Empire Conquest
Chapter 242 - 238: Cold Salad

Chapter 242: Chapter 238: Cold Salad

At almost the same time, Bai Zhizhan on the "Heng River" also received a telegram, more precisely, the Communication Advisor brought over the telegram that had just been received.

After reading it, Bai Zhizhan handed the telegraphic message to Zhou Yongtao, who was standing next to him.

The message had come from the Navy headquarters, and it wasn’t good news.

Just today at noon, just a few hours ago, the Imperial Guard Fifth Bureau, which was specifically responsible for intelligence security, captured a Saiyi spy in Puzhou port and confirmed that this spy had sent a crucially important telegram before being caught. It was very likely that the First Special Mixed Fleet had been exposed.

It was because the monitoring radio station intercepted the signal from the spy’s transmission that the agents from the Fifth Bureau managed to track down the spy by following the signal’s trail.

This Saiyi spy named Yoshikawa had been lurking within the Liangxia Empire for a full twenty years!

Disguised as a refugee from the Upper High Kingdom, he arrived in the Empire before the end of the last major war. Over ten years ago, he opened a fast-food restaurant near Puzhou port that specialized in seaweed rice rolls, primarily serving workers from the shipyard, and later expanded to include a delivery service, often making deliveries himself.

Due to his warm-hearted and generous nature, as well as being very talkative, he became very familiar with the shipyard workers.

Before his arrest, in fact, just that morning, he had made a delivery to the construction unit at the floating dock.

Dozens of freshly developed photos were found in his house by the Fifth Bureau’s agents.

Among them were several clear photographs of tankers inside the floating dock, clearly showing they were tankers.

To a professional intelligence officer, the difference between a tanker and a carrier is significant. Not to mention the parts above the waterline, just the hull below the waterline is quite different; as tankers don’t need to sail fast and have a massive load capacity, they appear much more bloated compared to a carrier.

The interrogation was still in progress, but it was certain that this was the first telegram Yoshikawa had sent during his twenty years of infiltration into the Empire, and he had definitely not been active before.

At least he hadn’t personally used the radio to send messages.

Radio signals are easily intercepted and tracked, and unless it was an emergency, a senior intelligence operative like Yoshikawa would rarely send messages personally.

Obviously, the intelligence he sent had to be directed at the "Heng River."

"Damn!" Zhou Yongtao cursed under his breath, then added, "Are those guys at the Fifth Bureau all incompetent? A spy who’s been undercover for so long, and they only discover him now."

"It’s precisely because he’s been undercover for so long that he’s been hard to detect."

Bai Zhizhan was at a loss for words too, but he didn’t complain, as complaining was pointless.

Although he had never worked in intelligence, with comrades like Zheng Jiangming and friends like Wang Kaiyuan, Bai Zhizhan had some understanding of intelligence work. Spies like Yoshikawa, who infiltrate for twenty years, usually target key intelligence and rarely act. They live like ordinary people, indistinguishable from the rest, leading normal lives without activity, making them undetectable by intelligence security agencies.

After all, you can’t say all immigrants are spies, can you?

Besides, do you detain and interrogate all suspicious individuals?

Even during wartime, it’s not feasible, let alone during peacetime.

"What do we do now?"

"Cool deal with it!"

Zhou Yongtao was clearly taken aback, and no wonder—he wasn’t used to Bai Zhizhan’s Yuzhou dialect.

"If you ask me, don’t bother with it."

"But..."

Bai Zhizhan smiled and said, "It’s just one carrier; is that enough to scare away Lan Yun? Besides, does Lan Yun even know he’s been targeted?"

Zhou Yongtao furrowed his brows. Although Bai Zhizhan’s judgment made some sense, acting as if nothing had happened wasn’t acceptable either.

"Go get ready, and set out immediately once preparations are complete."

"Alright, I’ll go brief the pilots on their mission."

Bai Zhizhan nodded and, after Zhou Yongtao left, turned his gaze back to the naval chart.

There, in the sea east of Ancient Pipe Island in the central part of the North Ma Islands, an area had been marked, and a small flag planted there bore a timestamp.

Indeed, it was precisely four o’clock in the afternoon, about fifteen minutes prior.

At that time, Lan Yun was on the "Jingang," watching an aircraft that was camouflaged as a ’97-type seaplane disappear into the clouds to the north.

But it wasn’t a ’97 seaplane; it was an Imperial Navy "White Swan." Only, the "White Swan" had been painted on both sides of its fuselage and underneath its wings with the Saiyi Navy emblem, a red circle, and was sloppily covered with some greenish-yellow paint on top of that.

With such modification, the "White Swan" had turned into a ’97 seaplane!

The method was a bit crude, especially the paint job on the fuselage, which looked less like camouflage and more like an attempt to make it look worn.

Perhaps the soldiers responsible for this task were previously antique dealers.

In terms of shape, the "White Swan" did bear some resemblance to the ’97-type seaplane, such as having four engines and being a typical parasol wing monoplane with a plump boat-like body, and outboard of the wings’ midsection, it had stabilizing pontoons. The differences were that the "White Swan" had a larger horizontal tail and much taller vertical tails at both ends, with stabilizing surfaces underneath each end of the horizontal tail, and it did not have defensive machine guns mounted at the rear.

From a distance, the "White Swan" did indeed look like a poorly maintained ’97 seaplane.

There wasn’t just one "White Swan" sent east of the North Ma Islands; there were eight in total.

These "White Swans" had all flown in from Zu Island on the night of the 17th, with the squadron leader being He Weigu, who had been pulled from the waters above the Nanzhu Sea.

According to Bai Zhizhan’s plan, the aviation ground crew aboard the "Heng River" worked overnight to modify the eight patrol planes. In essence, this involved removing all unnecessary equipment, including defensive machine guns, and then installing several flexible fuel tanks in the fuselage, allowing for hundreds of extra kilograms of gasoline to be carried due to the saved weight.

Additionally, the engines received thorough inspections.

Of course, they also had to paint on the Saiyi Navy identification marks.

At dawn on the 18th, these patrol aircraft left the fleet, first flying northward to the North Ma Islands, then eastward, before finally turning southward to search.

The adjacent patrol planes kept a 20-kilometer distance from each other, so the eight aircraft could cover a sea area about 200 kilometers wide.

Unless Lan Yun had no intention of heading directly to the Liuhuang Island landing fields, the Permanent Fleet would surely take a shorter path, keeping its distance within 200 kilometers of the North Ma Islands.

Before departure, Bai Zhizhan had personally instructed the eight pilots.

After sighting the Saiyi Fleet, they were not to approach too closely or panic, nor were they to send messages immediately. They were to circle at a relatively safe distance for a while, then turn northward. Only after flying out a hundred kilometers should they turn on the radio to report their findings to the Special Mixed Fleet.

Around four o’clock, the pilot flying that "White Swan" was He Weigu.

If the telegram had come from someone else, Bai Zhizhan might have had doubts. But since it was Lieutenant He Weigu who had made the sighting, there could be no mistake.

He was known for being extremely reliable and responsible, never one to report false enemy positions.

Because of this, upon receiving the telegram, Bai Zhizhan issued the combat order.

The ship-borne aircraft had all been checked, and the pilots were on standby. After refueling and arming, they would be ready to launch.

Of course, before the refueling and arming, Zhou Yongtao needed to devise the attack strategy, and ensure that pilots were briefed on their mission before taking off. Since the team leaders were Shen Pu and Zhu Huasheng, the briefing was quite straightforward; the targets were clearly defined, and the rest was up to the squadron and flight leaders to arrange.

These responsibilities typically fell within the purview of an air combat staff advisor or the ship-borne aircraft wing commander.

Li Yunxiang used to be responsible for this, but now it was Zhou Yongtao’s turn.

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