Chapter 1443: Preparing For War
On a quiet night at a port on the west coast of South America.
Two cargo ships slowly stopped at the berths in the port.
Under the cover of night, containers were unloaded one by one from the ships by the bridge cranes in the port, placed on the back of heavy trucks, and driven towards the military base about five kilometers from the port.
On another smaller cargo, soldiers in kinetic skeletons stepped off the deck, boarded the long-waiting military trucks, and drove along with the convoy of heavy trucks to the Celestial Trade military base.
Tumaco, a port town on the border of South Colombia and Ecuador, had a population of only two thousand people.
After the Colombian Civil War, the President of South Colombia Timoshenko signed the “Trans-regional Economic Development Zone Agreement” with Celestial Trade. The 740 square kilometers of land from Tumaco to the Ecuadorian border was allocated to Celestial Trade as a special economic zone.
Based on the content of the agreement, under the premise of abiding by the Colombian Constitution, Celestial Trade possessed a certain degree of autonomy, including setting tariffs and dispatching troops. On the other hand, Celestial Trade promised to increase the GDP of this special economic zone in South Columbia to 50 billion Xin New dollars within ten years and maintain a growth rate of 5% within 50 years.
At the same time, Celestial Trade used the space elevator as a bargaining chip to “rent” 260 square kilometers of land from Ecuador to get a whole number. However, the land was not made available to Celestial Trade yet. The Ecuadorian government stated that the special zone agreement would be signed after the second phase of the space elevator begins.
Just like when the New Malaysia Special District was established. The creation of a special economic zone in the border area would benefit both countries so that neither party would be able to leave Celestial Trade. This move would not only strengthen the regional influence of Celestial Trade but also reap direct economic benefit. Jiang Chen had also set up one on the border between Moro and Country F earlier, which also yielded favorable results.
With the completion of the port at the special zone, batches of Celestial Trade Army also began to land in South Colombia.
In less than a month, more than 10,000 Celestial soldiers had arrived in South America and were stationed in the military base located in Tumaco.
Among them, seven thousand were part of the Celestial Foreign Corps. Most of the soldiers came from Moro, Madagascar, Ukraine, Central Africa. The other three thousand were made up of the Celestial Army; their weapons and equipment represented the highest technological capability of Future Military…
Their weapons also represented the highest technological capability of the world.
It was not only Celestial Trade soldiers who patrolled the port, but also soldiers in South Colombia uniforms.
While Celestial Trade was stationed in South Colombia, it also took over four thousand South Colombian recruits.
It was a special request made by President Timoshenko of South Colombia to Jiang Chen during the negotiation of the special zone. In consideration of improving the combat effectiveness of his allies, Jiang Chen readily accepted this proposal. These recruits would be familiarized with the Scythe drone, S1 kinetic skeleton, and all Future Military equipment exhibited in the defense exhibition under the training of Celestial Trade commanders and virtual reality system.
In the commander’s office of the military base, Cai Deye sat in front of his desk as he frowned at the list in his hand.
“Two hundred NS-90s? What are they? Why haven’t I heard of them.”
“It’s normal that you haven’t heard about it,” said the man standing in front of his desk with a shaved head. “This is a land-based robot newly developed by Future Military. The confidentially level was reduced from S to B yesterday, and it was officially armed into the Army.”
Cai Deye looked surprised.
He had heard a long time ago that Future Military was working on a AI robot soldier that could replace flesh and blood at an affordable cost, but he didn’t expect it to be completed so quickly
“Is there going to be a war?” Cai Deye said seriously.
“You can say that,” the man nodded, “The international situation is unpredictable, and the message from above is not yet clear, but the preparation has started. You are the front line, and you must be prepared no matter whether there is a war or not. You should understand what I mean.”
After he put the arms list with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of weapons into the drawer, Cai Deye looked at the man in front of his desk and nodded seriously.
“I understand.”
“Great,” the man nodded, “Now I can report back to New Moon Island.”
…
The chaos caused by the election lasted for five full days.
Until Christmas was approaching, the vengeance and hate in people’s hearts finally started to dissipate as they stopped the meaningless struggles and attacks on dissidents.
It turned out that time could repair any cracks. The G State militia announced its dissolution, although the leader of the militia had repeatedly stated that they will regroup under the flag at any time if necessary. Those demonstrators who were clamoring for the establishment of the California Republic also dispersed one after another and began to return to their daily routine.
All impulses turned into nothing in the end.
After all, life had to continue no matter what, even if there were unwilling, they could not change the fact that the person was elected.
But just when everyone thought it was over, the aftermath of this farce did not stop.
On Christmas Eve, Wall Street gave a big gift to Trump. The dollar index plunged two percent upon opening, the Dow Jones Index led the global stock markets down, and everything seemed to be foretelling the economic crisis that would occur a few months later …
Early in the morning, Jiang Chen came to the dining room after he washed up.
Except for Natasha who slept too late and couldn’t get up, Xia Shiyu and Ayesha almost finished breakfast.
Ayesha took her plate, got up, and walked to the kitchen. Just as she walked to the entrance, she tiptoed and kissed Jiang Chen’s cheek. As he recollected the softness, Jiang Chen pulled out a chair and sat down.
“Have you read the news?” Xia Shiyu started a conversation while she wiped the corners of her mouth with a napkin.
“I haven’t read it yet, is there anything interesting?” With a yawn, Jiang Chen picked up today’s “Wall Street Journal” from the side, glanced at the headline printed on the cover, and started to chuckle, “The Dow Jones Index plunged, NASDAQ collapsed? When did Wall Street start to become so unstable.”
The aerospace sector was completely annihilated. It seemed that even the UA knew what failure to join the Earth Defense Alliance meant.
“Are you going to send those astronauts back?” Xia Shiyu asked casually.
“Why not? Are we keeping them for Chinese New Year?” Jiang Chen said.
“Speaking of it, why do I feel that you are not surprised by the fact that Trump was elected? We threw a lot of chips on Joseph Kennedy,” Xia Shiyu grinned as she looked at Jiang Chen’s unsound appearance, then she said jokingly, “I thought you would be more disappointed.”
“Disappointed?” As if he had heard something funny, Jiang Chen laughed, turned the page of the newspaper, and said in a relaxed state, “How can it be me who’s disappointed. No matter who is elected, I have done all the preparations.”