Farming Life Starting in Africa

The Ivia government has an intelligence officer in the port; you can just go directly to him to get the money.

Rosen nodded and looked at Miao Feng beside him: "Brother Miao, go with Lao Zhou." Lao Zhou is having a hard time carrying a woman by himself, it will be much easier with Miao Feng's help.

After saying that, Rosen and Leng Feng followed Zhao Haiguang. Zhou Weijie and Miao Feng, each supporting one arm, dragged Um Imara to find Ivia's intelligence officer in the port of Oharfa to collect the bounty.

Most of Ivia's officials were in the port. Their families had mostly boarded the ships, while they themselves were free to board at any time.

The group boarded the warship and saw Captain Gao Yun looking energetic as he read a piece of intelligence on the bridge.

Sensing the arrival of the political commissar, he didn't even look up: "Old Zhao, we have news. The last known location of reporter Xia Nan's cell phone signal was near the town of Basem in the northwest. The last known location before the signal disappeared was in a wasteland east of the town."

Zhao Haiguang couldn't help but chuckle: "Hehe, what a coincidence. I just learned some information too—Deng Mei might be in the town of Basem."

"Hmm?" Gao Yun finally looked up.

He noticed two more outsiders on the bridge, two of the same overseas Chinese from yesterday. He frowned slightly, his gaze sweeping over Rosen and Leng Feng.

Zhao Haiguang explained, "They just captured a mid-level member of the Zaka organization outside the port. I got Deng Mei's information from them."

Gao Yun's gaze lingered on Rosen for two seconds.

Is the news reliable?

"I don't know," Zhao Haiguang said. "This is a disposable phone that we just found on one of Zaka's people. Let's locate the last call target and see where they are; maybe we can cross-verify it."

He handed the phone to the technical officer next to him.

Gao Yun still looked at Rosen with suspicion: "How did you obtain this intelligence?"

"The intelligence was bought with money," Rosen said casually. "I only received the information this morning."

He paused, feeling it necessary to give Gao Yun a heads-up: "Captain Gao, the town of Basem now has six tanks, as well as several heavy machine guns, rocket launchers, and mortars, and more than two hundred militants. And that's not all; there may be more, but the intelligence hasn't reached them yet."

Upon hearing this news, Gao Yun tapped his fingers lightly twice on the nautical chart table.

"This is going to be difficult to save." Gao Yun's brows furrowed deeply. He looked at the coordinates of the town of Basem on the map, which was about 110 kilometers from the port, just within the drone's combat radius.

"Let's send a drone over to scout the terrain and gather intelligence first. Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated."

Just as the drone was flying towards the town of Basem, Rosen and his group went down to the restaurant and had breakfast. They also brought two portions for Miao Feng and Zhou Weijie.

There were fewer people in the restaurant than yesterday, probably because the early-rising expatriates had already finished eating. Sunlight streamed in through the portholes, casting bright squares on the metal tabletops.

In the ship's information and intelligence operations room, a young technical officer suddenly stood up. "Quick! Go and inform the captain!" His voice was tinged with tension.

A moment later, Gao Yun and Zhao Haiguang strode into the intelligence operations room. Gao Yun's voice was calm and steady, "What's wrong?"

"We just received a video from Zaka's organization sent to the government forces," the technical officer pointed to the screen. "They specifically marked it as 'to be handed over to the Chinese Navy.'"

Gao Yun stood in front of the computer, frowning. The moment the image appeared on the screen, the atmosphere in the entire intelligence room froze.

A man with his head wrapped in a headscarf, completely covered up, stood in front of the camera, only his eyes visible. He held a piece of paper in his hand and read the contents aloud in accented English.

"Secretary-General Mohadi is deeply sinful, persecuting our free people and abusing force! We strongly demand that you stop protecting this criminal and immediately hand over Mohadi's family! We must avenge our brothers and sisters who have sacrificed their lives due to Mohadi's persecution! Otherwise—Chinese citizens will be punished in their place!"

After he finished speaking, the video camera slowly panned across the screen.

Behind him stood two masked armed men. Between them were two chairs.

On the left chair is a man who is blindfolded and gagged. His hands are tied behind his back, and his chest is heaving violently; you can feel his unease and fear even through the screen.

Not far to the right is an Asian woman whose hands and feet are tied and who is being held down on a stool.

She was wearing a dark coat, her hair was disheveled and hanging in front of her face, and a strip of cloth was stuffed in her mouth.

"I'll give you a demonstration now."

In the video, the man who was reading the note put it down and drew a dagger from his waist. The blade flashed in the light, and he walked up to the man on the left, grabbed his hair, and pulled his neck forward.

The dagger slashed down.

Gao Yun's fingers unconsciously clenched.

A muffled groan came from the video, followed by dark red blood gushing from the man's neck, splattering on the ground, the chair, and the glove of the man wielding the knife.

The man whose throat was slit convulsed violently a few times before slowly going limp, like a deflated inflatable doll.

The masked voice rang out, "Next, it's this Chinese woman!"

The video has ended.

Gao Yun remained silent for two seconds.

Then--

"Bang!"

He slammed his fist on the table, causing the water glass to jump and spill water all over the table.

"Damn it!" His voice wasn't loud, but each word seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth. "Too arrogant! Get the dragon!"

Political Commissar Zhao Haiguang, who was standing nearby, reached out and stopped the communications soldier, waving his hand at him.

"Old Gao, calm down. It's not too late to send Jiaolong out after the intelligence is confirmed. It won't make a difference if we wait a little longer."

Gao Yun took a deep breath.

His fist was still pressed on the table, his knuckles white.

Zhao Haiguang is right. The information in the video hasn't been cross-verified yet. Is that Asian woman really Deng Mei? Is she being held in the town of Basem? How many troops are around? We don't know any of these things.

"If their intelligence is accurate," Gao Yun's voice regained its composure, but there was still fire in his eyes, "simply sending out Jiaolong will likely be insufficient to rescue anyone. The enemy is not a few scattered soldiers, but over two hundred regular army-level armed men."

"Let the people who are in contact with the government forces go with them," Zhao Haiguang said.

"No way." Gao Yun shook his head, his tone resolute. "There are too many spies within the government army. The moment we leave, they'll have already spread the news. We have to rely on ourselves to solve this."