Chapter 287: Heavy Losses

Upon hearing these words, Tengyuan Jintai immediately felt a chill run through his body, and he hurriedly shouted into the microphone: "Why are you still making phone calls? Go put out the fire, put out the fire!"

Never mind the cargo of treasures on the ship for now; the ship itself is a scarce strategic resource—burn one ship and you lose one ship.

In Songhu, only routine maintenance can be done locally; major repairs require taking the ship elsewhere or waiting for specialist engineers to arrive.

"We've tried, but those flames are hard to extinguish; using water only makes the fire fiercer." The Japanese on the other end of the line looked full of grievance.

"More than a dozen soldiers have already been burned to death after coming into contact with this fire while fighting it!"

"What?" Tengyuan Jintai exclaimed in surprise: "Is there really no other way?"

"There seems to be a lot of accelerant still on the ship; for now we can only wait for the fire to burn out the ship's contents, then wait until the flames die down a bit before going in..." The voice on the other end of the phone said.

"Is that your solution?" Tengyuan Jintai's nose almost twisted with anger: "I have only one question now—why weren't you inside, so you could burn to death together?"

Having said that, Tengyuan Jintai angrily hung up the phone.

Hardly had the phone been hung up when the jingling ringtone sounded again.

"Bakayarō!" Tengyuan Jintai gritted his teeth, slammed the table hard a few times, picked up the phone, and snarled: "You bastards, what other bad news do you want to report?"

But the voice that came from the other end of the phone surprised Tengyuan Jintai somewhat.

"Director Tengyuan, what's going on outside? I seem to see a fire at the harbor," Chen Yongren said, lightly coughing twice.

"Besides, I see that things are chaotic out there; the phones at Office 76 and Chief Gu's residence are also dead, so I wanted to ask what's happening."

"Oh, it's Chen Sang." Tengyuan Jintai's tone softened a bit, and he said: "Those damned bastards have suddenly launched a large-scale operation in Songhu!"

"Our warehouses, inspection stations, and even Office 76 have all come under their attack!"

"What?" Chen Yongren exclaimed emotionally: "Office 76 was also attacked—no wonder nobody's been answering the phone."

"Not only those places, those damned bastards actually took advantage of the chaos in Songhu to sneak-attack the harbor, setting fire to and burning our ships!" Tengyuan Jintai was extremely agitated.

Chen Yongren posed a perfunctory question: "Have we captured anyone?"

With the system in hand, personnel receive notifications whether they are captured or killed; Chen Yongren was merely going through the motions.

"If we had actually caught them, I wouldn't be this angry!" Tengyuan Jintai gritted his teeth.

"Director Tengyuan, wait a moment; I'll come with you to the scene right away." Chen Yongren fell silent for a bit, then deliberately coughed twice.

After causing such a big incident, that old devil Tengyuan certainly isn't in the mood to sleep.

"Chen Sang, you've just been injured..." Tengyuan Jintai said.

Chen Yongren replied: "With something this big going on, how could I stay at home? Since I'm awake, I might as well first investigate and get a clear picture, then tally up the exact losses."

"I'll have Haifeng drive over to pick you up right away."

"No need; just have him pick you up, we'll meet inside the agency!" The old devil Tengyuan no longer objected.

At this point, he truly needed an assistant to help him sort out all the details.

With Songhu in such a mess, and Chen Yongren wounded too, he's still able to fight while injured—I really didn't misjudge him.

Chen Yongren is indeed a very brave fellow.

If that old devil knew that all of this was Chen Yongren's doing, I don't know whether he'd vomit three liters of blood.

After hanging up the phone, the old devil Tengyuan immediately arranged for a driver, and before getting in the car he inspected the inside and outside thoroughly.

After making his preparations, Chen Yongren immediately placed a call to Zhang Haifeng.

Zhang Haifeng quickly answered Chen Yongren's call.

"Tonight's commotion—is it our people?" Because Chen Yongren was injured, Zhang Haifeng also subconsciously overlooked him.

"I haven't received any operation orders, but judging by the method and professionalism, it should be our people." Chen Yongren gazed at the military police coming and going outside the window.

"No brothers got caught inside, right?" Zhang Haifeng asked again.

"I just called the old devil Tengyuan; for now no brothers have been arrested." Chen Yongren made up a casual excuse.

Tonight's operation mission was extremely successful.

Chen Yongren had already planned to apply for a commendation for them—those who could be promoted would be promoted, those who could earn medals would earn them, and the most important cash reward could not be lacking.

With so many brothers, they had almost turned Songhu completely upside down.

Since they were capable of this, we absolutely must not let their hearts grow cold.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Haifeng breathed a sigh of relief.

Chen Yongren knew what he was thinking.

Zhang Haifeng worried that if something really went wrong, he would be misunderstood by his own brothers, and feared that one day he might have to personally execute his own comrades.

And our own people don't realize how much suffering they are enduring, nor the identity problem that comes from being stained with their own comrades' blood.

"A Ren, you say…" Zhang Haifeng pondered for a moment: "Lately I've been thinking, if our brothers really mess up, how should we face them?"

"If the Japanese really force us to execute our own brothers with our own hands, should we comply?"

After a silence, Zhang Haifeng added: "If we really did that, even if we could later return to the Military Statistics Bureau, would our original brothers still trust us?"

Chen Yongren spoke lightly, comforting: "Since we've chosen this line of work, we must certainly do it well and be prepared for everything."

"Because our luck can't possibly keep holding up."

"If that day ever comes, all we can do is to end their suffering as quickly as possible, letting them endure a little less pain."

"This is not only a responsibility toward those about to die, but also toward the living; indecisiveness will doom everyone."

"As for the matter of self‑proof, you are only qualified to prove yourself if you remain alive."

Chen Yongren had long ago worked out a retreat for our own people, but he hadn't yet told Zhang Haifeng about it.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Haifeng said no more, and the two soon arrived at the Tengyuan Agency.

Outside the agency, there were three layers inside and three layers outside; many Japanese military police were stationed around, holding guns on guard, and at the entrance even a wire‑wrapped cheval de frise had been set up.

It looks like tonight's commotion really frightened them enough.

A Japanese second lieutenant walked up to the car door and saluted Zhang Haifeng.

Although this black Cadillac sedan bore the Tengyuan Agency's license plate, given the huge disturbance tonight, the Japanese military police didn't dare let their guard down.

The military IDs of Chen Yongren and Zhang Haifeng were both handed over to that military police.

"Oh, it's Director Chen; Director Fujihara had given special instructions, you can just go in!" The Japanese second lieutenant waved his hand, and the two Japanese soldiers immediately lifted the anti-cavalry barrier to one side.

The vehicle drove into the courtyard, and Chen Yongren could clearly feel that the security inside had increased several times compared to before.

Having arranged for Zhang Haifeng to park the car, Chen Yongren then went to Fujihara Kinta's office.

At this moment, Fujihara Kinta sat grim-faced beside the desk, flipping through documents.