Chapter 112

Dynames Gundam quickly returned to the hiding spot. After Lockon took Hong Long, they headed to the expected rescue location according to the rescue plan.

Watching Dynames Gundam disappear into the night, Li Boyong continued to sit securely in his seat. He did not get involved in the rescue operation with Shihe.

After all, the two Enact units didn't have much energy left, and there was no way to resupply here. Limited by this, the subsequent matters could only be left to the Gundam Meisters to solve.

He had already facilitated the rescue operation one day earlier than the original timeline. Hopefully, the rescue operation would go smoothly, and this one day of lead time would prevent the situation in Azadistan from deteriorating too much.

Three hours later, Lockon sent back word that he had successfully rescued Masud Rachmadi.

At this time, Sumeragi Lee Noriega, who had returned from L4, took over command and arranged a pilgrimage-like operation plan, just as in the original story.

"Are we going to show our philosophy to the whole world?"

Shihe looked at the plan provided by Sumeragi and felt a bit stirred.

Directly contact the reformists and have the disarmed Gundam escort the conservative leader to the palace, thereby promoting the peace process within Azadistan.

Although risky, if successful, it would definitely be an excellent demonstration to the world of Celestial Being's philosophy of eradicating war.

"Yes, to demonstrate our noble philosophy of eradicating war."

Even Wang Liumei, who was usually as calm as ever, couldn't help but be slightly excited when facing such a plan. "The world will begin to change..."

Change the world?

Li Boyong looked at Wang Liumei, whose face was flushed with an unusual glow, and sighed in his heart. This black-bellied loli's obsession with changing the world was truly deep-rooted.

He didn't know what kind of trauma Wang Liumei had suffered to have such an obsession. He hoped it wasn't some overly dark past; otherwise, he really wouldn't feel at ease continuing to cooperate with her.

After all, with hidden yandere-like things, who knows when they will suddenly explode.

"However, even if the plan proceeds smoothly, it will be difficult to completely quell the internal strife in Azadistan in a short period of time."

Li Boyong couldn't help but pour cold water on the two of them.

"Why?" Shihe was puzzled. "According to intelligence, Masud Rachmadi is a peace-loving and visionary conservative leader, and he has great prestige among the reformists. If he can be rescued and successfully negotiate with the reformists, it should be able to very well promote a cooling down of the situation."

"That's very true," Li Boyong agreed, then continued: "But I feel things aren't that simple. After all, the situation deteriorated too quickly before. Once Masud Rachmadi was hijacked, the conservatives immediately launched a planned coup. The attack targets were extremely clear, attacking the capital, the palace, the solar power receiving station, and military facilities everywhere. This shows that there are many people within the conservatives who are dissatisfied with Masud Rachmadi's policy of restraint."

"Are you saying that the hijacking of Masud Rachmadi had the shadow of the conservatives behind it from the start?" Wang Liumei was stunned upon hearing this, and then expressed agreement. "Thinking about it this way, it is indeed so."

Actually, she might not have failed to think of this point; she just hadn't reacted to it yet.

"Then it seems Azadistan will still be in turmoil for quite a long time." Shihe sighed.

"Actually, it's not that there's no way at all," Li Boyong said casually. "If we could find the leaders of the hardliners among the conservatives now and conduct armed intervention against all of them, it might be possible to restore peace within Azadistan in the short term."

"That's not necessarily true," Wang Liumei denied Li Boyong's idea. "The conservative hardliners who have lost their leadership might exacerbate the country's turmoil even more. Moreover, our intelligence sources within Azadistan are too few; it's difficult to find the hideouts of those leaders in the short term."

"What you say also makes sense," Li Boyong scratched his head. "However, according to my method, we could still minimize the possibility of civil war. Personally, I think a little turmoil is acceptable by comparison."

Wang Liumei thought for a moment and then shook her head. "I understand what you mean, but even so, we'd better not bypass the Gundam Meisters and conduct armed intervention alone. Otherwise, we might also be treated as targets for armed intervention."

Speaking of this, Wang Liumei closed her mouth. She somewhat understood that Li Boyong seemed to be testing something.

Sure enough, this man's purpose for joining Celestial Being was not simple.

And that kind of beam weapon technology...

What exactly is he trying to seek within Celestial Being?

Li Boyong then also closed his mouth. He was very clear that Wang Liumei's purpose for joining Celestial Being was also not simple, so he appropriately expressed a similar tendency in a subtle way, which could be considered a footnote for closer cooperation in the future.

————

The next day, early morning.

The Azadistan palace had already received the news that Celestial Being intended to return Masud Rachmadi. Under Princess Marina's rare, firm demand, the reformists prepared for both interception and peace negotiations.

After all, although the solar power receiving station had been attacked, fortunately, the station was safe and sound. The reformists naturally did not want the turmoil to continue and affect the construction of the station.

In the square in front of the palace, a large number of conservative protesters gathered, while the reformist army drew a boundary line to block the surging crowd. On the other side, the Allied forces were deployed, watching like tigers, attempting to take the opportunity to carry out a Gundam capture operation.

At the same time, mainstream media from all over the world had stationed reporters locally to provide live coverage.

The Gundam of the Celestial Being organization had secured the safety of the conservative leader from the hands of terrorists and decided to return him.

What impact such an act would have on the future direction of the situation in Azadistan, and whether anything would happen at the return site—such questions were undoubtedly tugging at the hearts of a large number of people.

How could these mainstream media miss such big news?

It was under these circumstances that Exia Gundam, having disarmed all its weapons, slowly landed on the square.

"It really came!"

"It actually disarmed!"

"How bold."

"Is Masud Rachmadi really riding on it?"

Similar discussions kept appearing in the conversations among the palace, the crowd, the media, and the soldiers here.

But Exia Gundam answered with its own actions.

Exia Gundam, having disarmed all its weapons, walked slowly toward the palace, seemingly intending to safely return Masud Rachmadi as promised.

Soon, an accident occurred.

Armed militants appeared in the protesting crowd and opened fire on Exia Gundam. Although the firepower of automatic rifles obviously could not cause any damage to the Gundam, the fact that the conservatives actually opened fire on the machine carrying their own religious leader was enough to make people sigh that there were probably many divisions within the conservatives.

Exia ignored these attacks and continued to walk slowly forward like a pilgrim. Facing the pressure of the approaching Gundam, the crowd retreated to both sides like a tide.

Immediately after, the Enacts guarding the palace also opened fire on the Gundam.

Exia still did not fight back, only raising its arm to block the shelling, and then continued to maintain the rhythm of walking slowly forward.

At this moment, people seemed to see a kind of pilgrim-like piety in Exia Gundam, and at the same time felt a certain sincerity from this piety.

The Enacts that had opened fire also cleared a path, allowing Exia Gundam to come directly in front of the palace's observation deck and kneel on one knee.

Then the hatch of Exia opened, and Setsuna invited Masud Rachmadi out of the cockpit and handed him over to the bodyguards in the palace.

Masud Rachmadi entered the palace surrounded by bodyguards, and Setsuna also prepared to pilot the machine away.

It was under these circumstances that Princess Marina approached Exia and said a few words.

Because it happened suddenly and the surrounding people were far away from the Gundam, no one knew what she said, nor did they know what Setsuna answered.

In short, it looked as if Princess Marina had exchanged a few words with the pilot of Exia Gundam, and then Exia Gundam slowly took off and left the scene.

From beginning to end, the Allied forces at the scene did not dare to launch an attack on the Gundam.

The Alliance was already under very heavy public opinion pressure for intervening in Azadistan's internal affairs. If they attacked the Gundam at such a time, the charge of deliberately destroying the peace of another country would be confirmed.

Therefore, Exia Gundam was able to leave smoothly.

After confirming the safety of Exia Gundam, Lockon, who had been in a sniping state on a nearby hill, let out a long sigh of relief.

Such a bold battle naturally required some insurance, and his Dynames Gundam was the insurance device in case of absolute necessity.

Now that everything in the plan was going smoothly, Lockon naturally relaxed a lot, and then piloted Dynames Gundam to withdraw together.

Wang Liumei, who had watched the entire operation process, also quietly breathed a sigh of relief, and then said to Li Boyong and Shihe: "It's about time for us to withdraw as well."

Li Boyong nodded to show he understood, then left the private jet with Shihe and boarded the Enact to prepare for takeoff.

Watching Dynames Gundam slowly approaching in the distance, Li Boyong felt a bit emotional.

The subsequent missions might not be so easy to complete. After all, it was from this armed intervention onwards that the four Gundams would embark on a path of being beaten, and would keep being beaten until the very last moment.

Because, some people were clearly already starting to be unable to sit still.

Li Boyong looked toward the direction of the Azadistan capital. In a room of a certain hotel there, there was a guy who thought he was smart and a true mastermind behind the scenes.

These two were the targets he needed to pay attention to from now on.