882: Chapter 872: Negotiation Settlement 882: Chapter 872: Negotiation Settlement As a Huaxia person, causing some trouble for the Japanese is a natural justice.
Gao Yang certainly didn’t mind trapping those Japanese whaling ships after finding a sucker to take over, especially since it was for Gustav’s benefit.
The Japanese didn’t have the guts of those logging companies to form a Commercial Alliance to strike back, nor did they dare to bring weapons onto their whaling ships.
Relatively speaking, it wouldn’t be too dangerous for Gustav to sink even more whaling ships.
Of course, he couldn’t escape the charge of piracy, but that was about it.
It was much safer than opposing the Commercial Alliance, who had even brought out the Iron Madonna.
Cutting off someone’s financial path was akin to killing their parents.
Friends of Nature and the Commercial Alliance had become mortal enemies, and it was necessary for one side to completely disappear.
But it was different for whaling ships.
To avoid being attacked, the whaling ships either had to be escorted by the navy or stop whaling—there were no other choices.
Watching an excited Gustav, Gao Yang sat up slightly and said solemnly, “I’m willing to help you.
Actually, you don’t need me, Justin can get things like torpedoes.
But isn’t it a bit early to think about this now?
I mean, you’re out of money, right?
Buying ships and torpedoes will all require money.”
Gustav, clearly agitated, said, “No, as long as I operate under the name of the Green Terror Organization and announce that I accept donations, believe me, I can raise tens of millions of US dollars in a very short time.”
Gao Yang had overlooked this fact.
Indeed, there were still many rich people willing to protect the environment, especially on issues like anti-whaling.
There would be no shortage of volunteers and donors.
Gao Yang was indeed very happy to offload a hot potato he was carrying.
So he chuckled dryly, “Cough, that’s not an issue.
Torpedoes are never an issue.
When you need them, contact me, and I’ll introduce some people to you.
You can buy whatever you want.”
Gustav rubbed his hands together eagerly and said, “Good, we can talk about that later.
Let’s first discuss the immediate rescue operation.
Ram, what do you think is the best approach?”
Gao Yang said with a heavy voice, “The best option is to snatch the hostages from the hands of the Commercial Alliance now.
If that’s not possible, then we’ll have to break them out of prison, which I really don’t want to do.
But we don’t even know where the hostages are being held yet, so we need intelligence support.
Can Justin find out where the hostages are?”
Gustav frowned and said, “Justin’s influence in South America is relatively weak.
He might be able to get intelligence, but it could take some time.”
Gao Yang gave a wry smile and said, “Do you have other or better sources of intelligence?”
Gustav shook his head and said, “What a joke.
Justin is the best.
He’s the only one with a global network of intelligence.
I can’t find a better informant than Justin.”
Gao Yang waved his hand and said, “Then there’s no other way.
Go contact him then.
Ask him to find out the location of the hostages as soon as possible, and then we can carry out the rescue.”
At this moment, Glolov suddenly said, “Why must we rescue them forcefully?
I think we could negotiate with the Commercial Alliance and directly demand the return of our people.”
Gao Yang looked surprised and said, “Are you joking?
We’ve killed so many men from the Commercial Alliance.
How could they possibly negotiate with Thor?”
Glolov shook his head and said, “You got one thing wrong.
We killed people from the Commercial Alliance Security Company, not from the Commercial Alliance itself.
The Commercial Alliance is a shared interest community, while the security company is just the mercenaries they hired.
The Alliance isn’t going to abandon a solution that’s most beneficial for them just because some mercenaries died.”
Gao Yang nodded again and again, saying, “Right, what we killed were just the cannon fodder hired by the Commercial Alliance.
Also, this means the Iron Madonna won’t be a problem either, because the Iron Madonna has already completed her task by handing the prisoners to the Commercial Alliance.
How the Alliance deals with the prisoners is none of the Iron Madonna’s concern.”
Glolov smiled and said, “Exactly, we rescued the Friend of Nature people and handed them over to Thor.
Would you still care about how Thor is going to treat them?”
Gao Yang looked at Gustav and asked, “Do you think it’s feasible?”
Gustav seemed very reluctant and said, “We are enemies with the Commercial Alliance.
I really don’t want to negotiate with the enemy.”
Glolov laughed and said, “Negotiation is just a means to get our people back.
It’s safer than a forcible rescue.
You’ve already decided to disband Friends of Nature and plan to focus on Antarctica, so why not use this as a condition to make the Commercial Alliance release them?”
Gao Yang caught on to Glolov’s idea and quickly said, “Correct.
If the Commercial Alliance releases the hostages, then disband Friends of Nature and stop attacking any logging sites.
If they refuse to release them, then tell them you’ll continue to strike at the logging sites and escalate your tactics.
Previously, it was just destroying equipment without injuring people, right?
Tell them if they don’t release the hostages, next time it will include both people and equipment.”
Glolov smiled and said, “If one day you change your mind, you can just establish another organization and declare war again, like Friends of the Forest or something.
That’s entirely up to you.”
Gustav, seemingly moved, stood up, hesitating and said, “The Commercial Alliance has spent tens of millions of US dollars.
Would they really release them?”
Gao Yang said, “Whether they spend tens of millions or several billion, it’s all just to keep earning money.
If a deal can’t be reached, you’ll continue your destruction, and they’ll have to keep investing more.
If they can stop it here, I think the Commercial Alliance would agree.
Why not give it a try?”
After pondering for a moment, Gustav finally nodded and said, “Alright, we can try.
The lives of my friends are more important.”
Gao Yang smiled and said, “Great, so you’ll need a mediator for the negotiation.
Who do you think is suitable?
Hmm, you could give the money you were prepared to pay us to the mediator, as compensation for negotiating.”
Gustav made a face and said, “Is that even a question?
Justin, of course.”
Gao Yang made a welcoming gesture, but Gustav looked troubled and said, “Could you speak to Justin for me?
I really can’t bring myself to tell Justin to negotiate with those bastards from the Commercial Alliance.
I just can’t say it.”
Gao Yang shrugged and replied, “Alright, I’ll talk to him.
Do you have any conditions?”
Gustav shook his head and said, “No, just what you’ve mentioned before.”
Gao Yang immediately took out the satellite phone and dialed Justin.
Justin’s phone was always answered promptly.
Once Justin picked up, Gao Yang went straight to the point, “Hey, friend, I need to ask you for a favor.”
“No, no, no trouble at all.
If you’re paying, then it’s business.
I never find making money a bother, but if you’re thinking of having me do something for free, well, I’m quite busy.”
Gao Yang laughed and said, “You’re going to make some money.
How about you represent Friend of Nature in negotiations with the Commercial Alliance to get the people they captured released?”
“A negotiation representative?
No problem at all; it’s one of my main businesses.
Alright, you’ve set the goal, so what’s your bottom line for the trade?”
“Friend of Nature disbands and stops attacking any property owned by the Commercial Alliance, now or in the future.
If the Commercial Alliance gains new members, they also won’t be attacked.
How about that?”
“No problem.
However, I suggest not disbanding Friend of Nature, because it’s a deterrent.
If you dissolve Friend of Nature, there’s no longer any reason for the Commercial Alliance to exist, and that might cause some trouble.
But if Friend of Nature remains and issues a declaration that it won’t attack the Commercial Alliance, targeting only other logging companies instead, the Commercial Alliance could attract more members and might even make money off this.
Of course, it’s just a suggestion.”
Justin was indeed professional, quickly grasping the key points.
Gao Yang simply said, “Whatever you think is appropriate, go ahead.
The demand from Friend of Nature is for the Commercial Alliance to release people.
You figure out the rest.”
Justin pondered for a moment, then said, “Alright, this is pretty straightforward, no need for me to go in person.
A symbolic fee will do, after all, Friend of Nature and I go way back.
Let’s say two hundred thousand US dollars.”
Gao Yang swallowed and asked, “Hey, Justin, since when did you become so generous?”
Justin replied with dissatisfaction, “I’ve always been generous.
I’ve always followed the principle of making a modest profit to gain more friends.
Alright, wait for my call.”
After hanging up, Gao Yang chuckled and said, “Why do I feel this is going to be very easy to resolve?
Justin is only charging two hundred thousand dollars; he just wants two hundred thousand!”
Gustav was also surprised and said, “Two hundred thousand?
How is that possible?
Does Justin think this matter can be settled by just making a few phone calls?
I thought it would take many days and many rounds of back-and-forth negotiations to reach an outcome.
But Justin has always charged based on difficulty; if he’s only asking for two hundred thousand, maybe we’ll have a result soon.”
Indeed, the negotiation with the Commercial Alliance yielded results far faster than Gao Yang had imagined.
In a little over forty minutes, while Andy He’s surgery was far from over, Justin made a call.
“Hey, Ram, the Commercial Alliance has agreed to your conditions and offered theirs.
First, Friend of Nature must not dissolve, but they must declare on all their usual platforms like their Twitter account that they will no longer attack the lives of any company under the Commercial Alliance.
Second, the handover of the hostages must be done secretly and no information leaked.
I will act as the mediator and supervisor.
If any information gets out, I’ll take responsibility, so you’d better not make things difficult for me.
If you agree, once Friend of Nature issues its statement, they can immediately release the people.
Of course, I’ll arrange for someone to pick them up.
You just need to pay an additional one hundred thousand dollars for my service to retrieve them.
That’s it, no more, just these.”
Gao Yang looked at Gustav and shrugged, “Well, it’s settled then.
Apparently, for Justin, this really was just a matter of making a few phone calls.
No wonder he offered such a cheap rate.” (To be continued.
If you like this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets.
Your support is my greatest motivation.
Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)