"Yes, two short-range air-to-air combat missiles." The assistant confirmed, "Fortunately, they didn't damage our aircraft. The incident occurred in the airspace near Dorne Capital."
The Tang Country diplomat frowned deeply, tapping his fingers lightly on the table as he fell into thought. Soon, he raised his head, looking at the Dorne Foreign Minister, whose face had turned pale with fright, and challenged, "So, your ceasefire order hasn't been fully enforced?"
The assistant added, "Our pilots subsequently shot down this Dorne plane. The model has been confirmed; it was a modified Saber Jet Fighter."
The Tang Country diplomat's eyes flashed with a hint of sharpness. He turned to the Dorne Foreign Minister, his tone icy, "This was confirmed just less than an hour ago, near your capital, where a Dorne fighter jet attempted to attack our aircraft. Mr. Foreign Minister, how do you explain this?"
"What?" The Dorne Foreign Minister stood up abruptly, full of shock, "Impossible! Aircraft? When did we even launch aircraft? All our planes should be grounded!"
The Tang Country diplomat's tone was cold, "Do you think I'm joking with you?"
"No! Of course not!" The Dorne Foreign Minister waved his hands hastily, sweat beading on his forehead. He quickly pulled out a damp handkerchief and continually wiped his forehead.
"Please wait a moment, I need to verify this situation." He turned to his assistant behind him and commanded sternly, "Investigate immediately! Now!"
"Yes!" The assistant responded promptly.
The Dorne Foreign Minister anxiously added, "Call the Air Force General! Ask him if he's lost his mind! Why are aircraft allowed to take off at this time? Also, call all the airports around the Imperial Capital! Ask if any planes have taken off! Immediately! Now! Go right now!"
"Yes! I'll get to it right away!" The assistant turned and hurriedly left.
The Dorne Foreign Minister nervously paced back and forth in the room, muttering, "How is this possible? How is this possible..."
He occasionally looked up at the Tang Country diplomat, his eyes filled with anxiety and unease. Meanwhile, the Tang Country diplomat sat steadily in his chair, expression calm, as if everything was under his control.
As time ticked by, the room's atmosphere grew increasingly tense. Finally, the Dorne Foreign Minister's assistant returned, panting heavily.
"Report!..." The assistant spoke, still catching his breath.
"How is it? Have you found out?" The Dorne Foreign Minister asked urgently.
"I contacted the Air Force General... He said..." The assistant hesitated for a moment.
"What did he say?"
"He said... he doesn't know anything..." The assistant replied somewhat awkwardly.
"Doesn't know anything?" The Dorne Foreign Minister's voice rose by eight degrees, "How is that possible? A fighter jet took off and he claims he knows nothing?"
"Yes..." The assistant bowed his head, unable to meet the Foreign Minister's angry gaze.
The Dorne Foreign Minister collapsed weakly into his chair, holding his face in his hands, muttering, "It's over... It's all over..."
The next second, he suddenly stood up again, grabbing the assistant's collar and demanded harshly, "What about the airport? What did the airport say? Go ask them! Quickly!"
In fact, he wasn't as completely flustered as he appeared, but was acting for the Great Tang Empire diplomat sitting beside him. If he didn't put on a spontaneous performance, the other party certainly wouldn't let go of such an opportunity to make extravagant demands.
Besides, he was indeed very dissatisfied with those fools in the military; the frontline was collapsing, losing millions of troops... and they still played with what they called a secret weapon, isn't this madness?
Wasn't Dorne's stock of secret weapons already abundant? They had those ridiculous two-man suicide submarines... yet the Great Tang Empire's Navy was so elusive that those crappy submersibles couldn't even find their shadows.
After dozens of sorties, all they gained were the loss of dozens of daredevil sailors and dozens of suicide submarines as worthless as broken refrigerators!
Secretly developing something called the Divine Light, a grand scale missile, consumed countless resources, occupied unquantifiable numbers of technicians, and ultimately, the missile supposedly capable of changing the game mostly ended up as spoils for the Tang Army.
The ground-launched version required too much preparation time, and the air-launched version had precision issues like a damn rocket... This kind of thing shouldn't even exist!
And now, he didn't even know that the Air Force had also come up with a secret weapon... From what the Tang Country diplomat just said, what's it called? An air-to-air combat missile?
The Dorne Foreign Minister had no idea what that junk was! He only knew that the thing didn't shoot down the Tang Army's aircraft, yet it nearly wiped out all his work from the past few days as Foreign Minister!
When he returned... when he returned, he would surely report these fools to Dorne the First! Let those idiots mess with secret weapons! Why don't they just go and die?
"Understood, I understand... You can tell those idiots to wait!" After hanging up the phone, the Dorne Foreign Minister's assistant grumbled angrily and quickly rushed back to the negotiation room with the gathered information.
He leaned close to the Foreign Minister's ear, but the latter impatiently dodged and scolded ungratefully, "Just say it directly! Do you think I'm not humiliated enough?"
The assistant quickly nodded and bowed, "Yes, sir. Indeed, a plane took off from an airport in the Imperial Capital... A pilot named Gamans disregarded others' obstruction and flew the plane himself, now unaccounted for..."
"He took off by himself? Dodged the guards' interference and independently launched two missiles and fueled up the aircraft?" The Great Tang Empire diplomat, even without being an air force specialist, had some knowledge reserves, and sneered while exposing the lie, "Do you think I'm an idiot?"
Seeing his attempts to shirk responsibility fail, the assistant became even more embarrassed, looking at his superior, not knowing what to say for a moment.
The Dorne Foreign Minister was almost amused by the stupidity of his subordinates. He honestly felt that after so many years with him, they hadn't learned a thing.
Is this the time to think from Dorne's imperial perspective? Right now, the most important thing was to cleanly sidestep any liability! The others... who cares what happens to them?
If it weren't for their connection being through the family and loyalty issues were certainly secured, he would have changed this assistant long ago. After silently cursing the relative who recommended this idiot twice, the Dorne Foreign Minister immediately rebuked him, "Idiot! Get out of here! Useless waste."
After rebuking him, he immediately put on a smile, and began to offload his responsibilities, "Sir, as you see, this was an individual act, something our Foreign Ministry can't really control. We will instruct the Air Force to provide your esteemed nation with an explanation upon our return... All personnel involved will be handed over to your country for justice! Rest assured! We will not tolerate any leniency! Not letting a single criminal undermining peace talks off the hook!"
He thought very clearly, seeing as things had escalated to this point, even if they had to drag out and chop off those detestable ground personnel, airport commanders, dispatchers... it had nothing whatsoever to do with him as the Foreign Minister.
At worst... at worst, if the Great Tang Empire still wasn't pacified, they'd drag Dorne's Air Force Commander out to hang! Anyway, it wasn't his life on the line, didn't matter...