Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 134: Spies and Traitors

After Max left, Pierce, who had just dealt with the chaotic situation at the city gate, hurried back to the castle.

"Sir, I have already conducted preliminary interrogations of these individuals whose identities are questionable." Pierce handed the interrogation records to Harvey. "These eight arrested refugees are all from the Southern Territory."

Harvey took the record and glanced at it. "Three from Grizzly Castle, and the rest from Daeus? Can the confession be guaranteed to be true and correct?"

"With the truth serum prepared by Mr. Egno and some of my interrogation tricks, it only took ten minutes for them to be quiet."

Asdaren continued, "Could it be that this is another trick played by Earl Fagan of Grizzly Castle?"

Harvey shook his head uncertainly. "Because of his previous conflict with me, Earl Fagan is under investigation by the Noble Court and the Union. He's probably already in the capital of Saint Valen, trying to find someone to mediate and exonerate him. And after I sent a sniper to intimidate him with the assassination attempt, I think he won't have the guts to come back and cause trouble for a while."

He paused, then tapped his fingers on the desk. "However, just because he doesn't show up in person doesn't mean he can't spread rumors about me to the noble circles in Saint Valen's capital. Those foolish and greedy nobles have every reason and motive to arrange for some rats to infiltrate my territory and gather the information they want."

These spies and rats that infiltrated the refugees actually posed no threat to Harvey. He seldom left the lord's castle and laboratory. Even if he had to go out occasionally, he was accompanied by at least a dozen loyal guards and several ruthless alchemy beasts.

Even if the opponent really managed to get a magic gun and shot him from a hidden place, his "innate bulletproof holy body" would make the opponent return empty-handed.

"Have the city hall officials pay extra attention to this group of refugees seeking refuge in the territory," Harvey said to Asdalen. "Have the police cooperate with them and secretly monitor their movements. I want to know how they managed to infiltrate the refugee group."

"Yes, sir." Asdalen and Pierce bowed in response. Pierce's face looked a little gloomy. He was obviously very dissatisfied with the performance of his defense soldiers in this chaos. They were not as good as a rookie police officer who had just joined the police department.

"There's no need to be too harsh on the municipal officials and soldiers present. They were just following procedures, but they simply lacked experience in dealing with such situations..."

……

After dinner, Asdalen returned to the castle. "Sir, the general situation has been investigated clearly."

"It's true that most of these refugees are refugees from the wilderness. However, their original destination was to cross the Divine Spine Mountains and reach Worcestershire on the border of Darth. However, they were driven away by the nobles there and had to return to the northern border..."

"On the way back, many tax-dodging serfs and poor people from the southern border joined the refugee group. These rats and spies probably infiltrated the crowd at that time."

Asdalen asked tentatively, "Sir, why don't we just abandon these refugees? Drive them out of the territory to prevent further trouble."

Harvey immediately shook his head and refused. "No, no, no. No matter how many people those damn nobles planted in here, or how much time we have to spend digging them out, we can't drive away the refugees who came here on their own initiative."

He unfolded the simplified map of the Northern Wasteland he and Pierce had been researching and drawing. "Many refugee settlements in the southern part of the wasteland are now spreading rumors that my pioneer territory is accepting refugees and providing them with shelter and food."

"If I arbitrarily drive away these refugees who have come from thousands of miles away to seek refuge, once their plight is publicized, no one will be willing to come here on their own initiative anymore."

Harvey is not short of money or food, nor is he short of cement houses that can be built quickly in half a month, but he lacks a large working population to provide an endless supply of cheap labor for the industrialization of his territory.

"By the way, pick a few smart guys from the new police officers, the kind that look unfamiliar, and have them sneak into the refugee camp..." Asdalen asked doubtfully, "Does this mean...we should arrange for people to infiltrate the refugee group?"

Harvey smiled and said, "Of course, the police department can't just follow the formal procedures when investigating crimes and arresting criminals. It's useless to just wear a conspicuous uniform, wave a stick, and shout loudly. When necessary, they need to learn... uh, counter-reconnaissance and counter-infiltration..."

"You could call them... plainclothes police."

……

It was late at night, but the lights were still on in the officers' meeting room in the SADF camp.

Pierce sat at the top with a gloomy face, staring at the row of dejected defense officers below.

"Tell me about the embarrassing mess you made today when you arranged for soldiers to assist the City Hall in sheltering refugees at the city gate."

A battalion commander who was in charge of the guard duty that day stood up with a red face and began to explain hesitantly what happened during the day.

"City Hall officials are responsible for identifying and registering homeless people, so all you can do is stand there with your guns drawn, looking like idiots?"

"The Lord once said that the defense forces don't need to risk their lives to fight outside like the Northern Army. Your battlefield is within the territory, in our own homeland!"

"I want you to be extremely vigilant and protect the territory and the Lord as if it were your own family. Don't let a damn rat sneak in and cause trouble!"

Pierce became more and more excited as he spoke, and his hands clapped loudly on the conference table.

"Look, a young police officer who was temporarily assigned to assist you has performed a hundred times better than you. From now on, when it comes to territory defense and investigation, you can expect to be ridden over by the police and licked at their feet!"

The faces of the defense officers all turned red, and some of them secretly clenched their fists under the table without saying a word.

No one was convinced. The defense forces were already being constantly outshined by the experienced veterans of the Northern Army who had participated in the river valley skirmishes. Now a police department with overlapping functions had been established in the territory. It could be said that they were being bullied from both sides.

A young and energetic battalion commander finally lost his patience and raised his hand, saying, "Commander, what should we do next? I heard that the National Police Agency is planning to deploy some officers among the recently arrived refugees to identify those nasty rats and spies. Can we also participate in this operation?"

Pierce breathed a sigh of relief and said slowly, "Intensify your daily defense and patrol work. This is your most important job, and you cannot afford to slack off!"

"As for catching spies and rats, you naturally need to cooperate with the people from the police department..." Pierce remembered the "fishing enforcement" technique that Lord Harvey taught him casually when he was in the castle during the day.

"You and the police department need to handle this matter from two perspectives. Simply put, one side plays the good cop, and the other side plays the bad cop..."

(End of this chapter)