Munitions Empire

It was a bright and sunny noon, the office was well-lit, and the desk felt warm under the sunlight, making it quite comfortable to lean on.

Despite it being mid-October, the room was still quite warm, with no worry about cold wind blowing in.

A man in a black suit walked into the office, immediately grabbed the water glass on his desk upon entering, took a big gulp, and then asked his colleague, "Do you still remember that person we've been investigating before?"

His colleague lifted his head from a pile of documents and casually replied, "Of course, I remember. Isn't Group Three always following those people?"

After the reply, he picked up a file from his left, opened it, and started carefully verifying it. This is his daily work; not all agents of the Great Tang Imperial Security Bureau are responsible for combat. Most in this building are clerks, actually working mostly in the office.

Don't think that all agents are like those from 007, wielding a gun and charging into hordes of enemies just to snatch a film roll and infiltrate the enemy's headquarters like a terminator demon.

Some agents do indeed take pictures of microfilm, but they don't fight. If they get caught they won't resist, and they only need to sit in the prison waiting for a prisoner exchange.

Having put down his water glass, the agent who had just returned from the field nodded and began to speak about his investigation's findings, "That's right, there is news from that end. The aircraft designs and related patents they purchased from us... were sent to Mirage Country."

The agent verifying documents immediately perked up with interest; he shifted his gaze from the documents and looked at the other, his face full of intrigue, "Mirage Country? Weren't they always serving the elves of the Poplar Empire?"

He remembered these people were originally slaves of the elves and had always been active for the Poplar Empire, essentially acting as elves' covert operatives within the Great Tang Empire. However, these covert operations were already being closely monitored by the intelligence department of the Great Tang, almost like an openly secret maneuver.

The reason they were never apprehended is that these individuals were always involved in lawful activities—purchasing technology and raw materials on behalf of 'humans,' paying with real silver, acquiring legal goods. There wasn't a reason to arrest them.

If their activities continued to be this lawful, there wouldn't even be a need for the Intelligence Bureau of the Empire to waste valuable resources to tail them. Over a year ago, when the Great Tang Empire was selling various advanced fighter models, they purchased the schematics for the Zero Fighter, which caught the attention of the intelligence department.

That's the reason behind today's investigation findings; these people indeed hid well, and it's only after such a long time that they've made contact with someone other than the elves again—the people from Mirage Country.

"That's the case, but this time they were indeed working for the people from Mirage Country," the agent returning from the field said, his gaze sweeping to the wall where a portrait of His Majesty Emperor Tang Mo of the Great Tang Empire hung, pausing for two seconds before continuing.

This kind of portrait is almost found in every office of officials of the Great Tang Empire, most are portraits in military attire, with fewer being color photos of His Majesty The Emperor.

Since the advent of color photography technology, the old black and white photos of the Emperor were completely banned: any idiot, whether from abroad or domestically, continuing to hang black and white emperor photos would probably end up facing serious trouble.

However, hanging the Emperor's portrait has its specifics; for example, ordinary offices display colored reproductions, while high-ranking officials might display oil paintings or photographs by ordinary painters.

For even higher-ranking officials, those who often meet His Majesty The Emperor, the portraits or photos in their offices are generally those awarded, with documented provenance.

The agent explained why their investigation was so slow, "We don't have many people going to Mirage Country; it's probably the most isolated region for us in terms of information. The people from Mirage Country exploited a loophole."

It's truly frustrating; not many want to go to the region of Mirage Country, dominated by goblins, for missions. Due to poor living conditions, it's not feasible to station there long-term.

The biggest problem is that humans rarely operate within goblin zones; they can't integrate into the goblin bureaucratic system, hence they can't engage in basic espionage activities.

The agent verifying documents scoffed coldly, feeling that these goblins always harbored some relentless cunning, "They sure are crafty, managing to get their hands on the Zero Fighter schematics, and by now, they probably have produced quite a number of them."

The Zero Fighter's performance is quite advanced, slightly superior to other fighters sold by the Great Tang Empire: apart from the Butcher FW-190, other countries' planes might not necessarily suppress it.

At that time, when these people purchased schematics and production processes for the Zero Fighter, the Great Tang Empire thought it was the Poplar Empire buying them... Only when the envoy from the Poplar Empire came asking to purchase the Butcher Fighter did the intelligence department of the Great Tang Empire realize they had been completely deceived.

Despite watching so many countries, no other country has been reported to mass-produce Zero Fighters, which has become an unsolved case for the intelligence department of the Great Tang Empire.

Now it is clear, Mirage Country bought the blueprints and has been secretly producing Zero Fighters: previously, the intelligence department of the Great Tang Empire had suspected that some hidden force was secretly stockpiling Fighter Jets.

"The estimate given by the data department is around 500 units, not sure if it's accurate. We've done our best." The counterpart sighed and mentioned a figure, which he got from asking around.

Frankly speaking, they only recently found out that Mirage Country owns hundreds of advanced propeller-driven Fighter Jets; it's considered a serious derelection of duty.

But they can't really be blamed for this, as they genuinely have no way to deploy a large number of spies to operate in Mirage Country.

If it were Chu Country, Shu Country, the Dahua Empire, or Qin Country, Great Tang could arrange for thousands of agents to infiltrate within minutes. However, it is much more difficult to do so in the Poplar Empire and the Ice Cold Empire.

Although the Elves of the Poplar Empire and the Dwarves of the Ice Cold Empire are xenophobic, they are generally manageable to some extent, allowing some communication and contact. The situation in Mirage Country is truly different; the attitude towards humans here is very unfriendly, and human businesses are heavily restricted.

"Currently, the people operating on a few islands in Mirage Country are all recruited from prisoners of war, their loyalty is of the lowest grade, and we dare not use them lightly." He shrugged helplessly, revealing a somewhat ironic reality.

The spies sent to investigate Mirage Country are mostly from Mirage Country's war prisoners—most of these prisoners were Goblins who had worked under Shen Wuxiong.

He then continued to add, "Additionally, most of these undercover personnel are used for mapping; only a few are infiltrated into other departments of the opposition."

The agent verifying the documents nodded, agreeing with him, "It's a necessary evil. Back then we didn't have reconnaissance satellites, and drawing maps of Mirage Country was still one of the most crucial intelligence tasks more than a year ago."

Previously deployed Goblins spies on the island were working hard to figure out where was suitable for landing, where had more stationed troops, and where the defenses were lax…

Exploring troop deployments and island environments, investigating hydrological conditions, and understanding the basic situation of local roads and railways in Mirage Country already occupied most of their resources; there was no spare capacity to concern themselves with the industrial development of Mirage Country people.

According to the Great Tang Empire's perspective, the things Mirage Country could manufacture were essentially not a threat to the Great Tang Empire, hence such intelligence had a lower priority compared to other information.

Sighing once more, the agent who had returned from the field continued, "Due to racial issues and the xenophobia in Mirage Country, we have never been able to penetrate the core of Mirage Country, and we have the least control over information from there."

He looked at the report submitted by the operational group agent who had previously gone undercover as a businessman to gather intelligence in Mirage Country; it was truly an ironic situation.

The agent reported that the houses in Mirage Country are very low, making it extremely oppressive for normal humans to live in; a five-storey building there is about the height of a normal four-storey building in the Great Tang Empire, and living in such conditions for a long time would drive people mad.

Moreover, the Goblin women are incredibly ugly, and seeing them too much could even affect one's appetite. The locals are also untrustworthy; they often take money without completing the work, and they particularly enjoy collaborating to bully the foreign humans.

Essentially, in that report, even with double the salary, it wouldn't be worth staying to work in Mirage Country. Compared to the heaven-like Great Tang Empire, Mirage Country is simply a hell.

"This complicates things for the Navy, with Mirage Country having advanced Fighter Jets..." the agent checking the documents couldn't help but remark.

Hearing his colleague say this, the returned agent felt somewhat relieved, he laughed and explained, "It's actually quite alright for the Navy; their Fighter Jets are actually much better in performance compared to the Zero Fighters. Moreover, as compensation, we've already sent the performance data of the Zero Fighters and the tactical handbook to the Navy."

The document-checking agent nodded, advising, "Still, we need to take it seriously..."

The returned agent countered, "Yes! Haven't you noticed? The demand for Mirage Country's data and intelligence is increasing more and more from the top."

"Yeah, yesterday when you were away, someone from the Staff Department came here and took away some copies of Mirage Country maps." The document-checking agent recalled the incident from the previous day, "There were also local monsoon records, hydrological data..."