Chapter 582
was particularly unlucky.
Wu Tianxue was in a bad mood at the moment. Watching his men follow Wang Ba's men down from the cabin, staring at the dark sea, he kicked a loosely placed iron bucket hard.
Wang Ba's heart jumped into his throat.
What you should know is that this iron barrel contained a hidden mechanism. On top were pieces of pickled fish, intended as provisions for the sea, but underneath were two handguns, just in case.
When Wu Tianxue and the others checked the iron barrel on the ship, they found nothing unusual. Wang Ba had just breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that no one would pay attention to the barrel anymore. Who knew that Wu Tianxue would kick it?
The iron barrel overturned on the deck, making a "clattering" sound from inside.
Wu Tianxue looked at the iron bucket with a puzzled expression.
A metal drum filled with pickled fish pieces couldn't possibly be hollow. Something's wrong with this!
With this thought flashing through his mind, Wu Tianxue walked directly towards the iron bucket, bent down, and reached out to help it up.
Just then, Wu Tianxue's phone rang again.
Looking at the metal bucket, Wu Tianxue frowned and pulled out his phone. This time, he saw the caller ID clearly.
"Long Baichuan, I'm warning you, you better have something important to tell me, or I'll make you pay!"
Upon answering the phone, Wu Tianxue immediately yelled in an annoyed tone.
"There are people we need to protect on that fishing boat you're on. And there's a shipment of smuggled weapons on board. Take your men, make a brief appearance, take a quick look around, and then get out of there as soon as possible. Don't delay our mission."
Upon hearing Wu Tianxue's threatening words, Long Baichuan's expression remained unchanged; he simply spoke coldly.
"..."
Wu Tianxue froze.
He held his phone, glanced at the number on the screen again in disbelief, and made sure he wasn't mistaken.
"What the hell are you guys doing?"
Wu Tianxue couldn't believe it. Long Baichuan was always very measured in his actions. If he were really going to give him this kind of mission, he would definitely have informed him in advance, and Wu Tianxue would never have boarded the ship.
Why did they only notify me after I brought my people up here?
For the first time, Wu Tianxue felt an urge to give Long Baichuan a good beating.
"A mistake, this is a real mistake. We only just arrived here. This mission wasn't our responsibility, and I'm completely clueless about the details. You need to take your men and get out of here right now, so we don't cause any more trouble."
Faced with Wu Tianxue's curses, Long Baichuan smiled wryly. If he understood what was going on, he wouldn't have such a headache.
"understood."
After a moment of silence, Wu Tianxue hung up the phone.
After staring at the iron barrel in front of him for a while, Wu Tianxue, with a gloomy face, ignored Wang Ba's extremely tense expression and went straight down into the cabin.
He Chenguang was stunned when he saw who came in. He quickly lowered his head to avoid eye contact.
Wu Tianxue knew He Chenguang. Seeing this man whose face was smeared with soot, he suddenly didn't know what to say, so he simply brushed past him and continued walking deeper into the cabin.
At this moment, Jiang Nian and Wang Dahu were deliberately hiding in a dark corner, and the cabin was filled with all sorts of things, so the people who came down with Erhu had not yet noticed them.
Jiang Nian remained calm. He had just received a message from Long Baichuan—it was all taken care of. So he wasn't worried at all.
Wang Dahu was genuinely extremely nervous at this moment.
After those people came down, he held his breath, not daring to breathe too loudly, for fear of being discovered.
Fortunately, no one has noticed him yet.
"How exactly are you all conducting this inspection? It's been so long, and you're still not finished?"
Wu Tianxue's stern voice came over, accompanied by footsteps.
Upon hearing this sound, Wang Dahu's heart leaped into his throat.
If Wu Tianxue finds out that I'm here, I don't know if Jiang Nian will protect me.
The group of people who were inexplicably yelled at by their boss looked completely bewildered.
They had just entered the cabin, okay?
With so many things piled up and the lighting so dim, even if they were gods, it would take them a long time to inspect them all!
Wu Tianxue was holding a flashlight.
A blinding light swept across the cabin, the lamps flickering and moving back and forth throughout the space.
Wu Tianxue saw Jiang Nian in the shadows and also saw the smile on the other's face.
He knew that this person was one of his own.
However, Wu Tianxue showed no sign of anything amiss, and simply continued to shine his flashlight on the contents of the cabin. He got out and slowly walked to one of the boxes.
He casually opened the box, and there were neatly stacked cured meats on it. The pungent smell of cured products made Wu Tianxue frown.
Because his back was to everyone, no one could see what he was doing.
Wu Tianxue's hand appeared to be turning over the cured meat, but in reality, he had already touched the weapons underneath.
After glancing at Jiang Nian one last time, Wu Tianxue turned around and said, "Let's go, it's just ordinary cured meat inside."
After saying this to his subordinates, he took the lead and walked outside.
Upon hearing his words, Erhu and Wang Dahu both breathed a sigh of relief—they had finally passed the test.
Wang Ba and the others were on the deck, their hearts filled with unease.
As a powerful and ruthless figure, he naturally possessed great courage. When he noticed Wu Tianxue's attention on the iron barrel, several thoughts flashed through his mind—should he simply wipe out Wu Tianxue and his men right here and sink his ship, so that no one would bother them for a while?
However, Wang Ba also knew that Wu Tianxue was no weakling. If he couldn't deliver a fatal blow and gave the opponent a chance to relay a message, he would be completely finished.
They are still within China's territorial waters, and he dares not take that risk.
All we can do now is wait and pray that Wu Tianxue will not discover the secret on the fishing boat.
When Wu Tianxue led his men out of the cabin and back onto the deck, Wang Ba immediately looked at Erhu, who was following behind. Seeing Erhu nod at him, Wang Ba breathed a sigh of relief.
Anyway, as long as that batch of weapons below hasn't been discovered, that's all that matters.
In this way, even if Wu Tianxue really found the pistol in the iron barrel, he would have a reason to cover it up.
"Alright, with so many pickled foods on your fishing boat, aren't you afraid of getting sick from eating them?"
After saying this to Wang Ba, Wu Tianxue glanced at the iron bucket again, but said nothing, and walked straight to the gangplank connecting the fishing boat and the warship.
Wang Ba was finally relieved after all of Wu Tianxue's men had left and the ships had sailed a considerable distance away.
"Quickly, give the order: full speed ahead, but be careful to avoid any ships you encounter!"
Wang Ba didn't want to experience this again, so he decisively issued the order.
Inside the cabin, Wang Dahu, relieved, plopped down on the bed next to him.
"Comrade Jiang Nian, what exactly are you trying to do?"
Once he relaxed, Wang Dahu felt his clothes were soaked with cold sweat, and finally couldn't help but ask in a low voice.
Jiang Nian glanced at him indifferently, the meaning in her eyes was self-evident.
Wang Dahu instantly understood—this wasn't his business. Speechless, Wang Dahu simply stopped talking. Since he wasn't in charge here anyway, it didn't matter much whether he was awake or asleep, so he just lay down and went to sleep.
Watching Wang Dahu fall asleep, Jiang Nian's lips curled into a cold smile. He glanced down at his phone and then closed his eyes as well.
The fishing boats sailed on the sea all night. As dawn broke, the boats were about to leave the waters off China.
Wang Ba took a nap in the cabin in the early hours of the morning, and went to the captain's cabin as soon as it was light, no longer keeping watch over Wang Dahu.
Perhaps he felt that at this point, Wang Dahu no longer posed a threat to him.
Jiang Nian looked down and typed on her phone for a while before looking up.
Long Baichuan has been keeping in touch with him.
As they were about to leave Chinese waters, Long Baichuan explained the situation to Jiang Nian in advance—if they entered Japanese waters, even if they dived deep enough to avoid being detected, anything could happen, and the safety of Jiang Nian's fishing boat could not be guaranteed.
Therefore, Long Baichuan proposed that no matter what Jiang Nian planned, he should not leave the waters of China.
Jiang Nian frowned, pondering the current situation.
According to the information he received, the Sakura Kingdom had already contacted Wang Ba, and the other party had set off and was waiting in the designated sea area for the transaction.
If the transaction location is changed abruptly, it may arouse the vigilance of the Japanese.
Touching his chin, Jiang Nian pondered carefully.
This matter is of great importance, and he has no choice but to ask for help.
As the captain of the Type 002 aircraft carrier, Wang Yijun spends most of his time at sea.
When he received the request signal from Jiang Nian, the corner of his mouth couldn't help but twitch.
This Jiang Nian is quite bold.
He said it was a request, but his tone was casual, as if he was certain he would agree.
The key protected object of their own country is currently on a fishing boat, carrying a large amount of weaponry, on its way to make a deal with the hostile nation of Japan.
These words were spoken with such confidence that Wang Yijun had nothing to say.
That's why Jiang Nian dared to say and do such things so openly.
Despite the twitching at the corner of his mouth, he still had to give instructions on what needed to be done.
Wang Yijun issued an order: all fishing boats owned by Chinese citizens are strictly prohibited from leaving Chinese waters; violators will be treated as traitors!
The moment the order was issued, the fishermen who were fishing at sea were in a panic, completely bewildered as to what was happening—were the two countries about to go to war?
Realizing this possibility, the fishing boats that had already left Chinese waters hurried back, fearing that if they were even a step too slow, they would be treated as traitors.
Wang Ba was sitting in the captain's cabin, leisurely drinking a bottle of wine.
He could almost see himself successfully completing the transaction with the Sakura Kingdom and making a fortune in cash.
Just then, he received an order from the aircraft carrier.
"Fuck him!"
Wang Ba couldn't help but curse.
If the order hadn't been given to all fishermen, he would have suspected it was targeting him.
How far are we from the high seas?
They were about to leave smoothly when this order was suddenly given. All the fishing boats were heading back. If they insisted on leaving, they would be too obvious a target.
With his eyes glued to the screen, Wang Ba clenched his fists, his murderous aura almost uncontrollable.
Because he saw that, within the range of the signals he could detect, all the information was reminding him of the same thing—the aircraft carrier was gradually approaching the edge of China's territorial waters.
They now have no choice but to turn back.
Clenching his fist, Wang Ba finally couldn't hold back any longer and slammed his fist into the wooden bulkhead.
His punch pierced a hole in the thin wooden board.
"Taza-kun, things have changed. We can't leave Chinese waters. If you want to continue the transaction, you must disguise yourselves as Chinese fishing boats and enter Chinese waters. Then we'll meet again!"
Wang Ba contacted the Japanese government and adopted a very tough stance.
Wang Ba has always been domineering when dealing with people from Japan. Although he is now down on his luck, as an arms tycoon, it is Japan that begs him to make deals, so his attitude will always be high and mighty.
For Wang Ba, it made no difference who sold the weapons. But for Japan, the difference was significant.
They dared not and could not offend Wang Ba, much less the forces behind him—there were plenty of countries that wanted to do business with Wang Ba.
Taza was also the person in charge of the deal with Wang Ba this time.
To ensure everything went smoothly, he arrived at the agreed-upon sea area early to wait, just so that Wang Ba could feel his sincerity.
In international trade, the interests of both parties are protected.
But now, Wang Ba is telling him that the trade should take place in the waters off China.
Tadashi Tadashi also stated that he could not make the decision on this matter.
"Mr. Wang, I'm so sorry, please wait a moment while I check with my superiors and get back to you."
Tadashi also knew how important this transaction was and that no mistakes could be made.
Changing the transaction location might not pose much of a loss or risk for Wang Ba, but it would be too risky for them.
General Taza made a phone call to his superior.
"What? We need to change the transaction location?"
Takeshi Kitano was lying in bed enjoying the services of a beautiful woman when he suddenly received a call from Daiya Taza. Upon hearing the news, he almost jumped out of bed and roared angrily.
"The transaction location was agreed upon long ago, why the sudden change? Has something been discovered in China?"
Takeshi Kitano's mind raced. He waved for the beautiful woman serving him to leave, then took out another phone and dialed a different number.
Soon, Takeshi Kitano received confirmation.
"China is holding naval military exercises, which is why they've cleared the area. It's alright, the military exercises won't last more than a few days, and the sea blockade will only last a few days at most. But the deal with Mr. Wang absolutely cannot be delayed any longer. Disguise yourself, immediately enter Chinese waters, meet up with Mr. Wang, and complete this transaction!"
Takeshi Kitano gave orders to Daiya Tasaya.
"Mr. Wang, we're entering Chinese waters now. Send us your location, and we'll come find you directly!"
After receiving a clear answer from his superior, Tadashi Tadashi breathed a sigh of relief and quickly contacted Wang Ba, explaining respectfully.
"I'll send you the location. You have one day to get to the designated location and complete the transaction!"
Wang Ba's tone was unusually cold, and he hung up the phone after speaking.
Since Japan agreed to trade in Chinese waters, it means they have already investigated—China's sudden blockade of the waters has nothing to do with them.
Wang Ba finally breathed a sigh of relief.
For some reason, ever since encountering the patrol team at sea, he had felt this transaction was going particularly badly. Now that the investigation in Japan had been completed, he was finally relieved and no longer worried. (End of Chapter)