Deputy Director Xu’s expression also grew grim, he never thought Deputy Director Wu of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would say such things. It raised serious doubts of his loyalty to the nation. He sighed heavily as he glared at Deputy Director Wu, then took out a document from his briefcase in resignation. He pushed it to Huo Shaoheng, “This is intelligence on the mercenaries, it would certainly be ideal if you can eliminate them abroad. But it will be more challenging to do so…”
“This is not for you to worry. This is what we do.” Huo Shaoheng accepted the document with composure, like it was nothing at all. “Give me an electronic copy.”
He never fully trusted what others gave him, so he would have his own soldiers verify all the intelligence related to the mercenaries and create a battle plan.
Deputy Director Xu saw his confidence and thought that since he was promoted to the rank of Major General at a young age, this must be nothing new for him, “I’ll send you an encrypted file once I go back.” He paused, then reminded Huo Shaoheng, “You only have less than a month’s time, if you can’t make it…”
“This is not your concern. From now on, this operation will be taken over by the 6th Military Region and you have no right to question us.” Huo Shaoheng rose and glanced at Deputy Director Wu, “In consideration of Deputy Director Wu’s resentment for me, to prevent him from affecting our operation, I request Deputy Director Wu be sent off for convalescence. Once the operation is completed, he will be allowed to return to his work. –Speaker Long, General Ji, your thoughts?” This meant he no longer trusted Deputy Director Wu.
General Ji considered that this would be the 6th Military Region’s first operation since its establishment, so he should provide more support and have more confidence in him. General Ji was also deeply disgusted by Deputy Director Wu’s behavior. He nodded slightly, “Someone take Deputy Director Wu to the Military Region Sanatorium for convalescence. Once the operation has concluded, take Major General Huo’s written instruction to retrieve him.”
Deputy Director Wu’s face grew more pallid and he was shaking like a leaf as he looked at General Ji pleadingly. However General Ji didn’t even look up, so he had no choice but to look at Speaker Long.
Speaker Long also ignored him, but looked at Huo Shaoheng and nodded with approval, “Major General Huo truly thought of everything–it’s settled. The paperwork will be completed by the Senate’s Foreign Affairs expert group.”
The hammer had fallen.
The Deputy Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported to the Senate, so the Senate’s Foreign Affairs expert group had the full power to send the Deputy Director for “convalescence.”
…
It was past 8pm by the time the meeting at the Department of National Defense was finished. Huo Shaoheng was still full of vigour and not tired at all. But the older men in the meeting with him were completely done and almost needed to be supported by the time they exited the conference room. Too much had happened in the last few days and personnel arrangements alone had everyone engaged in arguments daily. Huo Shaoheng greeted a few acquaintances and went back to his special vehicle to call Zhao Liangze.
“Little Ze, bring all your men to the capital. We have a mission.”
“Mr. Huo! What about Big Xiong? Should he come too?” Zhao Liangze took the call and knew that this must be related to the smuggled military munitions. He rubbed his palms in anticipation of a great battle.
Huo Shaoheng hesitated for a moment, “…Have him stay back, we can’t slacken with Nianzhi.”
“Roger.” Zhao Liangze didn’t question further and began notifying his team members to travel overnight to the capital.
The next morning, the team began to investigate the background of the mercenaries on the list the Secret Service provided to them. Thanks to the internet age, they could dig up a lot if insider information without taking a step outside. Of course, a case like Oda Masao from Japan was extremely rare. Most people today loved putting everything about themselves online. From the moment they woke to until they fell asleep, statuses were shared constantly. These statuses have become the most primitive data for intelligence gathering. From these statuses, they could deduce many useful things. Also, it was possible to unearth a person’s background and life experiences from online relations. Even normal netizens without hacking skills were able to dig up people, let alone an extremely adept hacker like Zhao Liangze… After investigating for two days and nights, all the data on the mercenaries was verified.
“Mr. Huo, the Secret Service gave us information on eight mercenaries. According to them, three are former United Kingdom Special Forces Special Taskforce soldiers, three are previously enlisted in the Russian Alpha Group and two are ex-US Navy SEAL Special Operations soldiers.”
“Mhm, and the truth?” Huo Shaoheng immediately knew from Zhao Liangze’s words that the intelligence from the Secret Service was erroneous.
“The truth is, the three Russian Alpha Group Special Operations soldiers are actually served the US Delta Force, but was classified as Russian Alpha Group for some reason.”
Huo Shaoheng took the data to read and spun a slim lighter in his hand before tapping it on the papers, “It probably was because whoever collected the data didn’t know the difference. These three men are former US Delta Force soldiers, but they had fully undergone Russian Alpha Group training. This was a part of an imaginary enemy drill by the US Army Special Forces. From weaponary, uniforms, tactics and combat skills, they appear identical to Russian Alpha Group Special Operations soldiers.”
“Is that the case?” Zhao Liangze had a sudden revelation, “Just like how we drilled as Red Army and Blue Army?”
“Right, Red is our troops and Blue was the imaginary enemy during drills. This kind of imaginary enemy could be the US Army, Russian, British, French–these are all possibilities. The Blue Army’s training and equipment are all foreign tactics and weapons used to battle against the Red Army. This is what our ancestors meant by know thy self, know thy enemy. A hundred battles, a hundred victories.”
“Got it.” Zhao Liangze could almost bow down to Huo Shaoheng in admiration. Huo Shaoheng had placed first for many years in international special forces competitions, and was very familiar with all the different special forces. Therefore, Huo Shaoheng also understood these foreign special operations soldiers the best when they became mercenaries.
“Find out their addresses and prepare to mobilize. ” Huo Shaoheng only said one thing and the remaining tasks would be executed by his subordinates. As one of the top brass in the 6th Military Region, he didn’t need to personally partake in battle. His duty was to recruit talent and send them to appropriate places to best serve the nation. After everything was prepared, Huo Shaoheng covertly took the special team members abroad and embarked on a flight leaving the country.
That was also the last day of Gu Nianzhi’s two week vacation. She called Huo Shaoheng from the base for an entire afternoon but no one picked up. She had no choice but to find Yin Shixiong and said despondently, “Brother Xiong, I have to go back to campus, can you take me back?”
Yin Shixiong knew Zhao Liangze and the others were on a mission and missed them dearly, but he now cared about Gu Nianzhi a lot more than before and made no complaints about being left behind. Seeing her in low spirits, he tried to console her, “Nianzhi, you know what we have to do as soldiers. We have to be at stand by at all times.”
Gu Nianzhi nodded and hugged her backpack, “I understand, just let me mope a bit more. I’ll be ok after.”
Yin Shixiong, “…”
This young lady grew up to be more fickle and harder to care for! He brought her near the campus because Gu Nianzhi didn’t allow him on campus. She got off at the entrance of C University and entered alone. She barely walked no more than a few steps with luggage in tow before someone behind her called, “Gu Nianzhi? Are you Gu Nianzhi?”
Gu Nianzhi turned and saw Ai Weinan smiling before her in a scarlet dress and carrying a Chanel bag.
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