Chapter 3241: Great Blood Exchange

In the night-covered central region of Morocco, all phosphate mining areas were brightly lit and in operation.

To ensure mining efficiency, the mining zones had personnel stopping but machinery never ceasing, with all kinds of excavation equipment running at full power, frantically mining on the white phosphate ground.

Duke Mining was naturally no exception.

Here, those responsible for production mining were exclusively the Yingqiwei of the Broken Qing Society, along with their families, mainly because the mining zones were on the surface, so as not to let the dead warriors and their families know too much about the surrounding geographical features, they never allowed the dead warriors and their families to leave the mine shafts while conscious.

The dead warriors normally lived and trained underground, and when on a mission, they would be secretly sent out by the Yingqiwei.

At this very moment, not a single Yingqiwei of Duke Mining was off duty for shift change; besides those working in the mining zones and refinery, hundreds more were still welding towering steel frames at various locations in the mining zones.

Most of the steel frames were already completed, the circuits were already connected, and all that remained was installing various monitoring equipment and laying the wires needed for them.

On the platform of the railway freight yard, over fifty Yingqiwei were anxiously waiting here, most of them Asian-faced, with a few Euro-American and African faces.

The leading man stared at the direction the train was coming from while occasionally lowering his head to check his watch, muttering: "It's past eight already, why hasn't the train arrived yet?"

At this moment, a white-faced man rushed over anxiously, approached the leader, and spoke in completely accent-free Chinese: "Commander Envoy, Deputy Envoy Qian asks me to inquire of you—when will the train arrive? She says if the equipment cannot be installed today, she will report to the Governor-General's Office and request the Governor-General to impose punishment."

The man called Commander Envoy said irritably: "I reported this morning to her about the electrical damage at Casablanca Port Freight Station, and I also confirmed with my colleagues there—the freight yard's circuit indeed has a problem, causing all trains today to be affected to varying degrees, but the train departed in the afternoon past five, so it will definitely arrive tonight—does she really need to keep asking over and over?"

As he spoke, a woman's cold voice suddenly said: "Yin Commander Envoy, we both serve the English Lord, I urge you because progress here has long been clearly behind schedule; if the Governor-General blames us, I, Sun, will at most endure a few scoldings, but you, as the direct responsible person, will then have no easy way to wriggle out of responsibility!"

The Commander Envoy immediately turned around and saw a woman in her early twenties, dressed in white, with her hair tied back, appearing heroic and spirited, already stepping onto the platform.

The white garment she wore had a strong flavor of ancient Chinese style, her hair bun tied with a white silk ribbon, and even her waist bore a delicate silver longsword—if not standing on this railway platform, she would seem more like a character stepped out of a wuxia novel.

Though they were still hundreds of meters apart, her voice rang in the Commander Envoy's ears like a thunderclap.

His expression tightened, and he silently thought: "This is the power of a cultivator—casually uttering a few words, able to shock people's hearts, even causing internal true qi to tremble; if she used a bit more strength, I fear I couldn't even stand firm in battle..."

Startled, he hurried forward to meet the woman; before reaching her, his hands were already clasped in salute above his head, and upon arriving before her, he immediately dropped to one knee, respectfully saying: "Deputy Envoy, please do not misunderstand—I bear no grudge against you; it's just that this shipment truly arrived with difficulty, fraught with trouble since procurement, and took a long time to finally arrive—I thought it would surely be dispatched this morning, never expecting the freight station to have another circuit problem..."

Hurriedly, he added: "But Deputy Envoy, rest assured—the train has indeed been dispatched; even if delayed, it should arrive within half an hour."

The young woman said nothing, her eyes fixed on the far end of the railway, then spoke: "Yin Commander Envoy, I will hear your objective reasons, but the Governor-General may not; if these pieces of equipment can arrive today, you only have three days to install and test them; after three days, if all inspections pass, you must prepare for the Great Blood Exchange—time is very pressing."

When the woman called Deputy Envoy uttered the three words "Great Blood Exchange," everyone's expressions instantly turned tense.

The Commander Envoy hastily asked respectfully: "Deputy Envoy, I dare to ask—what do you mean by Great Blood Exchange?"

Deputy Envoy replied calmly: "Seeing your reaction to these three words, you must have heard of them before, right? Your Yingqiwei are not dead warriors—news isn't that sealed; such a major matter, the envoy above would surely have hinted at it to you—why are you still asking me?"

The Commander Envoy immediately lowered his head, saying with trepidation: "I dare not casually speculate on superior orders; I only dared to ask upon hearing Deputy Envoy mention it—if Deputy Envoy finds it inconvenient to reveal, then consider it as if I never asked."

Deputy Envoy said lightly: "Telling you is no problem, for this is also one of the main purposes of my visit this time; delayed until now, it's time to begin preparations."

Saying this, she paused slightly, scanned the crowd, and said: "Great Blood Exchange means the English Lord requires all garrisons' Yingqiwei and their families to undergo rotation—some Yingqiwei leave while families stay, others families leave while Yingqiwei stay."

"Families who stay will naturally be replaced by Yingqiwei rotated in from other garrisons to take over duty; families who leave will naturally have their places taken by families of other Yingqiwei rotated in, so you can care for them."

Upon hearing this, everyone's hearts sank instantly to the bottom of a valley.

These Yingqiwei, though they need not live underground like dead warriors for life, still have no freedom; their lives and those of their families depend on the English Lord's antidote—defecting? That is utterly unthinkable, for if expelled, even if the Broken Qing Society does not hunt them, they are surely doomed to die.

Thus, their greatest motivation for living this way is their own families.

Because at least, they still have their families beside them.

If they perform well and make a great contribution, they even have a chance at promotion; after promotion, they can serve in more important departments under the Governor-General's Office, their families can enjoy better living conditions, and they even have the chance to raise their children as scholars—once a child becomes a scholar, they can gain a legal identity in society and live somewhat like ordinary people.

But now, the Broken Qing Society actually wants to separate them from their families—what a blow this is to them!

The Commander Envoy asked heavily: "Deputy Envoy, this... this Great Blood Exchange—does it mean all Yingqiwei must be separated from their families?"

Deputy Envoy showed no concealment, nodding: "Of course, anyone in the Yingqiwei ranks—no one can be exempt, including you, Commander Envoy."

After speaking, Deputy Envoy added coldly: "Loyalty to the English Lord is not mere lip service; the Governor-General wants to ensure that if you ever develop thoughts of defecting, by rotating your families out, you will have more bonds holding you back before you consider defecting—you may flee, but if you do, your families will be executed immediately, none spared; if you die loyally in battle for the English Lord, your families will likewise receive the highest level of preferential treatment."

Deputy Envoy had some hidden circumstances she did not reveal to these people.

This Great Blood Exchange order was not decided by Governor-General Wu Shutong, but by the English Lord Wu Feiyan.

The disappearance of all Yingqiwei and dead warriors in Cyprus led Wu Feiyan to guess the mysterious enemy should have an antidote method.

Therefore, if this Nigeria plot fails, she must prepare against that mysterious person turning all other dead warrior garrisons completely against them.

Thus, she devised the Great Blood Exchange method: to completely disrupt all Yingqiwei in dead warrior garrisons—first, to separate them from their families; second, to break and reorganize their units, so these comrades would utterly sever the cohesion built over years of training.

Thus, if a garrison is again targeted by the mysterious enemy, when facing defection temptations, once they consider their families, they will absolutely not dare to be rashly swayed.

For if any one of them goes missing, their families living in other garrisons will be executed on the spot.

Conversely, if they bravely resist the enemy, even leaving behind a corpse or a skull, their families will thereby benefit.

Put plainly, it is to use each Yingqiwei's family as hostage to ensure they would rather die than defect.

Wu Feiyan believes that once the Great Blood Exchange is complete, any Yingqiwei in any garrison will fight to the death against the enemy.

As for the dead warriors, Wu Feiyan also considered applying the same blood-exchange process, but dead warriors differ from Yingqiwei in that Yingqiwei already have contact with the outside world, possess legal identities in their respective countries, and can be arranged for transfer to any place in the world at any time.

But dead warriors cannot.

Dead warriors have no identity, and to prevent them from remembering clues during transfer, their transfer must be completed while they are completely unconscious.

Therefore, wanting to complete blood exchange for dead warriors as well would be extremely difficult, hard to achieve in a short time.

Fortunately, dead warriors are guarded by Yingqiwei, so prioritizing blood exchange for Yingqiwei ensures that each dead warrior garrison's Yingqiwei will fight bravely—several hundred Yingqiwei's strength is not to be underestimated, possibly enough to resist enemy advances, preventing the enemy from penetrating to the dead warrior level.

The Great Blood Exchange matter has been prepared for some time by the Five Armies Governor-General's Office.

They will determine the exchange method between garrisons based on each garrison's geographical location, size, and population.

For example, how many groups the Yingqiwei or families of Garrison A should be divided into, and which group each should exchange with Garrison B, C, D;

Besides this, the exchange must also be gradual—not all garrisons' Yingqiwei setting out at once, which would create defensive gaps—so they established rules: each blood exchange can at most send out 20% of forces, only after reinforcements arrive can the next batch be sent out.

According to requirements, Duke Mining garrison must begin sending out the first batch in three days; Deputy Envoy's visit these past days, appearing to familiarize herself with the situation while waiting for equipment, was actually to finalize the list and confirm the blood exchange plan and each batch's roster.

Now, this plan and list have been nearly finalized; in three days, the first batch will be sent out!