Chapter 330
The past three days were incredibly abnormal for the people living on Pannu Islands.
They previously thought the government force would be overthrown by an anti-government force, but the anti-government force suffered unimaginable losses. Just as they were about to give up hope on the anti-government force, the mercenaries they hired made the government force surrender with a white flag.
The dramatic turn of events made people unable to comprehend what just happened.
But regardless, the revolution was finally successful.
After the barrack was captured, people finally recollected their confidence for victory. The insurgents yet to die in the civil war reunited under the new flag and retrieved the equipment from the armory and captured the presidential palace.
They dragged president Edward that had yet to wake up from his bed and shoved him into prison. An insurgent climbed onto the top of the presidential palace and axed down the original flag and replaced with the new flag; nine star and two palm leaves.
The nine stars represented the nine islands of Pannu Islands, palm leaves represented victory.
At the same time, with the march of the insurgents, Zhang Yapin elected as the head of the Liberal Party became the new leader in the presidential palace. He read the new declaration in front of the foreign reporters.
The old regime was banished. The Pannu Islands regime was changed from a presidential dictatorship to a presidential republic. At the same time, the country changed to federalism. The country’s new name was New United Pannu, or in short, Xin.
The first president was Zhang Yapin with a term of five years. A general election will be held five years later. The parliament was compromised off nine members elected from each of the nine islands’ own jurisdiction.
Other than some small amendment in the constitution to the president’s power, all laws were succeeded by the previous political regime.
A federal body consisting of only nine Islands were comical in the eyes of media. A lot of the western media were debating if this news should be placed in international news or entertainment.
Immediately, the BBC reporter asked if the country was named in Han. Zhang Yapin explained that people with Han heritage comprised of 36% of the island’s population, Han was listed as an official language along with English and Dutch. It was a decision based on culture, so there was no need to interpret it further.
Another reporter asked a really sharp question. “President Edward used the military to establish a dictatorship, what would prevent you from going on the same path as him.”
As to that question, although Zhang Yapin felt bitter, his expression didn’t reveal anything. He calmly announced a term that astonished all the reporters – “Defensive contract.”
Pannu Islands’ national defense will be solely contracted to Celestial Trade Corporation. Celestial has the right to hire mercenaries within or outside of the border of Pannu as its defensive force. Pannu Islands will be directly responsible for the constitution with no need to follow the order of the president. The contract fee would be paid in the form of customs tax and land rental cost.
When they heard Zhang Yapin’s explanation, the same thought flashed across all of the reporters’ minds.
This is insane.
In this case, it practically meant the military of the country was handed over to private ownership, the military would operate similarly to a corporation.
Would this military have any combat ability? Would this military be able to protect national security? Would this kind of company be safe in the first place?
But after they thought it through, this kind of thing was not without precedence.
The current UA force was an army that was most reliant on private corporations. Over 60% of the defense budget was paid to defense contractors. The current UA soldiers would complete the most basic duties as a soldier while the rest were contracted out. From weapon development, manufacturing, to the logistics behind supplies, private contractors existed everywhere.
The force would be government-owned while private corporations contracted for the work. Not only would it save a significant amount in terms of cost, but it would also throw the burden of any casualties to the company.
Since there was a precedence, this measure could certainly be applicable.
But it was the first time these reporters had heard of contracting the entire “national defense” to a private corporation.
They had to say, regarding being lazy, the sesame sized small country was at the frontier of the world.
Because of this, the small country with less than twenty thousand people made to the front page of international news several times. At the same time, Celestial Trade also got on the pages of a reputable news agency.
To the company that the public never heard of, all kinds of irresponsible claims began to appear.
…
Someone said that oil may be underneath Pannu Islands and the Celestial Trade Corporation was a subsidiary of an oil giant, so the capital may be from the UA. Someone also guessed it may be the work of HUA as they plan to intervene in international affairs…
Of course, no one imagined the connection between Celestial and Future International since the two were completely unrelated. Before the boat left from West Africa, Jiang Chen closed Future Security in Niger and moved the equipment and the remaining individuals onto two vessels. As to the basic infrastructure, it was sold to the Niger government at cost.
The two vessels would set sail through Cape of Good Hope and take the far route to Pannu Islands.
On the other side, after the insurgents had shoved president Edward along with his family into the prison, they furiously marched towards Johnny’s mansion.
They were much more careful this time after they learned from the tragic experience of attacking Johnny’s mansion previously. They brought the only armored vehicle that remained from the civil war. With the cover of the armored vehicle, they were much more confident.
But when they arrived at the mansion, they found out someone already visited.
The metal gate outside looked like a car smashed into it as it lied on the grass field a few meters away. The wall looked as if large caliber bullets sprayed through it as a few parts were broken into sections. Especially the machine gun position hidden behind sandbags, the sand from the bags had all spilled out. A lot of walls were shattered into pieces. They didn’t know what weapon was so powerful.
The bodies in the mansion were yet to be cleaned, all the fatalities had their heart pierced by a bullet. The killer’s shooting was frighteningly accurate, even for the mercenaries that hid behind the wall, the bullet penetrated through the wall before it hit their heart.
In the end, the insurgents found Johnny’s body in the basement along with four females he locked up.
Three of the females were locals, one of them was a wife, and one was in junior high. They were all registered died due to vehicle accidents, but they were actually locked up in the villain’s basement.
The other woman was a reporter from New Zealand and captured when she sneaked into Johnny’s mansion undercover for a report. When the news was exposed it cause a huge uproar in New Zealand. However, because Johnny had already died, there was no purpose seeking justice on a corpse, especially since the old regime was already overthrown. The incident was heated for a period before it cooled down.
In the end, the four victims all received a generous sum of compensation from the Xin government. It was rumored that the money was donated by an anonymous wealthy man as a small compensation to the unfortunate people.
Of course, these were all after stories.