mentioned, with the Eastern Legion’s own logistics, it was evidently impossible for them to move all those munitions back.

If forced into a corner, they might just sell it cheaply to the looters in the Eastern Provinces, which could trigger another "Bone Chewing Chaos."

Considering the legion’s nature, this is something they’d absolutely do.

Though Cheng Yan left the unspoken implication unsaid, Chu Guang wasn’t overly concerned, just smiled mildly.

"I never intended to corner them, but they need to face consequences for their actions. As for the issues you’re worried about... rest assured, I am aware."

The matter was quite clear from the beginning; the Eastern Legion wanted to use the Triumph City’s Civil Official Group’s influence in the Poluo Line to exert pressure on the Alliance, while the Civil Official Group wanted to use the Eastern Legion’s munitions to handle their affairs.

This cooperation was inherently logical, but blame them for being too impatient.

As soon as the Mammoth State Authority saw tanks appearing on the front lines, they immediately realized there was a problem and went to the Alliance to file a complaint.

Now that the Civil Official Group had botched things up, the Alliance terminated the transportation agreement per the contract, affecting even the munitions the Eastern Legion intended to send back home.

Bennott must be fretting about how to explain the situation to the Eastern Legion.

Chu Guang was also quite curious about how the legion would handle this situation internally. According to the intelligence provided by brother Pangolin, the four legions were significantly stronger than the Triumph City’s Civil Official Group, and the Eastern Legion would hardly swallow this rage.

Though Chu Guang said not to worry, hearing his idle tone made Cheng Yan feel anxious, fearing he might not realize the gravity of the problem, and couldn’t help but ask.

"What if they sell the munitions locally?"

Chu Guang answered succinctly.

"No need for ’if,’ they’ve been doing that for quite some time already."

Cheng Yan was taken aback.

"Already... started?"

"Indeed, around last week, and the intermediaries are actually our people."

Hearing the astonished tone, Chu Guang smiled lightly, speaking in a gentle tone.

"That’s why I tell you not to worry; apart from deceiving us through clever tricks once, they’ve always been under our surveillance."

"They simply have not realized it."