Leak Incident

When Paul returned to the hall, the officers were still enthusiastically discussing the next phase of operations.

He shouted impatiently, "Stop! All of you, stop!"

The others looked at him, puzzled. The Earl had been out for a while; could he have consumed some of his own invented Gunpowder?

"Our secrets have been found out, it's infuriating!" the Earl said indignantly, then embellished the story of his meeting with the two clergymen, how they were suspicious and probing, and how he had to humble himself to prove his innocence.

"What? Those two are too rude, not even respecting their lord because of their clerical status?"

"Earl, you have the right to expel them from the territory and ask the bishopric to send a polite priest."

"Strange, Father Anderson doesn't seem like that kind of person. My family lives near the church, and he's usually very kind."

"Yes, I know Dean Leonard too. Although he's a bit rigid, he's a very good person."

Knight Schroder slammed the table, and everyone immediately stopped talking and looked at him.

"Gentlemen, I think you're focusing on the wrong thing. Some soldiers disregarded the ban and divulged military secrets to others. Even if they are clergymen, who can guarantee that there are no corrupt individuals among religious people? If they exchange our secrets with our enemies for some benefit, it will cause immeasurable losses to our army. That's what the Earl is worried about, am I right?"

"Yes! That's right! You... you!" Paul said with heartache, looking at them as if they were disappointing. How could the officers he promoted be so lacking in vigilance?

The officers looked at each other, their faces flushed, and the hall was filled with awkwardness.

Finally, Bryce broke the silence: "Sir, what do you think should be done about this?"

"What else can be done? This matter must not be ignored. Investigate! We must find out who leaked the secret. Anyone who went to the church after the battle is a suspect. Better to kill a thousand by mistake than let one go."

Two days later, the leaker was found, and a public trial was quickly held to use this negative example to draw a red line in the minds of all officers and soldiers.

"...The harm of leaking secrets is clearly stated in the confidentiality regulations... Being indiscreet means not valuing the lives of your comrades... Even clergymen may have corrupt individuals..."

In front of the entire army, the Earl lectured for two hours, his spittle flying.

Finally, he looked at the leaker kneeling on the ground, trembling.

"Now, I sentence..." Seeing the leaker tremble even more, he hesitated, but in the end, he couldn't bring himself to be ruthless. "Considering this is the first time such an incident has occurred, I will temporarily sentence him to 10 years of hard labor. But if a similar incident occurs again, I will definitely hang the offender, and I mean it."

All the officers and soldiers were horrified, but the leaker was as if granted amnesty, kowtowing like pounding garlic. "Thank you, sir, for not killing me."

The leak reminded Paul Greiman that it was time to establish an intelligence agency, not only for military affairs but also for political and economic intelligence as the territory developed. Another important aspect was protecting their own secrets and preventing other forces from spying on them.

He sought out Philip, the most loyal and reliable steward, to discuss the matter, but the old steward said he was not up to the task and recommended someone else to be in charge.

He was surprised: "Cecil? I don't think he's reliable. I remember on the day I took over as lord, he said I was 'just a child, what could I possibly understand?'"

"Can't you see? He was cooperating with Bryce. Later, Bryce's performance shocked those with ulterior motives."

So that's how it was? One played the red face, and the other played the white face.

"The Cecil Family has also served the Greiman Family for generations, following your ancestors before the exile to Northwest Bay. Old Cecil was once your grandfather's intelligence chief and had a lot of experience in espionage. Cecil learned many skills from his father, but after your father took over as lord, he thought espionage was unnecessary and sent him to manage forestry."

"Oh?" Paul became interested. This was really like getting a pillow when you're sleepy.

"How about this, call him over, and I'll see what kind of person he is."

In the afternoon, the forestry director Cecil came to the lord's castle. Paul probed him in the conversation and felt that there was no problem. So, that day he deliberately pretended to cooperate with Bryce?

So he announced the appointment of Cecil as the territory's intelligence director and continued to serve as the forestry director until a suitable successor was found.

"Thank you for your hard work, but I will pay you double the salary."

"Serving the lord is my duty, I dare not say it is hard work." Cecil knelt on one knee, sweeping away his previous gloomy appearance, and said solemnly.

"Very good, get up. Let's go to my study and talk in detail about how to start the work in the future."

Paul and Cecil discussed the establishment of the intelligence agency and the protection of secret matters in the territory in detail in the study. He didn't know how the espionage technology in this world was, so he brought up some things he had seen in online street stall novels in his previous life for reference. Cecil agreed with the following measures:

1. The secret matters in the territory are divided into three levels: secret, confidential, and top secret. "Top secret" is the most important secret, and its disclosure will cause particularly serious damage to the security and interests of the territory. "Confidential" is an important secret, and its disclosure will cause significant damage to the security and interests of the territory. "Secret" is a general secret, and its disclosure will cause damage to the security and interests of the territory.

2. Personnel involved in secrets are divided into three levels: "core personnel involved in secrets," "important personnel involved in secrets," and "general personnel involved in secrets." Core personnel involved in secrets can access top secret, confidential, and secret information. Important personnel involved in secrets can access confidential and secret information. General personnel involved in secrets can only access secret information.

3. A dedicated agency needs to be established to manage confidential matters, responsible for classifying the levels of confidential matters and evaluating the levels of personnel involved in confidentiality. The provisional name for the agency is "Bureau of Secrecy."

4. Even personnel involved in confidentiality with high security clearance shall not have access to low-level confidential matters outside their scope of authority without the permission of relevant departments.

5. A dedicated code system for intelligence work must be established.

During the discussion, Paul learned that some similar measures in the above points had already appeared in this world, but Cecil was very surprised that a boy could know these things.

Finally, Paul requested that the focus of recent intelligence work be put on obtaining information about pirates, especially the Shark gang that occupied Zealand Port. He planned to completely eliminate all pirates in his territory within 3 months and open up a sea exit.

Cecil asked for a piece of parchment and recorded the details instructed by the Earl in detail.