333: Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-One: Just a Moment’s Matter 333: Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-One: Just a Moment’s Matter Looking through the night-vision goggles, the place where the hostages were held seemed to be some kind of cowshed, surrounded on all sides by wooden fences about one meter high, easily scalable, hence the need for several armed guards to watch over the hostages.
Although there were guards, their attention was clearly not on the hostages; instead, they were all looking at the people who were eating and drinking in the open space.
In the recon team, Li Pengfei led the way.
They circled round and approached quietly from the other side of the cow pen.
The cow pen was not very large, and if the six guards had focused their attention on the hostages, there would have been no blind spots in their field of view.
However, as all six guards were focused on the people in the open space, Li Pengfei and his two team members saw an opportunity.
As there were too many hostages, if it was not possible to ensure that everyone could be safely taken away, they could not rashly initiate a rescue operation.
Thus, the primary aim of this mission was reconnaissance, with not alarming the enemy being the utmost priority.
Gao Yang kept an eye on the movements of the recon team and felt a tug at his heart when he saw them lie down less than thirty meters from the fence.
He thought it impossible to approach the hostages without alerting the enemy.
Just when Gao Yang thought the scout team wouldn’t risk getting too close, to his amazement, he saw Li Pengfei stand up from the ground and slowly approach a guard who should have been facing him but was actually turned away.
After Li Pengfei gently got close to the guard, he suddenly lunged forward, and without Gao Yang seeing him making any particular move, Li Pengfei slowly laid the guard down on the ground.
After placing the guard gently on the ground, Li Pengfei ran forward a few steps, grabbed the top wooden bar of the fence with one hand, and with a leap, he breezily flipped over the fence.
Li Pengfei had actually entered the pen, which greatly surprised Gao Yang, but he soon saw Li Pengfei swiftly run to the hostages, who were crouched on the ground.
After a brief pause, Li Pengfei slowly moved to the side of the fence, propped himself up on the top, and jumped out again.
After jumping out of the pen, Li Pengfei quickly gathered with Jiang Yun and Wang Laohu.
Following a brief moment, Gao Yang could see Li Pengfei start to sign with his hands, signaling to be alert as they were about to take action.
The recon mission was turning into a hostage rescue, which surprised Gao Yang tremendously.
Li Pengfei and Jiang Yun split up in two directions, moving toward the guards watching over the hostages with bare hands.
Jiang Yun made the first move, approaching a guard from behind.
With a sudden extension of his left arm, he wrapped it around the guard’s neck, secured the guard’s head with his hand, and with a strong twist motion—a brief two seconds—Jiang Yun released the guard, gently placing him motionless on the ground.
Li Pengfei’s actions were nearly identical to Jiang Yun’s.
After approaching the guards, they quickly and silently laid them on the ground.
Breaking a person’s spine with force ensures an instant and silent kill, not even giving the victim a chance to struggle—quicker and quieter than using a knife.
However, to achieve this, sheer strength won’t suffice; without extensive training, one cannot master this purely lethal technique.
Of the six guards, Li Pengfei and Jiang Yun quickly eliminated them all.
However, there was a slight mishap when Li Pengfei approached the last guard.
As he reached the guard, the man turned around, but Li Pengfei didn’t give him a chance to make a sound, striking hard with his fist and shattering the guard’s Adam’s apple.
Li Pengfei then quickly followed up, trapping the guard’s neck under his right arm.
Gao Yang saw the guard’s legs kick out a few times before stopping moving completely.
Li Pengfei propped the immobile guard against the fence, making it look as if he was just resting against it.
It was then that Jiang Yun effortlessly opened the wooden gate of the pen.
Only then did Gao Yang understand that the fence had not been locked at all.
It seemed the kidnappers thought that having guards watch over the hostages was security enough.
After opening the wooden gate, Jiang Yun took the gun slung over his shoulder and waved repeatedly, and then people began rushing out of the gate, running in the opposite direction of the kidnappers on the open ground.
The gate to the pen faced the open ground, but it was not close, being almost a hundred meters away.
Gao Yang couldn’t understand at first why the kidnappers would be so far away from the hostages, but then it dawned on him: the pens used to keep animals like cattle and sheep would certainly smell.
The kidnappers feasting and drinking did not want to be near the stench of pens like the cow pen.
Gao Yang’s heart leaped to his throat, and he now focused intently on the kidnappers in the open ground.
The hostages moved swiftly; despite there being fifty or sixty of them, they were almost all gone quickly.
However, there were wounded among the hostages, and the last few to leave were carrying two injured people, which inevitably slowed them down.
As the last group of hostages left the pen, Jiang Yun carefully closed the gate again.
Then, after making a hand signal for cover and immediate withdrawal, he pointed in a direction, indicating they would regroup five kilometers away in that direction.
Wang Laohu and Li Pengfei had already begun escorting the hostages away, with Jiang Yun signaling with hands at the rear before quickly following the hostages.
Gao Yang was not too familiar with their hand signals, which were different from the ones he knew, but luckily, Li Jinfā had taught him some, and with guessing, Gao Yang could roughly figure out what Jiang Yun’s hand signals meant.
While the recon team had already begun escorting the hostages to safety, the support team and Gao Yang could not leave immediately, but the kidnappers had not realized that their hostages were gone.
About ten minutes later, Gao Yang felt that it was about time, the hostages should have retreated to a sufficiently safe distance.
Even if they had to engage in combat now, Gao Yang wouldn’t need to worry about injuring the hostages, but naturally, it would be best to leave quietly without fighting.
Just then, Gao Yang saw Xia Chen, who was closest to him, desperately making hand signals, indicating that it was time to retreat.
The four members of the support team were all hidden in the darkness, and the movements of the reconnaissance team had also been almost entirely in the dark.
Because they lacked communication equipment, Gao Yang didn’t know whether everyone in the support team had seen Jiang Yun’s hand signals, and it was difficult for the four member of the support team to communicate effectively with each other.
Now, what they could rely on was the understanding among Li Pengfei and his team members.
Gao Yang put away his rifle, crawled backwards for a while, then slowly stood up and quickly ran towards the direction of Jiang Yun’s retreat.
After sprinting around four or five hundred meters, Gao Yang could already see the main body of the hostages.
At this point, Gao Yang stopped, he needed to cover for the hostages still in the process of retreating, and he also had to wait for the support team.
Finally having time, Gao Yang immediately pressed his walkie-talkie and said in a deep voice, “Ram calling Toad, if you hear me, respond.”
“Toad here, over.”
“We’ve rescued the hostages.
Now we urgently need vehicles to transport them back.
Arrange for the cars to be ready immediately.
I’ll send you the coordinates soon, and you bring the cars to pick up the hostages, over.”
“Understood, Toad.
Ram, be careful, over.”
After a brief exchange, it wasn’t long before Gao Yang saw four people running in his direction.
Only then did Gao Yang breathe a sigh of relief.
Once all four members of the support team were close, not missing a single person, Gao Yang immediately called out, “Over here, in this direction!”
Upon hearing Gao Yang’s call, the four people rapidly gathered around.
Once everyone had assembled, Gao Yang quickly said, “The reconnaissance team has already taken the people and left.
We’ll wait here a little longer to cover them, just in case the enemy notices anything.”
Xia Chen immediately laughed and said, “That’s right, we didn’t fire a single shot, and we quietly rescued dozens of people, that’s just perfect.”
Gao Yang also let out a sigh of relief and said, “I really didn’t want to fight.
Even if you killed me, I wouldn’t have thought we could rescue them so effortlessly.
Hey, how did you all know to come this way?
Did you all see Dagger’s hand signals?”
Zheng Aiai laughed and said, “Didn’t see them clearly, but if we don’t even have this bit of understanding, that would be something.”
Gao Yang checked his watch and said, “Dagger and his team will wait for us after moving out five kilometers.
Keep an eye on the time.
It’s for you to decide when to retreat.
I’ve already contacted Toad, and he will drive over to pick us up.
Shall we split up two people to go first and drive the cars we came in to catch up with Dagger’s team?
From what I see among the hostages, there are at least three injured.
With the cars, we can send the wounded away first.”
Xia Chen immediately said, “Right, the enemy hasn’t noticed us at all.
Three Cannons, you and the princess go and get the cars.
Drive straight to meet up with Dagger and his team; three of us here will be enough.”
Zhou Zhou and Zheng Aiai immediately ran towards where they had parked, leaving the other three, including Gao Yang, who might still have to engage in a blocking battle, behind.
After waiting for about ten minutes, they once again got up and rushed towards the direction of Jiang Yun’s retreat.
This time, Gao Yang and his team didn’t stop, directly catching up with the main body of the hostages.
By the time they caught up, Zhou Zhou and Zheng Aiai had already driven the cars and taken the injured and those who were weak ahead of the rest.
Upon seeing Li Pengfei, Gao Yang immediately asked, “How is it?
Did we get everyone out?”
Li Pengfei laughed heartily and said, “We got everyone out, not a single one missing.
This operation is a tremendous success, a complete victory!”
Gao Yang was very gratified and said, “That’s wonderful.
I really didn’t expect that without firing a single shot, we could rescue them so easily.
It’s incredible.
By the way, what technique did you and Dagger use while scouting?
Did you two snap the sentries’ necks in one go?”
Li Pengfei nodded and said, “Correct, a twist of the neck.
Clean and brisk, just like that.”
Gao Yang looked embarrassed and said, “Could you teach me that technique?”
Li Pengfei looked puzzled and said, “What?
Toad didn’t teach you that move?
Oh, right, Toad left early and didn’t have time to learn that technique.
You want to learn, right?
No problem, I’ll teach you as soon as we have some free time.”(To be continued.
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