In the nation of Barto, at the Smaha headquarters.
When Brandy heard what the guard had to say, his brow furrowed deeply, and his face was etched with gravity.
Weapons and equipment were a necessary force for them to fight against the Barto government army.
In this age of modern firearms, if you try to clash with others without any, it’s like looking for trouble—or rather, looking for death.
Previously, they had enjoyed a good cooperative relationship with Kyushu. Although it wasn’t the kind of deal that could be brought out into the open, behind the scenes, the two sides had facilitated many transactions that left both parties satisfied.
Kyushu needed a large amount of foreign exchange, and Smaha needed weapons.
Moreover, the quality of Kyushu’s weapons was up to par; they found them very handy to use. More importantly, they were cheaper than weapons from the U.S. and other countries.
But now that the U.S. had joined the fray and chosen to side with Barto, it signaled one thing: the U.S. was preparing to wipe out Smaha in one fell swoop.
Under these circumstances, without weapons and equipment, they could only wait for death.
Now that they had lost the opportunity to cooperate with Kyushu, where would they buy a large number of weapons?
Were they supposed to go to the U.S.?
The U.S. would have to be crazy to sell to them.
“Alright, you may go now. I’ll figure out the weapon situation,” Brandy said, waving his hand to dismiss the guard.
Sitting in his chair, Brandy rubbed his slightly tense forehead, feeling that he had to find a solution to this situation as soon as possible. Otherwise, Smaha would really be wiped out in one sweep.
And the beautiful life that the people of Barto had dreamed of would never be realized.
Ring, ring, ring.
At that moment, the satellite phone on his desk suddenly rang.
Brandy frowned and opened his eyes. After hesitating for a moment, he picked up the satellite phone and answered coldly, “Hello?”
“Hello, General Brandy.” A magnetic yet young voice came through the phone, speaking fluent Barto.
Brandy was taken aback. “If you’re calling to persuade me to surrender, my advice to you is to shoot yourself right now. Otherwise, once I find out who you are, I’ll kill you with my own hands.”
Anyone speaking Barto must be one of those government forces.
And the only goal of those people was to find ways to make him surrender, or to pinpoint his location and launch a military strike.
He would never yield to these people, nor would he give up the cause he loved so much.
“Heh, heh, heh.” The voice on the other end didn’t seem annoyed. Instead, it said calmly, “I think you’ve misunderstood, General Brandy. I’m not here to persuade you to surrender. On the contrary, you could say I’m here to encourage you to give the Barto government army a good thrashing.”
“Who are you?” Brandy sensed something was off, and he suddenly felt that this person’s purpose for calling wasn’t all that simple.
Soon, the voice on the phone continued, “Allow me to introduce myself. I’m an arms dealer, specializing in the trafficking of weapons. I know that Smaha is in dire need of a large quantity of military hardware right now, but you’re struggling because you don’t have a channel. So, I came knocking.”
A flicker of caution passed through Brandy’s eyes.
An arms dealer?
If he were just an arms dealer, how could he possibly know that they needed a large supply of military weapons?
That didn’t add up.
After all, Smaha’s weapons and equipment had never been cut off before. Apart from those within the organization, no one knew that Smaha had now broken off cooperation with Kyushu.
“I’m sorry, but we don’t need any weapons. I think you’ve got the wrong number.” Brandy was ready to hang up without hesitation.
However, before he could make his next move, he heard a cold laugh from the other end: “General Brandy, if Smaha misses out on this cooperation opportunity, I think you’ll regret it.
As far as I know, Smaha is currently facing heavy attrition of its weapons and is unable to get resupplied, right?
I can help you solve that problem—of course, you’ll just need to pay a portion of the cost.
Oh, and by the way, our weapons are absolutely top-notch, with quality that can rival Kyushu’s, and we can even offer a slightly better price.”
Brandy hesitated. He didn’t hang up immediately but sat in his chair, deep in thought.
He was now highly suspicious of how the caller knew all of this.
Not only that, but they also knew about Smaha’s covert dealings with Kyushu.
And they even knew his satellite phone number.
Just from these points alone, it was clear that the other party’s intelligence network was far more complex than he had imagined.
It was even possible that every move their organization made was being watched by this person.
And yet, such a person was offering to sell them weapons?
“Are you serious?” Brandy was silent for a long while before finally speaking.
Jiang Chuan on the other end laughed. “Of course I’m serious. And right now, you’re just one word and a deposit away from getting your hands on quality weapons at a good price.”
“How can I trust you? After all, we’ve never met, and I haven’t seen the weapons either.” Brandy was still cautious.
As the leader of the Smaha organization, every decision he made was closely tied to the entire organization. He couldn’t make a move lightly.
Especially not with someone so dangerous.
“To be honest with you, General Brandy, I really don’t have a way to prove anything to you. All I can tell you is that I have my own legitimate arms factory.
And also, Smaha doesn’t really have a choice anymore, does it? I think your weapons supply chain is very unstable. If this continues, your organization might not hold out much longer.
If I were you, and such an opportunity was right in front of me, I wouldn’t hesitate to give it a try.
After all, if you just test the waters, the worst that can happen is you lose a bit of the deposit. But if the weapons actually arrive, then you’ve hit the jackpot, and Smaha can keep moving forward.
So, what do you say—can we still make this deal?”
Jiang Chuan’s voice sounded very composed, like a seasoned arms dealer trying to persuade a client with smooth talk.
Brandy’s face darkened, and his mind began to race.
As the mysterious arms dealer had said, without weapons, Smaha truly wouldn’t last long.
Trying it out would cost them at most a bit of money. But if they gave up even the chance to try, then only annihilation awaited Smaha.
So in that case, why not give it a shot?
After all, Smaha itself had been built step by step through his own trial and error.
Only through trying could anything be achieved.
Gritting his teeth, Brandy said in a stern voice, “You’ve convinced me, my friend. How many weapons can you supply us with? Within two weeks.”
“Within two weeks—about 5,000 automatic rifles and 100,000 rounds of ammunition,” Jiang Chuan said with confidence.
Brandy’s pupils dilated. “Very well. And the value of this shipment—”
“The total value is 5 million Eagle Dollars, with a deposit of 1 million.”
“No problem. Then here’s to a successful partnership.”
“Partnership sealed.”
