Doctor, I'm really strong!

Don't think this is a waste of time. The interview process is also a process of gathering intelligence. By observing the locals' attitudes and reactions to various issues, you can learn many details that cannot be found in newspapers, thus further increasing the depth of the intelligence.

This is also Yazaki's unique skill (in his own opinion). Many times, his intelligence reports look more refined than others because he has put in this kind of craftsmanship. Sometimes, even if he submits an interview transcript, it is still better than the reports of other intelligence officers.

It's important to understand that Syracuse doesn't have a proper intelligence organization. Expecting their intelligence warfare to be comparable to the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union is like asking John F. Jr. to marry Yui Aragaki—pure wishful thinking.

They successfully entered Kazdel, and then Yazaki was dumbfounded.

"This is... Kazdel!?"

As an intelligence agent who was always on the go, Yazaki had naturally been to Kazdel many times, but this time it had the biggest impact on him.

The narrow and crowded streets are gone, replaced by wide and clean boulevards. You could believe it if you said they were specially built for military parades. The shops on both sides look like street shops in a bustling metropolis. From this perspective alone, you could believe it if you said this was the capital of Colombia.

The last time I came to Kazdel was a year ago, and the Red Guards have been here for less than half a year. What has happened in these short six months? What kind of power could have turned Kazdel, which used to be full of slums, into what it is today?

Yazaki is an atheist, but what he saw before him made him begin to doubt whether God had actually descended to this place.

Just then, several people in uniform walked by, lined up neatly, as if on patrol.

So this place is still under military control. No wonder it's so orderly. But aren't these soldiers carrying weapons?

Yazaki noticed that these people didn't look like soldiers ready for battle at any time. Instead, they looked like low-ranking samurai maintaining order. Their clothes were more decorative than practical. Was this kind of attire really okay in Kazdel, where mercenaries were everywhere?

Wait a minute, speaking of mercenaries, it seems like we haven't seen many people carrying weapons along the way.

Yazaki glanced at the low-ranking samurai passing by and noticed that their uniforms had four characters on them: "People's Police".

He knew the people, and he knew the police, but putting the people and the police together, he suddenly didn't understand what it meant.

In Yazaki's memory, the so-called police in the Eastern Country were all low-ranking samurai who formed a violent organization. They were minor officials in the government and were people that lowly commoners like himself could not afford to offend. Sometimes they would act as bodyguards for noble lords, and sometimes they would accompany noble lords to collect taxes. They would cut people down at the slightest disagreement. Anyone who dared to disrespect them would be beheaded on the spot. People in his hometown were very afraid of these low-ranking samurai. After all, no matter how low-ranking they were, they were still samurai.

Samurai and the people seem like two completely different worlds, often even opposing forces. People's police are like people's samurai, so how did these two terms end up together? It's so awkward.

Thinking about this, Yazaki realized something else.

The police officers' badges were inscribed with Chinese characters!

No, it's not strictly speaking the script of Yan Kingdom. It looks much simplified. As a self-taught person, Yazaki has studied many things, and naturally has a good understanding of the character "Yan," which is considered a superior culture in the East. The insignia on these police officers are a simplified version of "Yan" (that's what Yazaki himself thinks), and it has undergone some modifications. But normally, "Yan" is the official script used by the government, and there's no question of it being drastically modified. Could it be...?

The Red Guards are actually a mysterious organization sent by the Yan Kingdom to carry out certain secret missions!?

Section 164: Journalism is a Good Profession

(There are three updates today (＾Ｕ＾)ノ~ＹＯ, what about everyone's rewards? (?ω?) I'm going to go write now (～￣▽￣)～)

Yazaki felt that his judgment was very likely.

Otherwise, there would be no way to explain the various clues that easily lead to associations between the Red Guards and the Yan Kingdom. Moreover, the names of the Red Guards and the Yan Kingdom sound like they belong to the same family, so these names on the surface are actually the biggest clue.

Wait a minute, what if this is some kind of scam?

Yazaki felt he had grasped the truth, but information cannot be based on speculation; otherwise, fortune tellers would be top-notch intelligence experts. Therefore, he needed solid evidence, but the question was where to begin.

The information available to the public can only provide inferences. The truly confidential information must be kept in places that one cannot go. If one could go to such places, it would be a waste of talent to be a low-ranking samurai in the Eastern Kingdom. One should at least become a great name.

The truth was right before his eyes, but he was not capable enough. After struggling with this dilemma like a cat's claws scratching at his heart, Yazaki decisively chose to give up. Caution and seriousness were his mottos, while recklessness and challenges were left to gamblers.

Just stick to being a reporter. Even as a reporter, the intelligence you bring back will be the most valuable.

Walking on the streets of Kazdel, Yazaki clearly felt the changes here, which were unbelievably large. In the past, every street here was filled with sewage, with only the areas where nobles lived being slightly cleaner. Streetwalkers were everywhere, and cheap, stacked houses were the dominant color.

Here you could feel numbness, decadence, and indulgence, but now it is a place of hope, cleanliness, and order.

Yazaki felt as if a switch had been activated within him, and he began taking photos frantically, hoping to record everything here and imagine himself living in such an environment. Before he knew it, he had used up all the film he had.

"Oh no, we've run out of film."

Yazaki was somewhat annoyed. Buying film in Kazdel was not easy, and the price was very high. It was because they didn't produce anything here and everything was imported, so prices were completely controlled by others.

But since film is an essential tool for journalists, Yazaki could only lament the cost to his wallet while searching for a photography shop.

Soon, Yazaki found a shop called Guangming Photography. The shop owner was very enthusiastic, but when Yazaki said he wanted to buy photos, the shop owner looked embarrassed.

"We don't sell film here anymore."

Yazaki was taken aback: "You don't sell film? Isn't this a photography shop?"

The shop owner nodded and said, "We are a photography shop, but nowadays we use these digital products."

As he spoke, the shop owner took out a digital camera. After a simple demonstration, Yazaki became very fond of the product.

This thing is small and exquisite, and the images it produces are much more detailed than those from my own film. Furthermore, by combining it with other different components, I can get even more exquisite images. It's practically a photography enthusiast's dream wife.

Developing photos has also become very easy. All you need is a printer and a stack of photo paper to print photos at will, with both the quality and price being cheaper than with film cameras.

Yazaki, who originally planned to buy film, ended up bringing out a digital camera, his face beaming with joy.

Hey, doesn't Terra have cell phones?

Yes, there are, but the truth is that Terra's Originium industry system cannot provide a large number of cheap and high-performance mobile phones to the market. The equivalent of a flagship mobile phone on Earth in 2020, if converted to US dollars, would be enough to build a desktop computer for $100,000 on Earth. The mobile phone that Chen Huijie is using is equivalent to the lifetime income of a poor person in the slums who doesn't eat or drink, and that's the kind of poor person who is relatively well off.

So forget about smartphones. In the communications field, phones similar to basic feature phones are more commonly used. To put it bluntly, they are phones with simple communication functions and some other features. You could call them miniature versions of the old-fashioned mobile phones.

If Terra had a large-scale industrial system, its market environment would probably be similar to Earth's, or even better, thanks to the Originium.

Unfortunately, Originium is a gift from the devil, bringing both benefits and costs, turning the continent of Terra into what it is today.

The industrial systems that can be integrated in mobile cities are nowhere near as large-scale industrial environments as those built across industrial zones on Earth. While they may appear to have high density, they also have limitations. Furthermore, because each mobile city has its own independent survival needs, they encroach on the space for industrial development. Even if you develop multi-level factories at all costs, the space for upward expansion is still limited. It's impossible for mobile cities to carry around a bunch of industrial pyramids.

Moreover, there are issues such as resource extraction, human resources, and urban planning. If we consider the needs of the global industrial system, Kharkiv's internal circulation requirement is at most that of a large steel plant, much like the state-owned enterprises of yesteryear, which resembled small societies.

The problem is that Originium disasters are like unpredictable subspace storms that can disrupt communication with the outside world at any time. If the mobile city has no internal supplies at this point, a famine could wipe out half the population.

The mobile city structures of the various countries on Terra today are all based on the experience gained from repeated battles, or rather, from the deaths of countless people. Those seemingly bloated and redundant designs are intended to leave more hope for survival for the people in the city when natural disasters strike.

However, Liu Jiuli's side, thanks to the support of the cheat code, gained productivity that surpassed the level of civilization in advance. This allowed them to quickly integrate a massive industrial system on a mobile city, eliminate the various shortcomings of the mobile city, and enable the mobile city to have a production capacity that exceeded that of Earth's industrial bases. They could support more people with less land and use the rest to build industry.

As a result, under the Red Guards' system, a large number of cheap industrial products quickly flooded the existing market. Now, people in the Longmen slums who have a little money can afford cheap smartphones, squeezing other competitors in the industry to the point of despair.

As for Steelgrad and Far Eastern cities like Kharkiv and Yansk, they were the Red Guards' backyard. Industrial products from other countries couldn't get in, or had a hard time getting in, mainly because they couldn't make money. They were completely defeated in terms of price and quality, and their marketing was several generations behind the Red Guards. If they could still fight, it could only mean that the locals had been mind-controlled by Yuri.

Yazaki was shocked by the low price of the new camera. After using it, he had completely lost interest in his old camera and was surprised to find such an unexpected find here.

However, Yazaki soon discovers that his unexpected gain is not just a camera.

Section 165: Our people are everywhere

(Second update, (～￣▽￣)～)

"Is this the guy?"

"Yes, that's him, a reporter from Syracuse named Yazaki, who used to be from the East."

W nodded and didn't say anything more.

Yazaki was unaware that from the moment he entered Kazdel, he had been targeted by members of the local Ministry of Internal Affairs. As a modern person who had experienced the shameless double standards of the United States firsthand, Liu Jiuli was acutely aware of the importance of intelligence work. The enemy would gather information about him through various channels, and many people who seemed unrelated to intelligence might very well be the enemy's eyes and ears lurking in the shadows. For example, journalists, businessmen, and embassies.

These are all considered open or semi-open intelligence agencies. As for freedom of the press, just take it with a grain of salt. Even the President of the United States, Trump, wasn't gagged. If it were those lowly commoners, they would just disappear and be shot eight times in the back in Garland and sentenced to suicide.

Even if the enemy's intelligence system is poorly made, it must be treated with high standards and strict requirements. Once an intelligence leak occurs, it cannot be remedied by simply replacing a few people. Better to kill the innocent than let the guilty go free.

However, even among intelligence personnel, different levels are treated differently. You can't do anything to those who completely abide by the law, honestly work as journalists and businessmen, and collect publicly available intelligence. After all, they are looking at the intelligence that your government has made public. Collecting this publicly available information is not illegal, unless you can catch them analyzing the information and providing evidence that they are engaged in espionage.

The most dangerous spies are those who lurk like moles, waiting for their chance to strike. Once caught, they must be dealt with immediately. Of course, with the right means and methods, valuable intelligence can be extracted from them. Liu Jiuli particularly enjoys interrogating these spies directly because he can extract their memories for further investigation. As for what happens to the person whose memories are extracted, that's not his concern.

When did you become a member of the Internal Affairs Department?

Not long ago, after Kazdel was completely controlled by the Red Guards, it fully recognized Liu Jiuli and offered its loyalty. Considering that she understood the local situation in Kazdel and was a former mercenary whose previous work was not much different from that of a spy, Liu Jiuli put her in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, mainly responsible for execution work. Higher-level command and planning were not her expertise, and she herself liked her current job very much.

It's truly delightful to lurk in the shadows and then strangle those troublesome rats one by one.

Another point is that he has always been bothered by Theresa's assassination, even though it was all part of a big plan, he feels that if he had been there, he might have been able to stop it.

Although she herself would not admit it, she had transferred some of the admiration and trust she had for Theresa to Liu Jiuli. The recognition from the entire Sarkaz tribe was one aspect, but her own recognition of Liu Jiuli was the fundamental reason that drove all of this forward.

After a while, he muttered, "He's just an ordinary reporter."

The Cheka official next to him nodded: "But there is a high probability that he is engaged in espionage, and journalists are the profession most likely to become open spies."

Just then, someone delivered Yazaki's information. Some people might not believe it, but this information was indeed sent from the Eastern Country, specifically by the Eastern Country's Red Guard organization.

That's right, the Red Guards are now a multinational organization. Let's give them a round of applause (clap clap clap clap clap clap).

This is not surprising. The policies implemented and the propaganda of the Red Guards were very attractive to the grassroots people. Moreover, the Red Guards never just talked the talk, but actually walked the walk.

The infiltration of the Eastern Kingdom was very simple. First, merchants came to the Eastern Kingdom to do business with the local nobles. Then, by forming alliances with these nobles, they got them to open up the markets in their territories. After the markets were opened, the cheap industrial products of future technology would devastate the local economy. Then, a large number of factories of the Red Guards would spring up, absorbing a large number of local people by employing cheap labor, creating a working class, and uniting and training them.

It's nominally skills training, but what are they actually training us on? Hehehe.

In this process, with the collapse of traditional agriculture and handicrafts, the grassroots will soon be squeezed out by various charitable organizations of the Red Guards, thus completing the control of the grassroots. When necessary, it is not impossible to cooperate with the local Shintoism. After developing and growing stronger, they can start to infiltrate in reverse or directly eliminate them physically. The Red Guards have done things like disguising themselves as Shintoists to preach and then killing the local Shintoists.

You play with magic, huh? Then use magic to defeat magic.

Grasp the main contradictions, share common interests, and achieve a long-term strategic alliance. This is what the Red Guards did in the East. The only problem is... some people are really not suitable to be secret agents.

Among a group of people who hold positions without doing their jobs, you are quite unique if you don't take money, aren't corrupt, and don't use connections.

This kind of person is better suited for supervisory roles to crack down on internal corruption. Please, please don't waste your time on intelligence work. Everyone has their own expertise, and you're really not suited for that line of work.

It is no exaggeration to say that in the western and northern regions of the Eastern Kingdom, the Red Guards' ability to maintain local governance was stronger than that of the Eastern Kingdom government.

In the western and northern parts of the Eastern Kingdom, this strange situation often occurs. Starting from the daimyo, the main rank is that of the powerful and noble, but the deputy rank or assistants in charge of doing things are basically people from the Red Guards. Moreover, this proportion increases as you go down. When it comes to the grassroots level, those village chiefs or low-ranking samurai are either all red or half red.

This led to a very interesting phenomenon: cadres supported by the Red Guards were promoted much faster.

Because once you have complete control over the grassroots, you have a lot more room to maneuver. Direct confrontation is just one option. If it's not necessary, you can choose to outwardly comply but inwardly defy, causing trouble for officials who don't align with your interests, keeping them busy until someone from your faction is sent down from above, or someone recommended from below. At that point, the unruly masses suddenly become obedient, honest, and pay their taxes on time. Do you think the people above are happy?

Such officials need to be properly developed. At this point, the higher-ups have three options: either transfer them to another location, stay where they are, or promote them.

Given the feudal rule of the Eastern Kingdom, they often prefer a lazy approach to governance. Therefore, they usually choose to keep an official in the same place for a long time to manage the affairs. This makes it much easier to manage the unruly people. As for promotion, that is a low-probability event, but if it is achieved, it means that the Red Guards have a wedge to penetrate into the enemy's ranks.

It was precisely because of this grassroots system that the Red Guards' intelligence work in the East was so stress-free. And what a coincidence that Yazaki happened to be someone from the East who had fled to Syracuse!

Another coincidence is that Yazaki's hometown is located in the northwest of the eastern country, near the border. This was the area where the Red Guards first entered and established actual grassroots control, which was equivalent to a base area.

Yazaki himself never imagined that his intelligence would be delivered to him so easily, and that the Red Guard's intelligence system would uncover everything.

After reviewing Yazaki's file, I had a new idea.

Section 166: Forward, never backward!

(Third update, all done! Where are your rewards? (?ω?))