Imperial Elite

Chapter 124 Wagner's Disarmament

While Joe was making the film, Wagner also experienced some internal changes due to Joe's break with London.

Although Wagner recruited many people from all over the world during its expansion.

However, as an unofficial armed force of Bunitania, Bunitans always constituted the vast majority of Wagner's fighting force.

Among them were fervent patriots who believed that Joe was the Drake of the new era, and that following Joe would be their life's work.

There are also veterans whose lives have been changed by war, and who can only sleep on the battlefield or in the barracks.

Originally, when Joe and London were still in their honeymoon period, there was no real conflict between the two.

Although their ideologies differed, both sides aspired to fight their way to a high position and secure a comfortable life for their families on the frontier.

After all, Wagner's treatment was really good compared to the Army, and Old Joe was really willing to pay him.

Following the Far East operation, all personnel involved received a gold commemorative medal for the special operation.

Not to mention the large sums of compensation that the families of the fallen soldiers receive, those who lost their ability to fight due to injuries would certainly have been discharged from the military in the past.

However, in Wagner, these veterans are still considered part of the military. Although they no longer undertake combat missions, they are still assigned tasks within their capabilities.

Such as special actors in movies, firearms and explosives instructors at Paradise Island Shooting Range, etc.

So even though no one said it outright, when Old Joe gave an order, everyone would carry it out without hesitation, even in the Athens operation that was almost like going to war with a sovereign nation.

However, right after that Athens operation, Old Joe lost the authority to command Wagner to launch the attack.

In Wagner's works, the conflict between these two types of people also begins to erupt.

The fervent patriots felt that Joe had gone a bit too far this time, while the veterans thought, "If you dare say another word, you can talk to my fists."

From that time onward, cracks began to appear within the once united Wagnerian community.

When news came that Wagner would be significantly weakened after the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty, there was an uproar within Wagner.

Some people said that this was the most blatant betrayal of them by London, and that they should take up arms and march on London to confront the Londoners!
Some people think, "If you want to die, don't drag me down with you. Don't splatter my blood. Don't be so anxious. Trust Old Joe. Old Joe will have a way. After all, would Bunitania treat Old Joe badly?"

Then came the news that Old Joe had effectively broken with London, begun to shut down the Wagner facility in Brittany, and disbanded the troops that were receiving training there.

This really caused an uproar within Wagner.

Those Wagners from Italy or Gaul were relatively better off; at most, they were just worried that the secure job they thought they could live on for life might be gone.

Meanwhile, the Buntanian Wagners are now in complete chaos.

Because the earliest Wagner members were almost all members of the Harrison Task Force that Joe formed at the end of the war, and because Joe himself never retired from the army, many other Bunitania officers who joined Wagner also did not retire from active duty, resulting in a large number of active Bunitania officers still within Wagner today.

Just like Cecil, whom Joe had entrusted with handling the entire situation in Greece, was a serving officer in Bonitania who received two military salaries at once.

In the past, these officers didn't need to distinguish between Wagner and the army; everyone was fighting for Bonitania.

But now that Joe has fallen out with London, these officers face an urgent question: whether to continue following Joe or return to London's embrace.

Faced with this situation, these officers all wanted to talk to Joe. Some wanted to try to bridge the gap between Joe and London, some wanted to ask about Wagner's future, and some simply wanted to have a drink with Joe.

However, Joe, who was burning with anger, refused to see anyone and retreated to Paradise Island to isolate himself.

After a period of isolation, Joe even started making movies.

Although everyone knows that Joe is the best director of this era, at this point in time, isn't it a bit too relaxed to choose to make a film instead of dealing with Wagner's affairs?

Many people believe that Joe's attitude shows he has completely given up after suffering this setback. Since Joe has already given up, there is no future for him to stay here, especially given his current strained relationship with London.

I should have made a decision sooner, or it would have been too late!

The most representative figure among these people is Cecil, who is practically the second most important person in Wagner's works.

As an ambitious young man who was preparing to go to the battlefield to fight the Teutons before he even came of age, he was definitely one of the most patriotic among the nobles.

Meanwhile, because his family also had some influence, Cecil's family sent him a message after the incident: "Son, there's no future in staying in Wagner. Come back. The family has already made arrangements for you. Being a colonel is just the beginning; a general is your ultimate goal."

Soon after, a group of Wagner's officers handed in their resignation letters to Joe, preparing to return to London.

At this point, Joe, who had already started making the movie, only had one sentence about their decision: "I agree to everything. Wagner is free to come and go." Their departure would free up a lot of positions, and I would have to find a way to fill them.

Of course, out of a sense of kinship, when this group of officers, led by Cecil, resigned and prepared to return to Britannia, Joe still had his secretary deliver a message to them: "If Britannia wants to maintain its armored superiority for the long term, then it must at least complete the MCS program. A 30-ton tank alone cannot solve any problems."

London, of course, warmly welcomed the return of these officers.

After all, almost all of the most capable armored commanders in the original Bunitania were under Joe's command, and with the establishment of Wagner, Joe lured away many of them.

The fact that these people can return so quickly is great news for London.

At least now that Joe has resigned as armored director, they have a new candidate to continue the development of the armored forces.

Of course, although the War Department did not allow Joe to resign from his position as major general, such a fierce break naturally had some impact within the War Department.

For example, Joe relayed a message to them to push forward with the MSC plan.

The guys in the Army felt that although Joe's plan was good, if we continued to follow his plan after he left, wouldn't that prove that we couldn't develop armor without him?
You're not the only guy in the Empire who understands armor; we also have heroes like the Land Warships Committee!

So, for political reasons, not only the MSC program, which was tucked away in the filing cabinet, but even the 30-ton tank program had to be re-examined.

First, the classification of light, medium, and heavy tanks established by George was to be changed. This method of classifying tanks by weight was too primitive. In order to showcase the characteristics of Brittany and to make the functional distinctions of tanks more obvious, the classification was changed.

Therefore, tanks will be classified according to their function from now on. For example, light tanks will be changed to reconnaissance tanks, and medium and heavy tanks will be classified as cruiser tanks and infantry tanks respectively.

Cruiser tanks, like cruisers, are fast and powerful, tasked with assaulting targets after breaking through enemy lines.

Infantry tanks, on the other hand, require heavy armor and artillery to cover infantry as they break through enemy lines.

Isn't this change better than Old Joe's original method of classifying tanks by tonnage?

Our army is so professional!
At the time, Joe was filming a movie and had no idea about this.

As we all know, making movies is a very tiring and troublesome thing.

In particular, Qiao, with the spirit of making people jealous, not only changed the Duke of Huguo to a woman, but also made the Duke of Huguo look lewd during filming, so that everyone watching the movie would look up and pay tribute to the Duke of Huguo.

However, it cannot be merely risqué; it must be serious, presented subtly and quietly, requiring one to wear the most unconventional clothes while doing the most serious things and speaking the most serious words.

At the same time, it is also necessary to get the two female leads to overcome some psychological issues and allow them to film some scenes that evoke ecstasy.

In addition, Joe's filming style has always been based on genuine listening, filming, and feeling.

Because the actors sometimes didn't perform well, Joe had to repeatedly explain the scene to the two actors.

Then, as they were talking, some things happened that resulted in Old Joe getting his face scratched after being discovered by his own guards.

From then on, Joe was always accompanied by a member of the guard wherever he went, to prevent him from losing control of himself again.

Despite a minor hiccup, the filming of "The Duke Protector of the Nation" went smoothly overall, and the editing stage began soon after filming was completed.

Filming had already finished, and the actors and crew should have gone home, but the two leading actresses showed no intention of leaving. They basically had an attitude of "you know what you did, we're sticking with you."

Faced with these two shameless women, Qiao regretted it so much that she wanted to give herself a good scolding. Why couldn't you control yourself?

Adopting a "better safe than sorry" attitude, Joe, who originally wanted to wait for the movie to be released on Paradise Island and watch the Londoners have fun, had no choice but to go to NATO to preside over Wagner's disarmament work.

Actually, while Joe was making the movie, the Naval Treaty had already been signed, and the treaty's supervisors came to Paradise Island to contact Joe and begin disarmament.

However, Joe resorted to shamelessness in the face of these supervisors, stating that Wagner is a legitimate company, and even if there are layoffs, a layoff plan must be implemented first, and employee resettlement must be planned. You suddenly signed this contract without informing me beforehand.

Even if I were to reduce the military, it shouldn't affect the contracts I'm currently working on, right?
Laws cannot be changed by the past, and neither can treaties. I will definitely reduce the military, but not now. Just wait. If you can't wait, you can send troops to physically reduce the personnel. Oh, I forgot, Wagner is also the League of Nations' designated mobile force, so go and see if the Americans and Gallic people are willing to come.

Okay, that's all for now. I have things to do, and my phone is out of gas. We can talk later.

Following the subsequent exodus within Wagner, the overseers stopped bothering Joe. Instead, they began using their credentials to enter various Wagner facilities and record the personnel, in preparation for Wagner's later disarmament.

After Old Joe arrived, the staff followed him even closer, fearing that this troublesome guy might try to pull some tricks during the downsizing.

But contrary to what these supervisors thought, Joe had absolutely no intention of using underhanded tactics.

The first step Joe took was to spin off Wagner Defense from the Wagner Group and establish an independent Wagner Defense.

The disarmament commissioner was dumbfounded by Joe's behavior.

So, you're saying that a large organization like Wagner Group like yours is just going to spin off its military division? You don't plan to touch anything else?

In response to the disarmament commissioner's questions, Joe calmly stated that these departments were previously concentrated in the Wagner Group simply for ease of management; in reality, these were production departments and had nothing to do with the combat departments that were to be cut in this disarmament effort.

However, since the Wagner Group is a publicly traded company, and these companies are related to the livelihoods of many people, and modifying the registered trademarks of these companies would cost a lot of money.

Any of the above actions, if reflected in the stock market, would bankrupt many people. So if you want to reduce the military, then I will separate the military department and handle it separately, so as not to interfere with these normal production departments.

The disarmament commissioner found Joe's explanation quite reasonable; if he had a point, then he had one, and if he didn't, then he didn't.

The treaty stipulated that defense companies could not have large-scale production departments... Oh, now that the defense companies have been separated, even if they don't have production departments, it's fine.

Of course, the reason why the disarmament commissioner was so reasonable is that Wagner's image is better in the three NATO countries than in Bonitania.

In Bonitania, Wagner was just a group of capable super soldiers, but in the three NATO countries, Wagner was much more than just super soldiers.

As a giant corporation that has permeated almost every aspect of life in the three NATO countries in just a few years, Wagner is practically the nation itself.

The people of the three NATO countries may not need to deal with the government on a regular basis, but they will definitely deal with Wagner.

Not to mention that the job is in a Wagner-affiliated company, due to Wagner's almost unlimited expansion, even the canned goods in the store may be meat canned goods imported from Emerald Isle with Wagner's logo.

So when a disarmament commissioner accidentally revealed in a bar that he was there to oversee the Wagner Disarmament Project, the bar fell silent instantly, and the stares of the patrons and bartenders made the commissioner flee in panic.

I was afraid that if I ran too slowly, those people would eat me raw without any seasoning.

So now that Joe is willing to give them face, the disarmament commissioners naturally don't want to refuse a toast only to be met with a bullet.

After finding loopholes to avoid disrupting the production sector due to disarmament, Joe also began to reduce Wagner's combat forces.

Since he had already planned how to reform Wagner's military, Joe's first move was to target Wagner's once-proud armored forces.

Wagner will retire all his tanks, and these experienced armored soldiers will be transferred to Wagner's agricultural sector if they wish.

Switching from driving a tank to driving a tractor can be considered a good match for one's profession. If they don't want to switch to the agricultural sector, Joe will pay them a generous termination fee.

At the same time, all of Wagner's tank equipment began to be sold to the public at a price that was almost free.

The fact that Wagner's first move in disarmament was to eliminate his own armored forces shocked everyone involved in the military.

Before Joe actually began disarmament, everyone was speculating about how he would reorganize Wagner.

Especially for countries with insufficient armored forces, they are already ready to copy their homework.

However, no one expected that Old Joe would actually stop playing with armored vehicles.

Many people who have been following Joe's movements for years, such as Erich, who has almost memorized the movie "Wagner's Gold," were shocked by this and couldn't understand why Joe would do this.

Ultimately, it can only be attributed to Joe's break with London, which made him unwilling to maintain Wagner's fighting strength.

As a result, the infantry and artillery units were also greatly reduced.

In this downsizing involving amputations below the chest, Joe basically only retained mechanized logistics units and a large number of light infantry units, which doesn't seem like Joe's style at all.

However, no one had any objection to Joe's troop reduction, because Wagner's combat forces had indeed been reduced to a level fully in line with the treaty.

Even the most skilled lawyers who know how to find loopholes couldn't find any violations by Wagner's combat troops.

Meanwhile, Poland, a neighboring NATO country, also sent a note to Wagner, expressing its willingness to purchase Wagner's second-hand tanks and equipment.

However, to Poland's surprise, Wagner refused their acquisition offer.

Before they were ready to make the acquisition, Joe's long-time client, the Republic of Bohemia, had already paid Joe a deposit for the third-hand equipment. Furthermore, due to the good relationship between the two parties, Joe also promised to provide the Republic of Bohemia with some experienced officers and soldiers as seed troops for the Bohemian armored forces.

Wagner's arms sale has naturally drawn mixed reactions, with some happy and others worried.

The people of Shengyang, thousands of miles away, rejoiced. Look! Look! Wagner's armored forces are finished! This is a victory for the Empire!

The people who are worried are almost all of Bohemia's neighboring countries.

Because of the shared history with the Habsburg dynasty and the military expansion of the Old World, the borders of the newly established Republic of Bohemia were not clearly defined. It had border issues with almost all its neighbors, and naturally, its relations with them were not very good.

So the Bohemians bought a large number of tanks in one go, which naturally made neighboring countries such as the Teutons, Poland, and the Habsburgs feel nervous.

This time, however, no one protested against Buntania and Wagner, because based on the experience of the last war, Wagner without armored forces was like a lion without claws, no longer worthy of fear.

Just when everyone thought that Old Joe had crippled himself this time, and that Wagner would henceforth be relegated to a third-rate fighting force.

Joe had also gathered all the remaining Wagner officers who were still willing to follow him and told them that although they had abandoned the armored forces, this would not affect their combat effectiveness.

From this moment forward, we will transform into an air assault force, sending greetings to our enemies from the air!
It's time to deliver some new-era shocks to the world!

Seeing that Old Joe was still so energetic, the remaining officers in Wagner declared, "We knew you wouldn't give up so easily, Boss! Whatever you say, we'll do! We're on your side!"

However, things like Wagner disbanding the armored forces didn't make the front page of the newspapers at that time. If it weren't for Old Joe's fame, it wouldn't even have made the front page.

Because at the same time that Old Joe chopped off Wagner's armored forces, two small things happened in the world.

First and foremost, of course, was the release of Joe's film, "The Protector of the Nation."

By this time, Joe had already directed several major works and was definitely considered a top-tier director.

So despite the widespread resistance in Teutonic, the news that Joe had a new movie coming out sparked great interest among ordinary viewers, critics, and even film industry professionals.

A director who is so prolific and produces such high-quality work is truly a rare talent in the film industry.

Especially this promotional poster, that... armor? It's just too artistic!
Then, after watching the movie, almost everyone's reaction was "Huh?!".

Anyone with a basic understanding of history knows that the Protector of Buntania was a real man, a very capable and tough guy.

However, in Joe's movie, not only is the Duke of Protector of the Nation a tough woman wearing armor that is hard to define, but there are also vampires.

People who watch this movie expecting a historical film will feel like they're going to get a haircut but end up spending 388 yuan – something's not right here!

The people who reacted the most to this movie were naturally the gentlemen of London who were named as vampires by Joe.

Damn it! Even if you have grievances, you can't keep finding ways to insult us like this!

Even if you're going to curse, you can't use such foul language!

As a result, newspapers naturally began to publish articles angrily denouncing the film "The Protector of the Nation," saying it was not a good movie at all and that Old Joe had fallen from grace.

Old Joe was simply enjoying these rebuttals; the harsher their insults, the more vulnerable these guys were.

But James, who had now become a senator, couldn't sit still. He believed it was disrespectful for his brother to scold his brother!
James Harrison, requesting to play!

Then, just as James was arguing with someone in the newspaper, a massive earthquake struck the Rising Sun in the Far East.

(End of this chapter)