Chapter 304: The Infiltration

“I want to emphasize one point: we must do our best to bring out Sun Yuanhua alive. Besides him, the 02 intelligence team inside the city must also be brought out. I expect all participating personnel to engage with maximum firepower and conclude the entire battle with the swiftest actions. Leave no one alive, no wounded behind—including yourselves. I trust you’ve known this rule since the day you joined the Special Reconnaissance Team.”

“Understood!” everyone stood at attention and shouted in unison. “For the Senate and the People!”

“At ease!” Chen Sigen waved his hand. “Although we believe the probability of Sun Yuanhua committing suicide is less than 50%, we should still control his actions and ability to speak after we have him. The entire operation, from the moment we breach the city walls, will last 120 minutes. We will synchronize our watches one hour before departure.”

After speaking, Chen Sigen began to introduce the specific operational steps.

“According to intelligence, Sun Yuanhua is likely to be held in the governor’s yamen after his capture. Therefore, our detachment will infiltrate Dengzhou from the sea,” Chen Sigen said, pointing to the large-scale map on the table with his command baton.

The assault team would consist of a total of 12 combat personnel, with another four-man team as a reserve. The 16 team members were divided into two combat teams: the assault team and the cover team. The objective was to rescue Sun Yuanhua.

The cover detachment, consisting of 4 members, was divided into 2 two-man sniper teams, each equipped with a Mosin-Nagant rifle with an infrared scope. The assault detachment was divided into 3 four-man combat teams. Each team in the assault detachment was equipped with one walkie-talkie, and the entire sniper detachment was equipped with one walkie-talkie.

“The troops will enter the battle from a general direction—from the sea to the west of Dengzhou city,” Chen Sigen’s command baton moved, and a tall, sturdy female orderly placed a marker on the position he had indicated. “This is the attack launch position.”

He then pointed his command baton to the display board. “This is a photo of the city wall and fortifications of the west city of Dengzhou. It’s the latest. Many of you have already carried out infiltration missions into Dengzhou and should know the specific details. I’ll emphasize it again here: the Dengzhou city wall is 12 meters high, and the moat is 6 meters wide. You must be fully prepared and secured when attempting to overcome this obstacle.”

“The navy’s Fubo will be the departure point for the sea operation, deploying troops out of the target’s line of sight. Four assault boats will depart from there to take you ashore.”

The assault boats were not small launches, but motor lifeboats dismantled from the Fengcheng. The small launches, using steam engines, were too noisy, and their smokestacks emitted sparks at night, making them unsuitable for surprise attacks.

“The specific landing position is here,” he poked the sand table. The sniper team would clear any threatening targets on the city wall. After clearing, they would use the walkie-talkie to send a one-long, two-short key press signal to the infiltration team in position. The infiltration team would climb the wall, dispose of the bodies, and then the four teams would split up to search for the target. 01 would find Huang Ande at the rendezvous point. 02 would go straight to the Dengzhou prefectural yamen. 03 would remain on the city wall to control the exfiltration point.

After 01 found Huang Ande, he would be guided by Huang Ande to find Sun Yuanhua. At the same time, he would send three consecutive short key presses to indicate that the secondary target had been found. Any team that found Sun Yuanhua would immediately notify the entire combat team via walkie-talkie. If 01 had not found Huang Ande by this time, he should report the actual situation via walkie-talkie. Depending on the situation, the highest commander at the time would give him a 20-minute time limit to continue searching. If still unsuccessful, he must withdraw.

During withdrawal, if conditions permitted, the original infiltration point would be chosen as the exfiltration point. A backup exfiltration point would also be set up. The first team to reach the exfiltration point would control it with firepower, waiting for the other team members to arrive. After all three teams had arrived, they would withdraw collectively.

After all personnel had withdrawn from Dengzhou city, they should follow the predetermined route, heading west to the area of 37.82, 120.73, fire a signal flare, and then leave by boat.

On the sea, four small launches would provide fire support, and another four medium launches would carry a marine platoon and a machine gun, ready to provide strong fire support at any time.

“That’s all for the general situation and mission. As for the specific tasks and steps for each team, they will be further explained by the respective team leaders. I won’t say more,” Chen Sigen said, closing the folder in front of him. “You guys have done this kind of thing more than once or twice. I can’t even count the number of exercises we’ve had. So, I know each of you very well and have the utmost confidence in you. Get Sun Yuanhua out for me. Any questions?”

“No questions, sir!”

“Alright, next, the intelligence team will introduce the specific intelligence details.”

After finishing the deployment meeting, Chen Sigen returned to his tent. He drank a cup of “energy tea” that a female orderly had prepared for him. It was his own concoction of a fitness drink, mysteriously infused with various Chinese herbs, but its main ingredient was not mysterious: beef broth.

People who work out need to supplement with a large amount of protein to maintain their muscle mass. Chen Sigen was no exception. Considering that there would be no ready-made protein powder in the new time-space, and that protein was also a severely scarce resource, Chen Sigen had already made considerable adjustments to his diet and fitness routine to adapt to the harsh environment.

Despite this, his body still needed a large amount of protein, and simply eating a lot of fish was clearly not enough. Fortunately, at this time, the Agriculture Committee and the food factory were developing some high-energy foods for the Special Reconnaissance Team. Chen Sigen was very enthusiastic about this and offered many suggestions. This “energy tea” was also developed under his guidance.

The tent was filled with the smell of spices and herbs, mixed with the aroma of meat—it was hard to say that this was a pleasant, appetite-stimulating food. Chen Sigen slowly drank the beverage in his cup, looking at his watch from time to time. In a little over a dozen hours, with the help and encouragement of Zhang Tao’s remnants, the central army commander Geng Zhongming and the captain Chen Guangfu in the city would finally join hands with Kong Youde outside the city. With their inside help, the east gate of Dengzhou would be opened. The city, with its seven thousand soldiers, over a thousand Chinese and Western cannons, and mountains of grain, provisions, and silver, would all fall into the hands of Kong Youde—mocked by contemporaries as the “paper-walled Dengzhou.”

February 24, 1632, the fourth day of the first month of the fifth year of the Chongzhen era. 2:00 a.m., Lin’gao time. A desolate beach outside Dengzhou city. The sky was overcast, and a strong wind was blowing.

On the beach lay a dozen or so bodies left from the previous night’s city breach, the blood frozen solid.

A patch of grass near the beach suddenly stirred, and a few wild rabbits scurried out. Following them, three “monsters” with horns on their heads, green, glowing eyes, and three-legged, hunched backs, crawled out of the grass and quickly advanced towards a small hill nearby.

The rabbits that had run away watched in confusion at the two monsters with mottled green and brown spots on their bodies. They had never seen such strange things in the Ming world. Of course, if the transmigrator Lando happened to be on this beach, he would have recognized this as the standard low-crawl “monkey crawl” for moving through high cover, as taught in US military sniper manuals. In this method, the soldier holds his rifle with his strong hand and crawls on the ground with his weak hand and both legs, which both increases speed and ensures the soldier does not inadvertently stand up and expose himself. The automatic rifle in the monster’s hand came from his shipwreck, with a locally made silencer attached.

The three monsters rushed into a small grove on the hill by the shore and immediately took up a kneeling firing position, on alert. Half a minute later, the one in front patted the shoulder of the person behind him, pointed to his own eyes with his left hand, then pointed to his watch and made the hand signal for “5.” The person behind gave a thumbs-up, then took out an infrared telescope from his backpack. The two men tacitly began to search their respective left and right sectors in detail.

Five minutes later, with the vibration of their watches, the two men simultaneously said softly, “Clear!” and continued to observe the sea with their telescopes.

“Three low-speed thermal image flash signals on the sea surface. 01, 02, and 03 teams have completed their transfer. ETA 20 minutes.”

“A smooth start. Maintain alert,” the person who had not moved said in a low voice. The speaker was Chen Sigen.

By rights, he did not need to be present, but after much thought, he was still uneasy and decided to go along with the 03 team.

Chen Sigen turned and looked. It had only been 7 minutes, and they were almost at the shore. The boys were well-trained! But he didn’t know how Huang Ande was doing in the city.

Although Huang Ande had only been temporarily selected for intelligence work in Dengzhou because of his “social connections,” he had clearly done an excellent job and was the key to this “Treasure Hunt” operation. Therefore, Chen Sigen was very concerned about the safety of this naturalized citizen soldier.

Although in the routine communication after the city fell, Huang Ande had reported that he was safe, and that the small team he had gathered was also safe and was trying to find out Sun Yuanhua’s whereabouts.

The news in the city was chaotic. Huang Ande’s report was that most of the main officials in the city had either committed suicide or been killed, and Sun Yuanhua was also on the suicide list, but this had not yet been confirmed. In terms of order in the city, although it had been orderly after the entry, Kong Youde, Li Jiu, and other Liaodong men, in revenge for the persecution of the Liaodong people by the city’s residents and officials, had given weapons to the Liaodong commoners in the city after the breach and carried out a large-scale retaliatory massacre of the native Dengzhou people inside and outside the city. There had even been a collective massacre outside the east gate, with the bodies filling the moats.

The wealthy merchants and gentry in the city had suffered even more. Many wealthy merchants who had engaged in smuggling trade with Liaodong and contracted for military supplies were taken to the yamen and tortured, forced to “return their ill-gotten gains.” As for the gentry, they had suffered a devastating blow. The able-bodied men, old and young, were killed, the women were raped and plundered, and their property was looted.

According to Huang Ande’s report, the rebel army was currently inspecting the able-bodied Liaodong men to expand their army. They were also accepting Shandong soldiers and southern soldiers who were willing to join them. Among the latter, a rumor was spreading that the rebel army would soon force all able-bodied men to join, or else they would kill all the Shandong and southern soldiers. Therefore, apart from the Liaodong people, the city was in a state of panic.