257 Finding the spy within three days! (1/2)

The Qing Consortium's soldiers were getting pumped up from having just defeated the legendary Divine Arms Battalion of the Li Consortium. However, Qing Zhen immediately gathered from this ambush that the nanosoldiers were actually not that weak. If they hadn't received the intel in time, the Li Consortium would have really caused them a great deal of trouble.

Qing Zhen did not underestimate the Divine Arms Battalion's nanosoldiers and placed an unusual amount of emphasis on them.

Next to him, Qing Zhen's trusted aide asked, ”Do you mean the nanosoldiers shouldn't be deployed in such a fashion?”

Qing Zhen said, ”If these nanosoldiers were commanded by me, I would deploy each platoon separately to infiltrate through the forested mountains. They only need the intel supplied by personnel planted within the Li Consortium to easily coordinate a decapitation strike1.”

His aide nodded and said, ”I see. Sir, you are indeed wise.”

Qing Zhen looked at him calmly. ”I'm not telling you this so you can suck up to me but to arrange for more people to protect me.”

”Ah?” The aide was taken aback and could not understand why Qing Zhen was saying this.

Qing Zhen sighed and said, ”The Yang Consortium's nanosoldiers might be arriving soon. They're much smarter than the Li Consortium, so we have to strengthen our defense forces immediately.”

Then Qing Zhen looked out into the distant snowy lands that had just been plowed by the artillery fire. He wondered, ”Why is he everywhere?”

The soldiers around him were even more confused by this. Who was he referring to?

…

The atmosphere in the Li Consortium's command center was extremely depressing. A middle-aged general sat at the end of the long table in the room with a somber and sullen expression. Although all the seats at the table were filled, no one was saying anything.

”The Divine Arms Battalion has suffered a crushing defeat.” The middle-aged general said, ”All I want to know is why the Qing Consortium was aware of our Divine Arms Battalion's operations beforehand.”

Still, no one spoke.

In reality, a lot of the others were also puzzled by this. The Divine Arms Battalion had to keep the command center updated every day of matters like their battle plans' execution and current location. Everything had been proceeding smoothly, but a disaster still happened when they got close to the Qing Consortium's territory.

Based on the description of the Divine Arms officer, the Qing Consortium clearly knew which direction the Divine Arms Battalion would approach from, so they set up an ambush in advance. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to inflict such a large number of casualties on the Divine Arms Battalion.

The Li Consortium had been concealing their strength and biding their time over the years. But now that war had suddenly broken out, everyone was looking forward to seeing the Divine Arms Battalion's capabilities. In the end, they were almost wiped out by the Qing Consortium even before the battle had begun!

Why? Where did it all go wrong!

The middle-aged general looked to Hu Shuo on his left and said, ”A spy must have leaked the information. As Director of the Office of Special Investigations, you did not sniff out the spy in time. So you'll be bearing the main responsibility. However, this isn't the time to mete out punishment. You must sort out the issues in your Office of Special Investigations to make amends for your mistakes.”

Hu Shuo kept quiet as he looked calmly at the table in front of him. Honestly speaking, he was very puzzled as well.

Although he had other motives for staying in the Li Consortium, the Office of Special Investigations had always been functioning normally. An espionage battle would prove to be the most critical component during wartime. Sometimes, having the right intelligence could even influence the outcome of a war.

Although Hu Shuo had sniffed out quite a few spies recently in his course of duty, he kept some of them around in preparation for his future plans. But keeping them around did not mean he did not care about them. The identified spies remained under the surveillance of his Office of Special Investigations and were earmarked for greater use in the future. However, none of these spies could gain access to the secrets of the Divine Arms Battalion.

Suddenly, someone said, ”The private troops who swapped uniforms and vehicles with the Divine Arms Battalion haven't arrived at the assigned strategic location yet. I suspect this incident could be related to them.”

The middle-aged general frowned. ”Why didn't anyone report about an important matter like this earlier?”