576: Chapter 571: Business Mixed with Friendship 576: Chapter 571: Business Mixed with Friendship With the help of some inexpensive but effective gadgets that indeed played a crucial role on the battlefield, Gao Yang felt much more relaxed, and when Little Donnie called him to say that the guns had arrived, Gao Yang was even happier.
At that moment, the only thing Gao Yang was concerned about was why Maide hadn’t called him.
Jiang Yun had already said that Maide and Abu were planning to seek him out, but for some reason, a day had passed, and there was still no call from Maide.
Gao Yang didn’t mind reaching out to help, but just when he decided to call Maide first, Maide finally called.
After receiving Maide’s call, Gao Yang laughed and said, “You finally called.
I’ve been waiting for your call for a long time.
If you hadn’t called soon, I would have had to call you.
So, how are things going?”
Maide’s voice was somewhat hoarse as he said, “We’ve decided to ask you for help, to ask the Satan Mercenary Corps to come help us.
Ram, come and command our troops again.
We suffered a severe blow this time; the old Instruction Platoon you trained has suffered over half in casualties.”
Gao Yang’s smile faded, and he spoke in a grave tone, “I’ve already heard.
Why did this happen?
You know, Dagger and Three Cannons had the ability to lead your soldiers to victory.
Even if they couldn’t win, they shouldn’t have suffered such heavy casualties.”
Maide sighed and said, “Ram, we are a team.
We can’t always have others command us.
I understand Jiang Yun’s capabilities very well, and the soldiers respect them both, but they are only instructors, not commanders.
Our junior commanders are not willing to accept their command either.
“This defeat isn’t entirely a bad thing for us.
Abu has realized his limitations, but he still feels that if someone must command us, it should be you folks.
Our friendship is like timely help in the snow, and Jiang Yun and his partner add grace to it.
So, it’s not just me and Abu who can accept you commanding our troops—what really matters is that the soldiers are also willing to accept your command.”
Maide, who had studied in Huaxia for several years, used the idioms quite aptly.
Gao Yang sighed and said, “We’re already preparing to leave, and we can arrive soon.”
Maide, very much relieved, said, “I knew you would definitely come.
The reason I waited until now to call you was because we were arranging funding.
We’ve just bought a lot of stuff, and we don’t have much cash, but all things combined, we still have three million four hundred thousand dollars.
I don’t know if this money is sufficient to cover your commission.
If not, we should be able to scrape together some more.”
Gao Yang fell silent for a moment.
He didn’t reject the commission Maide had proposed, but he didn’t immediately agree either.
The reason he had delayed calling Maide was precisely here—by rights, Gao Yang would be willing to fight for the Skull Gang even without pay, since they had a relationship.
But they were mercenaries, and even if he didn’t care about the money, he had to consider other people’s feelings.
Contacting Maide himself made some things difficult to say, but now that Maide had finally called and had already offered the commission, things were much easier to handle.
Friendship is friendship, but business is business—Gao Yang really had to implement this saying.
Gao Yang covered the microphone and asked Little Donnie, “Maide offered us a commission of 3.4 million US dollars.
Given the situation we’re facing, what do you think would be a reasonable amount?”
After pondering for a moment, Little Donnie responded with a bitter smile, “To tell you the truth?
The price is much higher than the market rate.
For a mission like this, having an elite mercenary group would cost around 1,000,000 US dollars.
If it’s Angel, perhaps 2 million dollars would be sufficient.
Taking into account that the enemy might have a considerable number of elite troops, 3 million is definitely a high price.”
After hearing this, Gao Yang immediately responded over the microphone, “Old Ma, 3.4 million is above the market rate.”
Maide responded cheerfully, “Is it high?
That’s good, I was just worried it might be too low.
Don’t worry about the money for us; if it wasn’t for the bulk of military supplies we purchased to prepare for the battle, we wouldn’t have just this amount.
Moreover, we’ll soon receive more in tolls.”
As a friend, Gao Yang couldn’t keep from Maide the fact that the money offered was above the market rate.
It would have been akin to taking advantage of an old friend, but now that the Skull Gang was well-funded and willing to pay more for old friends, Gao Yang had no need to be polite.
Gao Yang then said, “Alright, then thank you.
We should arrive in about two days.
I can’t set an exact time yet, but we’ll hurry over.
When do you plan to launch the next operation?”
Maide sighed, “Don’t be polite with me.
This time it’s just the commission; don’t forget we still owe you money.
We’ll repay everything with interest.
As for the timing, there’s no need to rush as long as the enemy doesn’t initiate an attack.
We need some time to regroup before launching an attack.
With you guys here and once we’re prepared, we aim to take down our opponents in one fell swoop.”
Gao Yang hadn’t spoken to Maide in a while and was not sure how the Skull Gang was doing.
He was quite concerned about the gang’s progress and asked, “Speaking of which, I don’t even know how you all are doing now.
Is the development going well?
Have you expanded your territory?”
Maide laughed and said, “Need you ask?
Currently, no one can match us.
We have expanded quite a bit along both sides of Bosaso, and now we control at least three hundred kilometers of coastline.
If we hadn’t driven those scattered pirates together, we wouldn’t be facing such substantial losses now.
Ultimately, we got a little too confident.”
Gao Yang also laughed and said, “That’s great.
When the Skull Gang fully controls the coast along the Gulf of Aden in Somalia, that will be the day to advance nationwide.
However, you need to be careful of the Young Party; you’ll inevitably clash with them sooner or later.”
With confidence, Maide declared, “That day will come soon.
As for the Young Party, I am confident we can defeat them.”
Despite the temporary setback, Gao Yang felt the Skull Gang had a promising prospect for development, but they needed to be cautious of the impending threats.
He lowered his voice and added, “You must be aware of it already, but I still need to remind you.
Your enemies have suddenly become formidable.
It’s quite possible that those British at sea are meddling again.
You must be careful and not forget the lessons learned last time.”
Maide fell silent for a moment before maintaining the same calm tone, “I lost an arm to those British.
Knowing they’re back, how can I be careless?
Don’t worry.
If they dare to attack in small groups again, this time they won’t return.”
(To be continued.
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