Chapter 424 - Smoke and Dust

Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rundi

“Yesterday, the anti-government militant launched a surprise attack on the city of Gadian, west of MLL Island. The attack destroyed four police stations, two bus terminals, two government buildings and two power stations in the city. This caused a massive outage in the city center.”

“The two sides exchanged heavy fires in the north side of the city which caused 311 casualties with 101 dead. Five hours after the attack, the MNLF was declared responsible for the attack and stated their commitment to the liberation of MLL Island.

“Based on our sources, a total of 1000 militants participated in the attack. The anti-government militants were equipped with M4A1 assault rifles, night vision goggles as well as other UA weapons. They also possessed large quantities of RPG-7 anti-armor weapons as well as mortars and other heavy weapons. The attack could be the biggest attack in 30 years. The sophistication of the weapons even surpassed the local government force. While the source of the MNLF’s weapons remains a mystery.”

“12 hours after the attack, the Aquino government denounced the attack and condemned the organization that provided the anti-government force with the weapons. They’ll consider the possibility of sending an armored force to clear out the local guerillas at MLL Island and search for the perpetrator behind the attack at all cost.”

“Experts stated that this attack marked the collapse of the peace agreement reached between the F government and MLF in 2012. The Aquino government sending a force to MLL Island may receive the opposition of the MLF under the peace agreement. But without increasing the military presence, the local stability may continue to deteriorate which will put the Aquino government in a tough spot.”

“Military analysts suggested that the F armor force could not utilize its full strength in the rough terrains of MLL Island. Even with the armored force, the opposition is equipped with anti-tank weapons which would drastically reduce the effect of the deployment. The Aquino government’s primary concern is to understand the source of the anti-government militant’s weapon. They must strengthen their border control to prevent the situation from further deteriorating.”

“The UA spokesperson stated that UA will continue to follow the development of this attack and is willing to assist in the investigation of the weapon source. When the reporter questioned if UA is willing to send out ground forces to assist country F in its military actions against the MLNF, UA stated that they would not consider intervening with country F’s domestic affair. However, they don’t rule out the possibility of sending out reconnaissance drones to support country F’s military actions.”

“From 7 o’clock today, the Ministry of Tourism issued a red alert on traveling to country F and recommend travelers with a plan to travel change or cancel their plans, or avoid tension areas where guerrillas may be active.”

“Yang Yong reporting at the scene.”

The TV showed the footage of government forces firing behind covers. Although they didn’t manage to capture footage of the attackers, from the grenades flying, the debris left by the bullets, as well as the unclear screams in the background, it was more than enough to know the gruesomeness of the attack.

There were constant explosions and smoke rising in the distance. It was nearly impossible to avoid civilian casualties by using a killing tool like mortar in the city center. The government force must be cognizant of the consequences of accidentally wounding civilians, but the anti-government militants didn’t need to have the same concern.

A few stretchers moved by the street and ran to the temporary medical clinic set up beside the armored vehicle. The windows to the shops on the road were all shattered, people taking advantage of the situation swarmed into the store and grabbed whatever they could.

A lot of people will die.

But Jiang Chen will not seek forgiveness.

He was not coldblooded, but instead, country F was asking for it. They selected the reckless government and promoted reckless behaviors among the civilians, and then the attack on Coro Island.

Everything was just the price they must pay.

Jiang Chen leaned on the sofa and turned off the TV.

It looks like Santos made the right choice, saving Jiang Chen a lot of trouble. The MNFL’s guerrillas have been in a state of conflict with the F government for 44 years, and it was the first time they received military assistance of this scale. They finally left their mark in history.

Of course, Jiang Chen had no positive feelings toward the MNLF or F. He only needed this pawn to separate the annoying neighbor. Once Moro was entirely independent, he will pocket the rich Iron, Copper, and Gold reserves on MLL Islands…

Jiang Chen took out the phone he bought at a random store on the street, texted a message, and sent the next password to Santos.

Since he already fulfilled his promise, he’ll not be stingy on the reward. With the second batch of equipment, the MNLF will upgrade to the next level.

Just like Jiang Chen expected, he only needed to throw the lighter into their hands before they lit the zoo on fire.

At the same time, the satellite phone on the table began to ring.

Without thinking, he knew it must be Robert. The satellite phone was Robert’s special line for special services and was absolutely secure in theory.

When he picked up, the old friend’s voice came through.

“My friend at FBI asked me for a chat.”

“What did you talk about?”

“Just random things, for example, what I did when I went to South Africa? Who did I see?” Robert said with a wry smile.

“Oh? What did you tell him?”

“What could I say? I said I went to take care of the shell company there… Buddy, I’m not joking, but you went pretty far this time.” Robert took a deep breath and lowered his voice. “Terrorism has always been the bottom line for the Rainbow House, especially in their allies’ territory. Although they haven’t agreed on sending in the ground force, the CIB agents are already investigating.”

Jiang Chen contemptuously scorned.

The definition of terrorism has always been a double standard. The anti-government militants in UA’s allies border are terrorists and separatists, and the anti-government militants in UA’s enemy territory are freedom fighters, nationalists.

The CIB agents? Santos doesn’t even know who he traded with. Especially since Jiang Chen pointed out his whereabouts were exposed, as long as he is not dumb, he will hide carefully. The CIB won’t be able to catch him.

Robert sensed the contemptuousness from Jiang Chen’s scorn and sighed.

“Okay, I’m not calling to ask you to stop, I just want to remind you to be careful. I wasn’t the only one being asked to have a chat, a few other arms dealers still in the scene were also there. Transporting arms from South Africa to Southeast Asia would have to go through multiple countries’ airspace, and thus it is impossible to do it without leaving a trace. There won’t be enough time to do it by freight, so I’m not too suspicious… Although I don’t know how you transported it to country F, instinct tells me that it has something to do with you.”

“But I will never admit.” Jiang Chen laughed.

“Never admit.” Robert said sternly, “Never let the Capitol know that it was you that did it, or we are both dead. Dammit, if I knew you were going to do this, I would have sold it to the dictator in West Africa. Now, there are a few more thousand people that would die indirectly because of me.”

In the end, Robert’s voice was dumbfounded.

“Don’t worry, I did this discreetly. Didn’t you say you wanted to shoot a biography called “The Merchant of Death”? Now I added another event to it,” Jiang Chen comforted him in a casual voice.

After hanging up, Jiang Chen stretched, threw the phone to the side, and got up.

It was already to the end of July. He’ll have to return to the apocalypse by early August at the latest. He missed Sun Jiao and them quite dearly after being away for so long.

But before his returns, he still had a few things to do.

He took his private boat to New Moon Island and found Ivan who was training new recruits. He did a brief audit of the soldiers’ ability before he told him to recruit 300 sea crews as soon as possible.

Before he left, Jiang Chen gave the phone that he used to communicate with Santos to Ivan and told him to read the news in the morning and then provide the password based on the mission status Santos was able to complete.

Since he would be in the apocalypse for a while, he should give the task of “causing a stir” to someone he trusted.

After all this, Jiang Chen headed to Coro Island and transported the iron and aluminum produced in July to the apocalypse. It was too inefficient to transport the ores, it was much better to transport the processed product.

With this batch of steel, there was no need to worry about the supplies for the factories in the apocalypse. There were plenty of iron and aluminum to forge the C-type steel, and the extra could be sold to the factories in the Sixth Street.

Then, he also made a visit to headquarter of Future Biology to understand the sales of nutrient supply.

All in all, this month’s financial result was stellar.

A profit of one hundred million USD for the month!

The 200,000 boxes of nutrient supply produced around the clock were delivered in two batches; the remaining 200,000 would be completed by month end. With Future 1.0 and massive retail chains like Walmart’s promotion, nutrient supply easily entered people’s sight.

Pure natural green degreasing liquid food, lose 30 pounds in 30 days. With Emma’s advertisement, based on the feedback from the retailers, the sales of the nutrient supply were extremely pleasing. All the retailers increased their order and the bigger chains even offer to obtain exclusive sales right to the nutrient supply at a high price, but Tao Ming rejected the offer.

The reason was simple, there was no reason to abandon an entire forest for a single tree. Selling the exclusive sales right meant that they would have to give up on the e-commerce platform and other retailers. It was not a good trade.

After Tao Ming reported the sales number, he urged Jiang Chen to increase capacity on the production line. Orders flew to Future Biology like snowflakes as all the workers in the nutrient supply factory were pushed to their limit, but still unable to meet the increase in demand.

Based on Zhan Shujie’s estimate, to meet the production demand, the production equipment and seaweed farm must at least double.

Jiang Chen nodded. The organic converters were hard for him to obtain.

When he moved the production equipment and ten tons of inducers to the warehouse on Ange Island, Jiang Chen left for Coro Island. The rest of the hiring and other tasks will be taken care of by Zhan Shoujie.

But on his way home, Xia Shiyu called.

When Jiang Chen heard her voice, he was extremely delighted

The internal test plan was finally completed!