Chapter 3267: Major Breakthrough

Since the matter had been made clear, several hundred Tiger and Leopard Army troops and Elite Cavalry Guards no longer needed any concealment; the three units immediately began performing their respective duties and launched a full-scale investigation.

Although the Shatter-Purity Society had no reconnaissance satellites of its own, it could purchase the latest image data from major satellite companies for a fee; whether these companies had captured any images of Duke Mining in the past few days depended on luck.

The good news was that they found Duke Mining's satellite images from the past few days from several companies; the bad news was that, judging from these images, Duke Mining showed no abnormalities in its satellite pictures over the past seven or eight days.

First, the imaging time was naturally daytime, and the gate of Duke Mining remained tightly closed, with no vehicles or personnel entering or exiting;

Second, by comparing with previous satellite images, no incoming vehicles or equipment were visible, nor any signs of large-scale evacuation.

When the report was submitted to Wu Shutong, he was not surprised, as this had been within his expectations; since the opposing side had been so meticulous, it was naturally impossible to mobilize vehicles and personnel in broad daylight, and although he knew the chance of finding clues in this direction was slim, he could not simply abandon the effort without investigation.

Thus, he instructed these personnel to expand the satellite image comparison to a radius of at least 150 kilometers centered on Duke Mining, to check whether any abnormalities had occurred in that area over the past few days; the movement of tens of thousands of people might leave traces, and places where tens of thousands gathered and hid would likely leave traces on satellite imagery.

For example, some areas might suddenly see an influx of many vehicles, while others might experience heavy personnel inflow, causing cooking smoke during meal times to be more abundant and longer-lasting than usual; these elements, when compared with earlier images, would reveal differences and thus help identify suspicious targets.

Shortly thereafter, another team achieved a major "breakthrough": they suspected that members of Duke Mining might have departed by rail, so they investigated the Moroccan National Railway, Casablanca Freight Station, and port surveillance footage.

Over a hundred people analyzed hundreds of surveillance cameras and hundreds of hours of recordings frame by frame, and finally, in the footage from several cameras at the dock, they found suspicious figures of individuals who, while sneaking into the dock, had "carelessly" left behind some evidence, which the enemy immediately regarded as crucial leads.

The video was quickly delivered to Wu Shutong's presence; although he had not seen these individuals in the video before, Envoy Dong Mingchao possessed personnel files for all Duke Mining members; the Shatter-Purity Society's internal personnel records were extremely strict, maintained as one volume per household, equivalent to a complete genealogy for any Elite Cavalry Guard or death warrior, recording their earliest ancestors who joined the Society, down to their names, native places, height, appearance, and family information in secular life, and with each generation, detailed records were added; every death warrior or Elite Cavalry Guard born within the Society had their birth time and date clearly recorded, and in modern times, even photographs of each person at birth were archived.

Everyone immediately searched these personnel files for targets matching the suspects in the video, and soon they found the corresponding files for these individuals one by one in the Duke Mining Elite Cavalry Guard roster.

After comparing the headshots, full-body photos, and side and rear-angle photos in the files, everyone immediately concluded that the suspects who had sneaked into the dock were indeed Elite Cavalry Guards of Duke Mining.

Thus, everyone rejoiced and firmly believed they had found the traces of the Elite Cavalry Guards, and Wu Shutong regarded this discovery as a major breakthrough in this operation!

Immediately thereafter, seeing hope, Wu Shutong issued an order to redirect most personnel to the Casablanca port, to locate all ship departure records for the day of the incident and the days before and after, and to investigate these cargo vessels.

Over several days, nearly a hundred cargo ships departed from Casablanca Port bound for destinations worldwide; in Wu Shutong's view, each of these ships was suspicious.

Although tracking these ships once they entered the open sea was difficult, Wu Shutong was not worried, as every cargo ship able to dock legally must have a legitimate identity, and from this information, their country and company could be easily traced; although the investigation workload was large, none of these ships could escape.

Thus, he ordered personnel to investigate and organize the navigation routes of these ships.

The international maritime system, like the international civil aviation system, makes real-time public the relevant information of every legally registered civilian vessel; anyone can check the movements and actual positions of any civilian aircraft on professional websites or software, and ships are no exception.

If you purchase a vehicle produced in another country or even another continent, the seller will inform you of the ship's registration number after your car is loaded aboard, allowing you to track the vessel in real time online, so you know when it will arrive at your country to unload cargo; these ships' information is uploaded to the cloud every few minutes or even more frequently, and you can even see their current speed.

Using publicly available information, they easily grasped the exact current positions of these ships across the world's oceans and their impending destinations.

The earliest-departing ships had only been at sea for about a week, far from reaching their destinations, with all vessels still sailing; thus, Wu Shutong made a bold decision, addressing Yuan Chengze and other core leaders: "Those who fled via the port are the most direct leads we currently possess, so I decide to dispatch at least 70% of our personnel to track these ships, assigning four people per vessel; if they have not gone far, we will attempt to approach them at sea for investigation; if they have sailed far, we will fly to their destinations to await them; during this process, we must strictly monitor the ships' navigation, and if they deliberately deviate from their course, we will designate them as primary suspects!"

Yuan Chengze immediately asked: "Grand Commander, is the screening within Moroccan territory proceeding normally?"

"Proceeding." Wu Shutong replied: "Over ten thousand people would not all choose to depart via Casablanca Port; even if they did, moving such a crowd would likely take at least ten days to half a month or more, so the remaining 30% of personnel will be split: half will infiltrate Casablanca Port to lie in wait, and the other half will continue to expand the search outward from Duke Mining as a center, focusing on sites capable of accommodating thousands; we must strive to gather intelligence from locals, for if a place truly hides thousands, it cannot remain silent and will inevitably leave traces!"

Yuan Chengze immediately said: "Grand Commander, rest assured; I will personally take charge of the screening!"

"Good." Wu Shutong nodded and said: "Once you discover a suspect, the first step is to report it, then dispatch scouts to investigate; if the scouts die or do not return, notify me immediately, and I will immediately inform the Three Great Elders."

Yuan Chengze respectfully replied: "I, your subordinate, obey your command!"

As they were speaking, a responsible officer of the Tiger and Leopard Army rushed over and reported to Wu Shutong: "Grand Commander, I have found the ceremonial sword of Envoy Song from within Duke Mining!"