Chapter 345
The moment the phone call went through, Zhang Yapin lowered his voice and roared at him.
“God, what did you do!”
Jiang Chen first paused then asked in surprise, “Oh, you’re a Christian?”
Zhang Yapin took a moment to think before he roared in anger again.
“Is this the time to discuss this right now? New Moon Island, country F fishers, pirates? Are you crazy?!”
After Zhang Yapin finished venting, he took short, panting breaths before finally regaining his breath after a long time. Jiang Chen noticed the phone kept ringing on his side, but he didn’t pick up.
“Are you calm now?” Jiang Chen laughed.
The calm Zhang Yapin forced a laugh, leaned back into his chair, and continued.
“… Almost in despair.”
“What happened?” Jiang Chen said lightheartedly.
“Just go read any newspaper from country F! Three fishing boats that accidentally entered Xin territory were attacked and maliciously sunk by the Xin military. All 11 fishers died… Don’t tell me you didn’t know about this.”
[What the fu*k, sunk them?] Jiang Chen was stunned.
To be honest, he didn’t think of sinking the three fishing boats. He just ordered Ivan to take care of things and confiscate the fishing boats as pirate boats. He didn’t think the Slav had such a bad temper. He wondered what they did to enrage him.
Jiang Chen wouldn’t admit his mistake as he tried to rebuke: “Who would buy the newspaper printed by them?”
They deserved to be sunk. Is a military base a place you can just wander around? Delaying the building of military infrastructure, in any country, would cost a few artilleries at least.
“It won’t be long before the world knows. BBC’s reporter is outside and being rowdy, saying he wanted to get ahead of his colleagues,” Zhang Yapin said wearily as he rubbed his sore eyes.
After a lengthy silence, Jiang Chen asked in a small voice, “Did Ivan… really kill them all?”
“All killed.”
“Where are the sunken ships?” Jiang Chen continued.
“The diplomat of country F is currently negotiating with me to start the recovery as early as possible…”
“Who’s leading this?” Jiang Chen’s eyebrows raised.
“They want them to lead the investigation of the incident. Their coastal guard ships already crossed the border, but your people forced them back… That’s your own troops, do you really have no idea?” Zhang Yapin asked with skepticism.
Jiang Chen looked at his phone and glared at it; there were two missed calls.
He was at the apocalypse yesterday, how could he pick up the phone?!
“Ahem, I didn’t have signal yesterday.”
Zhang Yapin rubbed his temples wearily. “What should we do?”
“Other than recovering the sunken ships, what else did they ask?”
“They demanded us to arrest the murderers and prosecute them under the law, or else they reserved all options for the situation to escalate.”
Murderers?
When he heard this word, Jiang Chen was instantly unhappy. He didn’t notice Zhang Yapin’s last word as he cursed.
“Fu*k, if they sunk, they sunk! They were in Xin territory; did they have any excuse to trespass illegally?”
“Removing illegally trespassing fishers would only require a water gun. More severe cases would warrant bumping their boat, but using rockets is unprecedented! Zhang Yapin said bitterly in a helpless voice.
“In military zones, unique circumstances should be treated with caution; who knows if they were spies or not?”
With a frown, Jiang Chen deliberated for a moment. He glanced at the driver beside him as he lowered his voice.
“I can’t really talk right now… But all in all, just make sure you remain firm that the boats were all pirate boats. Pointing at the deer and saying it’s a horse, do you understand? If you don’t, Baidu it. I know you’ve never been to Hua, but don’t forget things passed on by the ancestors. Remain calm throughout the recovery process. Just drag it on until I come back to take care of it. Okay?”
“Okay…”
Zhang Yapin’s response was without energy.
He just became the president. The domestic situation had yet to be stabilized before a foreign affairs problem arose. The country F president spoke with him yesterday on the phone with a strong stance, seeming somewhat arrogant. Country F had a population of 100 million, while Pannu only had twenty thousand. The 500 times differential didn’t give him a lot of courage to carry a strong attitude. With a current enlisted force of 120 thousand, it was six times Xin’s entire population. If there was a military conflict, Xin would be the one losing – although Jiang Chen thought otherwise.
“Then that’s all, bye.”
Jiang Chen hung up the phone.
Half an hour of driving later, the car arrived in Kowloon. After they turned a street, among the skyscrapers, Jiang Chen instantly saw the name “Future International.”
He threw down two bills, got out of the car, and took out the phone to call Ivan.
As Ivan picked up, Jiang Chen rushed to ask him:
“Did you kill them all?”
“All killed… I’m willing to accept the punishment.” Ivan was straightforward.
“You didn’t do anything wrong. The border must be protected!… But this incident might be a bit problematic so remain calm and wait for me to return,” Jiang Chen said in an undertone.
“Yes!” Ivan said.
…
Xin’s national defense contractor, Celestial Trade Company, sank three fishing boats and forcefully removed country F’s coastal guards with force.
Contrary to the shock and anger in country F, the Xin citizens were all ecstatic as if they had all taken drugs. Even for the people who had reserved opinions about Celestial all began to turn to their favor.
To sum it up in one sentence, it was fu*king amazing.
The conflicts between the two societies had existed a long time before.
When president Edward ruled Pannu Islands, he only lived the lavish life with Johnny – he didn’t care about the lives of the fishermen at all. How much tax did the fishermen pay? Was it enough to pay for one of his meals?
There were no steel guard ships in Pannu Islands – only a few fishing boats served as a replacement. The low military budget was all allocated to the land force to suppress dissident voices within the country.
Therefore, although Pannu Islands possessed a significant amount of sea territory, their control over the sea was practically zero. Not to say that F country fishers or even New Guinea citizens could enter their territory to steal fish, but New Guinea was much less ruthless compared to country F. Not only did they steal their fish, but they also bullied the local fishermen.
The Pannu fishermen all hated those F citizens deep in their bones. Because of economic limitations, Pannu fishermen’s fishing boats were inferior compared to those of the F country fishermen. If they bumped into each other, the Pannu ships would be the one to sink. Therefore, when they actually fought for fish, they had to avoid them, even if it was in their own territory.
Therefore, that was why even with the vast fishing resources near New Moon Island, there wasn’t a single Xin fishing boat.
It was certainly not the most thrilling feeling.
But Celestial’s actions were like a slap on the thugs’ faces.
The attitudes of the Xin citizens to Celestial Trade Company instantly changed from “outside interfering force” to the “protector of people.” Before, there wasn’t a lot of response to Celestial’s recruitment, but after this event, the recruitment site had a long line up.
The sharp domestic problem immediately turned to face the rest of the world. The issues of land compensation, whether the development of the tourism sector would continue, and the restructuring of the government were all shifted to the back of everyone’s mind because currently, all Xin people faced a common enemy.
It was country F.
The result was surprising. Jiang Chen didn’t even consider it at the time.