When he entered the door, Jiang Chen noticed that at least ten pairs of eyes were focused on him. However, he didn't care and walked forward as usual.
"Surprised?" Putin raised an eyebrow and gestured to the sofa with his free hand.
"Indeed." Jiang Chen shrugged, walked to the sofa opposite him, and sat down. He nodded to the waiter who handed him the champagne, then looked at the leader of the fighting nation. "I heard from the Minister of Foreign Affairs that you are inspecting the frontline situation on the Crimean Peninsula and will not return to Moscow until three days later."
Both of them were fluent in English and didn't need to communicate through an interpreter.
Putin gently clinked glasses with Jiang Chen, drank the champagne in the glass, and then handed the goblet to the waiter.
"If you want to deceive our enemies, you must first deceive your own people."
"Do you still need to be so cautious in Moscow?" Jiang Chen returned the empty glass to the waiter and joked.
"There is no harm in being careful. Russia's territory is vast, and it's hard to guarantee that a mouse won't sneak in from any corner." Here, Pu Jin crossed his fingers on his knees, leaned forward slightly, and looked directly at Jiang Chen with his blue pupils. "So, time is tight. In order not to miss this reception, let's get straight to the point."
Putin looked at Nikolaev, who was standing behind Jiang Chen, and gave him a look.
General Nikolaev saluted, took a map from the bodyguard next to him, and spread the map on the coffee table.
It was a topographic map, covering the cities of Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk, with contour lines delineating the basins and foothills. Between the two big cities, there were also large and small towns including Red Army Village and Pavlograd. Three jagged black lines were drawn in the middle of the map, and three or four arrows pierced into the hinterland of the Republic of Donetsk from the northwest like a sharp knife, separating the armed forces of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Jiang Chen was very familiar with this map. It was not only European countries that were concerned about the civil war in Ukraine. However, the information revealed on this map was slightly different from what Jiang Chen had learned. Although he had heard that the civilian armed forces were declining, he hadn't expected them to decline so thoroughly. If he wasn't wrong, the civilian armed forces that had pushed to the Dnieper River had been pushed back to their own doorstep.
Nikolaev's next few words confirmed Jiang Chen's speculation.
"Since last month, an illegal private armed force entered Kane from Poland, and the situation began to deteriorate. They claimed to be mercenaries hired by the President of Ukraine. The funding sources were quite complicated. Including the National Endowment for Democracy, there were more than 20 North American and European human rights organizations. Our intelligence personnel tried to investigate the shareholders behind the scenes, and in the end, all the clues pointed to one organization. "
"Freemasonry?" Jiang Chen asked.
"You guessed right." Nikolaev paused, looked at Jiang Chen, and continued, "This is not a regular mercenary. They are composed of retired veterans and refugees from NATO member states, and they are trained in Finland. Their equipment is not limited to automatic weapons, but also includes armored vehicles, tanks, and even armed helicopters … "
"Tank? Attack helicopters? What's the difference between this and the army? "
"This is an army, and the size is comparable to the 58th Army," Nikolaev added.
The silence lasted for a long time.
At this time, Putin, who hadn't spoken, spoke.
"What do you think? Are you confident? "
"Confident?" Jiang Chen looked at him with an odd expression.
Putin stared at Jiang Chen's eyes seriously, then continued.
"This is the content of our cooperation. We hope you will be their opponent."
The room fell into silence again.
This time it was Jiang Chen who broke the silence.
"We will be their opponent? We are a company, and we won't do anything that doesn't benefit us. "Jiang Chen leaned back on the sofa and said with a smile.
After hearing Jiang Chen's words, Putin also smiled.
Although he didn't immediately receive a positive answer, since Jiang Chen didn't directly refuse, it meant there was still room for discussion.
"Please rest assured that you are a Xin company, and we don't expect you to provide assistance to our allies for free. All the supplies of the mercenaries will be converted into rubles and will be borne by us. In addition, we will pay you 100 billion rubles in two installments. "
100 billion rubles was equivalent to 1.7 billion Xin New Dollars. For Russia with a tight budget, this was not a small number. However, 1.7 billion Xin New Dollars obviously couldn't satisfy Jiang Chen's appetite. Compared to money, he was more interested in something else.
"100 billion rubles, a military base."
When they heard Jiang Chen's request, Putin and Nikolaev frowned at the same time. Although they were eager for Celestial Trade to intervene in the Ukrainian crisis and reverse the decline of the pro-Russian civilian armed forces, this did not mean that they would sacrifice their own interests for the people of Donetsk.
Putin exchanged a look with Nikolaev, then his finger tapped on the armrest of the sofa and said word by word.
"Russia will not open its military base to any country or private institutions. The employment fee can be appropriately increased, but we cannot accept this condition."
"You misunderstood." Jiang Chen waved his hand and explained, "Of course, our military base will not be built in Russia. Since it is a battle with the Ukrainian government forces, it will naturally be built in Donetsk. "
Nikolaev breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Putin. This condition was not unacceptable to the Russians.
"If it is Donetsk, no problem. We will help you negotiate with them." Putin nodded. "Is there anything else?"
"No, I wish us a happy cooperation." Jiang Chen smiled.
Without any legal documents signed, this kind of contract could not be written on paper. The actual employer of Celestial Trade would be a local chocolate company in Donetsk. As for the source of funding, it was the same as the Ukrainian government forces, also from shell companies registered in Russia or overseas.
A world map was spread out on the table. The bearded general's finger followed the map and pointed to the location of Vladivostok in the Russian Far East.
"Your people can land in Vladivostok. We will provide a railway transport route from Vladivostok, through the Siberian region, to the Russian-Ukrainian border. This line will serve as your supply line, and all costs will be borne by us. If the situation is optimistic, you should be able to deploy two brigades at the border in mid-May … "
"No need." Jiang Chen shook his head. "This is too slow."
"No need?" Nikolaev was taken aback.
Putin's eyebrows raised slightly, and he looked interested.
"We'll go directly from here." Jiang Chen's finger pointed to the corner of the Western Pacific Ocean on the map, where the equator line crossed.
Nikolaev leaned forward and looked in the direction Jiang Chen pointed. His pupils suddenly contracted.
There were no markers there, but he was familiar with the latitude and longitude.
It was the space elevator, the man-made miracle of Celestial Trade.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
