Soldiers' Assault: Veteran Special Agents and New Recruits

Chapter 391 Operation Red Sea

To prevent the possibility of the pirates playing tricks, Jackie Chan, who is known for his violent yet steady approach, chose to retreat back to the corner of the passage.

They shouted to the pirates in English: "We are the ZG Navy Special Forces. We now formally accept your surrender. You must do as we ask. First, throw your guns out of there, and then raise your hands and come out."

I warn you not to harbor any illusions or try to outsmart me, or you will face the most severe punishment.

Jackie Chan is tall and his voice is powerful, like a resounding bell, which is very intimidating.

The pirates responded immediately, throwing their guns out of the room—three broken and severely worn automatic rifles.

One of the guns had a broken stock, so they bent a steel bar a few times and welded it onto it to make do.

Jackie Chan is genuinely worried that these guys might accidentally shoot themselves to death when they use such inferior weapons to become pirates.

The three pirates who then emerged from the room were even more shabby than the three broken guns.

The clothes they wore were all cheap, either shorts with a tank top or jeans with a short-sleeved shirt, and they were either ripped or faded "fashionable" items.

They were all skin and bones, with hardly any flesh on their bodies.

His weight is probably less than 100 pounds.

Seeing these shabby and destitute pirates, Jackie Chan really didn't know what to say about them. He could only describe them with four words: vicious and ruthless.

The three Somali pirates were terrified and dared not utter a single trick in their heads.

The surrender process went very smoothly. The three pirates walked out of the room in a line and were forced to face the wall with guns pointed at them at the corner.

After being searched by Zhuang Yan and Xu Sanduo, they were finally tied up with their hands behind their backs.

During the interview, Jackie Chan asked the three pirates if, besides the two who had been killed, they had any other accomplices still hiding.

The answer was that there were only five in total, and no other pirates were scattered and hiding.

Jackie Chan then asked the captain, who had seen several pirates board the ship.

The captain had already discovered the pirates when they came after him in their ship, and tried various methods, but ultimately failed.

Therefore, he was actually fully aware of how many pirates were coming.

The captain's answer was also five, each on a separate speedboat.

The pirates also had a very clear division of labor.

One of the ships was a combat vessel carrying three armed pirates who were responsible for controlling the attack on the cargo ship and preventing the crew from stopping the pirates from boarding.

When crew members approached, they were responsible for shooting them.

The other boat was for boarding, equipped with simple boarding equipment, so it carried only two people.

One of them was in charge of controlling the speedboat.

When they got close to the cargo ship and were traveling at the same speed, another pirate began to board the ship using equipment.

With the pirates' skillful teamwork, even if the cargo ship was sailing at top speed, it could not prevent the pirates from forcibly boarding the ship.

The captain witnessed almost the entire process from the pirates' approach to their successful boarding.

He could only watch helplessly as other things went on, but counting how many pirates were attacking was quite simple.

After confirming that all the pirates had been found, Jackie Chan reported the situation to the Yangzhou.

Upon receiving the order to return after the mission was completed, Jackie Chan, along with three pirates and two corpses, came out of the cabin and onto the deck.

They then boarded a speedboat sent by Gao from Yangzhou and returned to the Yangzhou with the prisoners and corpses.

The reason they brought back even the two bodies, instead of leaving them on the Antaishan or throwing them into the sea to feed the fish, is that...

One reason is that the crew members are just ordinary people, and dealing with corpses is very troublesome for them.

The other proof lies in the fact that the body is the evidence.

To put it more bluntly, it means that one has made a contribution and received an award.

A kill in actual combat is a great achievement!

The Yanlong team returned to the Yangzhou and handed over the pirates, both alive and dead, to the ship's intelligence group, leaving the rest of the work to them.

Having successfully completed their first mission, the Yanlong team can now enjoy the fruits of their victory.

Under Captain Zhang's special arrangement, the Yangzhou's cooks prepared special meals for the Yanlong team as a way of congratulating them on the successful completion of their mission.

A video conference was held that evening, during which higher-level leaders highly praised the Yanlong team.

They also expressed their hope that the Yanlong team would continue their efforts and live up to their mission in the upcoming voyage, fulfilling the sacred mission entrusted to them by the motherland and their superiors.

The members of the Yanlong team were certainly very happy to receive recognition and commendation from their superiors.

They're even more motivated now!

……

The Yanlong team was in high spirits after their grand opening. The blue sky, white clouds, and sparkling waves made them feel incredibly relaxed and excited for the upcoming voyage.

The Suez Canal route is a popular one, and the number of ships increases significantly after entering the Gulf of Aden.

The Yangzhou frigate, flying the five-star red flag, encountered a sharp increase in the probability of large ships along the way, no longer going days without seeing a single ship as before.

The vast majority of ships were extremely surprised to see a warship flying a red flag, and could hardly believe it was real.

And many of them are people I don't even know!

After all, my country's warships rarely leave the coastal areas, and the outside world has very limited knowledge of them, let alone their presence in the Gulf of Aden, thousands of nautical miles away.

It's hard not to be surprised when ships from various countries see Chinese warships for the first time.

Along the way, they also encountered an escort warship flying a NATO flag and a British flag, which was equally surprised by the appearance of the Yangzhou.

but.

Despite their surprise, they did not approach. The two sides met each other at a distance of nearly ten nautical miles, and passed each other without even exchanging a radio message.

I don't really know what to say, so it's better to just pretend I didn't see it.

Ships from China would excitedly shout in the public channel when they saw the warships, expressing their respect for the warships from their motherland.

We also hope that warships from our motherland will bring peace to the Gulf of Aden.

Another day has passed in the blink of an eye.

The Yangzhou has already sailed from the Somali coast and ventured deep into the Gulf of Aden. Turning north at the next bend, it will lead directly to the Suez Canal, the world's largest artificial canal.

However, just as the Yangzhou was preparing to head north, it suddenly received an emergency distress radio signal.

Let's go back twenty minutes.

The Guangdong container ship, sailing through Pirate Lane, was targeted by a group of Somali pirates.

The method was the same as when the An Tai Shan was hijacked: two speedboats approached quickly, one providing cover while the other carried out the operation, and they boarded the container ship in just a few minutes.

On the Guangdong, which is over 300 meters long, there are two hired security guards.

Despite the two security guards' best efforts, the Guangdong was simply too long for them to handle, let alone prevent the pirates from boarding.

"Pirates are coming! Pirates are coming! Everyone run!"

The crew members, who were watching anxiously on deck, saw the pirates climbing aboard and immediately turned and ran towards the bridge, shouting warnings as they ran.

The two pirates who had climbed up gave chase, shouting warnings as they ran, "Don't run! I'll shoot if you keep going!"

The Somali pirate was speaking Somali, which the ZG crew members running ahead couldn't understand; all they could think about was escaping.

"Da da da..."

When the pirates saw that their shouts had no effect on the crew, they opened fire with a burst of bullets.

Don't say it.

His marksmanship is excellent.

They knew to stop and aim before firing, which shows that this group of pirates was extraordinary and more professional than others.

The last crew member was unlucky; he was shot in the left calf and fell forward to the ground.

The one-eyed pirate chasing behind immediately shouted a reminder: "We only want hostages. Hostages are money. Don't kill them."

Upon hearing what the one-eyed pirate said, the pirate running in front immediately stopped firing.

Seeing that the pirates were no longer firing, the other crew members did not abandon the injured crew member. Two of them ran back and supported the crew member on either side as they continued to run.

In the chase, the two sides quickly arrived at the area below the bridge.

The crew rushed aboard, instinctively wanting to find the captain and ask him to find a way to save themselves, while the captain was in the wheelhouse.

Both security guards were carrying shotguns, which looked intimidating and were quite lethal at close range.

It's perfect as a self-defense weapon!

However, the pirates all carried AK-series assault rifles, and they were clearly professionally trained pirates, so their marksmanship was more than guaranteed.

The escort security guards stationed on the second level of the bridge were killed in less than twenty seconds upon meeting the ship.

Seeing that the situation was not right, the second escort security guard immediately retreated to the third floor, and all the crew members followed and ran up, with the personnel becoming more and more densely packed as they went up.

The pirates, however, were not in a hurry to pursue them. Instead, they chose to split into two groups.

One group continued to press upwards and attack the cockpit, while another group entered the cabin from the entrance on the first floor.

While blocking the path that the crew on the bridge might take to the safe room, take control of the ship's core engine room first.

This group of pirates had bigger ambitions; they planned to change course and hijack the ship to Somali territorial waters.

In this way...

Even if there were escort warships nearby, they wouldn't dare cross the coastline into Somali territory to conduct rescue operations.

For a ship to sail smoothly into Somalia, the most important thing is, of course, the bridge, followed by the heavy oil engine that propels the container ship forward.

The captain remained in the top-floor bridge, observing the pirates and security situation.

Thinking that if the escort and security could hold, they would be able to escape this disaster today.

Unexpectedly, as soon as the two sides exchanged fire, one of the escorting security guards was killed, and the other had to run to the fourth floor to guard the stairwell entrance.

I thought that by blocking the entrance to the stairs, I could hold the shotgun steady as a rock.

Spray one when one comes up, spray two when a pair comes up.

As it turns out, this last remaining escort security guard probably didn't check the almanac before leaving home; his luck was just too bad, and he died a very unjust death.

The pirates downstairs fired in the direction of the escorting security personnel, using a slingshot technique.

"Da da da da..."

Two guns fired a volley of bullets.

The security guard, which was protected by a thick steel plate at a straight distance, was hit by a bullet that ricocheted off the iron pole guard next to it.

And it hit the back of the head right away; the bullet shattered the back of the head and entered the brain.

The security guard was killed on the spot.

The body rolled down the stairs.

Seeing that security was gone, the pirates below had no more scruples and arrogantly emerged from behind their bunkers, standing right below the bridge.

Among them, the seemingly leader, the One-Eyed Wolf pirate, had one eye fixed menacingly on the captain.

"This is it!"

Seeing that their last hope of defense was gone, and seeing the pirate captain's cold gaze, the captain knew something was wrong and turned to run to the bridge.

He used the radio to call for help over a public channel: "Emergency distress call, emergency distress call, this is the merchant ship Guangdong, we are under attack by pirates."

Repeat, we are under attack by pirates and urgently need rescue. Our coordinates are…

"Da da da..."

The captain's cries for help had barely been uttered when he was met with pirate bullets.

"Get to the safety cabin, quick, get to the safety cabin."

The captain, having completed the emergency distress call, ran out and loudly urged the crew to prepare to rush through the emergency exit and go down to the safe cabin to avoid danger.

The crew members knew this was their last hope, and they all ran towards the emergency exit.

Before the crew members could even run down, the crew members who were running ahead stopped in front of the emergency exit stairs, raising their hands and not daring to move.

Under the emergency exit behind the ship's bridge, a pirate armed with a gun had appeared at some point.

Faced with Somali pirates armed with AK47s, the unarmed crew members, despite their superior numbers, appeared incredibly vulnerable at that moment.

……

The Yangzhou received a distress signal from the Guangdong. Unlike the previous distress signal from the An Taishan, which was hundreds of nautical miles away, this time the coordinates were less than 50 nautical miles apart.

The hijacked merchant ship was so close, and it was a Chinese-flagged vessel.

There's no reason not to save the Yangzhou!

At Captain Zhang's command, the entire ship once again entered a state of high alert, and the Flame Dragon Team immediately went into full armed readiness.

Immediately, the Yangzhou made a large semi-circle at sea, turned around, and sped off towards the direction where the Guangdong was.

At the same time, the warship's satellite system was activated, and China's Beidou reconnaissance satellites were used to lock onto the Guangdong from high altitude using coordinates.

This way, no matter where the Guangdong ship goes, the Yangzhou ship can keep up in time.

It is unknown what happened at the back of the ship, but more than an hour later, the Yangzhou arrived at the scene of the accident, while the Guangdong had only moved more than 10 nautical miles.

Moreover, it has completely changed course, from its westward-to-eastward return route to heading straight for Somalia.

"The pirates are going to hijack the ship and take it back to shore!"

Captain Zhang, Cheng Long, Political Commissar Xie, and other commanders, who were already in the bridge of the warship, guessed the pirates' intentions from the ship's course.

Realizing that the Guangdong would enter Somali territory and that the rescue opportunity would be lost, they decided to take action.

Captain Zhang immediately sounded the warship's alarm. As the wailing alarm echoed across the sea and sky, the Yangzhou accelerated once again.

When they caught up to within 2 nautical miles of the Yangzhou, Captain Zhang ordered the alarm to be stopped and began sending specialists to haile the pirates.

"We are the Chinese Navy, please stop immediately."

"This is the Chinese Navy. Please stop immediately."

"This is the Chinese Navy. Please stop immediately."

The messages were broadcast in Mandarin, English, and Somali, and were clearly transmitted to the distant Guangdong ship through the ship's super loudspeaker.

The pirates on the ship must have heard the shouts, but they did not stop the ship.

Instead, it accelerated further, pushing the container ship to its limit, with thick black smoke billowing from its massive smokestack.

The pirates clearly had no intention of giving up and planned to use the hostages they held to forcibly take the ship back to Somali waters.

Pirates who go out to "rob" are clearly familiar with relevant international regulations and know how to deal with the "sanctions" from coast guard and warships.

(End of this chapter)