“Shaoheng, are you okay?” Ironically, General Ji had a better impression of Huo Shaoheng after that day’s events surrounding the 27 Special Operations Forces members.
Competent generals had no weak soldiers, and the situation at hand proved that.
Whether or not his successor was qualified not only depended on his own capabilities, but also on his ability to train competent followers.
Huo Shaoheng was the sharpest weapon he had ever built.
Huo Shaoheng’s soldiers were Huo Shaoheng’s sharpest weapons.
If a soldier saw no blood, could he really call himself a soldier?
The most crucial skill to the soldiers in the Special Operations Forces was the ability to adapt to all sorts of situations.
As soon as he picked up, Huo Shaoheng sensed that General Ji was already aware of their situation. He pursed his lips, saying, “Fortunately, we just conducted a round of anti-electromagnetic interference, and our plane is in stable condition at the moment.”
General Ji was stunned for a moment. “Anti-electromagnetic interference?”
Huo Shaoheng kept his long story short. “Yes,” he said. “Our plane was targeted shortly after takeoff and subjected to strong electromagnetic interference. The aircraft lost directional capabilities at one point, and it took around three to four hours to fix the situation. However, our plane was almost out of fuel, so I had to request an air tanker from the military. I’m worried that it will not arrive in time, so I wanted to give you a heads-up beforehand.”
Of course, Huo Shaoheng having to personally call General Ji to remind him that they were running out of fuel signaled the urgency of the situation.
Although the pilot of the aircraft had called air traffic control to request someone arrive with more fuel, their request still hadn’t been met yet.
Although Huo Shaoheng hadn’t explicitly said so, knowing him so well, how could General Ji not realize what he was insinuating?
“You’re still on the plane? The plane is almost out of fuel?” General Ji’s expression changed as he realized the gravity of Huo Shaoheng’s situation. For the time being, he decided not to tell him about the crisis involving the Secret Service. He immediately picked up the phone and called the Air Force, saying aloud, “General Huo is stranded in the air in dire need of fuel. You will take off and provide him fuel immediately! I will give you five minutes! If you don’t take off within five minutes, you will be subject to military discipline!”
The airman was frightened. They had been considering holding off handling the issue, thinking it was not a big deal, but they had not expected General Ji to call himself!
“Yes sir, Chief! We will deal with it immediately!” the airman responded.
The people who had originally wanted to wait saw that the situation had gotten out of hand and snuck away.
Twenty minutes later, Huo Shaoheng’s military aircraft finally received fuel.
At that point, their plane had almost reached the aircraft’s low fuel alert threshold.
Huo Shaoheng was sitting in the cabin, and although he was actually in deep thought, on the outside, he appeared to be simply watching the aircraft getting refueled along with everyone else.
Song Jinning watched for a while, then sat beside Huo Shaoheng and anxiously patted his hand. “Shaoheng, this time, it has gotten too dangerous. The way I see it, the sudden appearance of a magnetic field in City C seems sketchy.”
Huo Shaoheng had also thought about that possibility as well, but since they had already risked so much to get to City C, he personally felt the need to see what tricks the enemy had up his sleeve.
“Miss Song, how did you find out that a magnetic field had appeared in City C?” Huo Shaoheng lowered his head, opened his laptop, and started a data inquiry.
Song Jinning glanced around. “Should I say it here?”
“Say it.” Huo Shaoheng didn’t bother to look up.
This was his private plane, and the aircraft had been specially built for him.
At the moment, there were no outsiders in the area, only Song Jinning and him.
Yet Song Jinning still felt uneasy. She took his computer from him and typed a few lines on his computer’s notepad.
It said: “All of our high-energy physics magnetometers were left by my father. That is, your grandfather. I didn’t stay in the experimental base that year, but instead stayed in the office of the Institute of High Energy Physics, and was, therefore, able to escape unscathed. C City was constantly under surveillance in search of its connection to our magnetometer from back in the day. Starting a few days ago, the instrument started intermittently showing signs, and today, the magnetic field had been completely formed.” Song Jinning also pulled out her own magnetic field data map for Huo Shaoheng to see.
Huo Shaoheng looked for a while and determined that the magnetic field really had appeared.
He bowed his head slightly, thinking after so many years that his enemy had finally emerged from the shadows and showed himself.
In fact, if the other party had remained dormant and done nothing, Huo Shaoheng really would have had no clue how to catch him.
But the other party seemed stubbornly determined not to give up, especially over the last two years. Not only had he himself been targeted, but Gu Nianzhi had been a target as well.
This was interesting.
Huo Shaoheng had never thought about making a connection between that weird magnetic field and Gu Nianzhi before. Everyone simply thought that seven years ago, Gu Nianzhi had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
After all, it had been 17 years ago that the uncanny magnetic field had first appeared in the Huaxia Empire, much earlier than when Gu Nianzhi had first come into the picture.
But now, he had enough evidence and reason to link the two together.
He had to thank the enemy’s persistence in trying to eliminate Gu Nianzhi and himself. The more he tried, the more potential mistakes he made, and the more he revealed about himself.
“Well, let’s go to City C.” Huo Shaoheng decided. “It’s closer, and it was our intended destination as well.”
He turned off the computer. The aerial refueling that had been going on outside was now finished.
General Ji called him again.
Huo Shaoheng put on his Bluetooth headset and switched it on, then calmly said, “Greetings, sir.”
Song Jinning overheard Huo Shaoheng calling the other person sir, and, knowing that he only addressed a select few people by sir, she quietly left the room.
Soon he was the only one left in the spacious cockpit.
General Ji was already at the gate of the Secret Service’s headquarters. The 27 Special Operations Forces members that led the confrontation were standing in front of him. He looked at the blood on their bodies, then at their broken noses and swollen faces, and his heart ached. Suppressing his anger, he first asked Huo Shaoheng, “Have you refueled yet?”
“Just finished refueling.” Huo Shaoheng heard the pilot telling them that they would be arriving at City C in a few moments, so he told General Ji as well.
General Ji was silent for a moment, then said, “Shaoheng, I have something to tell you.”
General Ji told him about how the 27 agents from the Special Operations Forces had occupied the Secret Service headquarters.
Huo Shaoheng’s face fell. “Are there any photos of the site? Let me see some of them.”
General Ji nodded. “I’m on the scene.” Then, he started to video call Huo Shaoheng.
Huo Shaoheng accepted the call to see the video General Ji was livecasting.
Soon, the Secret Service’s iron-gray building, the lush lawn in front of it, the armed police on the scene, the police cars flashing lights, and several armored vehicles in front of the police car all appeared on the phone’s screen.
As soon as General Ji changed the angle of the phone’s lens, Tan Dongbang’s face appeared on the screen.
Huo Shaoheng’s eyebrows twitched.
General Ji’s phone was lifted upward once again. This time, those who appeared on the phone screen were the Special Operations Forces members who had been invited by Assistant Minister Feng to assist in the investigation.
Huo Shaoheng eyes skimmed through the crowd. There were only about a dozen people, yet there were probably about a dozen more hiding in various fortresses. The snipers must have had rifles aimed at his people, and were waiting to shoot anyone who moved.
His eyes fell on the wounds on his soldier, and the corners of his mouth twitched once again.
He could tell that their injuries were probably self-inflicted and that it was most likely a last resort. Otherwise, they might not have been able to come out alive.
Huo Shaoheng knew his subordinates very well. Without complete faith, they would not have gone this far.
“General Ji, this is how the Secret Service treats our soldiers?! What did they do wrong to deserve such severe torture?!” Huo Shaoheng stood up. His voice was extremely harsh. “Who ordered the military police to be here? Treating their own people like this? I demand that they all evacuate immediately!”
General Ji agreed, but Tan Dongbang was so eloquent that General Ji had run out of things to say.
General Ji did not want to fight with Tan Dongbang again under the public eye and lose credibility in front of all those people, so he put the phone on hands-free mode, then secretly connected it to the broadcast speaker over the courtyard. He handed it to Tan Dongbang while saying coldly, “Prime Minister Tan, Huo Shaoheng wants to talk to you.”
Tan Dongbang grinned, then took the phone from General Ji without realizing that General Ji had already connected the phone to the live broadcast speaker.
He proudly asked, “General Huo, what’s your advice? Your soldiers are–”
Huo Shaoheng interrupted Tan Dongbang harshly, saying, “Prime Minister Tan, I beseech you to remove all military police personnel and non-related personnel this instant! Immediately!”
Huo Shaoheng’s voice came out through the loudspeaker like a thunderbolt, and everyone at the scene was startled.
The members of the Special Operations Forces that were still in the Secret Service building overheard Huo Shaoheng’s voice, and immediately became exuberant, shouting together, “Greetings, sir!”
Their booming voices came like thunder over the broadcast speaker. Although there were only 27 of them, they had the energy of a troop consisting of hundreds of soldiers.
Huo Shaoheng heard his people’s voices through his phone, and his heart rate calmed slightly. “Hello, all. General Ji is already aware that the people in the Secret Service have been torturing you. Rest assured that justice will be served,” he said solemnly.
As soon as Tan Dongbang heard what Huo Shaoheng said, he went absolutely mad.
“Huo Shaoheng! What do you mean?! Your soldiers are the ones attacking my people! Occupying my building! How dare you spin it around and make it seem like I’m in the wrong when your people have committed a serious crime! How dare you?!”
How serious was mutiny?!!
In ancient times, such a crime meant death for the mutineer and his family. Did Huo Shaoheng really have no idea?
Tan Dongbang was indignant.
Huo Shaoheng refuted his words, saying, “Your people? You mean Hong Kangquan is one of your people? So Prime Minister Tan is now on the same side as a traitor who has betrayed our senior general and is guilty of repeated attempts on his life?”
When the military policemen present at the scene heard what he said, a commotion broke out. They despised traitors more than anything. No matter who they were or where they came from, traitors were their enemies.
Even the armored vehicle’s muzzle was aimed at Prime Minister Tan and his people.
Tan Dongbang’s face turned a ghostly white, and he tried to collect himself. “What are you talking about? When did Hong Kangquan try to murder our senior general? Stop spewing such nonsense!” he said stubbornly.
“Of course, I have evidence. Prime Minister Tan, please refrain from further troubling my people. As for the Secret Service, due to what happened today, we need to refer to military protocol. General Ji, my people, and I will all obey your orders unconditionally.” Huo Shaoheng finished speaking, then returned command back to General Ji.
