Chapter 215: Killing the King (12)

At this moment, Zheng Zhilong's face was serene, his eyes calm, his entire bearing suffused with an unhurried ease. If the hem of his robe hadn't been caked with mud, probably no one could have guessed that this man had been fleeing for his life in utter disarray not long before.

After walking to the cave entrance, Zheng Zhilong — this Min Sea bandit chief, only twenty-four years old, still a fresh-faced youth by later generations' standards — first extended both arms and made a deep bow to the dozen or so people before him: "Zhilong thanks you honored ones for resolving my 'doubts.'"

Having finally met this historical archfoe whom everyone had discussed and schemed against countless times, truth be told, Liu Zhe and the others were still a bit stirred. So next, Liu Zhe signaled a Transmigrator with a DV camera hanging around his neck to step forward and speak: he knew that most of the military men present were the type not good with words.

Yang Lei, before crossing over, had done propaganda work at a Street Office community residents' committee, skilled in civil affairs, photography, videography, and news reporting, his unique specialty being blackboard bulletins; currently he was the Chief Moderator of the Crossing Forum and the designated Newspaper Agency President.

After taking one step forward, Yang Lei, who wore a washed-denim jacket and was not tall, first smiled at Zheng Zhilong, then held up three fingers: "Three questions and three answers."

Zheng Zhilong nodded slightly and then, in a clear voice, asked his first question: "How did you people manage to track me down?"

Upon hearing this question, Yang Lei first turned his head to look back at the soldiers behind him. Only after he confirmed that the soldiers were now too far away to overhear the conversation did he turn back and answer: "That pocket watch on you, and the copper Buddha on your ship — there are mechanisms inside that can transmit your location."

After hearing Yang Lei's explanation, Zheng Zhilong first raised an eyebrow, then pulled the cloisonné pocket watch from his chest and weighed it in his palm: "I knew your esteemed group was skilled in craftsmanship, but I never imagined you could create such a wondrous object. My admiration, my admiration."

At this, Zheng Zhilong shook his head and gave a bitter laugh: "That old scoundrel put on a fine play."

Everyone present knew he meant Xiong Da... this was a bit awkward, because essentially the pocket watch idea had been given to Lao Xiong by the Transmigrators.

After that one muttered complaint, Zheng Zhilong quickly collected himself and asked his second question: "Just who exactly are you people? And what noble business brings you to the Great Ming?"

"That's two questions." Yang Lei smiled: "We come from three hundred years in the future. We're here to establish a New Empire and dominate the world."

"... I am already a dead man; why must you deceive me with empty words?" Yet when Zheng Zhilong, his face showing disdain, gradually realized that the expressions of the people opposite him did not seem feigned, he couldn't help but stare dumbfounded: "Is it truly so?"

The next moment, the young man, having regained his senses, shook his head again: "Zhilong was fixated on appearances. Now that things have come to this, what need is there to care whether it's true or false?" Immediately after, he asked: "Since you are all people from three hundred years hence, this pursuit to kill me today must also have its reasons. Could you reveal a little more of the secret?"

"To put it in terms you can understand... you are our bane, or rather, a tribulation. At this time point, we must kill you."

At this, Yang Lei, his expression turning solemn, said to Zheng Zhilong: "Originally, your Summon Pacification this time was meant to succeed, and the Zheng Clan would have prospered from it. You would have dominated the southeastern seas for eighteen years, enjoying wealth and honor to the fullest. But eighteen years later, the Ming state fell. By then, your edge had long dulled, the hero was no more, and so you bent the knee to the Tartar Captives, ending up beheaded at Ningguta. Zheng Zhilong, a six-surname slave your whole life, possessing great courage but no great wisdom, brimming with heroic spirit in vain — you were but a watchdog guarding a house."

Having said this, Yang Lei stopped speaking and quietly stepped back. At the same time, the tall overall operations commander, Liu Zhe, took one step forward and drew the M9 pistol from his waist.

And Zheng Zhilong at this moment had long since sunk into bewilderment. He tilted his head up, his mouth constantly murmuring, and no one knew what he was saying — right up until the gunshot rang out, he maintained this posture without changing.

This time, the villain bosses finally let their opponent be a ghost who understood everything. The process went very smoothly, without encountering any clichéd situation where the protagonist overturns the game.

From the moment Zheng Zhilong fell, the Transmigrators henceforth entered the fast lane of development. Never again would someone like Zheng appear — a person capable of bringing such immense pressure upon the Transmigrators, just this one, no other branch.

A certain power base that takes industrialization as its wellspring of strength would very soon grow at a speed incomprehensible to the Natives, smashing all obstructions and pressures head-on from the front. By that time, the Transmigrators would never again carry out such elaborate and roundabout assassination operations — a few more years, and these villain bosses would probably have only one sentence to say: Look, I haven't even exerted myself yet, and you've already fallen...

After killing Zheng Zhilong, the cleanup work officially began.

The soldiers would next conduct a meticulous search of the cliff-shore area and beat to death every last fish that slipped the net. And the corpses of Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Zhihu, after being photographed and archived, would be buried on the spot. The coordinates of the unmarked grave were recorded: if one day a descendant of the Zheng family demanded the remains from the New Regime, they would receive these coordinates.

As for the rest of the cleanup work, there was still a great deal; at the very least, it could not be finished in the remaining time today.

First, the several hundred corpses on the ground all had to be thrown into the sea after a simple search and inspection. Second, the two stranded blessing ships also needed to be dealt with.

One of them, due to severe damage to its bottom when it rushed the shoal, had no further use value, so the Transmigrators decided to abandon it. Consequently, some valuable cargo from this ship was temporarily moved onto the beach.

The other ship, after undergoing simple repairs, likewise had its cargo unloaded first. The next morning, at the highest tide, a motor sailboat went full throttle and used steel cables to forcibly tow both ships in turn into shallow waters. After that, one ship was scuttled naturally, and the other was transferred by boat. The precious metals and cargo on the shore were ultimately all hauled away.

By the evening of the second day, the Special Task Fleet officially sailed for home.

This operation took a total of three days, eliminating a total of 800 enemy troops including Zheng Zhilong, and capturing two blessing ships and a quantity of wealth and goods. Meanwhile, the Crossing Faction, while training its army, paid a cost that was not too great; the most precious thing was those copper-jacketed bullets that required Import Quota.

Destroying the corpses and erasing the traces was a pre-established step.

Because for Xiong Wencan and the Transmigrators, the best outcome regarding Zheng Zhilong's death was: no outcome. If afterward it was exposed that Zheng Zhilong's death was the work of the Crossing Fleet, and then Lao Xiong abruptly recruited and amnestied the Transmigrators... that would be a case of protesting too much.

Therefore, the Special Task Fleet had to leave as few survivors as possible during the operation, thereby delaying the spread of the truth. As for Xiamen, once the Zheng Family Fleet set sail from Fuzhou under everyone's watchful eyes, informants from all sides would naturally relay the news back to their own bosses at the same time.

So, it would only take about ten days for the Pirate Gang in Xiamen to sense something amiss. A few more days after that, even without confirmed information, anyone with a brain would guess that something had happened to Zheng Zhilong.

This was precisely the effect the Transmigrators wanted.

No one needed to investigate how Zheng Zhilong died; everyone just needed to know that he was dead. Of course, when those fair-weather brothers scattered in a mass exodus, they wouldn't be so bored as to dig for the truth, because there were more important matters waiting for them: forming cliques, dividing the family property, gang fights, fighting over the boss's chair...

Therefore, from the moment of Zheng Zhilong's death until the Crossing Faction officially revealed itself in the Great Ming and organized forces to launch a punitive expedition against the pirates, there was still a window period of about twenty days in between: the masterminds behind the scenes had to wait for Xiamen to first descend into chaos on its own. By that time, even if the truth spread, it wouldn't matter, because the hot topic would have long since shifted; the day's headline would have changed to the Five Tiger Generals' falling out... As for Zheng Zhilong... who was that?

With the "Contend for Supremacy" plan having reached this step, the first two phases could be considered perfectly completed. Next, it would enter the final phase: Strategic Standoff.

This confrontation would be long-term, because it had to continue until the "newly appointed Mobile Corps Commander" had annihilated or annexed all the major pirates along the Fujian coast, just as Zheng Zhilong had done historically.

Because the fleet now had two more blessing ships, the return speed of the Special Task Fleet dropped significantly. After discussion, Liu Zhe decided that he would lead the two motor sailboats, taking the vast majority of the Transmigrators back first; the remaining ships could slowly crawl their way back.

Another day later, the two destroyers, 301 and 302, sailed into the Dayuan Channel at dusk. This time, many people came to welcome the returning warriors: practically the entire Great Office turned out, and even the reclusive Chairman Cao personally showed up, clinking a few cups of yellow wine with Liu Zhe and the others at the victory banquet.

And at the same moment, over in Fuzhou, Lao Xiong also received the news that Bandit Zheng had been beheaded.

After getting the news, although Lao Xiong felt secretly delighted, it was, after all, not proper for him to make a show of it. However, there was one person of low moral cultivation, not strict with himself, and of rather crude conduct who didn't care about any of that. Who? Xu Xinsu, Company Commander Xu.

Company Commander Xu learned that Lao Zheng was finished at the same time as Lao Xiong.

Then Company Commander Xu brought wine and food and insisted on going to Song Jia's place to drink until utterly drunk: this guy had been pursued by Zheng Zhilong from Zhangzhou to Fuzhou; to say there was no pressure in his heart would be a lie. Now that the villain was dead as a doornail, Company Commander Xu could finally let loose completely.

Of course, once the wine was drunk, the work still had to be done.

The next day, Company Commander Xu, through the operations of Fuzhou Station, managed to have a three-minute face-to-face talk with Lao Xiong and obtained an official promise of "promotion to Battalion Commander after the fact." After this, Company Commander Xu got another promise from Song Jia: in the future, he would be made the general agent for some of the good stuff from the Kiln Area Base.

And so Company Commander Xu left happily. Where to? Zhongzuosuo. To do what? To serve as the Homecoming Corps... This time when Company Commander Xu returned to Xiamen, he brought a Transmitter Unit with him. After arriving in Xiamen, he not only had to transmit intelligence to Dayuan in a timely manner but was also responsible for recruiting people within the chaotic Pirate Gang and persuading the Shopkeepers to "abandon darkness for the light." The workload was actually very heavy.

As for Dayuan, naturally, they had to keep a lower profile for a while... Although the war preparations had never stopped, usually after people do something bad, they need to lie low for a few days, and the Transmigrators were no exception.

Fortunately, this vibrant city was no longer short of headlines now — on the third day after the Special Task Fleet's return, a brief yet epoch-making set of radio waves was transmitted from the primeval forest of Miaoli to Dayuan: Oil found.