General Ji eyed Tan Dongbang’s rigid expression with smug satisfaction, and after a while, he said aloud, “Prime Minister Tan, there are only two days until its time to vote. I think you’re jeopardizing yourself. In order to protect your life, I will propose to Speaker Long that the military take over as your security personnel. You can rest assured that we’ll give you the tightest security measures!”
The corners of Tan Dongbang’s eyes twitched. He gritted his teeth and spat out word by word, “No. Thank. You!” Then he turned around and climbed into his special prime minister car.
The secret service was supposed to be responsible for his protection, but now that the Secret Service itself was compromised, according to protocol, the Special Operation Forces were supposed to take over the job.
They looked at each other and didn’t know who to listen to.
Tan Dongbang’s personal car was parked there awkwardly, so no one dared to drive away.
General Ji sneered and glanced at the Prime Minister’s personalized vehicle, then returned to his own car and called Speaker Long.
“Old Long? I need to tell you something, though I don’t know if you’re aware of it or not.” General Ji told him how Prime Minister Tan had been abusing his powers to order Hong Kangquan and his Secret Service personnel to torture the Special Operation Forces.
Speaker Long was sitting in his personalized vehicle on his way to the airport, yet he was nearly on the verge of collapsing from high blood pressure when he heard General Ji’s words. “What did you say?! Tan Dongbang pardoned Hong Kangquan personally and gave him permission to take away and torture the 27 members of the Special Operation Forces?!”
He put down his phone and turned back to look at Special Assistant Zhuang with a furious expression. He asked, “Tan Dongbang personally pardoned Hong Kangquan. Do you know anything about this?”
Special Assistant Zhuang was caught off guard for a moment, then said hurriedly, “I’ve been preoccupied with attending to people, along with you. No one told me.”
As he was speaking, he called the Secretariat to ask about the matter.
The Secretariat was in a state of confusion and chaos for a while before finally, someone came to answer the phone.
That person was the intern, Rong Mingxing, whom Special Assistant Yang had brought in and mentored.
She said cautiously, “Special Assistant Zhuang, this is what happened: there was a call early in the morning when Director Hong was still detained, and Director Hong said he wanted to speak with you. I said that you and Speaker Long were in a meeting and asked him what he needed, but then he said nevermind, so I just briefly noted it.
“Then it didn’t take long before they called again and said that Prime Minister Tan was going to employ his power to release Minister Hong. At that time, you and Speaker Long were busy dealing with other things and couldn’t answer the phone, so I called Special Assistant Yang, who was on leave at home. He said that Prime Minister Tan had this authority so he didn’t need to request permission from Speaker Long for the other party to pardon him, so I…”
Special Assistant Zhuang’s eyes started twitching, and he couldn’t help but exclaim, “Special Assistant Yang is on vacation, so why on earth did you ask him?” Then he hung up the phone and said to Speaker Long sheepishly, “Speaker Long, they indeed called us, but it seems like the Secretariat didn’t take it seriously, so…”
Speaker Long suppressed his anger and looked at his watch. It was already four o’clock in the afternoon, and the German delegate to China would arrive in an hour.
He had no choice but to say to General Ji, “Old Ji, I’m on my way to the airport, and it’s too late for me to turn around. You have full authority to handle this matter, and you have my permission. After you finish handling it, I ask you to brief me on the situation.”
“No problem. I’ll deal with it right away.” General Ji had been waiting for Speaker Long to say this.
He was a military man and therefore had dealt with things in a militaristic style. He never procrastinated. As soon as he received permission from Speaker Long, he immediately dispatched troops on-site and sent a team of military personnel to take over Tan Dongbang’s security and replace the Secret Servicemen that had originally been in charge.
His real purpose for doing so was actually to watch Tan Dongbang, lest he used his prime minister status to make a final dying struggle.
General Ji and Speaker Long thought that Tan Dongbang had reached the point where he had to be as silent as a mouse, yet he was putting up quite a fight.
It was an extremely fierce struggle indeed.
Tan Dongbang watched his security personnel being replaced with soldiers in the military with had deep displeasure on his face, but he didn’t dare object. When he had been waiting in the car just now, he had made several calls to Hong Kangquan only to find out that his phone number had been disconnected!
The very person who had promised to take the blame if the plan went wrong had now vanished, and Tan Dongbang instantly realized how compromising his current position was…
He sat restlessly in the car with sweat streaming down his forehead and back. After General Ji made sure the situation in the Secret Service was under control, the military police team took over the entire department and resumed security operations.
General Ji also took back the 27 men from the Special Operation Forces that had been detained there.
“You guys wait in the Special Operation Forces. Don’t go anywhere, just wait for Shao Heng to come back and decide what to do next, got it?” General Ji personally sent them back to the headquarters of the Special Operation Forces and immediately called the field medic to inspect their injuries.
Chen Lie and Zhou Qiyuan greeted them together and were shocked to see the injuries on their bodies.
After Zhou Qiyuan heard General Ji relay the ins and outs concerning the matter, he was ashamed and said quickly, “It’s my fault. If I had asked more questions, they wouldn’t have been taken away so easily.”
General Ji patted him on the shoulder. “You can’t blame yourself completely. That idiot Tan Dongbang is now exploiting his privileges as the prime minister to do all sorts of crazy stuff. Even Old Long and I hadn’t realized, so how can you blame yourself?”
Zhou Qiyuan had encountered no problems in terms of procedure, and the Secret Service had used Assistant Minister Feng to invite people, so even if Huo Shaoheng had been there, they still would have been let go.
If he had been there, Hong Kangquan wouldn’t have had the courage to abduct them…
Although Zhou Qiyuan had some prestige, he certainly couldn’t be compared to Huo Shaoheng.
Therefore, General Ji was very tolerant of him.
“Chief, rest assured, I’ll guard this area and await Huo Shao’s return!” Zhou Qiyuan paid a standard military salute to General Ji.
General Ji nodded. “Okay, you don’t need to say anymore. When Huo Shao comes back, let him see me right away.”
Due to General Ji’s position, this matter didn’t require him personally to take matters into his own hands, but because it involved the Special Operation Forces, as well as Tan Dongbang and Hong Kangquan, he attached great importance to the matter and felt somewhat uneasy letting others handle it.
From the headquarters of the Special Operation Forces, General Ji called to Speaker Long, “Everything is handled, but what about Hong Kangquan? He seems to have escaped.”
The Secret Service was now under military control, and all personnel had to register for a second review, yet Hong Kangquan was not among the registered personnel.
General Ji left someone to search for Hong Kangquan in the Secret Service, but the 27 people in the Special Operation Forces revealed that Hong Kang had already escaped back when they first took over the Secret Service.
At that time, they didn’t chase him, since they had a valid reason to stay in the Secret Service headquarters and justify their actions.
However, they had no real justification for chasing after Hong Kangquan.
Huo Shaoheng had emphasized to them, again and again, the fact that they couldn’t interfere in domestic affairs without a valid reason. In the case of intervention, they had to have authorization from an official.
They all kept this in mind and knew where they stood and what they had jurisdiction over.
Speaker Long had already arrived at the airport by this time, and he had arranged a ceremonial welcome for the German representative.
He looked at Gu Nianzhi, who wasn’t far from him, and whispered to General Ji, “…Hong Kang can’t escape. Let’s issue a warrant for his arrest.”
