Munitions Empire

The war has not yet begun, and even the plans have not been fully finalized, yet both intelligence agencies are already fighting desperately.

Within the Great Tang Empire Embassy of the Ice Cold Empire, a military officer met several merchants from the Ice Cold Empire in the basement.

The visitors brought orders from the Empire's high ranks. Since communications are no longer secure, they delivered the commands verbally.

There's no choice; sometimes, information passed verbally is the least likely to be intercepted. Sometimes, the things taken out using one's mind cannot be successfully blocked by anyone.

"Recently, the number of Tang People applying to travel to our country has been increasing. This trend is not normal. I've started investigating, but the other side is very discreet, and for now, we cannot determine what this signifies." A Dwarf official sat on one side of the table, anxiously briefing his superiors disguised as merchants.

"Is it confirmed to be an abnormal phenomenon?" The high-ranking official from the Ice Cold Empire's intelligence agency disguised as a merchant frowned and asked.

The intelligence personnel who had been working in the Great Tang Empire shook his head, expressing his opinion: "I can't even confirm. The increase is very slow, but compared to last year, it indeed has increased somewhat."

"Is it possible that it's a normal increment? Tang People are wealthy, and traveling abroad is not difficult for them." The official questioned once again.

The intelligence personnel continued to shake his head, completely shifting the responsibility: "I can't say for sure, but I think there's a problem here. Over 4,000 people going to our country was very abnormal in the past."

What he said made sense, but unfortunately, there wasn't concrete evidence to support it: "Our economy is inferior to the Tang People. Even the food they eat there is subpar. Their enthusiastic behavior toward visiting our country, I always feel is quite abnormal."

"Anything else?" Knowing that such incidents are difficult to uncover, the senior official turned to the embassy military officer.

The embassy military officer began discussing the intelligence they had gathered: "We're striving to locate the main naval force of the Tang People. Intelligence from the Dorne side indicates that some warships have been redeployed, and the power of attacking Dorne's coast seems to have been weakened."

"Our spies in Dorne have corroborated this matter." The leading high-ranking official nodded, affirming this statement.

The spies in Dorne confirmed the Tang Army's weakening of their attack on Dorne, something for which Dorne has no reason to lie. Dorne should know that their minor issues can't be hidden from anyone.

The military officer continued: "There's now a theory that those aircraft carriers and warships are undergoing modernized upgrades on Dragon Island."

"This is one explanation." The leading high-ranking official continued to affirm.

"But there's this photo." The military officer said as he pulled out a somewhat blurry black-and-white photo from his pocket: "Our people risked their lives to obtain this photo. It's of a ship with a flight deck, presumably an aircraft carrier."

The photo was quite blurry and taken from a considerable distance, showing a new warship outfitting in the port, having a long bridge and a recognizable section of the flat flight deck.

The rest was obscured by tall buildings, and the angle made it hard to see. However, it was indeed somewhat different from the portion of the exposed shape of the Tang Empire's aircraft carrier captured by various countries' intelligence personnel.

Thus, the military officer spoke gruffly: "Compared to the aircraft carrier docked at Linshui Port, its bridge is too large. We can't determine the tonnage of this ship; it could well be a new model aircraft carrier of the Tang Army. Along with some technical experts, I've speculated it's at least 30,000 tons in displacement, larger than our aircraft carrier."

"Or perhaps it's some other type of ship… We can't be sure, but what's certain is that the Tang People are building more ships with exceedingly large tonnage." He paused after expressing his thoughts, waiting for the senior official to respond.

The official pinched his chin, commenting: "Sounds really concerning; is there any way to obtain more detailed information?"

Before the military officer could speak, an intelligence officer beside him lamented: "Sir, are you joking? The other side is the Imperial Security Bureau! Even the slightest move on our part is sniffed out by them like dogs."

They alone knew how many personnel they had lost. Those damned Imperial Security Bureau bloodhounds were sheer beasts! They were nothing but man-eating demons!

As he spoke, he spread his palm to show everyone a disassembled small device: "We don't dare to even use the upstairs phone anymore. Last time, we found a bizarre eavesdropping device inside a phone."

Every country has similar gadgets, so the leading Dwarf official instantly guessed what it was: "A bugging device?"

"It seems so, but it's much smaller than the ones we use, and its structure is too complicated… Our people analyzed it and indeed found a 'microphone' setup, but it's technologically far ahead of ours." The intelligence personnel said as he laid out a bunch of parts smaller than a fingernail on the table.

Everyone stood up and gathered around this device, scrutinizing this complex contraption that seemed like alien technology.

The intelligence personnel continued: "That's why we're meeting here because we can't determine if the upstairs rooms will be monitored… Only here, which we built ourselves, can guarantee security."

Sighing, the Ice Cold Empire intelligence department's official, who was personally overseeing, brought up the topic again: "The higher-ups suspect the Tang Empire is preparing an action against our Ice Cold Empire, so they require you to find out any intelligence related to this…"

"Try to determine the exact timing of their actions and the scale of the military deployed…" He finished his sentence and glanced at the subordinates, whose faces didn't look very pleased.

The military officer agreed: "We will try our best. It's just that, due to the previous issue with our communication codes being decrypted, we've lost a lot of personnel. Most of our undercover agents were exposed, and many were forced to leave the Tang Country…"

However, after agreeing, he continued to complain: "The whole organizational structure has been dismantled, leaving only some highly cautious single-line dark operatives still at work. When they can relay information, what information they relay, and even whether it's indeed them reaching out, we have no way to ascertain."

Understanding everyone's difficulties, the leading official could only comfort them: "As long as you do your best, whether you succeed or how much success you achieve… is not critical. As before, everyone knows your difficulties, as well as how formidable the Great Tang Empire Security Bureau truly is, so… just do your best."