Chapter 307: Working on Sun Yuanhua

Inside the safe house, the men quickly made their final preparations for withdrawal. Unlike the infiltration, the withdrawal would involve carrying Sun Yuanhua and the others, so their movements could not be as swift and smooth as when they entered. Therefore, arrangements had to be made for the withdrawing personnel.

Sun Yuanhua was placed on a simple stretcher—one that Chen Sigen had ordered Huang Ande to prepare a few days ago. It was a wooden-pole, rope-net stretcher made to Lin’gao standards. The assault team had also brought adjustable straps to effectively secure the body to the stretcher.

Sun Yuan and the two boy servants carried Sun Yuanhua’s stretcher, with a team guarding them from the front and back.

“Salamander calling Crocodile, Salamander calling Crocodile. First rendezvous point reached. Preparing to withdraw to exfiltration point. All personnel safe. Please advise,” the team leader reported.

“Withdrawal approved.”

“What about you? Are you withdrawing with us or staying in the city?” the team leader asked Huang Ande.

“They go with you. He and I will stay,” Huang Ande said. He considered that if he left, his team in the city would fall apart without him as their leader. His months of work in the city would have been in vain.

Sun Yuan had to leave, but the others didn’t need to.

As long as they were still in the city, they could still play a significant role and add a glorious chapter to his future resume.

“Alright, you two be careful.”

Sun Yuan and the two boy servants were also given a necessary disguise, their faces blackened. To prevent them from inadvertently crying out, all three were gagged.

“Sorry about this. You’ll have to bear with it for a while,” the sergeant said.

The assault team quickly finished cleaning up the safe house and began to withdraw, covering each other in succession.

Zhu Si watched in a daze as the group left with Lord Sun. This night had been too bizarre and strange. He couldn’t help but bite his tongue and look at Huang Ande, his heart filled with fear. If Huang Ande hadn’t been in and out of the water city for months and been his sworn brother’s childhood friend, he would have truly thought Huang Ande was a demon.

However, to be sworn brothers with someone so skilled and with such a background also made Zhu Si secretly happy.

“Big Brother…”

“Don’t be afraid,” Huang Ande said, looking at Zhu Si’s frightened yet excited expression with great satisfaction. “Let’s go. We have to get back quickly.”

Just as Huang Ande was about to leave the safe house with Zhu Si, a key press call came from the walkie-talkie. He quickly turned it on.

“This is Crocodile calling Jones.”

“Jones, copy.”

“Since you are not leaving Dengzhou, I now order you and your team to go into hibernation immediately,” Chen Sigen issued a new directive. “There will be a war here in Dengzhou soon. Unless absolutely necessary, do not join the rebel army. Try to hide as much as possible. If you can no longer remain hidden in the city, send a message, and we will arrange for your withdrawal immediately.”

“Understood.”

“Good luck!”

At 0410, Chen Sigen was the last to board the waiting Fubo gunboat. Zhu Mingxia, who had been waiting for a long time, came forward to greet him with a broad smile. “A victorious first battle. You must be in a good mood.”

“Yes, it’s just the beginning!” he said.

After recovering the rowboats, the Fubo, carrying the assault team and Sun Yuanhua, withdrew towards Dazhushan Island. Chen Sigen was very excited and had no desire to rest. He paced back and forth on the deck alone. The smoothness of the “Treasure Hunt” operation had far exceeded their expectations. Before this, the Special Reconnaissance Team had carried out numerous kidnapping and assassination missions in the cities of the Pearl River Delta under dark conditions, but that was in a state of peace, unlike Dengzhou, a besieged city teeming with a large number of enemy troops.

From the looks of it, the Special Reconnaissance Team had great potential!

Chen Sigen held two positions: one in the Ministry of Health as the director of the Nutrition and Fitness Department, and the other in the army. His work often felt like a juggling act. To accommodate his work in the Ministry of Health, the General Military Affairs Department had arranged for his detachment to be on duty in Bairen City most of the time. Even so, daily training, duties, and exercises still took up too much of his time and energy. Chen Sigen had been considering giving up his military post to focus on his career in public health.

Now it seemed that earning merits in the army was a faster way to advance, Chen Sigen thought.

The Fubo soon arrived at Dazhushan Island. To his surprise, Chen Sigen saw a Senator waiting to welcome him.

The visitor was none other than the “Lord of the Manor” of Qimu Island, Lu Wenyuan.

“What are you doing here?” Chen Sigen asked as he stepped off the gangplank. “With no Senator in charge on Qimu Island, what if things get out of hand?”

“It’s alright. I came out secretly. There are naturalized citizen cadres and the army on the island. It won’t be chaotic,” Lu Wenyuan said. “When Sun Yuanhua wakes up, there should be a familiar face around, right?”

On Dazhushan Island, Sun Yuanhua didn’t know a single Senator. To explain the situation to him, they would first have to gain his trust. Lu Wenyuan didn’t have this problem.

“That’s true,” Chen Sigen nodded. “Since we’re all here, let’s first decide where to send Sun Yuanhua.”

“In my opinion, it’s best to keep him on Dazhushan Island. We have naval cover here, the rebels can’t attack, and it’s close to Dengzhou…” Chen Sigen said.

“No, I think we should send him to Qimu Island as soon as possible,” Lu Wenyuan said. “The news of Sun Yuanhua’s capture has not yet officially spread. The court has at most received a vague message that Dengzhou has fallen and Sun Yuanhua’s fate is unknown. The court will not yet decide to appoint a new governor of Deng-Lai. We need to quickly bring Sun Yuanhua back to the mainland, have him immediately submit a memorial, and regain the initiative.”

Although the fall of Dengzhou was a major crime for Sun Yuanhua, he himself had not been captured, and the later, very damaging rumor that “Kong Youde wanted to make him king” had not yet spread. There was still room for maneuver. Not to mention, since Sun Yuanhua had not been dismissed from his post as governor by the court, the entire three prefectures of Deng-Lai would have to obey his orders—this was extremely beneficial for Operation Engine.

“Sun Yuanhua must be in our control. We can’t leave him on Dazhushan Island. This is just a small, deserted island. News travels slowly. Qimu Island has a radio station and a pier. Communication and transportation are very convenient.”

Chen Sigen felt he had a point and decided to withdraw the entire force, along with Sun Yuanhua, from Dazhushan Island. With Sun Yuanhua in hand, all the Ming forces around the Shandong Peninsula under the jurisdiction of the Governor of Deng-Lai would have to obey their orders. A large-scale garrison on a place like Dazhushan Island was difficult, and they also lacked enough naval vessels to control the surrounding waters. It was also very close to Dengzhou. In the event of an attack by the Ming army or the rebels, the soldiers left on the island would be a needless loss.

At dawn, the Fubo and the special mission boat squadron, carrying all the personnel and equipment from the “Treasure Hunt” operation, sailed from Dazhushan Island to Qimu Island.

At the pier of Qimu Island, there was an additional 901-class gunboat and several special mission boats.

Chen Sigen was a little surprised. Several thousand refugees had just been transported from the island to Jeju. The sudden arrival of a gunboat not on escort duty at Qimu Island was quite unexpected.

When they were close enough to see the hull number, Chen Sigen recognized it: it was the Daishuang from the Second Fleet.

“When did this ship arrive?”

“Lü Yang, he came with the ship yesterday,” Lu Wenyuan said. “The command said to strengthen the maritime forces around Qimu Island. They’ve assigned both the Daishuang and the Fubo to Qimu, along with two special mission boat squadrons. At the same time, they can also implement a shuttle escort system to give the crew and ships some time to rest.”

“Is this kid any good? I remember he was only 20 on D-Day, right?” Chen Sigen knew this person—he was a completely unremarkable, “soy sauce” Senator, the kind with no muscles for manual labor and no skills for technical work. Later, during the great expansion of the army and navy, they were pulling in “soy sauce” Senators to be officers everywhere. This kid thought being in the navy was cooler and joined the naval training class. The reason Chen Sigen even knew him was because he had brought his mother with him.

Lü Yang’s mother was not old, just in her fifties. Since D-Day, she had lived a secluded life. He only remembered her surname was Qian. She had been the vice-principal of an elementary school. Because she had only one son, she had to come along with the transmigration. For the first two years after D-Day, due to her low spirits and the scorching southern weather, she had been staying at Gaoshanling to escape the heat, writing textbooks and lesson plans for the education department. It wasn’t until the education of the underage young Senators was put on the agenda that she got a formal job. Because everyone was uneasy about some of the “beastly” teachers at Fangcaodi, she, with her thirty-plus years of teaching experience, was invited out of retirement to be the class teacher and instructor for the underage Senator class, partnering with Fang Yijing to educate the next generation. Everyone respectfully called her Principal Qian.

Since there were only a few school-age young Senators, even with the addition of some carefully selected naturalized citizen orphans and children of cadres, Principal Qian’s class only had twelve students. Their presence was barely felt at Fangcaodi. Chen Sigen, as a nutrition expert, often had to go to this special class for physical examinations and meal planning, so he was quite familiar with Principal Qian and her son.

Lü Yang was already waiting at the pier. Seeing Chen Sigen come ashore, he came forward with an enthusiastic expression, saluted, and shook his hand. “Comrade Chen Sigen, congratulations on completing the dangerous mission of infiltrating and rescuing behind enemy lines. From now on, the security of our dispatched Senators has another layer of protection.”

Chen Sigen said, “Not at all, not at all. I think you are the one who is young and promising, becoming a commander of a naval detachment at such a young age.”

“Not at all, not at all. This is just a temporary assignment. I still have much to learn,” Lü Yang said very humbly. The group returned to Lu Wenyuan’s stockade.

Lu Wenyuan ordered the still-unconscious Sun Yuanhua to be placed in a carefully prepared guest room, with a double guard at the door. Another maid, trained by the General Security Bureau, was assigned to attend to him in the bedroom. Chen Sigen was a little worried and also instructed that Xie Yao be summoned immediately to examine Sun Yuanhua and ensure that his vital signs were all normal. Sun Yuan and the two boy servants were immediately sent for a bath and purification—however, on his orders, their hair could be left unshaved for the time being.