To the south, the scene of a chase at sea.
The freighter was moving forward, with the masked captain following closely. The distance between the two sides was more than a kilometer, which was beyond the effective range of armor-piercing bullets.
Behind them, two speedboats were moored in place to treat the seriously injured.
Melanin, his son Mu Liang, as well as Cherokea and several other believers were standing at the stern of the boat, coldly staring at the speedboat that was pursuing them without saying a word.
Mei Lan was covered in blood and her face was very pale due to blood loss. After swallowing 2 Qi and Blood Pills, she barely recovered.
Mu Liang opened a porcelain bottle and applied plaster to the wound on her mother's body to help stop the bleeding as soon as possible.
He changed his previous cold-blooded demeanor and returned to his usual well-behaved appearance, making people feel that he was still the same Xiao Wenwen.
At this moment, Mei Lanyin and the others seemed to be out of danger, but in fact they were at a critical moment of life and death.
Because ahead, on the chasing speedboat, the masked captain had stopped driving and was carrying a launch tube on his shoulder.
The power of rockets cannot be resisted by a modified small freighter.
Once the opponent launches it, the freighter may be bombed and sunk, and the few people on board will lose their cover and become lambs to be slaughtered.
A new life and death test has once again clouded the hearts of several people.
"Quick, everyone put on life jackets and let go of the small wooden boat."
Mei Lanyin did not look back. He reminded his men in a serious tone and looked at his son at the same time, "Wenwen, stop painting. Check the opponent's weapons and distribute them to everyone quickly."
"Yes, Lord Bishop."
Cherokea quickly obeyed the order, ordered his men to get busy, and then sent life jackets to the mother and son.
Makura quickly walked to the corpse on the deck and quickly found 2 grenades, a submachine gun, a pistol, a row of ammunition belts, etc. from his opponent, all of which were handed over to Cherokea for distribution.
At 4:20 in the morning, the sky was already light.
Ahead, as the freighter distanced itself, the shadow of the speedboat became smaller and smaller.
The other party, for some unknown reason, has not launched yet.
Two minutes passed, but the masked man still didn't move and seemed to be still hesitating.
Just as he was stamping his feet and preparing to make a decision, there was a faint buzzing in his ears.
The long-range lens of the helmet showed that a speedboat was approaching at full speed from the southwest of the target freighter.
"MD, luckily I wasn't impulsive."
"Guys, mission failed, end it. Evacuate!"
As if he had put down a huge burden, the masked captain re-closed the locking device, quickly put down his weapon, and drove the speedboat back.
On the small freighter, Melanin and the others were ready for the last ditch effort.
Six minutes later, the expected explosion did not occur, but another speedboat came from the south.
On the deck, Mei Lanyin glanced at his more tense men, and showed a relieved smile, "Okay, here are our friends, the crisis is over."
"Ah, your Lord Bishop is wise!"
Several believers were surprised, happy, and expressed sincere admiration.
The speedboat quickly approached the cargo ship. One of them held a flashlight and sent out three long and two short signals.
The freighter responded by sounding three long and two short whistles, and both parties confirmed their identities.
Then, the speedboat ascended and the two sides met.
Several rescuers listened to the whole process, and a team leader asked, "Ms. Mei, there is surveillance video of the freighter as evidence. Do you need to report it to the criminal investigation department of the General Administration?"
Mei Lanyin had already weighed the pros and cons, and his opponent finally gave up his fight to the death, so there was no need to kill him.
Both sides made concessions and reached a tacit understanding.
"Forget it, please tell Third Brother to put this matter aside for now and talk about it later."
She shook her head, made a decision, then arranged some specific matters and went to deal with the wound.
The sky started to get brighter, and the rest of the day was all about the aftermath.
The 10 or so people were exhausted from handling the remains, cleaning blood stains, repairing equipment, covering up traces, etc.
Until Melanin nodded, several rescuers left in a hurry.
For the rest of the trip, Mei Lanyin no longer went out alone, and the small freighter sailed in shifts according to its normal schedule.
…
Arctic Ocean, gold deposit area.
Nangong Faner was currently lying in the room on the middle floor of the freighter, resting.
After listening to Wright's report on the entire mission, he did not blame or reprimand his subordinates. He asked some questions and started assigning tasks again.
His thinking is very clear, he advances through multiple channels, and applies pressure step by step until the goal is achieved.
…
After several days of continuous searching, Nangong Faner failed to find what he wanted, and finally got a little tired.
The alien warriors who were traveling with them did not dare to complain when they saw the commander personally inspecting the sea, and completed a general scan of the area.
In addition to not discovering the so-called undersea weapons cache, they actually discovered two mineral veins with relatively rich gold content. They reported it to Nangong Faner, received praise, and recorded it in the electronic file of merit points.
All the soldiers who set off with the team were inexplicably moved by this affable, approachable, and hands-on officer. They felt that they were following a good officer and were determined to follow closely, work hard, and be appreciated.
In fact, at his level, there is no need to do everything personally. He can just tell his subordinates to do it. There is no need to take risks himself.
The General Administration of Earth and Stars follows the treatment standards of the Hijin Empire. At Nangong Fan'er's level, in addition to standard functional terminals and other high-end communication tools, there should also be a special sitting saucer and guard soldiers.
Under the current limited conditions, a lot of hardware benefits have been cut off, and even the salary is calculated in virtual star coins, which can be converted into the national currency after returning to the empire.
When these stationed personnel came to the solar system, Sub-Commander Zishu Fuming, according to the order of Wu Brand, the supreme commander of the Hijin Empire, gave each of them a one-level salary increase, and some elite talents were promoted to use, thus inspiring most of them. The enthusiasm of the personnel has promoted the rapid development of the entire earth-to-planet transformation and solar system development projects.
Nangong Fan'er is one of the double beneficiaries. Not only has he been promoted to a higher level, but his salary has also been raised by two levels. Logically speaking, he should be lucky and have a bright future.
As long as such people are loyal to their duties and diligent and conscientious, they can be reused after returning to the empire, and they can be said to have a great reputation for a lifetime.
Unfortunately, he has already developed a traitorous streak. The greater his power and honor, the greater the harm he will cause in the future.
Another point is that the stationed personnel have discovered a problem. The exchange ratio between virtual star coins and gold is several times higher than the Greek gold currency.
For the salary paid to them, as long as the virtual star coins in their hands are exchanged for gold, and when they are brought back to the empire and then exchanged for Greek gold currency, they can make a net profit of multiple times.
When it is profitable, except for high-level military officers and general administration officials who are afraid of being punished, almost all other full-time personnel and ordinary soldiers secretly accumulate gold.
This kind of black-box operation leads to sharp fluctuations in the central exchange rate.
As long as the authorities do not strictly prohibit this phenomenon, it will soon spread.
The deputy director of the Earth and Star Administration, Lakvin, was inclined to be local in his heart and wisely chose to turn a blind eye.
General Uburano, Commander of the Third Fleet and Chief of the Second Central Base; Zishu Huiding, Deputy Commander of the Eleventh Fleet and Chief of the First Center Lunar Base; Deputy Commander of the Twelfth Fleet and Chief of the Third Central Base General Tuoba Feihu, the chief of the central base, and Dongguo Xiuce, chief of the Earth and Star Administration and chief of the fourth central base, secretly reported the situation to Sub-Commander Zishu Fuming. After being ignored by vague words, they all chose to remain silent. Don't say anything, just turn a blind eye.
The people below thought that the superiors didn't know about it, so they became more emboldened, and changed from being secretive to a semi-public method.
However, this kind of behavior is neither explicitly stipulated nor prohibited. After all, it is in a gray area. Some of them cannot be brought to the table, and some do not dare to trade openly.
There are honest supervisory officials who have published some transaction monitoring footage online and reported it to the head of the respective base.
Therefore, under the instructions of the superiors, the economic investigators followed the clues and found the parties involved in the transaction, criticized them face to face, confiscated the transaction amount and closed the case without excessive punishment or administrative demotion.
Of course, the handling of the situation must be announced online. The purpose is to remind others that it is best not to do this kind of thing.
Some people have stopped, and some people are still continuing. The reason is simple. The cost of breaking the law is not high, so you can take the risk.
As everyone knows, Zi Shu Fuming let things go, mainly out of sympathy.
These people left their hometowns with him and stayed for 10 years. It is understandable that they wanted to save some income.
There is no intention to order a ban without clearly violating the principles.
After all, within the empire, buying and selling gold is normal and there is no illegal behavior.
Just because there is a market price difference, we cannot prohibit trade activities and accuse them of disrupting financial order. This is inconsistent with legal principles.
After returning to China, even if someone complained, he would have countless reasons to refute.
However, after much thought, he finally ordered the Fleet Command and the Earth and Star Administration to jointly make two regulations for internal personnel:
First, designated Xingkong.com opens a special page to provide official channels for exchange transactions, standardize statistics on transaction amounts, and charge a certain percentage of handling fees.
The second is to limit the maximum weight of personal belongings that can be brought back to the country based on personnel of different levels to avoid unlimited transactions and destroy the financial balance of Earth and Star.
In this way, it not only legalized the transaction behavior, but also reduced the negative impact, and received a response from all the stationed personnel.
Zi Shu Fuming's tolerance and generosity once again won the support of his subordinates, and most of the staff became more motivated to work, which was also an unexpected gain.
After formulating the trading rules and having a legal way to cash out, the imperial soldiers, officials, experts and technicians were not in a hurry to exchange. After all, it took a long time, and it was just a matter of slowly accumulating, not just a moment.
Without the centralized rush to buy and disrupt the underground market, the transaction volume has dropped significantly. The local exchange rate and the intermediate exchange rate of Dixing have gradually stabilized, and a new equilibrium point has been fixed.
Speculators no longer have a stage to make trouble, and the exchange rate, a smokeless battlefield, has returned to a narrow range of fluctuations, providing financial support for normal trade.
