Chapter 112: The Grumbling Bai Zixuan.

With a violent contraction of space, the First Fleet ended its warp and arrived at Horton.

The terrain here only permits a one-man entry. There is only a narrow Star Path leading to the outside, once known as the Ochs Empire’s first Majestic Barrier!

The Third Fleet was stationed at the exit of this Star Path, under the acting command of Bartram, Quatre’s Adjutant.

After Chris takes over, the Third Fleet would be officially renamed as the Second Fleet of the First Legion, and Bartram would become Chris’s Adjutant.

At the same time, due to Chris’s departure, Emma, who became a Captain, became the Commander of the First Fleet’s First Sub-fleet.

Li Cangdou was also promoted, though he was only at Captain rank (colonel in army terms and he is below Emma’s Captain rank which is at brigadier in the army). He temporarily served as the commander of a squad under Emma’s command which had around 100 warships.

The commanders of the ten squads were all rising stars who have graduated from the Interstellar Military Academy in recent years. Even Emma only graduated five years ago.

Currently, what’s giving Lin Fan a headache was that there were too few people, especially since they still need personnel for the ten fleets that they’re planning to expand to. This alone requires thousands of senior military command personnel.

But the problem is, where could they get so many people?

Take the current fleet regulations for example, it needed people that’s at least the Commander rank for them to be able to command a squad. It needs a Captain rank (brigadier) to command a Sub-fleet and a Vice Admiral to command the fleet!

It’s fine right now since there were only 4 fleets, but once the Federation expands to 24 fleets in the next 10 years, according to regulations, which people can they use?

The commanders of 20 fleets alone need 20 Vice Admirals, 200 Captains (brigadier) and 2,000 Commanders, this is not a joke!

This is not counting the staff officers, bridge command teams, etc. needed for each fleet, which also requires a large number of Lieutenants, but where would they get so many of them?

From the Lunar Headquarters? Don’t be ridiculous, most of the people there are only those who can talk on paper with no action. Wasn’t Quatre’s incident not enough?

In this regard, Lin Fan believes that the old regulations cannot be followed anymore. In the First Legion, everything will be decided on strength in the future.

If they go with the strength-based route, as long as they are strong/capable enough, Lin Fan can adjust the rank required downward by two levels.

Simply put, if a fleet commander originally needs to be a Vice Admiral, now, as long as one has enough strength, the minimum rank could only be a Captain (brigadier).

For a sub-fleet commander, even if you are only at Commander rank, you would have the qualifications. But the premise is that you must have enough strength to pass Lin Fan’s test!

After this arrangement, a large number of officers who obviously have the strength but are limited by their insufficient rank will have a chance to rise. At the same time, the dilemma of insufficient senior officers can be solved.

Lin Fan then immediately made a written report of this idea and submitted it to Sanders.

On the same day, Sanders, as Lin Fan had expected, replied that he agreed with Lin Fan’s proposal, and that Lin Fan only needed to select good candidates and did not need to strictly consider military rank.

Lin Fan, who received a positive reply, naturally announced this news to the two fleets which caused a wave of considerable enthusiasm, most of which were quite supportive of the idea. Of course there’s a small group of conservatives who were disgusted by it.

These people were used to their seniority, especially in the Third Fleet!

For them, Lin Fan would sooner or later be wiped of his position, but now is not the time.

After dealing with the fleet’s matters, Lin Fan came to the research city that’s under construction.

At present, the main body had already been completed. The follow-up was to continuously install other modules around the central body one by one, which would take about half a year to complete.

“Lin Fan!!!”

Lin Fan, who had just entered the central control room, heard someone’s sultry voice, which instantly gave him goosebumps.

Looking in the direction of the voice, it was Bai Zixuan, who looked much younger, looking at himself with a sultry look that matched the voice just now!

Lin Fan couldn’t help but have cold sweat on his back, Bai Zixuan doesn’t swing that way does he?

“Ahem, Elder Bai, it’s been a long time!”

“That’s right, it’s been five years, and you haven’t handed me anything new in five years!”

Bai Zixuan said while looking at Lin Fan with a sultry face, looking like an infuriated daughter-in-law.

This scene undoubtedly drew the attention of others on the side. The flames of gossip immediately burned in the entire central control room.

Lin Fan looked around the crowd, and suddenly felt bleeped up.

Saying this is like saying to the people who don’t know the context that I have not given you love letters in 5 years.

“Old man, tidy your words and don’t make people misunderstand!”

“Misunderstand what? The first thing you need to do is give me a card. When will you give me one huh?!”

Hiss… Lin Fan instantly felt the flames of gossip around him burning even more fiercely.

He hurriedly interrupted Bai Zixuan’s words, lest he get more and more exaggerated.

“Old Bai, I’ve been busy with war so I had no time to engage in research. Moreover, you can still dig through those technologies I gave you before!”

“Do you really still need to say that? In the past few years, we have been using your technology as the basis for more in-depth research, and now the second generation of the Warp Engine is already in testing, which can double the current warp speed.”

“We’re also testing a new generation of warship cannon, which I call the Plasma Cannon. It has a longer range, greater power, and faster recharge than the current Ion Beam Cannon.”

“By the way, there is also great progress in the anti-gravity engine. It is still under research, but if successful, it will increase the maximum speed of the warship by more than ten times, and can reach at least 50,000 kilometers per second, becoming a true sublight speed engine!”

“There are others…”

Old Bai was still the same Old Bai. Once he starts talking about research, he gets so excited that he can’t stop!

Though Lin Fan is very interested in the new discoveries. The second generation Warp Engine and Plasma Cannon that Bai Zixuan mentioned, and of course, if that anti-gravity engine is successful, it will definitely be able to push the Human Federation into becoming a Level 4 Civilization.

Looking at Bai Zixuan, who was still waving his hands in excitement and talking endlessly, Lin Fan could only laugh bitterly.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep