Targeted Purge

Outside the Presidential Palace, Mr. Truman took out a cigarette case, took out three cigarettes, gave one to the two people next to him, and lit one for himself.

"Sixty days, do we really need that long?" he asked the Vice Minister Department of Defense beside him, who shook his head.

If we consider this time as the period from mobilization to its conclusion, it wouldn't take that long, let alone the actual process of a simple naval battle.

According to the Naval Headquarters Tactical Research Office, the naval battle would end in roughly 36 hours from start to finish, and the Federal would achieve a complete victory.

They equipped Preton's Pirate Group with the main warships currently in service with the Gefra Royal Navy, and expanded the intelligence on the number of warships belonging to the pirates, as well as their combat skills.

In other words, what everyone saw as a righteous war to eradicate pirates was, from the very beginning, viewed by the Navy Headquarters as a clash between the Navy and the Gefra Royal Navy.

However, the scale of this collision is not very large, and Gefra cannot use their main battle group, that would be too foolish. On the contrary, the Federal can send more warships and use their secret weapons.

With the will to fight but no will to fight, this war is impossible to lose! Truman listened to the Vice Minister of Department of Defense's explanation with a calm expression. After listening, he nodded and said, "Go tell the generals to make the conditions even more stringent, consider how to deal with the situation if we are in a bad position, and set more conditions that will make things difficult for ourselves."

"If we lose this time, neither the navy nor the army will see any further development in the next ten years!"

He spoke very seriously and earnestly, saying that this battle to exterminate pirates, which seemed insignificant to most people, actually determined the military and national fortunes of the Bayer Federation for the next ten years.

They could have avoided it, but they couldn't. If they avoided it today, others would take advantage of them, and the Federal would suffer significant losses in international interests. They had a compelling reason to fight. The only thing they could do now was to ensure that all tactics and plans were sound and to make every effort to achieve all the goals.

After the Second Vice Minister of Department of Defense left, Mr. Truman glanced at the few cigarettes he had left in his hand, took a puff, and then stubbed them out and threw them on the ground, sparks flying everywhere.

He turned to the top official of the National Security Committee's Action Division and said, "Let's get started, it's time..."

As diplomatic negotiations progressed, the war could break out at any time. In fact, Truman hoped to establish diplomatic relations smoothly, so that the war would only be a campaign of annihilation.

He did not want Nagaril to stand against the Federal. If a war broke out between the two countries, Gefra would have a reason to intervene in the war, and there was a high probability that it would side with Nagaril.

At that point, whether to protect their allies or to "uphold justice," they could mobilize their main battle groups and the Federal's navy for a full-scale naval war.

This is the worst possible outcome, but in such a major event, any wishful thinking is irresponsible to oneself and to the country.

Therefore, from now on, the National Security Committee will conduct a comprehensive purge of domestic spies, which will be a long-term process.

Although the Federal did not participate in this World War, spies from various countries are quite common here. This is probably because, although the Federal did not participate in the war, its advanced economy and technology give it great war potential, and people need to keep an eye on it.

In the past, the National Security Committee would not take action against these spies as long as they did not touch core secrets; that was the Federal policy at the time.

Isolation, lack of aggression and non-aggression, and mere defense are no longer acceptable.

With this matter settled, the entire national machinery began to move. If anyone had paid attention to the several Navy Base along the East Ocean coast, they would have noticed that warships were constantly coming and going, as well as many tugboats sailing in and out.

"They seem to have made up their minds..." an inconspicuous middle-aged man standing outside the Siris Port muttered to himself, watching the tugboats leaving the naval port in the distance.

He was dressed in very ordinary clothes, not particularly fashionable, but not outdated either. He was fishing, and there was a young man beside him who looked like his child or a junior.

Both of them were fishing. In this damned time, fishing not only helped them forget their pain but also filled their stomachs.

There were many people fishing on the beach, but these two were clearly different. They were constantly observing the movements of the naval port, arriving on time every day to record the types and numbers of warships entering and leaving.

The older angler was curious, though. "What are these tugboats doing?" he asked, as if to the people around him, or perhaps to himself. These tugboats had been coming and going these past few days, seemingly doing nothing, yet it always made him feel that they weren't really doing nothing.

Actually, these tugboats are towing those submarines. It sounds... a bit magical, but that's the truth.

While the submarines designed by Shep Shipbuilding are very close to the needs of current naval warfare and meet some strength requirements, their endurance during submersion is still somewhat unsatisfactory.

In order to conceal these secret weapons, the navy would use tugboats to tow these submarines to the designated sea area, and then let them surface on their own to sail.

To outsiders, the tugboats simply came and went without doing anything, but the two spies instinctively felt that something was amiss.

"Make a note of this; this news might be very important..." The older man glanced back and frowned slightly.

The port seems different today; there are some unfamiliar people on the pier extending from the beach.

As a deep-water military port with direct access to the East Ocean, Siris Port has long been the focus of espionage from various countries.

At least 30 percent of the people fishing at this pier come from different countries, and they all have the same purpose: to monitor the movements of the military port.

They had been lying low here for almost five years, meeting with the people here every day. He knew exactly who would appear here and what their names were.

But before he could even notice, several vehicles stopped at the end of the boardwalk, and some people who looked like soldiers, but had a different style, got out of the vehicles.

It may have been exposed.

The spy from Gefra wasn't particularly alarmed. In the past, there had been instances where his colleagues had been accidentally exposed. Aside from being interrogated and given a few lashes, nothing terrible would happen. In fact, the Federal counterintelligence department would eventually buy them tickets home! This has led to some spies operating within the Federal government not being as sensitive and wary as those operating elsewhere.

"That's about enough. Don't make things difficult for our Federal chicks." The older angler smiled as he reeled in his line, glancing at the bait that had disappeared from the hook before churning it back on with a smile.

There were already three or four fish in the bucket beside them, enough for them to have a hearty dinner that night.

The young man next to him also began to tidy up. Perhaps it was the first time this young man had encountered such a thing, because he was a little nervous. As he bent over, the pen in his chest pocket fell to the ground.

He used this pen to record many secrets, but they were not afraid that those things would be discovered by people, because they were all encrypted content. If you just read it, it would probably just be a diary. Only someone who knows how to crack the code can read its correct content.

The young man was bent over, his blood pressure was a little high, which made his face slightly red. As he bent over and reached to pick up the pen that had rolled around and gotten stuck in the crack of the wooden board, he stepped on the pen with one foot.

The young man paused for a moment. He looked up from the shiny leather shoe that reflected his own image, then at a pair of very high-end socks—you could tell just by the fabric—and a pair of dark gray trousers, the kind only government employees would wear on a hot day. Then he saw a person wearing sunglasses.

He looked around again; they were surrounded, and the agent playing his father was now under control.

The older spy gave him a wink, and he slowly raised his hands, straightened up, and looked at the people with some resentment.

To be honest, he underwent a lot of military training before being sent to the Federal as a spy.

He is proficient in hand-to-hand combat, various vehicles and firearms, and the cracking of all kinds of locks...

He was proficient in almost everything he was supposed to know. He felt like a magical agent from a novel or TV show, omnipotent, always able to gracefully escape danger like a gentleman dancing.

But now, he can do nothing but raise his hands. No one gives him the opportunity to use those abilities, which makes him resentful. If he were given a chance, he wouldn't surrender so easily.

A gun butt slammed into his neck, his vision went black for a moment, he lost his balance, and almost fell into the water.

With a shout of "Take them away," the two were escorted away.

As he was about to board the vehicle, the head of the National Security Committee Action Team glanced back at the crowd gathered on the dock, who were discussing the matter. He pointed with a half-smile, which caused a change in the expressions of the people present.

Because they all knew very well that many of these people were spies, spies from other countries.

The Federal National Security Committee doesn't arrest them not because they don't know about them, but simply because there's no need to.

For a moment, everyone's mind was in turmoil, and they vaguely felt that the Federal's attitude might have changed from before.