Chapter 261 Ren Xiaosu’s promotion
After the Office of Special Investigations located the private troops, they went back to make a report. On their way back, they heard others say that some problems had been encountered at the front line. The Divine Arms soldiers that were retreating had been killed at the front line of Mt. Fengyi by a sniper.
While heading back, they even saw the corpses of the Divine Arms officers being transported back to Stronghold 108. However, this had little to do with them. Their mission was considered complete since they had already located the whereabouts of the private troops.
The command center was constantly being shifted further north since nothing could be done if the generals kept remaining behind at the rear.
Currently, the command center was located 30 kilometers behind Mt. Tantou and was only around 80 kilometers from where Ren Xiaosu and the private troops were stationed.
When they got to the command center to look for Hu Shuo, they handed over the private troops’ roster before reporting on the current situation of the private soldiers. They also expressed their doubts over how the five Divine Arms Battalion officers were supposedly killed by plants.
Hu Shuo sat in the tent and flipped through the roster. But after flipping through just a few pages, he noticed a familiar name. He instantly figured out a lot of things. He did not have to reason or think it through since that name was as good as the answer.
Hu Shuo let out a sigh. As it turned out, the Divine Arms Battalion had swapped their uniforms and vehicles with the private troops that guy was in.... In that case, they could only blame themselves for being unlucky. If they had exchanged their vehicles with any other private troops, an incident like this would have been avoided.
A Special Investigations officer asked when he saw Hu Shuo frowning, “Sir, what’s the matter? Is there a problem with the roster?”
Hu Shuo came back to his senses and said with a smile, “No, I was thinking of something else.”
“Oh.” The Special Investigations officer heaved a sigh of relief. He thought he had missed out on some details. “Then should we conduct a thorough investigation of these private troops again? I feel like there’s something off about them.”
Hu Shuo said sternly, “These private troops already have their wages and benefits mostly withheld from them, and they don’t have any means of communication with the outside world, so the problem shouldn’t lie with them. There aren’t too many people who know about the Divine Arms Battalion’s secrets either, so we should still start investigating from the higher-ups.”
“Yes, sir.” The Special Investigations officer replied, “We’ll focus on investigating the spy among those in the higher-ups then.”
“Mhm.” Hu Shuo nodded. “But don’t touch anyone from the Li Consortium.”
With the tone set, they would thoroughly investigate all higher-ups and leaders, except those who were family members of the Li Consortium.
Thinking about this, Hu Shuo couldn’t help feeling somber. Who knew what other trouble Ren Xiaosu would cause?
At this moment, another Special Investigations officer came in from the outside and walked up to Hu Shuo. He reported in a whisper, “Sir, we found something unusual.”
“What did you find?” Hu Shuo was taken aback.
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“An officer from the Supply Division has suddenly nominated someone for a promotion. It’s like he’s skipping the chain of command to promote a private soldier,” the Special Investigations officer said.
Hu Shuo paused. “What’s the name of the soldier who was nominated?”
“Ren Xiaosu.” The Special Investigations officer asked, “Should we investigate them?”
Melancholic, Hu Shuo waved it off. “There’s no need. Our Office of Special Investigations has to follow up on the big case that’s the Divine Arms Battalion, so there’s no need to trouble ourselves with such a trivial matter. There will definitely be issues of bribery and corruption within the private troops, so don’t waste your energy on such matters.”
The Special Investigations officer bowed his head. “Yes, sir.”
After all the officers of the Office of Special Investigations left, Hu Shuo almost flipped the table. Ren Xiaosu was fucking running rampant! He had to be doing whatever he liked because he was banking on Hu Shuo not daring to touch him!
The private troops Ren Xiaosu was with were still encamped at the same spot. Even though a lot of them were close to starving to death, none of them dared to move outside in the face of a threat like the Brambles.
In the evening, a group of officers from the Personnel Division suddenly came to the camp. On the way here, they were grumbling, “We had to travel all the way here into these forested mountains just so that we could appoint an officer? Does this private troops’ officer have no conscience? How dare he sell the comms radio in exchange for money!”
When they arrived, the private soldiers lifted the flaps of their tents and sized them up. “You people are?”
“I’m Tang Wanyi from the Personnel Division. Everyone, gather over here,” Tang Wanyi said.
The private soldiers all lined up in front of Tang Wanyi with confused expressions on their faces.
Tang Wanyi asked, “Who is Ren Xiaosu?”
Ren Xiaosu walked out of the formation and said, “Reporting in, sir. I’m Ren Xiaosu.”
“OK.” Tang Wanyi glanced at Ren Xiaosu out of the corner of his eye. “Congratulations. As Liu Taiyu, the commander of the Iron Second Battalion, is still injured and unconscious, we are specially appointing Ren Xiaosu as the acting commander of the Iron Second Battalion to lead the troops and carry out operational orders.”
Ren Xiaosu said excitedly, “Really, sir?”
“Why would I be lying? Come and sign your appointment letter,” Tang Wanyi said disdainfully.
Ren Xiaosu hurried over to sign it and prepared to go back into camp after that. However, Tang Wanyi suddenly pulled him back. “Aren’t you going to celebrate with us?”
“Celebrate?” Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “How should we celebrate? Why don’t I do the splits for you, sir?”
Tang Wanyi was dumbfounded. ‘Why would I want to watch you do the splits?’
Actually, this was something the private army practiced. Promoted officers were required to reward those from the Personnel Division with some kickbacks as a form of celebration. Tang Wanyi was aware that someone had spent more than 100,000 yuan just so that Ren Xiaosu would be promoted. It was obvious how much of a cash cow Ren Xiaosu was!
Why else would Tang Wanyi be willing to run all the way here? His legs were almost broken from traveling here!
If a promoted officer was not sensible and did not know how to honor his seniors, he could forget about getting promoted again in the future.
Naturally, Ren Xiaosu knew about this. However, he didn’t plan on giving a single cent to this guy in front of him. Who knew if he would have an opportunity to run away from here soon? In that case, how could he possibly waste money on something like that!
Tang Wanyi said coldly, “Think about it carefully.”
Ren Xiaosu played dumb. “What are you talking about?”
If there were not so many people around, Ren Xiaosu would have used his identity as a member of the Office of Special Investigations to arrest Tang Wanyi for being a spy. But thinking about it carefully, he knew that he shouldn’t always be causing trouble for Hu Shuo. What if Hu Shuo really got annoyed?
Tang Wanyi was livid as he led his men away. This was the first time in many years that the Li Consortium’s Personnel Division had encountered such a blockhead. He ordered those around him, “After we get back, put this Ren Xiaosu on the blacklist. Make sure he never ever gets promoted again in this life. When the war ends, I want him stripped of his rank!”
Ren Xiaosu looked at Chen Wudi and asked softly, “Wudi, what are they muttering about?”
Chen Wudi lowered his voice and said, “Master, they said they want you stripped of your rank at the end of the war.”
Ren Xiaosu chuckled. As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words. The Li Consortium was so confident of themselves that they kicked off the war, yet the men under them were all a bunch of good-for-nothings. They were definitely not going to be a match for Qing Zhen.
In addition to that, the Yang Consortium’s soldiers were also biding their time at the border while Li Shentan and Hu Shuo were stirring up trouble internally. It would be really difficult to say what would become of the Li Consortium at the end of the war.
Besides, it wasn’t like Ren Xiaosu was planning on living here under the Li Consortium’s rule anyway, so as if he cared about what happened to them after the war!