Volume 3 – The Place Where My Heart Feels At Peace, Chapter 43: Destroying the Evidence
Two days later, Qianye appeared at the headquarters of the 131st Company.
The gates were surprisingly without guards. Qianye furrowed his eyebrows and then saw the hurrying and busied soldiers of the expeditionary army on the drill grounds.
“Officer Qian!” The person running towards him was the second lieutenant in charge of guarding the camp, and besides seeing the shock and happiness on his face, what showed even more was his surprise.
“Who’re they?” Qianye nodded to him, and without asking much of the lieutenant, he pointed towards the expeditionary army.
“They are the military police of the third army of the expeditionary army. They say that the war is over, and that they’ve come to tally our records.” The lieutenant’s face was filled with complex emotions and looked pained, clearly itching to speak out further.
The area covered by the Third Expeditionary Army included Xichang City, and the seventeen battalions that Qiqi had brought with her were all under the banner of the 58th Division of the Third Army.
The battle had ended? Tallying the score? Uncountable numbers of thoughts were swirling in Qianye’s heart, and he didn’t move at all, standing stock still. “Tell me what exactly happened, from the top.”
It turned out that after Qianye and Bao Zhengcheng had led them out, the headquarters had been quiet. After reporting the movements of the company, new instructions hadn’t come from Miss Qiqi’s end.
The lieutenant had first felt that something was off five days after the troop had left. Since the entirety of Zhongying Town had been placed on its highest alert, the other mechanized companies had all packed their camps and left, not even leaving a defensive force behind, clearly the sign that someone in higher HQ had moved them. He had sent out a report, but the reply told him to hold his position, and await orders.
Pa.s.sing several days like this, the lieutenant finally managed to inquire into the state of the battle from the guards of Zhongying Town, and he almost collapsed at the news. The 55th and 58th Companies had actually fought in the Dongling Mountain Area! Wasn’t that exactly where the 131st Company had gone to conduct their mission!? He immediately sent men to rush over to the Yin clan’s home overnight, and it turned out that even before the dispatched courier had made it back, the 3rd Army’s military police had made it there first.
At this point, the lieutenant had an expression of both pain and despair. “They said that in battle, the 131st Company, had set up forward camp and won a huge victory, and already acc.u.mulated enough merit to enter the files. But what’s this, those guy are practically treating us like criminals!”
Qianye quietly listened to him, and when the lieutenant mentioned the words “victory” and “forward camp”, his face darkened, and his downturned eyes flashed with a hint of killing intent.
The lieutenant only knew that much.
When the military police arrived, the soldiers of the 131st who had been left to defend the place had been continually monitored by them, and they couldn’t even leave through the front gates of the camp, and the Yin clan’s courtyards were also completely quiet. But the lieutenant was of a good background, and was a close friend of one of the lesser families. Hence, those that tailed him around were not only rather polite, but also privately revealed to him the victory that they’d won, coaxing him to bear with it temporarily.
As Qianye listened, he pointed out the discrepancy. “Since the military police had come to a.s.sess the results, what do we need to bear with?” Looking over, there was indeed a one of the expeditionary army’s staff officers and some of their line officers staring at them like hawks.
The lieutenant’s face turned grim as he spoke, his voice br.i.m.m.i.n.g with discontent. “Those b.u.g.g.e.rs seem to have taken the wrong medicine, they’re practically insane! One whole squadron rus.h.i.+ng in like that, separating us all, interrogating us for a day and a night.” Evidently, this round of interrogations had made them incredibly dissatisfied.
It was at this point that Qianye realized where that particular bruise, that hadn’t healed, on the lieutenant’s chin, had come from. Smiling coldly in his heart, he knew that they weren’t insane, and as the lieutenant was one of Pu Yangshen’s clansmen, they didn’t dare to let him die.
“Our brothers are still inside being questioned?”
“Yes. Some of them have been in there for nearly twenty four hours now.
Qianye nodded. “Let’s go and take a look.”
He started to stride towards the barracks. The few expeditionary army officers on the drill grounds looked at each other, and didn’t dare to approach.
In front of the barracks was a group of the expeditionary army’s soldiers, idly chatting, and occasionally laughing.
In front of them, the doors to the barracks had been barred from the outside, and from the window one could see that in every room there was one of the warriors of the 131st Company, their arms shackled by origin power handcuffs. One of them was actually tied to a chair, his face swollen.
Qianye immediately walked out in front of this crowd of Expeditionary Army soldiers, spitting out each word individually. “I am the company commander of the 131st Company. Release all my men immediately! Now!”
A second lieutenant that looked like a mountain of a man stepped out from the group, and he towered over Qianye, smiling coldly. “Sir, we are doing our duty, and we can’t just release people just because you say so!”
Qianye looked at him once before speaking mildly. “I have no interest in the rank and file! Call out your senior officer!”
With a squeak, the side door of the barracks swung open, and out walked a major from the expeditionary army.
The major’s s.h.i.+rt b.u.t.tons weren’t even fully b.u.t.toned up, and he leaned against the doorframe, lit a cigarette, and deeply inhaled. “I’m their superior officer. Why’d you call me out? I was in the middle of carrying out my duties! Don’t even mention if you’re just their company commander, even if you were the commander of the whole brigade, I wouldn’t budge! Don’t you know who I am? Let me tell you honestly, your daddy here is…”
He didn’t even finish, and Qianye had already planted a leg onto his stomach, coldly saying, “You’re full of s.h.i.+t!”
The major flew backwards, and slammed right through two layers of walls, flying out the other end of the barracks!
The expeditionary army soldiers were all taken for a shock. They were the people from the military police, and within the Third Army, they were always those who lorded it over others. When had they ever had to take the short end of the stick?
The fat black major bellowed out as he charged over, rus.h.i.+ng onward face-to-face with his fist. This was what he was used to doing, slamming his bear-paw-like hands over his opponents’ faces, and only then could he be satisfied.
But his vision exploded into stars as the beautiful engravings of the Twin Flowers flashed before his eyes and his face suddenly felt as if an elephant had viciously kicked him. Stars danced in his vision while he spat out something like seven or eight teeth from his mouth.
Qianye had turned the stock of the Twin Flowers into a weapon and almost smashed the fat face of the black major into putty. If Marquis Ross knew that his beloved gun from that time had been used so roughly, against such enemies of poor character, who knew if he’d get angry enough to kill all the way into the human cities.
Qianye put his foot forward. This time around, he exerted himself, throwing the black major that weighed nearly two hundred kilograms high into the sky well over the barracks. With a dull thud, the major landed heavily on the other side. Although he couldn’t be seen, they could tell just how badly he’d landed just by the noise.
Qianye ignored the rest of the expeditionary army forces, walking lightly through the hole he’d punched in the wall to the side of the major.
The major was still struggling on the ground, but no matter how he tried, he couldn’t get up. He was a rank four Fighter too, but with one kick from Qianye, all his defenses had been smashed, and he might not even have the power to battle.
“You dare attack me? Good, good. I’ll immediately let you know what the consequences will be! Your dad…”
The howls of the major suddenly stopped because the left barrel of the Twin Flowers was squarely aimed at his crotch!
This gun was evidently a high-grade good even at first glance, but no matter what grade it was, even if it was the ungraded Light of Daybreak, or even a gunpowder gun, the crotch of the major wouldn’t be able to take a blow.
A bang rang out, the sound echoing about the camp.
Following it closely was the pitiful wails of the major drowning out all other sounds.
“What the f*ck are you going on about, your b.a.l.l.s are still there!”
The major howled quite a few times before he finally stopped. He suddenly felt waves of coolness between his pant legs, and although there was the tender pain of a burn, but there wasn’t the crippling agony that he expected. Lifting his head to see, he only saw that there was a ma.s.sive hole between his legs, and the crotch of his pants had vaporized. As to the bits about his crotch, there was definitely going to be some burns, but it was far from splattered.
Qianye told him coldly, “The matters of the seventeenth corps are far beyond your jurisdiction! Now take your men and scram! If I ever see you again, I will not be so polite!”
The major looked at the deep pit between his legs on the ground, then at the gun that Qianye was carrying, and didn’t dare to speak another line. Scrambling to his feet, not even bothering to change his pants, he ran for the drill grounds, hurriedly gathering his squadron. With the greatest haste, he took his men and fled the camp.
The lieutenant and some of the officers that had gotten free hurriedly rescued the soldiers that had been locked up, while Qianye walked one round around the camp.
As expected, although the armskote and the ammo depot had been opened, they weren’t missing anything. It just that the filing rooms were a mess. The storage cabinets had all been raided and papers were scattered all over the floor. Qianye didn’t need to guess to know that given the majority of the doc.u.ments had been taken and that false military information would of course also have been taken.
The lieutenant had already settled matters outside and come to the secret filing room. Seeing Qianye standing stock still in the messy room, he spoke out. “When the military police came, some of them went into the secret filing room, and they had taken away a large number of the files that very same night .” He paused a moment, but couldn’t hold it in. “Boss, did something happen?”
It turned out that that particular expeditionary army officer who had helped the lieutenant had also misled him. It was at this point that the lieutenant finally realized the full scale of the battle, where the 131st had been defending, the terrible results of that battle, and their losses. Although they weren’t lacking in military power, their whole organizational structure had been scattered, and only a handful had survived. Hence, the military police were so daring in their mistreatment, as they knew for sure that the 131st was sure to meet with restructuring.
But once Qianye saw the state of the secret filing room, he knew that these were just superficial excuses. There was a backstage actor, who had used the Third Army’s internal department to come and destroy the evidence, that fake military intel. The two reports that had been filed by the 131st, had likely been destroyed on its journey out.
But Qianye saw the panic on the lieutenant’s face and wasn’t ready to reveal it all. This situation was getting more and more complex, and the defending force didn’t know anything, so dragging them into this was meaningless.
But the news that the lieutenant brought to him made Qianye involuntarily inhale sharply, and his heart rate sped up. The 131st had a handful of survivors? Thinking about it, he told the lieutenant, “I’ll write a report, and you send someone to hand it to Miss Qiqi.
In the Yin clan villa, within the Wind Hearing Pavilion, there was a tension in the air as every officer that went in and out was in a hurry.
Ji Yuanjia put down the doc.u.ments in his hand, as he gripped his nose bridge gently, ma.s.saging his exhaustion away. The boardroom table in front of him had been transformed into a giant office desk, stuffed with various doc.u.ments and cases. Although the battle was over, what followed was an even more important job.
A major pushed open the door and entered, carrying another report.
Ji Yuanjia nodded his head as he took the report, but realized that both the major’s manner of speaking and facial expression was odd. He looked down to see the sealed doc.u.ment in front of him was from the 131st Company, and couldn’t help but be taken aback.
The major asked, “Captain Qian has returned to the camp at Zhongying Town. Should we immediately send an airs.h.i.+p to receive him?”
The report was brief and Ji Yuanjia had quickly finished all of it. “No, I’ll head down there personally,” He paused, “and get Wind Tiger to prepare two teams of men to go down there with me.”
“Yes, sir.” The major walked out, and it was only then that he realized that his palms were slick with sweat.
Wind Tiger was the name of Miss Qiqi’s private corps, and they managed various things, including the protection of the Yin clan property. Indeed, whenever one of the important members went out, they would be protected by them.