Watching Xu Ze as he began to search for the shrapnel inside the abdominal cavity, Zhao Jun glanced at Li Hu’s condition, then hesitated and said, “Major… shouldn’t we check his blood pressure? What if…”
Xu Ze truly appreciated Zhao Jun’s caution and prudence. He smiled and shook his head. “Don’t worry, it’s fine. If there’s a problem, I’ll notice it.”
Seeing the warm, confident smile in Xu Ze’s eyes, and hearing such self-assured words, Zhao Jun still felt reassured, even if he didn’t fully understand why. Since the Major said it was fine, then it must be fine. He then focused entirely on watching Xu Ze’s movements, assisting him in the surgery.
A faint glimmer of light flickered across Xu Ze’s glasses as the X-ray perspective system activated once more, clearly penetrating through the abdominal cavity and the intestines within, revealing the shrapnel lodged in the posterior abdominal wall.
Xu Ze gently reached his hand in, pinched the piece of shrapnel, and carefully pulled it out.
As Xu Ze retrieved the blood-streaked fragment, soft murmurs of admiration came from the onlookers nearby.
Xu Ze tossed the shrapnel aside and reached in again to feel around gently. But after probing for quite a while, he suddenly let out a surprised sigh.
“You’re kidding me… luck this good?” Xu Ze breathed softly. He had carefully traced along several intestinal loops and discovered that the shrapnel’s path had miraculously missed damaging any part of the intestines.
He had initially thought he would need to suture the intestine, but it turned out there was absolutely no damage, saving him a major hassle.
Since the intestines were unharmed, this simplified things considerably. He could just irrigate the area and then close the abdomen and suture it up.
“Zhao Jun, bring me two bottles of saline,” Xu Ze said, turning to Zhao Jun.
“Uh… there’s only one bottle of saline,” Zhao Jun replied, looking a bit embarrassed as he handed over the single bottle. He was carrying a field kit, after all, and couldn’t possibly pack that many supplies; having one bottle was already fortunate.
“Alright, one bottle will do,” Xu Ze said, taking the bottle. He noticed it was made of plastic, which was actually perfect for his needs. He then looked at Zhao Jun and said, “Find an IV tube with a large-bore needle. We can adapt it to work as a suction device.”
Zhao Jun’s eyes sparkled with admiration upon hearing this. “Major, you’re truly amazing—you even thought of that! I was just wondering how we’d get the rinse water out of the abdomen afterward.” He quickly found an IV tube, cut a section off, and attached it for Xu Ze.
Xu Ze took the saline bottle with the IV tube attached and began rinsing out Li Hu’s abdominal cavity.
After carefully washing the entire cavity, Xu Ze squeezed the plastic bottle flat, using it as a makeshift negative-pressure device. He slowly released his grip, allowing the bottle to reinflate naturally while gradually suctioning out the now-pinkish saline from the abdomen.
Everyone watching from behind was utterly amazed by Xu Ze’s ingenious improvisation, turning a simple plastic bottle into a functional suction device.
With all the blood aspirated from the abdominal cavity, Xu Ze was about to begin suturing when a warning from Xiao Dao rang in his mind: “Xu… you need to speed things up. His blood pressure is starting to drop.”
“Dropping already?” Xu Ze frowned slightly, then turned to Zhao Jun. “Give Li Hu an injection of hemostatic. His blood pressure might be taking a turn for the worse.”
“Huh?” Zhao Jun was taken aback by Xu Ze’s words. How could Major Xu possibly know his blood pressure was dropping? Still, he didn’t dare hesitate and quickly prepared the medication.
Sure enough, by the time he drew up the drug, Li Hu’s face had grown noticeably paler, and his extremities were becoming cold. Zhao Jun’s heart jolted with alarm. He quickly administered the hemostatic and sped up the IV drip.
Even after doing all this, Zhao Jun’s anxiety didn’t ease in the slightest. The surgery wasn’t finished yet. Even with the hemostatic, faster IV fluids, and a continuous blood transfusion, the transfusion rate was still far too slow to effectively counteract the dropping blood pressure.
Left with no other option, he could only turn his hopeful gaze toward Xu Ze, wondering if the Major had any other tricks up his sleeve to turn things around.
But when his eyes landed on Xu Ze, he froze. Xu Ze, with a needle holder in one hand and forceps in the other, was weaving the needle and thread through the surgical site on Li Hu’s abdomen with lightning speed—like a butterfly dancing through flowers.
He had only stepped away to prepare and administer the medication, which hadn’t taken much time at all, yet Major Xu had already single-handedly sutured Li Hu’s peritoneum and was now closing the muscle layer and skin.
Zhao Jun stood by, watching in awe as Xu Ze deftly placed stitch after stitch, tying each one with perfect surgical knots, then swiftly snipping the threads with scissors before moving on to the next. In just two minutes, the wound was completely closed—and the precision and aesthetics of the suturing were nothing short of stunning.
As a field military surgeon, Zhao Jun was no stranger to wound closure, but he had never imagined anyone could suture at such speed while maintaining this level of perfection. The resulting wound was almost artistically beautiful.
“Zhao Jun! Get the dressing!” Xu Ze called out, a hint of irritation in his voice. This was a critical moment—why was Zhao Jun just standing there dazed?
Snapped out of his reverie by Xu Ze’s shout, Zhao Jun hurriedly responded, scrambled to grab a wound dressing, and covered the neatly sutured incision.
Xu Ze stood up and looked at Li Hu, who, despite having undergone surgery, remained pale and visibly weak. He frowned slightly, then walked over to the two soldiers who were also watching Li Hu with worried expressions as they donated blood. “Close your eyes,” he said. “I’m going to increase the transfusion rate. You might feel a little dizzy.”
The two soldiers immediately shut their eyes and said firmly, “Major, take as much as you need from both of us—don’t worry about us!”
“Don’t worry. He’ll be fine, and so will you,” Xu Ze said solemnly.
He gently withdrew two silver needles, then inserted them swiftly into the sides of the soldiers’ necks. With a flick of his fingers, he lightly tapped both needles.
At that flick, two strands of bioelectrical energy surged rapidly through the needles into the acupoints. Stimulated by the energy, the soldiers felt a slight dizziness, their hearts beating a little faster, and a growing warmth spreading along the arms where the transfusion needles were inserted.
Zhao Jun, who had just finished dressing Li Hu’s wound, watched intently. He saw that after Xu Ze inserted the two silver needles, the soldiers’ faces gradually flushed, and the blood flow in the IV lines seemed to quicken.
From the soldiers’ reactions, Zhao Jun pieced together the effect of Xu Ze’s acupuncture. The needles accelerated the donors’ heart rates and blood circulation, thereby significantly boosting the transfusion speed to counteract Li Hu’s hemorrhagic shock.
He estimated that at this rate, with such a massive infusion of blood, Li Hu’s condition should improve rapidly. However, the two soldiers would inevitably experience dizziness from the sudden, heavy blood loss.
Of course, given their robust physiques, even if each donated five or six hundred milliliters in a short time, they’d likely only feel lightheaded for a moment, with no lasting harm.
With over a liter of blood pumping into Li Hu, he should recover quickly and pull through the danger.
Minute by minute passed. Xu Ze watched Li Hu’s complexion gradually regain its color and finally let out a sigh of relief—until Xiao Dao’s report came in: “Blood pressure rising, now 100/65 mmHg.”
Hearing those numbers, Xu Ze could finally relax. He removed the silver needles from the soldiers’ necks and instructed Zhao Jun to disconnect the transfusion lines.
The two soldiers opened their eyes and saw that Li Hu’s color had improved dramatically. Relieved, they didn’t mind having given five or six hundred milliliters each—it was nothing to them. After a short rest, they were fully recovered.
Watching Xu Ze successfully complete a fairly major surgery in just over ten minutes under such challenging conditions, General Zuma, Hu Qiang, and the others all exchanged glances filled with awe. Incredible—truly incredible.
Bai Qi and the others, who had been called back, saw that Li Hu’s wound had been sutured and that his overall spirit and complexion had greatly improved, allowing them to finally breathe easy.
Bai Qi stepped forward and said to Xu Ze, “Major, we need to move out as soon as possible. The Dragon Lion troops behind us seem to be regrouping and advancing again. We’ve set up about a dozen traps that should buy us some time.”
Several Wolf Fang soldiers swiftly felled a few small trees and used marching blanket to rig up stretchers, carrying Li Hu and another soldier with shrapnel embedded in his thigh as they hurried forward.
The soldier with the leg injury hadn’t suffered major vascular damage, so he wasn’t in life-threatening danger. Zhao Jun had already bandaged him, and the surgery would wait until they reached a safe location.
The group moved at a brisk pace, carrying three stretchers. After just over ten minutes, they finally rendezvoused with the relief forces.
The Black officer leading the relief troops, upon seeing General Zuma, had tears welling up in his eyes, and the hundreds of soldiers behind him erupted into cheers.
The relief force that had entered the rainforest wasn’t large—only about four or five hundred men—but they were impeccably equipped. Xu Ze estimated that even a few more F-16s could be brought down by the Stinger missiles carried by General Zuma’s men.
According to Hu Qiang’s translation, there were thousands more troops waiting outside the rainforest, along with armored vehicles and helicopters. This news finally put everyone at ease.
General Zuma was quickly escorted to the main force, and Xu Ze and his team could finally relax. The entire journey had been a harrowing ordeal—first surrounded by over a thousand enemy troops, then attacked by two fighter jets. Now, at last, they were safe.
General Zuma assigned a few soldiers to help carry the two wounded men, and the group moved briskly out of the rainforest.
With scouts clearing the path ahead and a rear guard covering their backs, the advance was smooth. In just over an hour, they emerged from the rainforest and linked up with the main force.
Xu Ze, Hu Qiang, Zhao Jun, and the others were kept close to General Zuma, while the Wolf Fang squad was assigned to an adjacent armored personnel carrier.
Back with his army and greeted by the roaring cheers of thousands of soldiers, General Zuma’s spirits soared. He looked at Xu Ze and his group, then muttered a few words to Jida.
Jida approached with a smile and asked, “Major Xu, the General wants to know if you’d like a helicopter to take the two wounded soldiers to the capital for treatment.”
Xu Ze thought for a moment and then politely declined. The distance to Lima’s capital, Kouda, wasn’t far—even at their current vehicle speed, they’d arrive in a day. But given their proximity to Tamata, which was occupied by rebel forces, sending Li Hu and the others by helicopter risked being shot down if they ran into bad luck.
Since both men were in stable condition, waiting a day wasn’t an issue. Safety came first.
Zhao Jun and the others, who had initially been quite pleased, were puzzled by Xu Ze’s refusal. But after Xu Ze quietly explained his reasoning, they understood.
The journey to Kouda proved to be anything but peaceful. The Dragon Lion Army dispatched over a dozen teams to intercept them, along with several attack helicopters. However, General Zuma’s forces were now formidable—equipped with armored vehicles, armed helicopters, and over a dozen Stinger missiles.
Moreover, the relief troops were among Lima’s elite units. They decisively crushed the ambushing forces, killing or disabling them, and even shot down two helicopters.
Still, watching his troops achieve victory after victory, General Zuma sighed and shook his head. He muttered a few words toward Xu Ze’s direction.
Hu Qiang chuckled and quietly translated for Xu Ze: “General Zuma was just lamenting that his men fired two Stingers and had four armed helicopters in pursuit, yet they only managed to shoot down two enemy helicopters. That’s nothing compared to you, Major—single-handedly taking down three helicopters and two fighter jets with just a rifle.”
Xu Ze smiled lightly at Hu Qiang’s words. He knew full well that his achievements weren’t based on modern technology. Without Xiao Dao, shooting down fighter jets would have been nothing short of a miracle.
Just as Xu Ze was smiling, General Zuma suddenly turned to him with a grave expression and said something that left Hu Qiang utterly stunned.
Seeing Hu Qiang’s startled look, Xu Ze grew curious. “What did the General say?” he asked.
Hu Qiang looked at Xu Ze, then let out a resigned, bitter smile and said…
