Imperial Elite

Chapter 99 Joe is about to begin his killing spree.
As an experienced general, Joe knew very well that the better the secrecy before a military operation began, the better the operation would be.

So although Joe's anger could ignite the entire North Sea, he did not rush to mobilize troops to launch a purge of Sinn Féin on Emerald Island.

Instead, aside from intensifying the training of the commandos and having the intelligence agencies continue to increase their infiltration efforts, Joe focused most of his attention on advancing the construction of the United Agriculture Corporation.

The journalists' reports on United Agriculture, along with Joe's introduction of United Agriculture in the first public broadcast, filled the university, one of the largest arenas of public discourse, with debates about United Agriculture.

However, the debate has shifted from whether the United Agricultural Corporation was a good thing to whether Joe's actions of forcibly pushing forward the United Agricultural Corporation without providing sufficient compensation to the landowners constituted an infringement on the property rights of the large landowners.

The debate on this issue has become even more chaotic in universities, where attitudes toward Brittany were originally quite clearly divided.

People from the six northern counties were mostly staunch supporters of Bunitania, while those from the twenty-six southern counties were less supportive of it.

However, after Joe started promoting United Agriculture, whether or not to support Joe and United Agriculture became a question that could instantly reveal a person's family background.

People from landlord families generally believed that although the United Agricultural Company seemed good, it didn't pay enough money, which clearly infringed on the rights of landlords.

While such debates are complex within university forums, they are virtually nonexistent outside of universities.

Almost everyone, regardless of class or social circle, collectively despised the landlords who had not joined the United Agricultural Company. This contempt extended not only to the moral level but also to the commercial level.

Since Joe said that in the first round of invitations, he had already invited the richest landowners who owned the most land, and you haven't joined the United Agriculture Company yet, it's clear that you're not one of the biggest landowners on Emerald Island, as you often claim. Your strength is only so-so.

This social pressure became unbearable for many landowners, leading them to join United Agriculture Corporation.

After all, although income has decreased, it is still income.

Only a few die-hard landlords are still stubbornly resisting.

In the real world outside the public discourse, United Agriculture's expansion has been remarkably rapid.

The Britannia ruled Emerald Isle for centuries. This long and continuous rule led many Emerald Isle residents to oppose Britannia's rule, feeling that autonomy and independence would be even better. However, they were not entirely certain that they could achieve independence.

However, unlike the uncertainty of whether independence can be achieved, the land owned by the United Agriculture Corporation can be obtained immediately.

Moreover, just as Joe said, the troops he sent to monitor the election did not care who the farmers elected as the district manager. As long as no one coerced or bribed voters at the election site and the vote counters did not cheat, these soldiers did not care who they elected.

In some places, villagers, out of a defiant mentality, even chose well-known anti-Bunitanian figures from the surrounding area. After the election, the soldiers would tell this person, "Now you are the regional manager of the United Agricultural Company. How to divide these lands is up to you. We're leaving now. We'll come back for the next election."

This approach has baffled even the most ardent separatists. Over the years, countless governors of Emerald Isle have come and gone, and each one has tried to change things.

They were all lying and making empty promises, saying they would treat the Emerald Isle people equally, but in reality, the Emerald Isle people were relegated to second-class citizens on their own land.

Could it be that the Buntanians are about to do something good? That can't be!
Indeed, this is true. Anyone with even a slight understanding of agriculture knows that since humanity began developing agriculture as a technological field, the number of people who have died in conflicts over land and water resources is greater than the number of people who have died in all the world's major wars.

When Joe divided the land under the United Agriculture Corporation, he did not follow the traditional geographical divisions. Instead, Joe divided the land by grouping together areas in the south with serious rebellious tendencies and areas with traditional conflicts. In some cases, land belonging to County A was assigned to County B, and land belonging to County B was assigned to County A.

Furthermore, the core of Joe's meddling lies in the fact that in the division of the entire agricultural region, there must be at least one ethnic conflict or water source conflict, and sometimes both.

Aren't you all planning to unite against Bonitania? Well, now's the time for you to show your unity.

So, after excitedly receiving the land, these farmers, who were ready to start a new life, soon discovered that although they now had land and the Bunitarians really didn't care about them, they still couldn't farm properly.

Because regional discrimination, like racial discrimination, is part of the ancient, underlying code of humanity. Just as people from southern Jiangsu look down on people from northern Jiangsu, and people from Shanghai look down on everyone, this kind of regional discrimination still exists even on Emerald Island.

Meanwhile, since agriculture has always been a water-intensive industry, in some places, in order to compete for water resources, different towns can even erupt into battles involving tens of thousands of people, as if they have brought out machine guns and artillery.

Although Emerald Isle receives abundant rainfall throughout the year, enough to prevent a near-civil war over water resources, the main crops on Emerald Isle, such as pasture and grains, and even potatoes which are considered vital to the islanders, are all susceptible to significant yield reductions or even total crop failure if not irrigated in time during their growing season.

Furthermore, animal husbandry is also an important part of Emerald Island's agriculture, so without a stable and reliable water source, the farmers would be as panicked as if they were visiting a technical worker's compound without a condom.

In particular, when Joe delineated the constituencies for United Agriculture, he deliberately avoided existing councilor constituencies, so let alone starting to plant this year's winter wheat and barley, after retaliating by electing his own regional head.

The farmers felt that the land was being distributed unfairly and had objections to it.

Normally, in this situation, it would be the councilors or other government departments who would step in to coordinate. However, because several councilors' constituencies were mixed in during the land demarcation process, the councilors refused to budge an inch during the land demarcation in order to gain the support of their own constituencies, and the matter got stuck there.

The members of parliament refused to budge, which put Sinn Féin in a state of internal conflict.

Sinn Féin has started fighting a battle between its own two minds. The volunteers on Emerald Island don't know what to do in this situation, since those causing trouble are all their own people.

Do you want to persuade the old lady who sent her son into the army and told him not to go back unless he drove away the Bunitanias, to give up the land she had cultivated all her life, or do you want to persuade the uncle who risked being arrested by the Bunitania military police to protect his team members during the search and not want the land they were allocated?

Even worse, having gained land, those who were originally radical supporters of Emerald Isle independence have now become less radical.

These people felt that they had now acquired land and could live a good life as long as they could start cultivating it. If they continued to persist in the independence movement and truly angered Buntania, causing Joe to move south, they might not be able to keep their land.

Meanwhile, due to infighting among members of parliament, the volunteers on Emerald Island were unable to participate, and these farmers who had previously supported the independence movement began to feel disappointed with Sinn Féin.

In their view, while the Bunitarians were now serving them steaks on silver platters, and all they needed was a knife and fork to enjoy their meal, these Sinn Féinists couldn't even bring out a knife and fork.

Faced with this unresolved dispute, some farmers gritted their teeth and decided that since the Bunitania people had divided the land, shouldn't they also take responsibility for the aftermath, evaluate the land allocation issue, and clarify the land problem?

Then these farmers discovered that the Bunitarian government agencies they usually cursed had fled to the city. Even when they went to the city to find these Bunitarians, the Bunitarian civil servants unanimously said that this was part of the governor's initiative to promote autonomy on Emerald Isle, and that they should figure out how to allocate the land themselves, instead of letting them make the decision.

Amidst this wrangling, time slipped away bit by bit, and agriculture, unfortunately, is an industry where missing even a single time period means missing the entire year's harvest.

As time marches on and the planting season for winter wheat and barley draws to a close, these farmers, who were initially happy to have acquired land, are gradually becoming anxious.

Now that Joe has withdrawn from government agencies, the economic blockade of rural areas has become the least of his problems.

This time, however, they could no longer simply pass all the problems onto the Bunitarians as before, because this time Joe did nothing but give them land.

Even when Sinn Féin members publicly called on Joe in the newspapers, hoping he would intervene in the United Agriculture Corporation, Joe did not respond at all, as if they were communicating with an imaginary governor.

Because Joe in the north followed the existing order when dividing the land, and in many places farmers were still cultivating the land they had cultivated in the past, only now they would own most of the harvest, the already loyal north was now even more loyal to Buntania. They even had the leisure to mock the southers, saying they were useless, unable to even begin cultivating the land after it was divided in their hands, and were truly a bunch of fools.

While mocking the foolish Southerners, in the pubs of the North, farmers, full of hope for a bright future, raised their glasses to celebrate having the best governor they had ever had and to sincerely wish Joe a long life.

While the South was in chaos and the North was celebrating, what was Joe doing?

As the land issue continued to escalate, and the volunteers on Emerald Island fell into confusion, there were even times when the volunteers on Emerald Island split and fought amongst themselves because of the land issue.

Joe was rigorously training the commando team and equipping them with the appropriate weapons and gear.

This time, Joe's tactic of using two peaches to kill three warriors made his old friend think that Joe was truly cunning. While preparing to learn from Joe's experience and deal with the nobles in the city, Joe also began to learn some advanced training techniques from his old friend.

After all, as a ruthless man who has dealt with all sorts of monsters and demons in several worlds, and even charged at hell dragons with a lance, Joe's old friend also has some experience in training and organizing killing squads.

Although some of the necessary equipment is lacking, there is still a lot of experience and skills that can be learned.

And in fact, the equipment was not that lacking, because although Joe was mainly known for his military achievements, he was essentially a mechanical engineer.

For Joe, a mechanical engineer, making small gadgets was a piece of cake.

For example, since commando teams often need to conduct infiltration operations, they need weapons that are powerful and easy to conceal.

In addition to purchasing Browning's M1911 pistol from Citizens, Joe also designed a submachine gun himself.

Joe had already conceived of this submachine gun towards the end of the war.

After all, it wasn't a good idea to always carry three pistols on his person, and the mechanized and motorized infantry weren't very comfortable using rifles either. At the same time, Joe's experience in the North made him feel that the firepower of the mechanized troops was still insufficient.

The reason Joe hadn't had time to tinker with the gun was not only because he was always busy, but also because Britannia's equipment inventory was already quite extensive, and Britannia had manufactured too many light and heavy weapons during the war.

There is really no interest in developing another submachine gun after the war is over.

Even though this submachine gun is an optimized design based on the Sten submachine gun, apart from the improved safety mechanism, the entire gun only requires 70 parts, making it incredibly cheap.

As the Minister of Munitions, Winston also refused to equip the troops with the gun, and was even unwilling to conduct tests in advance.

Meanwhile, the army, which was undergoing a major downsizing, had no desire to add any new equipment to its troops. So even though Joe had developed the blueprint for this submachine gun in 1918, it remained unfinished because no one was willing to fund it.

Now that Joe was enraged by the assassination attempt, he didn't care that no one would buy the gun. He sent the design drawings directly to Rolls-Royce and asked them to manufacture the first batch of prototype guns for him, along with a matching silencer.

The submachine gun, codenamed "Anger," was then handed over to the commandos for testing and training.

This submachine gun features a side magazine, a rate of fire of 550 rounds per minute, is highly portable, and its noise can be significantly reduced when equipped with a suppressor.

The commandos had only one thought: why did this amazing thing only appear now? If they had this during a major battle, how many fewer people could have died while assaulting trenches?

With rigorous training, readily available weapons, and even after the South descended into chaos due to the United Agricultural Corporation, Joe felt it was time to make his move.

As the situation developed, based on intelligence provided by the intelligence agency, Joe compiled a list.

The main leaders of Sinn Féin were not on this list, and there were not many prominent figures on the list.

On the contrary, the list is mostly made up of minor figures who have only a little influence locally. However, these people all have one thing in common: their prestige or skill enables them to mediate local conflicts arising from land division.

Because these people are so inconspicuous, if something happens to them, even the most fanatical conspiracy theorists would not suspect that they were responsible, but would instead suspect that the other party, dissatisfied with the land division, was behind it.

The unexpected deaths of these people will completely ignite the already dangerous situation on Emerald Isle, but this time the anger will not be directed at the Emerald Isle Governor's Office or Bonitania.

Of course, besides these people who are about to become the fuse for total chaos, there are other people on Joe's list.

After Joe was assassinated, the guards commanded by Elena, who was in charge of security that day, went berserk on the spot.

These two people actually brought weapons into the venue right under their noses and shot Joe. For them, it was like walking on the edge of hell.

After all, although they had fought against the Teutons on the Eastern Front in the past and achieved considerable success, their fighting strength was simply not enough to compare with the battle-hardened veterans around Joe.

If we had to pinpoint any advantage they had over the veterans, it would be that they were absolutely "reliable" in every sense of the word.

So although Joe trusted them and gave them good equipment, the others generally regarded them as a bunch of pretty faces, useful but not entirely useful.

But now that this has happened right under their noses, these female soldiers feel that everything is completely over. Even if Joe still trusts them, what will others think of them? What will their families think of them?
So, right after Joe finished his press conference, the female soldiers pried open the mouths of the two women and extracted information from them about the structure of their organization and the list of members they knew.

If Joe hadn't stopped them, they would have gone to offer their blessings to these people that very night.

However, due to the inconvenient timing, under Joe's strong orders, these female soldiers could only choose to endure it. Later, as Joe intensified the training of the commando team, these female soldiers also expressed their desire to join the training camp and then wash away the shame of letting the assassin get in front of Joe and shoot him.

Just then, the NATO guards arrived at Emerald Island, facing a group of women who were considered short at 1.75 meters and average at 1.8 meters.

Joe thought it wouldn't be a bad thing to let these Lucia female soldiers receive commando training. After all, this commando unit is currently a temporary unit, and it would be a waste if it couldn't be officially established later.

As the situation developed in the direction Joe had hoped for, Joe issued the coded message for the assault team and Lucia's female guard to attack: "Release the dogs of war."

Unlike the commando team that, upon receiving orders, began to use their unique abilities to head south, Elena's guard did not need to go south, and Joe did not want to reveal his anger and make the matter too big.

Elena's guards needed to make those audacious individuals disappear without alerting anyone.

If necessary, this matter can be disguised as an internal conflict among the volunteers on Emerald Island.

So after receiving the code word in the training camp, Elena had the female soldiers bring their usual melee weapons. Before they set off, Elena reminded them, "Remember, don't speak Lucia."

(End of this chapter)