I work as a mercenary in northern Myanmar.

Chapter 600 The Real Bottleneck

An hour later, looking at the pile of equipment that Shi Dakai and his men had brought back, Chen Chen held his forehead and said helplessly:
"Type 56 assault rifle, Type 56 rifle, Type machine gun, Big Black Star. Good fellows, I told you to buy equipment, not all of it from the north."

"What about the M249? Didn't I just see that they were selling M249?"

"There's also a sniper rifle, why is there an SVD again? Isn't there an L115A3 over there? If that doesn't work, you can buy an AWP too!"

"And these bulletproof vests are all made in the north. Why, you're not used to the others?"

Hearing Chen Chen's words, Shi Dakai shook his head and said helplessly:

"It's not that we don't want to buy it, it's that everything else is not as good."

"What do you think we can buy? Almost all NATO weapons on the market are castrated semi-automatic. The M249 has them, but they are para versions, and they are definitely battle-scarred. It's hard to say how much life is left in the receiver."

“This market looks open, but it’s actually quite closed.”

"If you are not a regular customer or have special connections, it is almost impossible to buy a suitable fully automatic weapon here."

"It's already good to be able to buy these northern products. The bosses even recommended SKS to us - either 56 semi-automatic or the Russian SKS!"

“Is there anyone still selling this thing?”

Chen Chen asked in shock.

"That's right. Time is too short, and we can only explore the surface of Peshawar."

"If we spend more time, we may be able to go deeper."

"However, it is not easy to establish trust with the merchants here. This time, I guess we can only take a quick look."

"The rest of the matter will still have to be left to Peng Xucheng to handle slowly."

"It seems that you will be stationed here for a while - or will you send a deputy?"

Chen Chen turned to Peng Xucheng, who nodded slightly and replied:
"I'm OK."

"Xu You can handle most of the affairs of the group. If there are any that cannot be handled, I can give remote instructions."

"The plan for Peshawar is very important. Now that I'm here, I want to spend more time and learn more about the ecology here."

"In this way, our subsequent plans will be relatively smoother."

"no problem."

After a brief pause, Chen Chen continued:
"We can't always rely on SSG protection. Later, I will ask Lao Zhu to transfer a team from Pubei, led by Li Bang, to be responsible for your security."

"After the Peshawar incident is over, you return to Pubei and the Li Gang will go directly to Syria."

"By that time, Syria's reception work will be almost complete, and it will be a seamless transition."

"How is it, Li Bang, is everything ok?"

"no problem."

Li Bang nodded without hesitation and said:

"After you go back, Lin He will take my place."

"rest assured."

Chen Chen waved his hand and replied:
"After I go back this time, I will most likely not personally carry out high-risk missions in the short term."

"I'll stay in Pubei and give remote commands."

"The Americans are already struggling with their own issues. No matter how crazy they are, they can't make trouble for themselves when the election is approaching."

"This is a golden window for development, and I have to make good use of it."

"The best outcome is that by the time they react, we have already developed to a level they can no longer handle."

“It’s not easy.”

Peng Xucheng took over the conversation and said:
"Our current position is too extreme. Basically, we are standing in complete opposition to NATO."

"Moreover, we have no interest binding with them - not that there is no deep interest binding, but there is no interest binding at all."

"This really gave us a great advantage in the early stages of our development. Decisive choice of a direction enabled us to gain maximum support."

"but now."

"Our scale is constantly expanding, but it is not yet large enough to completely withstand the opponent's attacks."

"If they formally label us as an extremist or hostile organization in the future, our situation will be very worrying."

"The French terrorist watch list incident is a warning sign if the United States adopts the same policy as them."

Peng Xucheng didn't finish his words, but Chen Chen knew that none of the countries and organizations on the US list of supporting terrorism would have a good ending.

This is not a problem that can be solved by bravery alone. The Dongfeng Corps can fight back and forth with the special forces of DEVGRU, but if the other side really deploys a large number of troops and officially lists the Dongfeng Corps as an enemy at the "national level", how long can they hold on?

At this point in 2012, the United States is still the undisputed world hegemon. Even though some policies of the northern powers have begun to point to their oil-dollar hegemony, their dominance in international trade, international settlement, and international finance remains unquestionable.

An elephant cannot kill an ant by stepping on it, but it can easily destroy an ant nest.

They don't even need to actually start a war. Once they are put on the list of supporting terrorism, economic sanctions are initiated, and SWIFT is stopped, Dongfeng Group will immediately come to a complete standstill.
-
Of course, before this, Chen Chen had actually made some preparations.

Most of Dongfeng Group's cash has been transferred from Citibank to a bank in the north. Under Peng Xucheng's management, the method of settlement in US dollars has also been expanded to euros, RMB and even barter settlement.

But even so, Chen Chen still couldn't guarantee that Dongfeng Group would be able to survive the opponent's full-strength attack.

Thinking of this, Chen Chen frowned.

After a long silence, he said:
“It’s definitely something we need to think about.”

"But we can't change our stance or our side."

“We don’t need to change our stance.”

Peng Xucheng interrupted Chen Chen and continued:
"Even Pakistan is maintaining limited cooperation with the United States."

"What I mean is that for the big country in the north, they can tolerate such limited cooperation. After all, they know that we are just trying to survive."

“Only by surviving can we play a better role”

"This is different."

Chen Chen shook his head firmly and said:
"The biggest difference between us and Pakistan is that we are not a single country."

"We don't have any rigid sovereignty requirements, which means we can lean towards either side at any time."

"Don't think that just because we have a good relationship with the North, they won't be on guard against us."

"Trust is based on the assumption that we have done nothing wrong from the beginning to the end. If we break this bottom line, you can decide what will happen next."

".What should I do then?"

Peng Xucheng spread his hands and said:

"Otherwise we will scale down and rely entirely on Big Brother in the north to survive."

"But in this way, we will lose the space for large-scale expansion and will be strictly restricted in the scope of our business."

"It's even possible that you won't even be able to move around freely in the future. Even if a few of us can accept it, other members of the group may not be able to accept it."

As a businessman, Peng Xucheng considers issues from a very simple and direct perspective.

In fact, he does not have much political stance. Everything he does is just for two words: making money.

And such a simple purpose can indeed allow him to get straight to the essence of the problem.

Yes, the core layer of Dongfeng Group can accept quite harsh conditions, but the problem is that Dongfeng Group is different from Wagner in the previous life after all.

The group's roots are in Pubei, not in the north.

This means that the subordinate relationship between Dongfeng Group and the north will naturally be weakened a lot.

If Chen Chen insisted on running the group in Wagner's way, the final result would most likely be mutiny. Therefore, this was definitely not the best solution.

But is there any other way besides this?
"Can we cooperate with other arms groups?"

Shi Dakai on the side interrupted and asked:
"We are not cooperating directly with the U.S. government, nor are we changing our position."

"However, we have formed a bond of interest with other business groups through cooperation."

"The United States is a country controlled by the military-industrial complex. If we can establish connections with companies like Lockheed Martin,

"Not too possible."

Peng Xucheng interrupted Shi Dakai and explained:
"There is a concept in the business world called 'decisive consideration'. If we want to reach a cooperation agreement with the other party, we must offer a decisive consideration."

“For example, what the boss said to Yegor was actually the decisive consideration.”

"But think about it, what can we give to Loma? What can we give to Thor?"

"We have no technology and no market. Our value lies in our ability to do dirty work and, of course, in our possession of some sensitive intelligence related to the North."

"They want these things, should we give them to them?"

"Instead of cooperating in this way, it is better to make some compromises in the field of counter-terrorism like Pakistan and carry out some joint operations, which will actually have less risks."

"We will join forces with them?"

Li Bang, who had been silent from beginning to end, finally couldn't help it.

"Let's not start a fight among ourselves!"

“So that’s the crux of the matter.”

Peng Xucheng spread his hands and said helplessly:

"This is our real bottleneck. If Dongfeng Group maintains its current scale and does not continue to expand, and guards its own piece of land, we will not have such troubles."

"But according to the boss, we have to operate in Syria, Peshawar, Pubei and Indonesia."

“If you want to run it all”

"and many more."

Chen Chen suddenly interrupted Peng Xucheng.

"It's not that there is no way."

"any solution?"

Peng Xucheng asked doubtfully.

"Donny Davis."

As soon as the words were spoken, the whole room fell silent.

Shi Dakai and Li Bang naturally knew what kind of person this was and what happened before.

Peng Xucheng didn't know, but even just from the shocked looks of others, he could guess that this person might be a pioneer who had solved the "paradox".

"Can I participate?"

Peng Xucheng asked quickly.

"It's OK, because none of us here have any specific information about this person."

"including me."

"You didn't get it either?"

Peng Xucheng asked in surprise.

"Yes, this person is like a black hole."

"All the information related to him was swallowed up directly, just like light approaching a black hole."

"We on the outside have no way of exploring the situation inside, and those inside cannot actively transmit information to us because of the gravity formed by the rules."

"But that's not important."

"The important thing is, if he were me, the so-called bottleneck would not be a problem for him at all."

"He is likely to have an equal tacit understanding with both sides of the issue, and based on this tacit understanding, no matter what he does, he will not be suppressed by either side."

"If we want to solve our problems, we have to become like him."

After he finished speaking, Peng Xucheng was stunned.

"I thought you were going to say we have to find him and get him to join us"

"it's out of the question."

Chen Chen shook his head and continued to explain:
“I’ve tried a few things before.”

"Don't even think about bringing him into our team. Even if I come into contact with him, it will arouse high alert in the north."

"I always feel that they are not simply afraid that I will kill him."

"The king does not see the king? Is that possible?"

Shi Dakai suddenly asked.

"It's possible, but without concrete intelligence, any speculation is meaningless."

"Don't think too much about it. We won't care about him."

"There's no point beating around the bush at a time like this. It's better to be direct."

"You guys step aside first, I'll make a phone call."

"clear."

As soon as the words came out, everyone left the room immediately.

Chen Chen was the only one left in the empty room. He sat on the sofa alone, hesitated for a few seconds, and finally dialed the familiar number.

He knew that this phone call might very well change his own fate and the fate of the entire Dongfeng Corps.

If many of the things he had done before were to wash away the "original sin" that accompanied his birth, then after this phone call, the plan to wash away the original sin will be completely overturned.

It's like a glass of water with a few drops of poison mixed in it.

What I had been doing before was to pour non-toxic water into this glass of water, continuously diluting the poison until it was no longer lethal.

And now, he was going to hand this cup of poisonous water, which had not yet been completely diluted, to someone with the decision-making power, and let them mix in new poison.

The difference is that the antidote to this poison is only in the hands of the two largest forces in the world.

The call was quickly connected and Xiaoyu's voice came from the other end.

"Shipwreck, how about that?"

"Are you doing well in Peshawar? Are you healed?"

Chen Chen nodded subconsciously and replied:

"It went well, nothing's wrong."

"I have a question now and I need you to give me a clear answer."

".you say."

Chen Chen took a deep breath and asked:
“Can I do what Donny Davis can do?”

(End of this chapter)