Munitions Empire-Chapter 1220: Victory achieved, withdraw from the position

The capital of Shu Country, Kangrao, in the room reserved for the Speaker, Liu Jing folded the newspaper and tossed it aside. According to the plan, he had already nearly finished selling Shu Country to Qin Country.

The Shu Mountain defense line had completely collapsed, with tens of thousands of troops surrendering without much resistance. Qin Country had already crossed Shu Mountain, and now Shu Country was in imminent danger. The capital was virtually at the frontline, and the once grand territory had lost all defenses.

Kangrao was filled with panic and unrest. Everyone was proposing an immediate surrender to preserve their strength. Many were fleeing—some escaped to Chu Country, while others simply fled to the Great Tang.

Liu Jing, of course, planned to leave too, though he was not heading to the Great Tang. He intended to remain here to secretly conduct a series of handovers with Qin Country, transferring Shu Country’s complete industrial assets to them.

This would provide Qin Country with greater national strength, enabling it to sustain itself longer in the upcoming competition between Qin and Tang and buy time to prepare for Eastern Continent strategies.

Everything was under control. Everything was progressing according to plan. Everything was so smooth—so smooth that it made Liu Jing suspicious.

He was naturally a suspicious person, and considering such an enormous, cross-border collaboration—a series of covertly executed plans that seemed rational but required extensive multi-party coordination—the success itself was something to question.

Although Shu Country wasn’t fully infiltrated, there should still have been a significant presence of Great Tang Empire’s spies, as well as the enigmatic agents from Chu Country, the "Chu Yangren"... Yet all these organizations remained inactive, seemingly unaware, which heightened Liu Jing’s sense of caution.

He had done his best to investigate this matter, and Qin Country’s intelligence department was also cooperating fully, but the other side truly appeared oblivious to their plans.

The intelligence agency of the Great Tang Empire within Shu Country had lost its previous prowess, completely devoid of its once-terrifying abilities to penetrate and investigate. They seemed to have lost their edge as Shu Country faced defeat after defeat.

"Selling Shu Country to Qin Country—how does this benefit Tang Country in any way?" This was the question lingering in his mind. Liu Jing certainly didn’t believe that Tang Country was entirely unaware of his maneuvers.

To him, Tang Country’s inaction was likely because the matter didn’t touch upon Tang Country’s core interests. In fact, the other side probably thought this incident aligned with Tang Country’s interests, hence their decision to feign ignorance altogether.

Liu Jing firmly ruled out the possibility that Qin Country’s Princess Ying Yue had used any sort of "honey trap" to influence the matter. Rather, he speculated that Tang Country was simply preoccupied with its invasion of Mirage Country and thus unable to focus on Western concerns.

To put it plainly, Tang Country couldn’t entirely eliminate Chu Country or Dahua, nor could it border Qin Country in order to stop Qin from annexing Shu Country. Since it couldn’t intervene, feigning deafness and blindness became the logical choice.

But why wasn’t Tang Country’s intelligence department exerting even the slightest effort to slow down Qin Country’s conquest of Shu Country? This plainly didn’t make sense.

Despite these doubts, which deeply troubled Liu Jing regarding the entire "strengthening Qin Country" plan, he truly had no more time left to ponder, so he chose not to concern himself with these peculiar questions for Emperor Qin Ying Duo.

His future lay in the Eastern Continent, with the unified resistance against the tyrannical Great Tang Empire, not in the Western Continent, not in the pitiable, cramped Shu Country.

Everything here would merely serve as stepping stones for his advancement, nothing more than a background to buy him time.

At this thought, he exhaled a breath of relief and looked at the young noble from Chu Country who had come to receive him. This person had pledged loyalty to Sofia long ago and had been covertly aiding Liu Jing in paving the way for his departure from Shu Country.

In truth, the noble was also a decent businessman; he had purchased a few small patents from the Tang Group and established a profitable machinery factory specializing in exporting precision gears to the Eastern Continent.

Indeed, the noble had another task: to discreetly steal some legitimate technologies, spreading the technologies deliberately leaked by the Great Tang Empire for immediate use by the Sofia Group.

Liu Jing spoke to the young noble from Chu Country, saying, "I’ve completed everything I needed to do! What’s next is your time to shine."

The noble from Chu Country nodded slightly and assured him confidently, "We understand! Trust me, the final flames of glory will inevitably engulf the darkness! The Great Tang Empire is destined for destruction, while we… we will claim the ultimate victory!"

Of course, he was brimming with pride, as their recent counter-surveillance efforts had been exceptionally effective, with the Great Tang Empire’s intelligence department failing to capture any of their operatives for a long time.

The clandestine theft of technologies was progressing smoothly; they had acquired many valuable technologies, significantly enhancing their reserves.

Those who had obtained the technologies had become key assets, contributing to various efforts in numerous places. On the whole, their flames of rebellion within the Great Tang Empire had already ignited, and the future belonged to them!

With Qin Country’s smooth annexation of Shu Country, Sofia Group’s strategic push had achieved a significant interim victory. What could be more exhilarating than this? They were about to cultivate a strong neighbor for the Great Tang Empire—Qin Country would be the next Dahua, obstructing Tang Empire’s eastern advance!

A beautiful woman entered Liu Jing’s room with a tray in her hands, knelt before him, and said with lowered head, "This is your new identity, Mr. Liu Jing."

It was undeniable that having a woman kneel and bow would make any man feel a distinct sense of exhilaration. No matter how successful a man is, he cannot refuse the sight of a curvaceous, beautiful woman bowing down before him.

At this moment, Liu Jing set aside all doubts. Ever since pledging allegiance to Sofia, he had gained enormous benefits in terms of connections and wealth.

He had never been short of women, but acquiring more high-quality women still filled this old man with a newfound vigor. Especially since he had little resistance to voluptuous women.

"Yang Luo? Merchant… quite a fitting identity." Liu Jing reached out and picked up the identification documents. He glanced at the photo printed on it, along with an identity that had nothing to do with him, then sneered as he looked at the other items on the tray.

On the tray lay wealth-representing checks, valuable property certificates, a plane ticket, and a ticket for a ship crossing the Endless Sea.

The money was provided by Qin Country, as Liu Jing’s assets and businesses were mostly in Shu Country. For him to leave, substantial compensation was unavoidable.

Qin Country was more than willing to pay this amount—having a nation’s leader sell out his own country wasn’t an opportunity that came by often. With Sofia acting as a mediator, Liu Jing had gained a bonus of an extra thirty percent for his assets.

Seeing the thick stack of checks denominated in millions, Liu Jing couldn’t help but grin. He was now a bona fide billionaire, soon to be a politically empowered billionaire at that!

The noble from Chu Country chuckled and explained to Liu Jing, "This identity will allow you to travel by the best planes to Chu Country, then board a ship from the relatively laxly inspected Nanshan Port… safely arriving at the Laines Empire."

Liu Jing reached out and gently stroked the face of the kneeling woman in front of him, laughing heartily, "Sofia truly is thoughtful."

"Don’t miss the flight." Seeing Liu Jing touch the woman’s face, the young noble from Chu Country tactfully excused himself, leaving the room. These kinds of amorous office encounters were a pastime he indulged in as well—stimulating, novel, and consistently satisfying.

As the noble from Chu Country exited Liu Jing’s office, he got into his car. Closing his eyes in the back seat, he instructed his assistant in the front, "Use the highest-level cipher to send a telegram to Lady Sofia… inform her that Liu Jing will depart tonight."

"Yes, sir!" The assistant committed the order to memory. Beside him, the chauffeur started the engine. The luxurious car hummed rhythmically, and soon, the noble from Chu Country fell asleep in the back seat.

Far away, in Chang’an of the Great Tang Empire, within the headquarters of the Imperial Security Bureau, a military officer carried a folder down a long hallway.

He knocked on the director’s door, and upon receiving permission, walked to the elderly man busy at his desk, withdrew the folder, and placed it before him: "Director, this is the document you’ve been waiting for."

"Interesting! Seems like they’re planning to retire with honor?" Li’ao lightly adjusted his glasses, the light reflecting sharply off them.

"Do they truly believe we’re completely unaware of their activities?" Li’ao raised his head, curious, and asked his subordinate.

The subordinate officer chuckled awkwardly, "If we don’t reveal the truth to them, they might never realize how thoroughly we understand their operations."

"They write each other letters, while we’re the postmen delivering them… and they actually think gluing the envelope tighter makes them secure." Li’ao sneered as he casually tossed the folder aside.

With the advent of supercomputers, deciphering codes had become as easy as playing games for the Great Tang Empire’s intelligence department. As long as the codes weren’t one-time-use, patterns could always be found. And where there were patterns… computers could handle everything.

"Now that they’ve finished their business with Qin Country, let’s have them bow out. Keeping them around would only waste our energy monitoring these fools." The director of the Imperial Security Bureau raised his head and ordered, "Pull the net tight!"

"Yes, Director!" The subordinate from the intelligence bureau stood at attention, bowed, and promptly left Li’ao’s office. He understood better than anyone that there were no secrets under heaven; for the Imperial Intelligence Bureau, there was just one exception.

In this world, only one individual remained truly mysterious—whose phone calls were never wiretapped, whose bedroom wasn’t bugged, whose surroundings were free from intelligence surveillance.

But this was not surprising, for to the entire Great Tang Empire, that person was absolute—a god, a faith, a beacon of everything!