As soon as they entered the water, they heard a loud roar!
The stormy waves were churning on the surface of the sea that had been calm and serene just moments before.
Huo Shaoheng looked up while wearing his waterproof night vision goggles and saw that the speedboat just a short distance away from them had been blown to pieces by an explosion.
The Japanese warship had fired on them!
Did they no longer care whether Hong Kangquan lived or died?
There had also been soldiers from the Japanese special task force there as well. Did they not care about them, either?
What if someone on the speedboat was still alive?
By choosing to fire, they were ensuring that there would be no chance that anyone on the speedboat would survive.
Huo Shaoheng intuitively felt that something was wrong, but at such a time, he didn’t have a spare moment to let his imagination run wild.
What he had to do now was to quickly get himself and his people out of Japan’s exclusive economic zone. As long as he returned to the open seas, the drone could take over and cover for them.
Huo Shaoheng didn’t believe that those warships had the audacity to chase them into the open seas. If they actually were that bold, then that could be a chance for them to test the precision of the crosshairs in their autopilot and could serve as an exercise for them.
Huo Shaoheng pondered it and then contacted his people through the walkie talkie in his mask. He ordered the five Special Operations Forces members he had brought with him to form groups of three and then form two combat forces that would surround Hong Kangquan—because now he was the target they needed to protect. Even if the death penalty awaited him back home, at this moment, it was their mission and duty to protect him.
Soldiers were obliged to obey orders unconditionally. No matter how much they despised the man and what he had done, they still had to protect him.
…
The explosion at the sea’s surface reflected the smoke and flame rising up into the sky and in contrast, it also accentuated the water’s translucence.
Huo Shaoheng and the six Special Operations Forces members who were on board the speedboat also joined in the battle against the Japanese. Without counting Hong Kangquan, they now had 12 people. Three of them formed one combat team and formed the character “ping” under the water while relying on the watches on their wrists as navigation guides. Then they swam towards the Huaxia Empire’s coastline.
The waves above their heads on the water’s surface were still breaking, and the flames shined through the water as a refracted ray. They paddled silently yet vigilantly, and paid close attention to any movement behind them.
At that moment, a long rope suddenly shot towards them from the back. The top of the long rope had a long, thin, sharp triangular cone that was dark and shiny, and it caused ripples through the water as it moved.
“Move to the right!” Huo Shaoheng was coincidentally swimming on the right side, and from the corner of his eyes he glimpsed the long rope and the gleam from the sharp tip of its head. At the same time, he quickly pulled out the double-edged dagger that was sheathed at his waist and reached out to chop the long rope!
The dagger was heavy and seemed unremarkable, and as soon as he got close to the long rope, he felt the resistance of steel. Huo Shaoheng frowned slightly. Who would’ve thought that the “rope” was actually made of thin iron!? Fortunately, his double-edged dagger was also made out of special materials and could even cut into the steel plate of tanks, so of course such a thin iron rope would not be a problem. The long rope was instantly severed into two pieces and fell softly into the water and towards the bottom of the sea.
Huo Shaoheng immediately informed all his companions of this hidden danger and warned them to be careful. Sure enough, another rope with sharp blades slithered towards them silently like a snake.
Since the explosion had just occurred, and the sea’s surface was still turbulent, these thin iron ropes wandering below the sea’s surface would have been difficult to discern. However, since Huo Shaoheng was more vigilant and highly trained than the average soldier, and because his personnel had the latest highly-developed weapons, such thinly disguised dangers were no threat to them.
The only aspect of concern was that while they were busy dodging and evading the ropes, they had deviated from their route. By the time Huo Shaoheng discovered this, they had already trespassed into Japan’s territorial waters! This meant that they were getting farther and farther away from the territorial waters of the Huaxia Empire!
Huo Shaoheng felt his heart grow heavy as he began to realize the trap the Japanese were setting for them. They were trying to force them into Japan’s territorial waters, so they could get rid of them in one fell swoop! As soon as Huo Shaoheng realized that this was likely their goal, he immediately contacted the ground. “Requesting drone support! Requesting drone support! The other party has a warship!”
The news of his request for drone reinforcements was quickly reported to the Supreme Committee of the Imperial Army. An emergency meeting was scheduled to be held immediately in the next quarter hour, and Speaker Long was notified to attend.
Speaker Long received a call from the parliament building in the middle of the night, only to learn that Huo Shaoheng was in danger! “The situation now is that they are already within Japan’s maritime exclusive economic zone! If we send a drone, will the Japanese interpret that as us invading their territorial waters?”
An admiral in the Supreme Committee of the Imperial Army said with great anxiety, “We often see others protesting against the United States when they do this, but we cannot become the kind of people who protest!”
Seven members from the Supreme Committee of the Imperial Army and three others agreed and believed that drones should not be sent over someone else’s exclusive economic zone lest they interpret it as a declaration of war.
General Ji was absolutely enraged by their responses. “What nonsense are you all spouting?! We’re talking about our soldiers! Our soldiers! Born to die for this country! Who cares if the Japanese protest?! Anyway, if they dispatch a warship first, then we launch a drone! But it’s merely an exclusive economic zone, not their territorial waters! Why should we be afraid?!”
When he thought about how Huo Shaoheng was in danger because of his orders to capture Hong Kangquan, a traitor, the general felt guilt-ridden. If his specially trained army elites lost their lives in the Sea of Japan, he would never forgive himself!
Speaker Long was pale but still standing beside General Ji. He said sullenly, “I agree with General Ji. Right now, who cares what other people think? Saving lives comes first! Anyway, in the future, don’t worry about any diplomatic complications whatsoever. Leave it all to me. You guys just focus on using drones to save people!”
He knew of Huo Shaoheng’s position in the army, as well as his contributions to the country. No matter what, even if it meant losing face internationally and risking deteriorating diplomatic relations, none of that would be worse than losing your most valuable talent!
General Ji breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Speaker Long agreed with him. In this vote, Speaker Long counted two votes for one person and one vote belonged to the incumbent prime minister, who was still counting the votes. So they had five votes on their side, more than the four votes that belonged to the other side.
After deciding by voting, they sent drones across Japan’s maritime exclusive economic zone to rescue their people. Immediately after the decision was made, he called C City’s garrison base. By that time, almost half an hour had passed since Huo Shaoheng had initially requested drone reinforcements.
Those thin iron ropes with knives on the ends had been replaced with ropes with iron spiked barbs, which were especially resilient underwater. The thin iron ropes crisscrossing the sea floor formed a sort of maze. Including Hong Kangquan, they had 13 people beneath the sea surface. Three of them had been scratched by the spiked barbs on the thin iron rope, and the scent of their blood was attracting bloodthirsty fish.
Fortunately, there were no sharks there. Otherwise, they would have been in an even worse situation.
The Japanese warships on the surface didn’t have the patience to wait and started firing torpedoes again and again. However, they didn’t fire them in Huo Shaoheng’s direction, but only in the direction they wanted them to swim towards. A round of artillery blocked their way, so it seemed like the only place they could go was into Japan’s territorial waters. However, they all knew that once they entered those waters, they were in the enemy’s grasp, and there would be no escaping.
As they were on the verge of being forced to swim towards Japan’s territorial waters, the drone from the Huaxia Empire finally arrived! Like the speedboats that hunted down the Japanese special task force in the maritime exclusive economic zone of the Huaxia Empire, this time, they aimed at the Japanese light destroyers!
“Drone!”
“How can drones from the Huaxia Empire be here?! Are they trying to declare war?!”
The officers and the crew on the Japanese destroyer were furious. How dare they use a stealth drone!? It was especially infuriating because nothing showed up on the radar! Even when the drone was already visible to the naked eye, there was still nothing on the radar!
The drone started dumping ammunition. This time, since they needed to deal with Japanese warships, the Flying Dragon drone also carried a small air-to-ground cruise missile and a highly precise dual-laser guidance mode that had an error of less than 0.1 meters! Small air-to-ground cruise missiles aimed at the largest Japanese destroyer and fired!
BAM! BAM! BAM!
The Japanese destroyer instantly exploded into a boiling sea of fire! The commander of the platoon, the Major General of the Japanese Navy, was killed on the spot! Several of his subordinates were also killed along with him.
A drone could only carry six cruise missiles, so it turned back immediately after one round of firing, and the ones behind it immediately took over. After several bombardments, all the targets in sight had been all successfully decimated, and only then did they return in satisfaction. A new drone arrived to escort Huo Shaoheng home. Huo Shaoheng immediately felt relieved of the great stress and burden he had been carrying.
Everyone floated up to the surface. They looked over the demolished aircraft, speed boats, and the floating corpses of the Japanese soldiers that had leaped into water in a futile attempt to save themselves. They felt satisfaction and pride at the damage they had wrecked upon their enemy. If they hadn’t been in such a hurry to return, they would’ve gladly inflicted even more damage!
With the drone escorting them, Huo Shaoheng and his subordinates could finally take Hong Kangquan to their ship.
While they had been waiting in the water, Hong Kangquan tried to take advantage of their underwater position and escape by quietly swimming away, but Huo Shaoheng knocked him out with the butt of his gun. At the moment, he was still unconscious.
It was actually more convenient to carry him like that since they didn’t need to dive anymore. They only needed to swim a little longer to get out of Japan’s maritime exclusive economic zone.
At the moment, a member of the Special Operations Forces, who was swimming in front, suddenly shrieked, then a gush of blood rose up from the sea, and his body floated up quietly.
However, the drone had not found any targets at sea attacking them.
How was this happening?!!
When a second member of the Special Operations Forces also started screaming, Huo Shaoheng immediately ordered, “Dive underwater!”
When they dove under the water, they discovered the danger!
Frogman troops!
Because the surface of the sea was blockaded by the Huaxia Empire’s drones, Japan simply dispatched their most elite underwater frogmen unit!
…
