The army is the weapon of the state, and military academies have always instilled this into officer candidates. However, when the weapon develops its own thoughts and even attempts to influence the actions of its wielder, this is fundamentally an act of rebellion.
The soldiers who drowned at sea, were nailed to stakes, or perished burnt in the gun emplacements—they all died because of the ambitions of Kongtai'er and his ilk.
"That's all I know," Winters concluded. "The secret society of Kongtai'er is probably using the Duelists' Club as a cover for their periphery. These people are already very dangerous. They've tasted the sweetness of manipulating politics with violence; I can hardly imagine what they dare to do next. But according to Kongtai'er, they weren't the ones who blew up the docks. It was another group... Who knows if that's true or not."