Chapter 3704: Two Major Rewards

The situation in the Strait of Hormuz continued to escalate over the next four days.

Under the covert manipulation of the Rothschild family, international crude oil prices surged straight up by over 30%, setting a record for rapid oil price increases in recent years.

Wu Yongzhen naturally made a fortune.

Taking advantage of the rising prices, he sold all the privately mined oil and the oil purchased from the Getty family, and he sold it all to the Getty family.

Several oil tankers had not even reached the port before Wu Yongzhen had already made tens of millions of dollars in profit from them, letting him earn a substantial sum.

Wu Yongzhen, now with hundreds of millions of dollars in hand, immediately rewarded Rachel Getty.

Wu Yongzhen's reward had two parts: one was directly giving Rachel Getty five million US dollars as a reward, and the other was giving Rachel Getty a dragon-patterned copper token with the highest authority permitted within the Left Army Governor-General's Office.

The overall operational structure of the Five Armies Governor-General's Office basically references the Ming dynasty military system; to absolutely strictly control all the Embroidered Uniform Guards, dead warriors, and scholars within its actual control range, each Governor-General's Office has its own core force, which is the Tiger Brave Battalion, and the Tiger Brave Army under the Tiger Brave Battalion.

The Tiger Brave Battalion does not belong to any of the garrisons below; it is directly controlled by the Left Army Governor-General's Office Grand Commander Wu Yongzhen; the entire Tiger Brave Battalion consists of masters of martial arts and Daoist cultivation, and under them there is also a well-trained army, namely the Tiger Brave Army.

The Tiger Brave Army is not only powerful and numerous, but also extremely secretive, like the Ming dynasty Embroidered Uniform Guard and also like the German Gestapo; they are spread throughout all spheres of influence of the Five Armies Governor-General's Office, appearing and disappearing mysteriously; apart from guarding the Five Armies Governor-General's Office and executing the highest orders, one of their most important tasks is to spread out everywhere and secretly monitor all registered scholar family members.

The nature of scholars differs greatly from that of dead warriors and Embroidered Uniform Guards; dead warriors and Embroidered Uniform Guards are layered layers of control in a closed loop, always under strict surveillance and restraint, but scholars are more like free people sent out; they appear on the surface to have the same freedoms as ordinary people, which allows them to better integrate into society.

But this also adds a layer of defection risk.

Therefore, the Tiger Brave Army strictly monitors the activity trajectories of scholars worldwide; every scholar's whereabouts and actions are secretly registered and reported to the intelligence hub; once a scholar is found to have made an unapproved long-distance move, they will immediately take action—lightly, they will be brought back and subjected to severe punishment; heavily, they will be executed or even have their entire family implicated.

Because of this underlying logic, although Rachel Getty appears on the surface to be a young lady of an American noble family, she dares not wander around everywhere, nor does she dare to travel like ordinary noble young ladies, because going anywhere requires approval; if there is no suitable reason, merely going out to play will not only be refused, but may even result in harsh scolding and blame.

And the greatest use of the dragon-patterned copper token is that all Tiger Brave Army members must not obstruct or question the holder, and must even provide as much assistance as possible to the person holding the dragon-patterned copper token; more importantly, the dragon-patterned copper token remains effective even across Governor-General's Offices.

With this dragon-patterned copper token, Rachel Getty has almost become a free person in the physical sense; she can go to any place in this world without needing to apply, and only two people can mobilize her: the Grand Commander and the Ying Lord.

However, the Ying Lord never has any direct contact with anyone outside the Wu family, let alone directly contact a scholar, so Rachel Getty only needs to ensure that Wu Yongzhen can always contact her; as for the rest, she can do as she wishes.

For scholar families, this is actually their greatest pursuit in life.

Generally, only scholar families that have achieved great merit have the chance to obtain this dragon-patterned copper token, and the Governor-General's Office will also accommodate the recipient, usually allowing the scholar family that obtained the dragon-patterned copper token to move freely, no longer assigning any missions, while periodically providing detoxifying pills; this way, control over them can still be maintained, and if needed, they can be summoned back to serve the organization.

Rachel Getty herself never thought she would have the chance to obtain this extremely precious dragon-patterned copper token; when she was resting in her dormitory, a female deputy commissioner from the Left Army Governor-General's Office suddenly came to the door.

The one who opened the door was Rachel Getty's roommate, who did not know this female deputy commissioner, so when she opened the door she was still a bit puzzled, asking: "May I ask whom you are looking for?"

The other party directly stepped inside; the roommate had not yet had time to stop them, and her body seemed to be repelled by a same-level magnetic field as the other party approached, gently bouncing her back.

At this moment, the roommate knew this must be a high-ranking official from the Governor-General's Office.

Her expression was tense and respectful; seeing the door close automatically after the other party entered, she immediately knelt on one knee and said respectfully: "Your subordinate pays respects, my lord!"

Upon hearing this, the other two scholars in the living room who were reading books immediately stood up like startled birds, without hesitation knelt on one knee, and said respectfully: "Your subordinate pays respects, my lord!"

All scholars know that the position of deputy commissioner is very high; as long as the door is closed, one must respectfully kneel to welcome them, and no one can break the rules; otherwise, the deputy commissioner could kill one or two scholars and return without even needing to write a report, merely needing to say "you have been negligent toward me," and there would be no further trouble.

That female deputy commissioner merely glanced at the three with her peripheral vision and asked lightly: "Where is Miss Getty?"

Upon hearing "Miss Getty," the three were utterly shocked.

If the Left Army Governor-General's Office were the Emperor, then the deputy commissioner would be an imperial envoy, while they were merely ordinary clerks under imperial authority, at best a talent without any accomplishments; how could the deputy commissioner address a scholar as "Miss"?!

At this moment, Rachel Getty, who was reviewing her lessons in the room, heard the commotion outside and hurriedly pushed the door open to come out.

Upon opening the door, she saw her three roommates kneeling before a strange woman; the woman had a stern and arrogant expression and an extraordinary demeanor; she knew she must be someone sent by the Left Army Governor-General's Office, so she hurriedly stepped forward and knelt on one knee respectfully, saying sincerely: "Your subordinate pays respects, my lord!"

When she finished speaking, Rachel Getty's knees should have touched the floor, but an invisible force pulled her knees up, preventing her from kneeling down.

Just as she was puzzled, the female deputy commissioner stepped forward, looked at Rachel, clasped her hands in front of her chest, and said with a tone carrying some respect: "Miss Getty, I am Deputy Commissioner Cheng Yan Ni of the Left Army Governor-General's Office, sent by the Grand Commander's order to bring the Grand Commander's oral instruction."

Rachel Getty was also quite shocked, never expecting the deputy commissioner to be so courteous to her, truly somewhat unbelievable.

However, her mind reacted quickly; she immediately said respectfully: "Deputy Commissioner, I do not know what orders the Grand Commander has."

Cheng Yan Ni took out a bronze dragon token from her bosom, held it with both hands and presented it to Rachel Getty, saying: "The Grand Commander's oral instruction: Miss Getty, your merit this time is great; I specially bestow upon Miss Getty one dragon-patterned copper token, hoping Miss Getty will continue to strive and establish even more meritorious service for the Governor-General's Office!"

……

Sorry, I've been busy with my child during the summer vacation, and after writing for so many years I'm indeed a bit tired, so I took a break; later I will try my best to slowly resume normal update rhythm until completion.