422: Chapter 422 There's not even a door frame

Night Owl tucked the files into his coat. Before he turned to leave, he paused at the doorway and added, "We have been contacted by a former intelligence officer from the Singapore Intelligence Bureau and a base dispatcher from the Central Narcotics Bureau—both voluntarily defected. We have already verified the deployment maps of the Woodlands checkpoint defense zone and the coordinates of the underground arsenal they provided."

"Keep them for now." Zhang Cheng pulled up the second document—an encrypted military operation plan with two Burmese characters, "Southern Town," printed on the electronic header. "Huang Xuncai wants to prove on this podium that he is the gatekeeper of the Strait of Malacca. Then I will let him finish proving it—and then let him discover that he doesn't even have a doorframe left."

After Night Owl left, Zhang Cheng sat alone in front of the holographic situational map. He pulled up satellite imagery of the entire territory of Singapore—two Formidable-class frigates were docked at Changi Naval Base, twelve F-15SG fighters were neatly lined up on the runway at Paya Lebar Airbase, and a third armored vehicle lane had just been expanded last month in the direction of the Woodlands checkpoint leading to the Johor Strait. He marked each target in red one by one, then pulled up the positions of the mixed fleet that had gathered and was waiting in the Andaman Sea.

Three nuclear-powered aircraft carriers—the Dawn, Hope, and Freedom—were anchored in a triangular formation deep in the Andaman Sea. Twelve Type 055 destroyers formed three layers of air defense rings around the three aircraft carriers, and four Type 095 attack nuclear submarines had completed silent patrols underwater. On the amphibious assault ship White Elephant, the 1st Marine Brigade and the Shadow Blade special forces regiment had conducted 42 vertical amphibious landing simulation exercises—no signs of assembly could be seen in the satellite reconnaissance photos from Anderson Air Force Base, because all exercises were completed at night and under full-spectrum electromagnetic silence.

Zhang Cheng then pulled up the second layer of strike forces: six Air Force "J-10B" stealth fighter brigades—which had been transferred in batches to cave airports in Thailand and Cambodia 24 hours ago. The DF-17 hypersonic missile brigade—launchers had entered standby status along the coast of Myanmar. Target coordinates: 170 meters east of the Changi Naval Base pier, the middle section of the Paya Lebar Airbase runway, the Woodlands checkpoint underground command post, the Sembawang wharf fuel depot, and the Tuas Link underground ammunition depot. All coordinate errors were less than 0.7 meters—because the blueprints provided by the defectors perfectly matched the actual data measured by the Vega satellite.

At 2:14 AM, Zhang Cheng's encrypted channel lit up. Zhao Gang appeared on the screen; the background was not the office of the Dragon Country National Security Bureau—it was the night shift duty room of a command tower at a naval port on Hainan Island. Outside the window, the red lights of submarine mast lights could be seen.

"The Chief asked me to tell you that the right of passage through the Strait of Malacca is not an issue—our oil tankers can go through Kyaukpyu or the Kra Isthmus." Zhao Gang's voice was very low. "But the Chief also wants to remind you: the US Seventh Fleet changed the departure time of the 'Reagan' carrier strike group from 'pending assessment' to '24-hour combat readiness' this afternoon. Location—420 nautical miles southeast of Singapore."

"I know." Zhang Cheng pulled up a terminal ballistic trajectory chart for the DF-17. "Their Aegis interception probability against S-shaped maneuvering hypersonic warheads is 19.7%. If they really want to try—I will make that 19.7% interception probability become 0." He moved the mouse to a coordinate point on the screen and drew a red line in the waters between the Andaman Sea and the South China Sea. "But I will strictly abide by the Geneva Convention—the first shot will always be fired by the opponent."

Zhao Gang was silent for a few seconds, then said, "The Pu'er is still hot. When you need it, you know the channel."

The channel closed. Zhang Cheng got up and walked to the panoramic floor-to-ceiling window. The night sky of Naypyidaw had no neon lights, only the yellow lights of routine patrol vehicles in the distant military camp flashing among the coconut groves. He picked up the Pu'er tea that had already gone cold, and said four words to the window:

"Southern Town—begin."

At 6:00 AM sharp, at the Naypyidaw underground command center.

The Andaman Sea on the holographic situational map was zoomed in to a 1:200,000 scale, with 108 ship icons flickering with cold blue light dots. When Zhang Cheng pushed the door open and entered, Old K had already been standing at the command station for two full hours—he had verified the coordinates of all battle stations ship by ship, from the tension coefficient of the third arresting cable of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Dawn, to the torpedo tube pressure value of the Type 095 attack nuclear submarine Black Shark; every set of data was within the allowable margin of error.

"Report." Old K handed over the electronic tablet. Zhang Cheng took it and glanced at the two lines at the very top: The entire fleet completed final formation at 04:17, electromagnetic silence is being maintained; the US "Reagan" carrier strike group is located 420 nautical miles southeast of Singapore, 1150 nautical miles from our fleet—not yet within attack radius, but already at the outer edge of its carrier-based aircraft combat radius.

Zhang Cheng returned the electronic tablet to Old K. He walked toward the holographic command console in the center of the command center and looked around at the four walls—thirty-six secondary screens lit up simultaneously: meteorological satellite cloud images showed that the Strait of Malacca was clear and sunny today with a level 3 northeast monsoon; the communication monitoring screen showed that the Singapore Changi command center's external encrypted bands were transmitting and receiving normally, and no abnormalities had been detected yet; the DF-17 missile brigade feedback screen displayed a line of green code—all 16 launchers had completed final self-checks, and target data had been pre-loaded.

Operation "Southern Town" is divided into three steps. The first step, codenamed "Silence"—full-spectrum electromagnetic suppression of all communications, radar, and satellite links throughout Singapore, causing it to degenerate into an information island within 15 minutes. The second step, codenamed "Hammer Drop"—airdrop the Shadow Blade special forces regiment and the 1st Marine Brigade, simultaneously seizing Changi Naval Base, Seletar Airbase, Paya Lebar Airbase, and the Woodlands checkpoint. The third step, codenamed "Verdict"—capture Huang Xuncai and all members of the Singapore cabinet alive, and hand them over to the Yangon International Court for public trial.

Night Owl entered from the side door, followed by four Shadow Blade commanders. He pulled a freshly printed high-definition satellite image from the inner pocket of his tactical suit and spread it out on the command console. On the map, the berth numbers of Singapore's Changi Naval Base, the depth of the pier's load-bearing columns, and the models of air defense missile launchers—all were marked in red ink.

"The garrison troops at Changi Base are the Singapore Navy's 188th Squadron—six Formidable-class frigates and four Independence-class littoral mission vessels. The base's air defense was originally equipped with two 'Aster-30' air defense missile systems, one of which was suspended from use two months ago due to maintenance, and the other is located behind Pier 3 on the east side of the pier." Night Owl moved his finger to the top right corner of the satellite map. "Seletar Airbase runway is 1830 meters long, stationing 6 F-15SGs of the 121st Squadron, but 4 of them transferred to Paya Lebar base yesterday afternoon. Currently, there are only 2 on standby on both sides of the Seletar runway."

"What about Paya Lebar?" Zhang Cheng asked.

"Paya Lebar Airbase is the main defense node—the runway is 3800 meters long, fully staffed with 12 F-15SGs, 8 F-16C/Ds, 2 G550 airborne early warning aircraft, and the 165th Squadron's 6 AH-64D 'apache' attack helicopters. The base's air defense consists of three 'Aster-30' and two 'Patriot-3' missiles—this is the air force's lifeline for Singapore." Night Owl flipped over the satellite map, and on the back was a structural sketch of the Woodlands checkpoint underground command post—a three-level underground facility, with the entrance hidden inside the military police vehicle inspection station under the Woodlands viaduct, equipped with two explosion-proof elevators leading directly thirty meters underground.