In the director’s office.
“Director Liu,” Zhou Ran said with a forced smile on his face.
On the phone, the authoritative Director Liu said in a stern voice, “Old Zhou, how’s the progress? Ever since you applied for this funding, the higher-ups have been calling me every few days, and I’ve been holding them off.
The higher-ups are now taking this matter very seriously. After all, such a quantity of firearms and ammunition absolutely qualifies as a major arms dealer!”
Hearing this, Zhou Ran trembled all over.
He naturally knew that Jiang Chuan could be considered a major arms dealer, and this would inevitably attract the attention of even higher authorities.
After all, someone who could produce 10,000 guns and 200,000 rounds of ammunition—could they be some small-time arms peddler?
Impossible. Absolutely impossible.
But now Jiang Chuan was nowhere to be found, and he wasn’t answering his phone. Zhou Ran couldn’t confirm the man’s true identity either.
However, Director Liu had already asked him directly. It seemed he had no other choice but to tell the truth.
“Um, Director Liu, there’s been a small hiccup.”
Director Liu was immediately alarmed and said urgently, “What’s wrong? Did this Jiang Chuan go back on his word? Is it that your work wasn’t done properly and he caught on to something?”
“No, no, Director Liu. It’s just that now, um, we can’t get in touch with Jiang Chuan anymore,” Zhou Ran said through gritted teeth.
On the other end of the line, Director Liu fell silent.
After a long while, Director Liu finally spoke: “So you’re saying this lead might be dead? And the money? What about that tens of millions in bait funds?”
“Well… we can’t completely conclude that the lead is dead just yet. It’s just that when we tried to contact Jiang Chuan today, he didn’t pick up. It’s possible—possible that he was just busy and missed the call,” Zhou Ran explained with all his might.
He had no other choice but to explain at this point.
Director Liu fell silent again, then let out a helpless sigh. “So what’s your plan now?”
“We’d like to wait a bit longer—one week at most. If we still can’t reach Jiang Chuan after a week, then we’ll have no choice but to think of another way.”
Zhou Ran wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
“Alright, I’ll give you one more week. If after a week you still can’t reach this Jiang Chuan, then you’d better start thinking about how you’re going to explain this to the higher-ups!”
Bang.
The call was cut off directly.
Zhou Ran set down the receiver with a sense of relief, but his taut nerves didn’t relax in the slightest. He kept sucking his teeth anxiously.
Hopefully, they could reach Jiang Chuan within a week.
If they couldn’t get in touch with Jiang Chuan, then those tens of millions in funding would go down the drain…
…
Three days later.
In the desert of the far-off nation of Bato, at the headquarters of the Smaha Organization.
Brandi was studying the sand table before him, planning the upcoming battle.
Over the past month or so, Smaha’s forces had engaged in more than a dozen battles, large and small, with Bato’s military.
At first, both sides had their wins and losses, and neither could gain the upper hand in a short time.
But as Eagle Nation’s weapons kept appearing throughout Bato, the combat strength of Bato’s military grew by the day, and they were now faintly showing signs of surpassing the Smaha Organization.
There was no helping it, really.
After all, Bato had Eagle Nation backing them. As long as they had money, they could buy massive amounts of military combat weapons.
Not just firearms—the other side also had missiles, mortars, and even tanks and other heavy weaponry in large quantities.
Meanwhile, the Smaha Organization, having struggled and failed to find a channel to purchase arms, was now facing the risk of being wiped out.
Voices of discord had already begun to emerge within the organization. Some said that news of Smaha’s arms shortage had already reached Bato’s ears.
Moreover, the commander sent by Eagle Nation had pointed out that the Smaha Organization was currently severely short on weapons and simply couldn’t sustain another battle.
They were just waiting for the next battle to strike straight at the heart of the matter and wipe out the organization’s headquarters in one fell swoop.
But Brandi, on the other hand, didn’t seem to care about any of this. He stayed in his office all day, running simulations on the sand table.
This also aroused the dissatisfaction of many, who strongly demanded that Brandi make a decision immediately.
“General Brandi!”
Just as Brandi was deep in thought, a guard knocked on the door and stepped inside.
“What is it?” Brandi didn’t look up.
The guard raised his hand in a salute. “General Brandi, the weapons have arrived.”
The moment he heard the weapons had arrived, Brandi’s head shot up, and he looked at the guard with some astonishment.
His confidence came from this batch of weapons purchased from Jiang Chuan.
Although it was only 5,000 AK-47s and 100,000 rounds of ammunition, as long as this batch of weapons arrived, it would absolutely be enough to turn the current situation around and let Smaha rally once more.
But what Brandi hadn’t expected was that this batch of weapons would arrive so quickly—so fast that it caught him completely off guard.
According to his estimates, this batch of weapons would need at least another week to arrive.
After all, weapons like these—if not bought through official channels—were a hassle to transport and could easily be intercepted by any faction.
He had also been planning to use this very aspect to judge Jiang Chuan’s capabilities.
If Jiang Chuan had the strength, then this batch of weapons naturally wouldn’t be intercepted by anyone.
And now, the weapons had already been delivered, which was enough to show just how capable Jiang Chuan was.
“Take me to see them right away!” Brandi stood up without hesitation.
Following the guard outside, he saw over a hundred large crates.
And beside these crates stood a burly, muscular man wearing sunglasses—none other than Jiang Chuan’s bodyguard, Guo Dastanson.
This was their first time doing business together. Jiang Chuan was a bit uneasy and wanted to ensure the goods would reach the buyer smoothly, so he had sent Guo Dastanson to take full charge of this shipment.
“Hello, General Brandi. Pleased to meet you. As you can see, Mr. Jiang Chuan’s goods have arrived,” Guo Dastanson said, his tone carrying no emotional fluctuation whatsoever.
Brandi nodded. “Hello.”
Then he beckoned to someone beside him. “Inspect the goods.”
The guards, who had been waiting impatiently, quickly stepped forward and opened each crate to check the contents.
After inspecting for over an hour, the lead guard finally walked over to Brandi’s side and whispered a few words in his ear.
“There’s no problem with this batch of goods. You can go back and tell Mr. Jiang Chuan that I’ll wire him the remaining payment as soon as possible,” Brandi said with a broad smile, looking very pleased.
With this batch of weapons, the Smaha Organization would have something to rely on.
At the very least, this batch of weapons could hold them over for a month or so.
And as long as the quality of these weapons was solid, he would purchase from Jiang Chuan in bulk.
After all, Jiang Chuan was currently the only one willing to sell weapons to the Smaha Organization, and he could deliver them so quickly. There was simply no reason not to continue working with him.
Guo Dastanson nodded. “Alright, General Brandi. I’ll be on my way then. I have other orders that need to be transported.”
With that, Guo Dastanson climbed into a heavy truck.
With the roar of the engine, the heavy truck disappeared into the swirling yellow sand.
Meanwhile, Brandi turned his attention back to this batch of goods.
“Prepare to test the guns!”
He gave the order immediately, not wanting to waste a single moment.
