In the Name of Divine Abilities

"Mm."

Lu Zhao answered and turned to leave the cafeteria.

Another wave of drowsiness swept over him, but he still couldn't sleep normally. As usual, he was in a mental state of "dead but not yet cold."

The lobby of the office building.

Lu Zhao walked into the somewhat noisy lobby, and the clerical staff and passing officers and soldiers instinctively made way for him.

"Officer Lu!"

An unmistakably excited and delighted female voice called out to Lu Zhao. It seemed that an unusual number of people were looking for him today.

Lu Zhao turned to see the young clerk he had met in the equipment room yesterday jogging toward him with documents in her hands, her every manner betraying the naivety of someone new to the working world.

She couldn't hide her feelings; her eyes were practically glued to him.

She handed him the documents and said cheerfully, "These are transfer orders from the personnel department. Congratulations on your promotion!"

Lu Zhao took the documents. There were two in all.

The first concerned his promotion in military rank and came from the personnel department at the next level up, the county.

[...Comrade Lu Zhao is hereby appointed to the rank of captain, effective June 5, 3242]

The second concerned a change of position within the border station.

[Order concerning the adjustment of Comrade Lu Zhao's position]

[Lu Zhao shall no longer serve as commander of the reinforced platoon of the border duty battalion and is hereby appointed operations and training staff officer at the border station]

[Military rank promoted from lieutenant to captain]

Chapter 36: Transfer

That was decisive.

A cold smile appeared on Lu Zhao's face, but he suppressed it in an instant, making it look as though he was pleased.

Without Lü Jinshan's support, the operations and training staff officer would be sidelined. The transfer order was clearly meant to remove him from a frontline post.

The good news was that he had been promoted to captain, gaining both seniority and authority.

His pay would increase by 500, and his free allotment of life supplements would rise by one bottle.

In terms of seniority, he could serve as the commanding officer of a full company, and the maximum number of people he could command rose from sixty to a company's 120.

As for promotion to field officer, Lu Zhao had a second-class merit award whose processing Lü Jinshan had held up; it wouldn't be finalized until the end of the year. Now that he had been promoted to captain, Lu Zhao could apply at year's end to shorten the time required before promotion to field officer.

Originally, he would have had to wait another year, and it would have been the year after next at the latest before Lu Zhao had a chance of promotion.

That was also what Lü Jinshan least wanted to see. In the Federation, everything had to follow the rules. Once Lu Zhao was promoted, there was no way he could push him back down.

Just as he could only transfer Lu Zhao to a position of equal rank now, the one thing he could probably pin his hopes on was keeping him stuck as operations and training staff officer.

But it was already too late.

Power within the organization could not be converted into authority, and the effectiveness of an order did not lie in a stamp.

His position as operations and training staff officer was nominal, but the junior officers held real power.

The station chief's office.

Lu Zhao stood outside and knocked three times on the door, neither too hard nor too softly. When he heard a "Come in" from inside, he pushed the door open and entered.

Behind the broad desk, Lü Jinshan was bent over a stack of documents, his expression intent.

Lu Zhao laughed inwardly. The border station had a multitude of affairs, but most were handled by the deputy chiefs in charge and officers at various levels. There was no need for the station chief to attend to everything personally.

After four years at the border station, he had long since seen through Lü Jinshan's habit of shirking his duties.

He dumped all the specific tasks and hard work on his subordinates, while he sat back with tea and a newspaper and enjoyed the fruits of their labor, only making his presence known when there was something to sign or credit to snatch.

He stood at attention and saluted. "Lu Zhao, transferred to serve as a staff officer in the operations and training section, requesting instructions on when to report for duty."

"Mm."

Without looking up, Lü Jinshan continued working on the documents.

Lu Zhao stood ramrod straight five paces away, and half an hour passed like that.

In the end, Lü Jinshan was the one who couldn't keep up the act. His neck was aching from keeping his head down. He glanced at Lu Zhao, who stood straight as a pine, and their eyes happened to meet. Lü Jinshan immediately looked away, somewhat awkwardly.

Ever since Lu Zhao had accepted the order without hesitation that day, Lü Jinshan had felt an inexplicable fear and hostility toward him.

In Lu Zhao, he had seen the spirit that belonged to that stirring era decades ago.

"Captain Lu, congratulations on your promotion."

Lü Jinshan put down his pen and smiled insincerely. "You've been at Ant Ridge Border Station for four years now, haven't you?"

Lu Zhao didn't answer, watching him quietly.

In keeping with discipline, he could only offer basic respect. Playing along with the other man's insincerity was not part of that.

"With your education, you normally wouldn't have stayed at our border station. Do you know why you're still a platoon commander today?"

The smile gradually faded from Lü Jinshan's face. Without waiting for Lu Zhao to answer, he continued, "It's not because of Marquis Chen. Someone like you won't get anywhere no matter where you go. Being an official isn't an exam. There are many things that can't be put down on paper."

This was the first time Lü Jinshan had openly fallen out with Lu Zhao.

In the past, no matter what happened, the other man had never brought matters into the open, nor had he ever said he intended to hold Lu Zhao back, or even criticized him.

In public, Lü Jinshan had always been full of praise for Lu Zhao. Only recently had he begun to voice criticism.

Because he was rattled.

Lu Zhao was certain of it. When someone who always liked to hide a knife behind a smile suddenly acted tough, it was often when he was at his weakest.

"I can get you promoted, but you and Zhang Like must stop what you're doing. I know what you're up to, and I have ways to deal with you."

"But there's no deep-seated grudge between us. There's no need to let things get so strained."

The hardness faded from Lü Jinshan's face, his expression gradually softening as he put on a friendly manner again.

He reached out, took the document, and stamped it. "I can get you promoted, and at the end of the year I'll help you apply for promotion to field officer. With your education and merits, it'll be easy for you to make major next year."

Lu Zhao took the document he handed over, then looked up at that round face.

He seemed to regard what Lu Zhao was owed as a favor.

Lü Jinshan asked again, "What do you think, Captain Lu?"

He couldn't keep holding Lu Zhao back forever anyway. By the end of next year at the earliest, or the year after next at the latest, Lu Zhao would have to leave the border station and would probably be assigned to a dead-end office somewhere.

He might as well offer a favor that cost him nothing...

Lu Zhao said, "My promotion is the Federation's decision, not yours personally."

With that, he turned and left without looking to see how Lü Jinshan's expression changed. Naturally, he didn't care whether the man was angry, either.

He simply strode away without stopping for a moment.

Now, offense and defense had changed places.

After passing through the lobby on the first floor, he came to the far end of the corridor behind it, where the duty squadron's rather old office building stood.

Before Lu Zhao drew close, he saw a group of soldiers gathered in the distance. Every one of them was from his reinforced platoon.

In the middle of the crowd, Liu Qiang was confronting an officer, his neck stiff, apparently arguing about something.

"What's going on?" Lu Zhao's calm voice wasn't loud, but it carried sharply.

Everyone turned to look, and the crowd parted in a swish, every gaze settling on him.

When Liu Qiang saw Lu Zhao approaching, he immediately found his anchor. He pointed at the short-browed junior officer opposite him and said, "Brother Lu, he wants to bring people in to move the things out of your office. He says you've already been transferred from your post."

"Address me by my position while on duty."

After that reprimand, Lu Zhao turned his gaze to the junior officer arguing with Liu Qiang.

He recognized the man: Lü Jinshan's number-one lackey, Liang Fei, the former operations and training staff officer.

His main job was to draw up training plans and assess the troops, and for the past four years he had found all sorts of ways to make trouble for Lu Zhao. When Lu Zhao had first arrived at the border station, he had used his authority to assign him a heavy training load and the toughest posts.

Later, Lu Zhao became commander of the reinforced platoon and had a company directly under him. Unable to get at him openly, Liang Fei began resorting to underhanded tactics.

When drawing up training plans for companies and platoons, he deliberately assigned the reinforced platoon a workload far beyond the normal intensity.

Unexpectedly, however, that also gave Lu Zhao the chance to forge his men into a cohesive unit. Under his leadership, every assessment the reinforced platoon completed strengthened its internal unity a little more, until it ultimately became a solid block of iron.

By now, even Zhang Like had no say in the reinforced platoon. It was Lu Zhao's foundation at the border station.

Under Lu Zhao's gaze, Liang Fei's former arrogance gradually ebbed away, and his head drooped involuntarily.

He said, "Platoon Commander Lu, this was decided by the higher personnel department."

"I did receive transfer orders." Lu Zhao pulled out the document. "But the handover procedures haven't been completed yet. You're already in such a hurry to clear out my office, Staff Officer Liang? So eager to contribute to border defense?"

Beside them, Liu Qiang added, "Sir, he also wants us to draw up a new flood-control plan. He says our work arrangements are inadequate. But it's already June, and the planned observation posts are all set up. How are we supposed to change it?"

Hearing this, Lu Zhao frowned and said, "Go back and finish the handover procedures before you come looking for me."

Liang Fei was the type to bully the weak and fear the strong. He didn't confront Lu Zhao head-on, either; he assented and left.

Chapter 37: Disagreement over Border Defense

Liang Fei was gone, but the reinforced platoon's soldiers erupted.

"Sir, you're not really leaving, are you?"

"To hell with the transfer order! Let's take it up with station headquarters. We have to let them know our reinforced platoon isn't made of clay."

"That's right! The commander has led us to earn merit several times. What gives them the right to transfer him just like that? And they even sent that bastard Liang Fei."

"What can that lackey do besides torment people and kiss ass? Last exercise, his reckless commands almost sent Third Squad over a cliff."