776: Chapter 767: Just a Small Amount of Money 776: Chapter 767: Just a Small Amount of Money Having rescued the villagers, Gao Yang couldn’t just abandon them.
Gao Yang began to develop a headache, realizing he had overlooked the problem of where to settle the rescued villagers.
Ideally, they would simply return to where they came from, but these villagers had been brought from far away without seeing anything, so it wasn’t easy to just send them back.
Looking troubled, Gao Yang scratched his head and said to the villagers, “Does anyone know where they are from?
Besides the name of your village, you don’t know anything else?”
After translating Gao Yang’s words, Bantuna said with a worried look, “Don’t expect to get much out of them.
Think about it, the captain only kidnapped them from the most remote places.
If they knew anything more, they would have told me already.”
An older villager mumbled something to Bantuna, who then smiled wryly at Gao Yang, “Well, I got something useful out of them.
Their village is called Guarajuna; God knows what that means.
The nearest small town, called Canoya, is about a day’s walk from there.
Oh, and their village is in the jungle.”
Gao Yang lamented, “That’s it, a village in the jungle; it couldn’t be more remote.
And that town, who knows which corner it’s in.”
After pondering for a moment, Jansen suggested softly, “Perhaps we could ask Martin.
They have maps, and they could use satellite maps to locate this small town called Canoya.”
Gao Yang sighed, “There’s no other way.
Jansen, throw away your broken gun.
Any gun here is far more useful than yours.
Radar, take the villagers and sweep the battlefield, collect all the guns and ammunition, load them onto the truck.
You have ten minutes.
We need to leave this place.
Also, can you write down the names of that village and the town?”
Bantuna, looking helpless, said, “Boss, I’m illiterate, and so are those people.
No one here can spell their village’s name.”
The pronunciation of Amharic is strange and, although there is a written form, Gao Yang didn’t even know which letters correspond to which sounds, so he had to give up on providing Martin with a precise location to search for.
Gao Yang made a call, gave the pronunciation of the two places to Martin but didn’t tell him why he needed to find these places or what had happened.
He just asked Martin to help search for the town that might be marked within the Ethiopian border near the outpost.
After calling Martin, Bantuna also got the people to load everything that needed to be picked up onto the vehicles.
They had to have food and water, all the weapons had to be collected, and to Gao Yang’s delight, Bantuna and the others had found several boxes of grenades and two RPG-7 rocket launchers, along with sixteen rockets, in the house.
With everything packed up and the villagers aboard the big truck that had transported them, Gao Yang asked Bantuna and Jansen, “Who among you knows how to drive a truck?”
Bantuna shook his head, “I can’t drive a truck.
I can drive a car, but I’ve never driven a truck before.”
Jansen raised his hand and said, “I’ve driven trucks on my father’s farm.
I think I can handle it.”
Gao Yang said, “Good, Radar and I will each drive a pickup, and you take the truck.
Let’s get as far away from here as we can first.”
Jansen hopped into the truck and, after starting it, the truck lurched forward but quickly stalled.
After restarting the engine, the truck lunged a few steps forward again before Jansen opened the door looking dejected, “Boss, this truck is too beat up.
I’m not familiar with trucks, and the steering wheel and gear shift are all in the wrong places for me, I can’t operate it.”
Gao Yang, resigned, said, “Come on, the steering being on the right is the wrong place, you islander!
Never mind, don’t drive the truck.
It’s difficult to get through the forest with a truck, and it’s also hard to hide.
Go drive that off-road vehicle instead.”
He had the villagers who had already boarded the truck get off, then had them sit in the beds of the pickups and the off-road vehicle.
After moving the bodies of a man and a woman from the truck into the bed of a pickup, it was quite easy for the three vehicles to carry a total of twenty-one people, living and dead.
As Gao Yang got into the car ready to start the engine, he realized his escape vehicle had four passengers, two men and two women, each holding a gun, and the man sitting in the passenger seat facing him was smiling, cradling the gun in his arms with his finger on the trigger, and dangerously, the safety was off, and even more alarmingly, the barrel was aimed straight at Gao Yang’s waist.
Startled, Gao Yang quickly jumped out of the car and yelled to Bantuna, “Radar, take away their guns.
Put them all in the back of the vehicle.
I don’t want to be killed by a misfire.”
After some fumbling, the three vehicles finally hit the road, heading south through forests and grasslands.
By the time the night fell completely, Gao Yang and his team had covered about ten kilometers.
Gao Yang had important business to attend to.
Since he couldn’t send the villagers away, he had to find a temporary place for them to stay until he could return to escort them later.
For now, the villagers would have to hide in the forest.
They found a dense forest spot to stop, where the villagers set up fires to cook and eat.
Meanwhile, Gao Yang and the other two stayed in the vehicles, taking the opportunity to discuss their next plans.
Inside the off-road vehicle, Gao Yang pulled over a carry-on suitcase from the back seat and opened it, revealing a pile of cash inside.
Seeing the money in the suitcase, both Bantuna and Jansen breathed heavily, but Gao Yang was unfazed.
Having seen much in his day, a mere four hundred thousand US dollars wasn’t enough to excite him much.
Jansen murmured to himself, “I’ve never seen so much cash together before, it’s mesmerizing, I love this green.”
After swallowing hard, Bantuna asked with some difficulty, “That’s a lot of money, boss, is there a share for us?”
Gao Yang was very surprised as he glanced at Bantuna, he had expected Bantuna to ask about how the money would be divided, not whether he had a share.
It’s not good to hog everything, especially in front of people who risk their lives to earn money, Gao Yang had never planned to keep it all to himself, moreover, he wasn’t tempted by a mere four hundred thousand US dollars.
After shrugging his shoulders, Gao Yang said in a deep voice, “The old rules of mercenaries, I take half, you two split the remaining half, any objections?”
Jansen wiped his mouth and asked, “Do I have a share?”
Gao Yang laughed, “That’s right, we all fought together, you get a share, I take two hundred thousand, each of you one hundred thousand.
Since the spoils far exceed your pay, I won’t be giving you your salaries, minus the five thousand promised to each of you, there’s ninety-five thousand US dollars for each of you in this case.
Those are the rules among mercenaries, speak up if you have any objections, if not, that’s how we’ll divide it.”
Bantuna gave Gao Yang a thumbs up and laughed, “Fair enough, very generous, the highest division ratio, I’d be an ungrateful fool to complain, thanks boss, I really hit the jackpot coming out with you this time.”
After Jansen swallowed hard again, he stammered, “No, no objections, thank you, thank you boss.”
Counting out ten stacks each containing ten thousand dollars, Gao Yang removed nineteen bound stacks of cash from the case and placed them between the two in the back seat, then solemnly said, “Nineteen thousand, you two split it properly.”
Bantuna picked up a stack of cash without counting, split one pile of money from the center, handed half to Jansen, then counted out nine stacks for himself and said with barely concealable excitement, “This is awesome, so lucky.”
Jansen unzipped his backpack with trembling hands, then put the money inside and zipped it up, hugging the backpack to his chest, he took a few deep breaths and whispered, “I’ve made in this one trip what I couldn’t earn in two years, wow, I don’t know what to say, I can buy the drone I’ve always wanted, and a better lens, and still have a lot left over for my family, wow, I feel like I’m on cloud nine.”
Gao Yang clapped his hands, “Fellows, we got the money, but the job isn’t done yet.”
Bantuna laughed heartily, “Boss, we owe our big earnings to you, no need to say more, whatever you plan to do, I’m with you all the way.”
Jansen too waved his hand excitedly, “That’s right, that’s right, it’s exactly like that.”
Gao Yang said in a serious tone, “The situation is very clear now, we must quickly reach Captain Sadik’s outpost, and if necessary, we might have to initiate the attack ourselves, any problems with that?”
Bantuna laughed, “No problem with guerrilla warfare, um, and I dare to go along with you on an assault, your performance today has greatly boosted my confidence.”
Jansen laughed, “Of course, there won’t be any problems.”
Gao Yang, very pleased, asked, “Jansen, can you use a machine gun?”
Jansen nodded, “I can use it, I’m not a machine gunner, but I can handle it, better than just passable.”
To Bantuna, Gao Yang asked, “Any issue with you using a rocket launcher?”
Bantuna laughed, “No problem at all, boss, who doesn’t know how to use an RPG?”
Gao Yang said gravely, “Here’s the plan, we need to bring more weapons and ammo, park the car as close to the outpost as possible, and then we can decide on the weaponry based on the situation.
I’ll carry an AK rifle and some grenades, and also bring my shotgun.
Radar, if I don’t need to use the AK, can you carry it for me?”
Bantuna waved his hand, “Of course, not only are you the boss, but you’re also our biggest support, I have to create all the possible favorable conditions for you.
I can be your porter, whatever you think useful I’ll carry for you.
Boss, what happened to your wrist?”
As Gao Yang spoke, he was rubbing his left wrist, and hearing Bantuna’s question, Gao Yang replied with a wry smile, “My left wrist is injured, didn’t feel much while I was shooting earlier, but now it’s starting to hurt badly.
Alright, let’s eat something and rest for a bit, we depart at Ling Chen two o’clock, we must get to Captain Sadik’s outpost before dawn.”