Transfer

Quite a decisive move. Lu Zhao gave a cold sneer, though he reined it in after merely a fraction of a second, leaving the impression that he was pleased. Without Lü Jinshan's backing, an operations and training staff officer was purely a bench-warmer. This transfer order was clearly meant to push him out of frontline posts. The good news was that he had been promoted to captain, gaining a step up in both rank and authority. His pay would increase by five hundred yuan, and his free quota of life supplements would increase by one bottle. In terms of rank, he was now qualified to serve as a company-level principal commander, expanding his command ceiling from sixty men to a full company of one hundred and twenty. As for advancement to field officer, Lu Zhao had a second-class merit held up in procedure by Lü Jinshan, which would only finish processing by year's end. Now that he was promoted to captain, he could apply at the end of the year to shorten the required service years for promotion to field officer. Originally, he would have had to wait another year, or at the latest the year after next, before promotion was even possible. This was precisely what Lü Jinshan least wanted to see. In the Federation, everything was governed by rules. Once Lu Zhao was promoted, there was no way Lü Jinshan could suppress him back down. Just as he could only give Lu Zhao a lateral transfer now, his only real hope was probably to pin him down in the operations and training staff officer role until he withered away. But it was already too late. Internal authority could not translate into true prestige, and the effectiveness of an order did not lie in an official seal. His position as operations and training staff officer might be an empty title, but the grassroots officers held the real power. *** The Station Chief's Office. Lu Zhao stood outside the door and knocked three times, neither too softly nor too hard. Hearing a "come in" from inside, he pushed the door open and stepped into the room. Behind a broad desk, Lü Jinshan was buried in a stack of documents, wearing an expression of intense focus. Lu Zhao smiled inwardly. Affairs at the border defense station were complicated, but most were handled by the supervising deputy station chiefs and officers of various levels; there was no need whatsoever for the station chief to attend to every single detail personally. Having spent four years at the border defense station, Lu Zhao had long seen through Lü Jinshan's indolent style of governance. Lü Jinshan dumped the specific duties and hard labor entirely onto his subordinates, while he himself sipped tea and read newspapers, enjoying the fruits of others' work and only asserting his presence when it was time to sign his name or claim credit. Coming to attention, Lu Zhao saluted. "Lu Zhao, reporting for duty as staff officer of the Operations and Training Section. Requesting instructions regarding report time." "Mm." Without raising his head, Lü Jinshan continued reviewing his paperwork. Lu Zhao stood five paces away, straight as a rod, and a full half hour passed like this. In the end, it was Lü Jinshan who could not keep up the act. Keeping his head lowered had left his neck sore and stiff. He glanced up at Lu Zhao, standing as upright as a pine. Catching his gaze, Lü Jinshan immediately shifted his eyes away in slight discomfort. Ever since the day Lu Zhao had accepted that order without hesitation, an inexplicable fear and hostility toward him had taken root in Lü Jinshan. In Lu Zhao, he saw the spirit that had belonged only to that fervent, high-spirited era decades ago. "Captain Lu, congratulations on your promotion." Lü Jinshan set his pen down and put on a hypocritical smile. "It's been four years since you came to Ant Ridge border defense station, hasn't it?" Lu Zhao did not reply, watching him in silence. Out of military discipline, he would offer basic respect, but pandering to the man's false pleasantries was not part of it. "With your educational background, under normal circumstances you wouldn't have remained at our border defense station. Do you know why you're still a platoon leader today?" Lü Jinshan's smile gradually faded. Without waiting for Lu Zhao to answer, he continued, "It's not because of Martial Marquis Chen. A person like you won't find favor wherever you go. Being an official isn't like taking an exam; many things cannot be written on paper." This was the first time Lü Jinshan had dropped all pretense with Lu Zhao. In the past, no matter what happened, he would never bring matters into the open, nor had he ever explicitly stated that he wanted to suppress Lu Zhao, let alone criticize him. In public, Lü Jinshan had always heaped praise upon Lu Zhao; only recently had critical voices begun to appear. Because he was panicking. Lu Zhao was certain of this. When someone who usually hid daggers behind a smile suddenly acted tough, it was often when he was at his weakest. "I can give you a promotion, but you and Zhang Like must quiet down. I know what you're doing, and I have ways to deal with you. "Still, there's no deep-seated enmity between us. There's no need to push things to such a deadlock." The cold sternness on Lü Jinshan's face softened, gradually easing into another display of affability. He reached out, took the document, and stamped it with his seal. "I can grant you promotion and help you apply for field officer advancement at the end of the year. With your credentials and merits, making major next year won't be difficult at all." Lu Zhao took the document handed to him and looked up at that round face. The man seemed to view what Lu Zhao rightfully deserved as an act of charity. Lü Jinshan asked again, "What do you think, Captain Lu?" Originally, he would not have been able to keep Lu Zhao down forever anyway. By the end of next year at the earliest, or the year after next at the latest, Lu Zhao would leave the border defense station, likely to be relegated to a bench in some uninfluential post. He might as well grant a convenient favor... Lu Zhao spoke. "My promotion is decided by the Federation, not by you personally." With that, he turned and walked out, not bothering to observe the change in Lü Jinshan's expression, nor caring whether the man was infuriated. He simply strode away with long strides, without the slightest hesitation. Now, the tables had turned. Passing through the first-floor lobby, at the end of the rear corridor stood the somewhat aged office building of the duty company. Before Lu Zhao even drew near, he saw a crowd of soldiers gathered together from a distance, every one of them from his reinforced platoon. In the center of the crowd, Liu Qiang stood stiff-necked, confronting an officer in what seemed to be a heated argument. "What's going on?" Lu Zhao's voice was calm and not particularly loud, yet it carried immense penetrating power. The soldiers turned to look, and the crowd parted with a rustle, every eye focusing on him. Seeing Lu Zhao approach, Liu Qiang instantly found his backbone. He pointed at the short-browed junior officer opposite him and said, "Brother Lu, he wants to bring people in to clear out your office! He says you've already been transferred from your post!" "Use official titles on duty," Lu Zhao reprimanded lightly, then shifted his gaze to the junior officer arguing with Liu Qiang. He recognized the man: Lü Jinshan's top lackey, former operations and training staff officer Liang Fei. Liang Fei's primary duty was formulating training plans and inspecting troops, and over the past four years, he had tried every trick in the book to torment Lu Zhao. When Lu Zhao first arrived at the border defense station, Liang Fei had abused his authority to assign him excessive training and the harshest posts. Later, when Lu Zhao became the platoon leader of the reinforced platoon and gained a directly subordinate unit, Liang Fei could no longer target him openly, so he resorted to underhanded tactics. When drafting company and platoon training plans, he deliberately assigned the reinforced platoon intensities far beyond standard regulations. Yet unexpectedly, this had given Lu Zhao the opportunity to forge his unit into an unbreakable whole. Under his leadership, every inspection the reinforced platoon completed tightened their internal unity, ultimately forging them into an unyielding block of iron. By now, not even Zhang Like could interfere with the reinforced platoon; it was Lu Zhao's foundation at the border defense station. Under Lu Zhao's gaze, Liang Fei's arrogant bluster gradually withered, and his head dropped involuntarily. He said, "Platoon Leader Lu, this was decided by the Personnel Bureau above." "I did indeed receive the transfer order." Lu Zhao drew out the document. "However, the official handover procedures have not yet been carried out. To rush over and clear out my office right now—is Staff Officer Liang really that eager to contribute to the border defense cause?" Beside them, Liu Qiang chimed in, "Sir, he also wants us to redraw the flood prevention plan, claiming our arrangements are deficient. But it's already June, and our preset observation posts are already set up—how are we supposed to change them now?" Hearing this, Lu Zhao's brow furrowed. "Go back, finish the handover procedures properly, and then come find me." Liang Fei was someone who bullied the weak and feared the strong. He dared not confront Lu Zhao directly, and after a hasty agreement, he took his leave.