The Department of Defense lay a little to the west of the Restricted Area, on the outskirts of the special district and some distance from the city proper.
When Lin Qi arrived at the Department of Defense, he was welcomed by a civilian Major General.
The current Secretary of Defense had been appointed by Mr. Truman, but he was already handling the transition, preparing to pass the authority in his hands to the next Presidential Cabinet's Secretary of Defense.
The Department of Defense would not grind to a halt just because power was changing hands. That was because the officers mainly responsible for its day-to-day operations were all "lower-ranking" officers.
They were called lower-ranking, but in truth, these people were the ones with actual positions. Even if some of them talked back to the Minister, they would not receive overly harsh punishment.
Although the person welcoming Lin Qi was only a Major General, judging from the structure of the Department of Defense, he already ranked quite high in terms of authority within it.
"Mr. Lin Qi!" The Major General was in his forties. He looked energetic and enthusiastic. "Come with me. Everyone's waiting for you!"
Lin Qi shook his hand and said, somewhat surprised, "Looks like I'm late."
The Major General quickly denied it. "No, what I mean is that we were all looking forward to meeting you sooner, Mr. Lin Qi."
"Too many bad things happened this year. The Military Clubs in the Central and Southern Military Region are all closed."
"We've received letters of complaint from many places. We also want to get them operating again as soon as possible, but as you know, this isn't easy to manage."
Pelius's faction had been uprooted from the army, and the Central and Southern Military Region had been filled with