Mercenary’s War
Chapter 237 - 237 235 Big Spender This Is

237: Chapter 235: Big Spender, This Is 237: Chapter 235: Big Spender, This Is The price Maide offered surprised Gao Yang, because Maide was not bidding low, at least much higher than he had imagined.

Aside from Maide himself, who appeared relatively well-dressed, everyone around him wore tattered clothing.

Most of them were in flip-flops, and some didn’t have any shoes at all.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that if the members of the Skull Gang weren’t carrying guns, they would look exactly like a bunch of refugees.

Gao Yang hadn’t expected that Maide, who was leading what seemed like a troop of refugees, would start the bidding at a million US dollars.

While a million wasn’t an astronomical figure, the fact that a group of refugees was offering this much seemed rather ridiculous.

However, Gao Yang, though initially surprised, did not find the offer of a million US dollars to train a group of people particularly attractive.

Training a group of competent soldiers would take at least three months, even under the most compressed schedule, so considering the time commitment, the money wasn’t that much.

If this had been in the past, Gao Yang would have cheerfully accepted a mission worth a million US dollars.

It would have also made many lower-tier mercenaries jump with joy.

But now, it just didn’t seem worth it for Gao Yang.

Their current escort missions could net each person at least a hundred thousand or eighty thousand dollars a month with minimal risk.

A situation like with the Cloldylin was unlikely to happen a second time, and training the Skull Gang was full of uncertainties.

Gao Yang completely ruled out the possibility of giving up escorting in favor of training missions.

Seeing Gao Yang fall silent again, Maide frowned and said, “I’m not really sure how much to offer to hire you guys, so if you think a million US dollars a month is too little, feel free to name your price.

All right, even if you won’t train my soldiers, could you at least tell me if the price is reasonable?

That way, even if I have to look for other mercenaries, I’ll at least have an idea.”

Gao Yang paused for a moment and said, “A million a month?”

Maide was also taken aback and replied, “Ah, isn’t the pay for mercenaries calculated by the month?

Have I offered too much?”

Gao Yang shook his head, but then he nodded and said, “Mercenaries are paid by the day, nobody charges by the month.

Also, your bid isn’t low.

A million US dollars for a month’s training isn’t considered low, but it depends on who you’re hiring.

For us, a million a month is just mildly tempting.

You need to understand that you could find some mercenary to train your people into competent soldiers, but what we train won’t just be regular soldiers.

How should I put it, we are more professional.”

Maide snapped his fingers excitedly and said, “I understand, the difference between regular soldiers and special forces.”

Gao Yang nodded and replied, “Something like that, your description isn’t wrong.

But it’s impossible for us to train a bunch of special forces for you, you have to understand that.”

Maide sincerely said, “I got it.

I just want our soldiers to be better than other Somalis.

So, if my offer tempts you, would you please consider it?

There’s a wise saying in Huaxia, ‘good steel should be used on the edge of the blade.’ I’m willing to spend money to enhance our combat capabilities, and I do have the money.”

Gao Yang shrugged and stated, “I’ll need to think about it, and I have to consult with my brothers.

I’m just curious, how many people do you plan to train?”

Maide pondered for a moment before answering, “We have four hundred people right now, combat personnel that is.

If we include those who joined today, we should have nearly six hundred.”

Gao Yang shook his head and said, “That’s too many, way too many.

There are only six of us, and it’s just not realistic to take responsibility for training six hundred people.

I don’t have that much time, and I don’t want to produce half-baked results.

However, I could ask around for you, see if any of my friends are interested in training soldiers.”

Maide asked earnestly, “Are they as good as you?”

Gao Yang was considering recommending the people from Green Mamba since they had enough manpower, but even individually, the Green Mamba’s fighters could not be compared to them.

“Well, they can make your men into qualified soldiers.”

“No, I only want the best.

You take as many people as you can manage; I won’t insist on numbers.

As long as some of them reach the standard you’re satisfied with, they can continue to train others as instructors.”

Gao Yang, at this point, was truly tempted.

A million dollars a month for three months of training, especially before the Maritime Security Company officially started, might actually be a good use of their time.

After giving it some thought, Gao Yang nodded and said, “Alright, I’ll have to discuss it with my brothers.

As long as there are no objections, we’ll provide the training.

But we’ll need to talk about the details later.

Right now, the most pressing issue is to recover the merchant ship hijacked from us.

Can you help us out?

I just need a large enough ship to get us on board the merchant vessel.”

Maide waved his hand and declared, “That’s no problem at all.

What exactly are you planning to do?”

Gao Yang shook his head with a vexed expression, “I don’t know yet, still don’t know.

I have to see how things go before I can say.

We still don’t know if the pirates left on the merchant ship are aware their lair has been raided.

If they do, then things will become tricky.

No matter how weak the pirates’ combat strength is, as long as there’s a gun blocking the boarding ladder, there’s no possibility of forcefully boarding.

We need to think this through.”

Maide spoke in a deep voice, “I understand, ‘a single man can hold the pass against ten thousand’, right?

Alright, you guys can think it over.

I will have my people do their best to cooperate with you.”

Seeing Maide casually use a Chinese idiom, Gao Yang smiled and said, “Alright, now I’m starting to trust you.

Because indeed, you had no reason to let us go and then deceive us back.

I can let our people come ashore, until we come up with a plan.”

After speaking, he made a ‘wait a moment’ gesture to Maide and pressed the transmit button on the intercom.

In a deep voice, he said, “This is Ram.

Everything’s normal.

Approaching shore is safe, no danger.

Follow my lead.”

“Roger that.

This is Big Dog.

Heading over now.”

‘Follow my lead’ was the code phrase Gao Yang and his group agreed upon.

If said under special circumstances, it meant that his words were true, and he wasn’t coerced.

Due to his absolute trust in Gao Yang, after Glolov responded to him, signaling they had received the message, they immediately started turning the ship’s bow towards the shore.

“How will our commission be paid?

We need three months.

Three months is enough time to train a batch of qualified soldiers for you.”

“Cash.

The money for three months, all paid in one lump sum.

Also, I just came to my senses, and I still don’t know your names.”

Gao Yang and Li Jinfang were so surprised that Maide could speak Chinese that, for a moment, they had forgotten to introduce themselves.

After shaking hands with Maide once more, Gao Yang laughed, “It’s not too late for an introduction now.

Call me Ram, and my brother here, you can call him Toad.

Sorry about that, in our line of work, we usually go by nicknames.”

“Understood, I completely understand, Ram.

You have wide connections; could you help me spend some money?”

Gao Yang chuckled and said, “Since when did spending money require asking for help?”

Maide replied with a helpless expression, “Of course, spending money elsewhere doesn’t require help, but in Somalia, it’s hard even to spend money.

I don’t need those pricey and useless things.

I need food, arms, medicines; these are what I urgently need, but right now, I can’t find a place to buy these.

When we purchase food, the prices are exorbitant.

Buying arms, I don’t even know who to approach.

Pirates?

Or the Youth Faction?

They are not the types to sell things to us.

Our reach is currently limited to this nearby underprivileged area, and there’s nothing to buy here.”

Gao Yang let out another chuckle and said, “No matter where it is, I assure you that you can buy anything you wish for, because I just happen to know someone who can meet all your needs.

But I need to ask first how much money you have.

You know, convincing someone to ship goods to Somalia, small deals won’t sway people.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Maide still decided to reveal his financial resources and said in a serious tone, “We currently have twenty-one million six hundred thousand US dollars in cash.”

Gao Yang whistled, “That much?

How long have you been collecting tolls to amass such an amount?”

Maide quickly shook his head, “The tolls didn’t bring that much.

We collected just under two million.

The rest of the money, we got it through raids, from the hands of pirates.

We attacked a pirate lair not so long ago.

We were lucky; they had just received a ransom and hadn’t had time to move it.

We captured it all.

Now, I want to use this money to improve my people’s lives, so the entire twenty million can be spent.

After all, the tolls we collect should sustain our future expenses.”

Gao Yang nodded immediately, “Alright, what do you plan to buy?

How will the money be allocated?”

After thinking for a while, Maide spoke firmly, “Might is the foundation of everything.

I want to buy arms, as well as food and medicines.

As for the distribution of the money, divide it into thirds.

I now have a force of over six hundred armed men but am responsible for four to five thousand people in total, so I’d prefer to buy practical and inexpensive goods.

Save where we can.”

“Okay, got it.

Hang on a second.

While our people haven’t arrived yet, I’ll make a call to see if I can help you with your situation.”

Gao Yang was carrying a satellite phone, and it wasn’t the one Farah had.

It was his own satellite phone, reclaimed from the pirates.

Stepping aside, Gao Yang dialed Uriyangko’s number.

Waiting for Uriyangko’s familiar voice to respond, Gao Yang laughed, “Hey, Vampire, this is Ram.

After having made a large sum of money, are you still an arms dealer?” (To be continued.

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