Nominal: Hou Liangping blocking the door? He was slapped away!

Shen Zhong changed into a black jacket and strode into the core area located on the seventh basement floor of the military compound.

The heavy explosion-proof door slowly closed behind us.

Inside the command center, dozens of special operations commanders in training uniforms were busy at their respective workstations.

The heavy footsteps had just reached the end of the corridor when the nearest staff officer noticed him first.

"stand up!"

With a "whoosh," dozens of people in the hall stood up in unison, facing the entrance, chests out and at attention.

Shen Zhong raised his hand and pressed it down.

"Sit down and get back to work."

He walked past rows of workstations flashing with data points and headed straight for the giant electronic screen in the center of the hall.

The screen was divided into six separate information windows.

The three windows on the left scroll in real time through Ding Yizhen's location, communication records, and social relationship network map.

The two windows on the right show the activity trajectories of Ouyang Jing and Liu Xinjian over the past 72 hours.

In the rightmost window, Zhao Lichun's booked flight CA1588 is highlighted in red.

A lieutenant colonel, an intelligence officer, strode over and handed over a blue-covered compilation of documents with both hands.

"Sir, this is the intelligence department's special surveillance report on Ding Yizhen, updated at 6:00 AM this morning."

Shen Zhong took it and turned to the first page.

The report's heading was printed in bold black font with the word "Top Secret".

He turned the pages one by one.

Ding Yizhen's whereabouts over the past three months have been tracked down to every single day.

The list of people contacted, from local Jingzhou merchants to middlemen from other provinces, filled four pages.

The transaction details of the seventeen related accounts under his name were highlighted with different colored highlighters to indicate abnormal data flows.

Shen Zhong's gaze lingered on one of the sets of data.

In the past two weeks, three sums of money have flowed through underground money transfer channels into two offshore companies registered in the Cayman Islands.

The amounts are not large, with each transaction kept below five million.

But the frequency is increasing.

Shen closed the report and looked up at the red highlighted flight information on the far right of the screen.

Zhao Lichun's trip to Beijing to seek reinforcements was a move he had anticipated long ago.

Stop him?

Meaningless.

Even if Zhao Lichun is blocked at the airport, he can still make a phone call all the way to Beijing.

Shen's important task was not to prevent Zhao Lichun from seeking help.

What he wanted was for Zhao Lichun to reveal an even bigger flaw in his panic.

While Zhao Lichun was making moves in Beijing, his entire interest group in Handong couldn't just sit idly by and wait to die.

What is the first reaction when power is threatened?

Transferring assets and destroying evidence.

Ding Yizhen was the front man for the Zhao family's interests in Jingzhou.

Those ill-gotten gains would ultimately pass through Ding Yizhen's hands and flow overseas.

According to the plot, Ding Yizhen was also the first high-ranking cadre in Zhao's faction to be implicated, and monitoring him was a crucial step in bringing down Zhao Lichun.

Shen Zhong turned his head.

Zhou Weiguo stood three steps to the right of the command platform, with his hands behind his back, awaiting orders.

"Wei Guo, come here."

Zhou Weiguo immediately stepped forward.

"arrive."

"Ding Yizhen's surveillance system has been completely upgraded."

The deep voice wasn't loud, but every word carried the weight of a command.

"All routine tracking has been discontinued, and the military region's electronic countermeasures and monitoring system has been activated."

Zhou Weiguo's eyes lit up.

That system is only used during combat readiness exercises and counter-espionage operations.

"Understood. Which level should I use?"

"Highest level."

Shen Zhong pointed to Ding Yizhen's communication record window on the screen.

"Using the military's top-secret surveillance channels, we bypassed all network nodes of the Handong local public security system."

"Ding Yizhen's mobile phone, landline, and internet communications, including every encrypted chat software he used, were all included in the real-time monitoring scope."

"Won't the local police find out?" Zhou Weiguo asked to confirm.

"No," Shen Zhong said. "The military intercepts signals through an independent satellite link, which has no overlap with local communication base stations."

Zhou Weiguo nodded.

Shen Zhong continued to issue instructions.

"The second thing was to have the technical team use military secret keys to forcibly access Ding Yizhen's network of all his private bank accounts, both domestically and internationally."

"Including those offshore companies in the Cayman Islands?"

"Including," Shen Zhong said, "Whether it's domestic or overseas, all accounts associated with Ding Yizhen have their data channels locked."

"The third thing."

Heavy fingers swiped across Ding Yizhen's passport information on the screen.

"Have the technical department lock down all of Ding Yizhen's entry and exit records around the clock."

"Every plane ticket, every ferry ticket, every visa application, even a reservation record for a travel permit to Hong Kong and Macau, cannot be missed."

"His own, his wife's, and his immediate family members are all under surveillance."

Zhou Weiguo quickly reviewed the key points of the operation in his mind, and after confirming that everything was correct, he stood at attention and saluted.

"yes!"

He turned and strode quickly toward the communications control panel on the left side of the hall.

"Team One! Activate the 'Sky Eye' system. Target codename 'Ding', elevate listening privileges to Level A!"

"Group Two! Activate satellite link and connect to the target associated account's data port!"

"Three groups! Lock down the entry and exit information channels for the target and its associated personnel, and set up real-time alerts!"

One instruction after another came out of Zhou Weiguo's mouth.

The technicians at the control panel immediately began to work.

The sound of keyboards clattering and clicking filled the air.

Lines of green code scrolled rapidly across the black-background screen.

The satellite signal link connection has been established.

Encrypted data channels were established one by one.

In less than ten minutes, Ding Yizhen's information window on the big screen began to expand rapidly.

The monitoring interface, which originally had only three windows, now covers the entire lower half of the screen.

Real-time data streams from bank accounts, waveforms of communication records, and dynamic query results from the immigration system covered an entire wall.

A military-led intelligence network was fully formed.

Ding Yizhen's activities, both domestically and internationally, were completely covered by this net.

Every transfer he made, every phone call he made, and every travel plan he made would be transmitted back to this underground command center immediately.

Shen Zhong stood in front of the screen, watching the real-time updated fund flow data.

Ding Yizhen was just bait.

He wanted to use this bait to lure out the complete chain of interests behind the Zhao family gang.

"Defend the country."

Zhou Weiguo jogged back from the control panel.

"arrive."

Shen Zhong tapped the table in front of him twice with his fingers.

"Set a red alert line for all of Ding Yizhen's accounts."

"Report to me immediately if any funds exceed one million, whether it's a transfer or withdrawal."

Just as Zhou Weiguo was about to turn around and carry out the order, Shen Zhong added another sentence.

"Also, add Ouyang Jing's account."