454 I can“t say
Some of the commanders who had already returned from the front line were discussing the battle that took place in the Gobi. This was something they were not even aware of previously.
Back then, some of them had realized Xu Xianchu had gone missing. But with nearly a 100,000 troops deployed all over the battlefield, and Zhang Jinglin splitting up more than a dozen units to various locations to mislead the enemy, everyone did not think much of it at the time.
It wasn’t until today that they realized Xu Xianchu had been sent to the Gobi to the northwest!
At this moment, Wang Fengyuan came into the chow hall with his meal tray. Lin Yuze, the manager of the chow hall, asked proudly while serving him, “How was my acting?”
“It was perfect.” Wang Fengyuan laughed heartily. “The commander told me it was all thanks to you that we caught Li Xiang this time.”
“Hehe, I’ve been paying close attention since that bastard sneakily asked me about the commander’s appetite.” Lin Yuze said as he scooped up a large ladle of meat for Wang Fengyuan, “But still, it was all thanks to your subsequent actions. Otherwise, we could only have remained suspicious of that person.”
“There’s no need to be humble.” Wang Fengyuan shook his head. “After all, we only knew who to investigate after he displayed some unusual behavior.”
At this moment, a large group of commanders gathered around Wang Fengyuan. “You asshole, you must’ve known about the commander’s plan from the start, right? Why were you so tight-lipped? You didn’t tell us anything at all.”
Wang Fengyuan snapped, “What if any of you turned out to be spies? Even now, I still suspect there’s a spy among you people.”
The commanders around him got annoyed for a while. But as they were used to Wang Fengyuan’s manner of speaking, they never took it personally since a long time ago.
When Wang Fengyuan was flushing out the spy, his methods were brutal and he did not give a damn about anyone. He was only answerable to Zhang Jinglin.
Even back at Fortress 178, Wang Fengyuan lived in seclusion every day and never had a drop of alcohol. Wang Fengyuan used to have a wife, but there was one night when she overheard him talking in his sleep. It turned out Wang Fengyuan was also a very ruthless person. He actually separated from his wife right after that and only occasionally visited his child during the day.
At that time, Wang Fengyuan’s child just got born. Whenever he went to visit his child after that, the child would only address him as uncle. However, Wang Fengyuan never once complained no matter how unbearable it felt and spent his life in seclusion for over a decade.
When his subordinates sometimes saw Wang Fengyuan smoking alone outside the office, they always felt that he had a lot of things weighing on his mind.
Next to him, Chai Zhilong, who was the commander of an infantry brigade, asked, “Fengyuan, since it’s no longer a secret, why don’t you share with us what happened? We were all worried when Commander Zhang stopped eating for two days.”
Wang Fengyuan smiled ambiguously at them. “I think there’s no harm in sharing it with y’all now since the commander’s given me permission to talk about it.”
Sharing their victorious exploits at this moment would surely boost the morale of the troops. When someone heard that Wang Fengyuan was willing to share, they said excitedly, “Tell us, did the commander really go hungry for two days? Didn’t y’all have Lin Yuze serve him some food secretly?”
Wang Fengyuan did not know whether to laugh or cry. He did not expect this group of people to actually be concerned about this matter instead. He said, “Who said that the commander’s appetite gets affected whenever he’s troubled?”
The commanders looked at one another. “That’s not true?”
Wang Fengyuan smiled. The other commanders suddenly realized the rumor was a trap. For example, by letting an opponent think that you had the habit of touching your nose when you were bluffing in three-card brag, you could fake a tell to lure your opponent into a trap and deal them the fatal blow.
Of course, that was only the most basic example. The rumors of Zhang Jinglin having no appetite whenever he was troubled had been circulating in the stronghold for nearly 20 years. However, that was proven to be false today.
Wang Fengyuan said, “When the commander is really troubled, he’ll smoke more than two packs of cigarettes a day. That much is true.”
However, Chai Zhilong, who was next to him, pointed at Wang Fengyuan and chided him jokingly, “You’re fucking laying a trap for us, right? When I was serving as an orderly for the commander, he could also smoke two packs of cigarettes if he was in a good mood!”
Wang Fengyuan raised his eyebrows. “You’ve revealed the commander’s personal habits without permission. Go and pen a 3,000-word long apology letter.”
Chai Zhilong’s expression immediately changed. “But I never said anything!”
Wang Fengyuan ignored his protest. Rules were rules.
Chai Zhilong pulled a long face.
Reveling in schadenfreude, someone patted Chai Zhilong on the shoulder, then turned to ask Wang Fengyuan, “Tell us then, how did Commander Zhang discover that the Zong Consortium was planning to use the Gobi to get to Fortress 178? Hasn’t Commander Zhang been away from the fortress for more than a decade? Didn’t he only just return? Besides, no one at Fortress 178 has mentioned something like that before.”
Wang Fengyuan sneered. “The plan itself was given to the Zong Consortium by Commander Zhang several years ago. When the Zong Consortium began provoking us more frequently, Commander Zhang guessed their FOB in the Gobi had most likely finished construction. That was when he decided to come back.”
The commanders realized Commander Zhang had not been idle outside either. Everyone turned their gaze to Wang Fengyuan again. So it turned out Wang Fengyuan must have been keeping in touch with Commander Zhang ever since he secretly left Fortress 178. However, this bastard was so tight-lipped the others were totally unaware.
“Bastard, I didn’t expect you to be so good at bluffing when you’re so terrible at intelligence gathering,” Chai Zhilong muttered.
Chai Zhilong stunned himself. Wait a minute! Wang Fengyuan had been the intelligence director for over a decade now and was always complaining to others about how difficult it was to gather intelligence. Although he also started making some progress in recent years, no one knew exactly what progress he had made.
Everyone would always make fun of Wang Fengyuan in private, saying the intelligence agency of Fortress 178 was where one waited for retirement.
But today, it seemed that Wang Fengyuan and Commander Zhang were really the prescient people. If Wang Fengyuan was not capable, wouldn’t Commander Zhang have removed him from his post long ago?
How could Commander Zhang be so careless in his duties?
When they thought of this, everyone started seeing Wang Fengyuan in a different light.
So it seemed that even the Zong Consortium’s plan to cross the Gobi was leaked by Zhang Jinglin to them? Could it be that Commander Zhang had intended to destroy the Zong Consortium for a long, long time?
But Commander Zhang had still not returned to Fortress 178 at that time, right? So was Wang Fengyuan responsible for all this?
“When did that happen?” someone asked.
Wang Fengyuan thought back and replied, “I don’t remember.”
The commanders around him scowled. ‘As if you would fucking forget! Like hell we’d believe that!’
But then a commander asked about something unrelated. “Fengyuan, you must’ve known there was someone like Ren Xiaosu, right? Tell us more!”
Wang Fengyuan thought for a moment. “I still can’t talk about it.”
“Is it because he’s not gotten out of danger yet? I heard he went to Stronghold 146 by himself. Is it true?” Chai Zhilong asked.
“Yes.” Wang Fengyuan did not hide this from them. After all, the Zong Consortium knew about this as well.
Chai Zhilong muttered, “That kid is way too fierce. He even dares to go to Stronghold 146 by himself? Then what’s he doing now? Did you get our agent in the north to give him some help?”
Wang Fengyuan shook his head. “I can’t say.”
He had already said all that he could say. The rest of the information would have to be kept secret. The commanders around Wang Fengyuan dispersed. They also needed to reorganize themselves as quickly as possible since they were still required to fight on the northern front. After all, even though they were close to victory today, they still had not captured any of the Zong Consortium’s strongholds.