233 Convince.
Shi Lang did not bother with anything around him and kept his focus on settling the zerg territory. He could not blindly just swallow sectors and digest them. He needed the forces to defend the regions as well. Thus he pulled back from the command, let Deputy Skiar manage the front, and made a beeline to Mars.
The red planet had long been terraformed, it was used as the housing and deployment station for the reserve forces in the fleets. This place was like a military planet, they had its own system. The governance was completely militarized but under the supervision of the civil minister.
Shi Lang had made his way back because he needed to incorporate troops in his fleet and he was not going to pick just all of them in surplus. His ship landed on the ground and he was received by the Military Governor, a rank specially designated for the administrator of this planet. Shi Lang was now the first general of the federation, his reception was high and mighty.
The young man had no fluctuation in his eyes, he saw the Administrator and asked, “Governer Matthew, I have no time for the party and get to know, as you are aware the fleet is at war. I need you to carry out a general assessment and get the troops deployed quickly.”
Governer Matthews was a man, with five years of experience in this place. The governors were all changed after five years, but the new governor will have to spend six months in this place with the correct governor to learn how things worked. They did not wish for a lag in the military machine.
Matthews was a timid one in front of his seniors but his juniors feared him as if he was a bomb. When the man heard what Shi Lang said, despite the fact that he was twice the age of the young man in front of him, he agreed, and said, “It will be done quickly, sir.”
Shi Lang nodded and said, “Also, please arrange for a secure location, I need to address the general council and the parliament.”
Mathews nodded and then took Shi Lang to a sealed room. Mars of the present was not filled with red soil and mountains only, but it also had skyscrapers, and solid roads, the vehicles here were fast and nothing was different from the Federation’s home planet, except for the slight hue. Shi Lang was here for the first time. He looked around with great interest on the way.
Matthews led Shi Lang to a room, which was locked with the most advanced system, and it will only unlock when the combination of heartbeat, body X-ray, and other biometrics was entered. This room was specially made for the fleet generals. Shi Lang completed the procedure and got inside the room.
The door closed with a countdown timer of an hour. He quickly connected the communicator with the general council first. The meeting began, Shi Lang announced the news of War and the people were all relieved, not only this, but Shi Lang reported the statistical data to the council. When the people heard this, the conference became quiet.
A few of them took a few seconds to calm down, however, some people still could not understand how he avoided a single casualty. Shi Lang had to describe to them the process of the spirit formations and his strategies. When things were about to get in deep, he said, “This is not a school class, where I will tell you everything. The war report will be submitted, use your own merit points to unlock and read. I have to deal with the parliament. If anyone of you is against incorporating the colonial natives in the federal military, then speak now.”
The people shook their heads, Charlotte Knight asked, “Why do you need to incorporate the natives in the federal military?”
It seems like his own person was unconvinced by the idea so the others were obviously not going to follow him. Shi Lang had to tame these people, and he said, “In the future, a lot of civilizations will approach us for military connections, and when they see us, discriminating the people on the planets that we have occupied and deliberately shrinking the talent pool, what do you think will be their reaction?
Do you want to be friends with someone who despises you because of your uniqueness? Throughout the federal territory, we have acquired planets, but have we ever given them anything in return? Pick up the history, and you will see that if we did not stop this behavior, then the natives will rebel.
You want to be strong, then people will know about you, when they know about you, they try to get handles on you. Those handles will control your rise and fall. Not only will the weak look up to you, but the stronger ones will also look at you and make sure you do not surpass them. Do you understand? Stop thinking from the point of a Terran, but think from the perceptive of the Federal Army.”
His words sounded harsh, but he did have sound logic, after this he said, “I will leave the council here, I will follow what you decide, but I hope that you all can discuss this and get back to me before the parliament meeting is over. I need to get my points through the thick skins of the parliament.”
Shi Lang saluted the people and the call was disconnected. he leaned back in the chair and mumbled, “I might need to chat with Amy about this.”
He stretched his limbs and then connected the communicator to the parliament, the direct hotline to the President. Although it was a wireless connection, the word used for it was still, a hotline. The connection was encrypted and secure.
Shi Lang had access as the first general, the connection was established quickly, and Shi Lang found a whole parliament looking at him through the screen. The parliament was made of regional heads of the federation. The speaker of the house said, “Fleet General Shi Lang will be with us for this session via the digital medium. Let the proceedings begin.”
The session progressed quickly and the matters were resolved, gone were the days when the opposition would raise a ruckus without any legit ground. Shi Lang sat in silence, then the speaker of the house said, “Fleet General Shi Lang do you have anything to add to this session?”
Shi Lang replied, “Thank you, Your Honor, I do have something to add.”
Do not get awkward here, Shi Lang had received the proper education and had been to a lot of mock sessions of the parliament when he went to junior high school. Also, when observing the people today, he had already picked up the mannerism. He said, “As the honorable parliament members must be aware of, the first fleet is at war with the Zerg, although there is good news that we have won the initial encounter, and most of the zerg forces have been dealt with, we still have a lot of space to cover and for that the present manpower we have is not sufficient.”
A person from the seats spoke up, “What does the General propose?”
Shi Lang replied, “What I am about to say might be against the ideology of our forefathers, but that was then and this is now. We need to incorporate the population of the colonial planets. We cannot go on with the mindset that those are acquired planets, this will not only shrink our talent pool but also become the reason for any future rebellion, and please before any of you counter me with that we can just kill them, please tell me if the federal military or the federal government is genocidal?”
Shi Lang deliberately used heavy words, because the parliamentary sessions were telecasted throughout the federation and they had quite a credible viewership. The people inside the parliament could deny a lot of things, but the question pushed in by Shi Lang at the end will come and bite them in the ass.
The president asked, “What General says is something that the parliament and the cabinet have discussed for a long time but how do you say we trust some other races to help us become strong?”
Shi Lang shook his head and said, “There are planets and civilizations who welcomed us to their planet and are very good allies with us. Nobody in the universe wants to be left behind, and that is what we need to correct, we have to keep them all together, that is something for you, the honorable parliament members to think of. I can only say, that if the manpower is not increased, then we will have to rely on alliances that are not permanent and always be vulnerable.”
The speaker of the house spoke up, “General Shi Lang, what you said just now, does make some sense. However, this house would like to know if you have the favor of the general council on this matter?”