As soon as General Ji walked into his office, he received the call. Thinking of the emergency meeting concerning the employment of drones in the middle of the night, General Ji felt his heart grow heavy. Was there a problem more difficult to deal with than drones?!
“Nianzhi, calm down and speak slowly. What do you think happened?” General Ji asked kindly and sat down to take a sip of tea.
Gu Nianzhi settled down and whispered, “I just discovered that Huo Shao’s communication may be experiencing electromagnetic interference. Poor communication naturally means that the enemy is doing something.”
General Ji was momentarily speechless. So she was merely guessing. He really didn’t know what to do with her. General Ji’s mood improved. He smiled and said, “There are many reasons for the poor communication. Besides, they are now at sea.”
Gu Nianzhi hurriedly asked, “They’re still at sea? Isn’t there a ship to bring them back?”
“It’s all right.” General Ji chuckled, picked up the military briefing on his desk, and glanced at it. The top of the brief had a summary of the situation Huo Shaoheng and his men were in. This was what he had requested be reported to him in a timely manner. “…encountered Japanese frogmen underwater.” It was only a simple line of words, yet General Ji felt himself immediately start sweating with anxiety.
He abruptly interrupted Gu Nianzhi on the phone, who was still arguing on the other end, and said, “Nianzhi, you guessed right. Shaoheng might be in deep trouble.”
At that instant, Gu Nianzhi felt like she couldn’t breathe normally. Her face turned red, and after a while, she finally asked in a trembling voice, “It’s just electromagnetic interference, right? That doesn’t necessarily mean huge trouble, right?”
Just moments before she had been worried about Huo Shaoheng’s situation, yet General Ji felt that she was being overly paranoid. Now General Ji thought that something terrible must have happened to Huo Shaoheng, yet Gu Nianzhi wasn’t willing to believe it. She thought, “Nothing bad happened, nothing bad happened, there must be nothing bad, there must be nothing bad!”
“Don’t worry. I’ll ask around about what’s going on,” General Ji said, dialing the intercom on the other line. This time he went directly to the local Special Operations Division in City C. “What’s going on with your chief? Have you received any more news?”
The operator over there was busy connecting the line to the person in charge of the branch. “I have a report sir! General Huo was suddenly disconnected during communication with the station just now. After further analysis, we have concluded that there is electromagnetic interference on the sea surface.”
“Suddenly disconnected during communication? What did he say?” General Ji asked in a grave tone. “Have you taken any followup measures?”
“We’re working hard. We have sent ships to the area for anti-jamming countermeasures.” The person in charge there was also very nervous. “General Huo’s last words were that the other party sent frogmen to blockade their retreat and that they couldn’t get out…”
General Ji only knew that Huo Shaoheng had encountered frogmen, but he did not expect followup reports! Connecting the information from the reports and followups, he realized Gu Nianzhi did have a valid reason for her concern.
“Okay, you report to me every half an hour, even if nothing happens!”
“Yes, sir!” The person in charge of the C City station readily heeded his demand. The personnel there already knew how important Huo Shaoheng was to the military. This was their greatest general. If something happened, then the Special Operations Forces would have their power and strength greatly reduced. No matter what, nothing could happen to Huo Shaoheng!
General Ji put down the intercom phone and discovered that Gu Nianzhi was still holding her breath and waiting on the other line. He couldn’t help but feel sad. “Nianzhi, don’t worry. This is the situation…” General Ji didn’t choose to hide the situation and told Gu Nianzhi what he knew.
He knew that Gu Nianzhi was already Huo Shaoheng’s wife and was therefore a soldier’s wife. As the wife of a military soldier, she must bear more things than ordinary women and not only put up with long-term separation, but also bear the pain of having your loved one on the front line and constantly looking death in the eye. Gu Nianzhi was still young. General Ji didn’t even know if Huo Shaoheng had made the right choice. Can this girl under 20 truly be able to bear the burdens that even mature women can hardly bear?
Gu Nianzhi didn’t think of it that way at all. When she heard from General Ji that Huo Shaoheng’s last sentence was, “frogmen blockaded the retreat route,” she immediately asked, “I understand that the army has developed a new type of anti-frogmen weapon. Why can’t we use it right away?”
That was a military secret. General Ji hesitated then said ambivalently, “Don’t worry, we’re already organizing a rescue operation there.”
“How can I not worry about it?” Gu Nianzhi was really anxious. “Please just tell me, will you or will you not use your secret weapon!?” For Gu Nianzhi, she couldn’t care much about anything else now. She just wanted Huo Shaoheng to come back safe and sound.
“Secret weapon? What are you talking about?” General Ji stubbornly feigned ignorance in an attempt to fend off Gu Nianzhi’s prying.
Gu Nianzhi didn’t take the bait and said brazenly, “Don’t you have an underwater drone, code-named the Flood Dragon? Why not send it out to deal with the frogmen?” She knew about this underwater drone, and of course it was because she overheard Huo Shaoheng, Zhao Liangze, and Yin Shixiong mentioning it at the dining table.
General Ji sighed. “Nianzhi, please be reasonable. That place is already an exclusive zone for Japan’s maritime economy. Before, we made an exception and sent aerial drones there. If we have to send underwater drones, then things will get complicated and tricky. I can honestly tell you that underwater drone technology is still immature, and the underwater situation is ever-changing, which makes it much more difficult than operating an aerial drone.
“In case the range on the seafloor is not controlled, there is a high possibility that it will hit Japanese territorial waters. Nianzhi, do you know what the consequences would be if our shells hit Japanese territorial waters?”
Gu Nianzhi certainly knew the consequences. It would be equivalent to declaring war on Japan. But so what if they declared war on Japan? She just wanted Huo Shaoheng to come back alive. However, the thought only stayed in her mind for a while before she dismissed it, because she knew that Huo Shaoheng would not be happy if they really did so.
He worked hard to help the military headquarters defend his country and certainly wouldn’t want to provoke war for his own personal gain. At that point, Huo Shaoheng would definitely prefer being dead than putting his country at risk for his sake.
Gu Nianzhi closed her eyes and took a step back. “Then may I go to City C to help with the rescue?” She made this request to participate in military rescue operations in particular.
General Ji felt even more uneasy. After a long while, he said, “Nianzhi, this military operation is a secret operation, and your security qualifications…”
“Huo Shao said that my security is the same as yours and Speaker Long’s.” Gu Nianzhi insisted, “Let me go, I can operate computers better than they can, and I am an excellent swimmer. I’m stronger than Huo Shao!”
She had once rescued Huo Shaoheng and Zhao Liangze by herself in the blue hole of the Caribbean. This time, she wouldn’t be intimidated when she faced the Japanese frogman troops.
General Ji still refused. “Nianzhi. In terms of swimming, there are so many excellent swimmers in our army. You just stay put for the moment and wait to hear back.”
Nianzhi still refused. “General Ji, if you don’t agree, I will keep asking until you agree!”
“Let’s talk later. I’m going to a meeting.” General Ji put down the phone and ignored Gu Nianzhi’s unreasonable request.
Gu Nianzhi did not give up. She returned to the central control room and started researching the situation concerning the Japanese frogmen. She was busy researching for two hours.
Two hours later, she was informed that the military’s first rescue attempt was a complete and utter failure. There were no casualties, but the strong electromagnetic interference on Japan’s seas caused every ship to deviate from its intended course and nobody could figure out where they were. Since nobody could even locate them or figure out where they were, how could they even rescue them? They had no choice but to withdraw all rescuers from the water.
After General Ji got word of the news, he immediately notified Gu Nianzhi and said, “Don’t worry about it. Let’s think of another way.”
“What other way are you still trying to think of?! Two hours have passed already!” Gu Nianzhi was anxious and desperate. “They’re at the bottom of the sea! They have been surrounded by the frogmen all this time, and they soon will be too exhausted and fatigued to fight back!”
General Ji’s eyes darkened, and he started contemplating whether or not that was the real intention of the Japanese. Something must have happened that made the Japanese throw Hong Kangquan to the back of their minds and treat Huo Shaoheng as their new target, and start single-mindedly focusing on eliminating Huo Shaoheng.
“Nianzhi, you have to have faith in Shaoheng, believe in…” General Ji did not get to finish before Gu Nianzhi interrupted him and said, “General Ji, I just remembered that if the military can’t conduct anti-electromagnetic interference countermeasures, we can find an expert to help us.”
“An expert?”
“Yes, Ms. Song Jinning, Director of the Institute of High Energy Physics. She is highly distinguished for her remarkable anti-electromagnetic interference abilities. I remember Huo Shao once said that when they encountered strong electromagnetic interference in the air, Ms. Song was the one who successfully implemented anti-interference countermeasures.”
As Gu Nianzhi said this, General Ji also remembered as well and patted the table excitedly. “Great idea! I will contact Director Song immediately!”
Gu Nianzhi had already put down the phone, and she returned to Huo Shaoheng’s residence to pack her belongings. Then, she called someone to take her to Song Jinning’s laboratory.
…
