Time quickly flew by in December. Pannu Islands felt like summer all year long since it didn't have the slightest bit of winter weather, but Wanghai City in the wasteland was already covered by pristine snow. Compared to previous years, Wanghai no longer felt like an apocalypse anymore.
These days, Jiang Chen occasionally returned to the wasteland since he had too many people he couldn't let go. But because the situation had already stabilized, he didn't stay as long as before.
He would have dinner with the girls, "communicate his affection" with Sun Jiao, eat the sisters together, shower with Yao Yao, and bully Lin Lin. If he just stayed in the mansion, it didn't feel like they were in an apocalypse at all.
The entire area on the east side of Huangpu River was covered with NAC-established inspection stations. If one looked up, it was possible to see Type-51 helicopters patrolling the city or Aurora-20 soaring by. NAC had established absolute control in Wanghai.
NAC's diplomats were currently in negotiations with Liuding about including the east bank into the "protective territory."Bohai "Angry Tide" ship-borne electromagnetic pulse cannon could fire from the Yangtze River estuary to Luzhou. Not only did it possess a fearful 450 km range, but it could also launch 10-400 kg bombs. The cannon was a superior source of firepower support among the ship-borne based weapons. Whether it was Bohai or cannon technology, Jiang Chen was determined to take possession.
If they could solve the problem through negotiations, then that would be ideal. If they couldn't solve the problem through negotiations, they would have to resort to military power.
This was the standard in the wasteland.
On the other hand, the radioactive material cleanup and crater filling had been completed. Although the Gamma value remained elevated, there was no need for personnel entering the area to wear nuclear protective suits. The iodine stored in their EPs and anti-radioactive medicine were more than enough to enable traversing in the city center.
Because of snow and freezing conditions, the Project Garden of Eden beside Dianshan Lake was temporarily stopped.
Jia City occasional encountered mutants migrating east, but with the First Division led by Cheng Weiguo stationed there as well as inspection stations along the way, Jiang Chen wasn't worried that the mutants would sneak into the city to build nests.
The winter was peaceful.Because of NAC's presence, there were no more incidents in Wanghai.
On the contrary, in the modern world, the global situation began to escalate.
In South Asia, following the independence of Moro, the movement began to escalate on war-embroiled MLL Island with signs of spreading to Masa Island. At the end of November, the guerrilla forces launched a massive military attack on the city of Dawo and successfully disintegrated a light infantry division and a light armored brigade stationed locally. The Moro leader, Santos, used social media sites to announce the civil war had officially entered the second phase; the city of Dawo would become Moro's capital.
Jiang Chen initially funded Santos with the sole intention of causing trouble for country F, but this guy managed to launch a successful independence movement and even managed to establish his own capital.
The reason they could achieve this success was partially because of the low combat abilities of F soldiers as demonstrated by the hostage rescue incident. It was also partially due to UA elections and the inability of their biggest ally to intervene in the civil war. UA only ceremonially conducted some diplomatic work and sold firearms at a lower cost.
With Moro's independence now a possibility, Jiang Chen changed his initial plans. When they finished that batch of firearms, he would continue to provide support.
Of course, this support wasn't without a cost; it would be exchanged for ownership rights of the mines in the guerrilla-controlled area or actual ores. Because of this, Jiang Chen ordered Barkary to register a shell company in Australia with the sole purpose of facilitating transactions between the ores and firearms. The ores of unknown origin were then transported to the factories in New Guinea to be further processed; a portion would be sold to international markets while the other portion would be "sold" to Celestial Trade.
The flipping ore trick was the same as Turkey selling the IS crude oil, but Jiang Chen's method left no trace at all. With the support of the radar station located on New Moon Island, the transport vessel containing the ores seemed to have eyes and avoided all the patrol boats and vessels that blocked MLL Island. Regardless of how frustrated country F was, the supply shipments to the guerrillas were never tracked down.
What was worth mentioning was that the company providing firearms to the shell company was a UA firearms company. To avoid the transaction from being tracked by the FBA, all orders were conducted with gold.
Then there was Europe.
The refugee problem continued to heat up, forcing all of Europe to a crossroads. Regarding whether a full ban of refugees into Europe should be enacted, the EU countries had divergent opinions. Some of these opinions included Fran, Frankberg, and Bel which suffered the pain of terrorist attacks and Britain which threatened to leave EU as well as Gree which played the card "If you don't buy my bonds, I'll open my door to refugees"…
It was hard to say whether it was distrust that caused the differences, or that the differences caused distrust. With the meddling of an invisible hand, visible cracks appeared in the previously united EU.
Negotiations between countries didn't result in anything material, but each country started a domestic wave of protests. A lot of extremists finally lost their rationality; people with nefarious intentions aggravated them to start attacking innocent refugees. They swore to seek revenge, to respond to terrorism with cruelty.
In a chaotic state, Frankberg's New Choice Party began its discreet rise to power, but the support of the CDU in power continued to plummet. The extreme right-wing party gained footing in Frankberg politics which made the situation even worse…
"War is never a good thing, but weapons are a great thing. Ivan, do you know what I mean?"
Standing at the fighter hanger on New Moon Island, Jiang Chen had his eyes narrowed and watched the Aurora-20 that just parked. He was speaking nonchalantly to Ivan beside him.
"Sorry, I don't really understand." The veteran shook his head honestly.
"It is only when both sides think the opponent's weapon is strong enough to finish them that both sides will agree to sit down and talk."
Ivan grinned. He had a personal experience mirroring Jiang Chen's words when he was a soldier in the Soviet era. But he still didn't understand why his boss suddenly mentioned these things.
But Jiang Chen didn't speak about this further. Instead, he looked at the pilot familiarizing himself with the equipment inside the cockpit.
The first Aurora-20 fighter jet had officially entered service, filling a gap in Celestial Trade's air force. Since it was the most advanced technology from the apocalypse, its strength was king among the fifth-generation fighter jets.
The initial flight of Aurora-20 was conducted by the pilot with the highest score on the training modules. The control equipment of Aurora-20 had a high degree of intelligence to it - takeoff, landing, cruise, and even air-to-ground attacks could be done by the program.
Just from this perspective alone, the semi-intelligent control mode allowed it to be classified among the ranks of quasi-sixth generation fighters.
And because of this reason, one and half month's of training was enough for pilots to maneuver the aircraft. Watching the aircraft engine igniting, completing a vertical takeoff and landing and runaway takeoff and landing, cruising around the border in addition to other missions, Jiang Chen personally awarded the pilot a medal. After the first flight ceremony, Jiang Chen toured the air force base and showed his face to the young men swearing allegiance to him then he returned to Coro Island.
There was a product launch conference waiting for him in the afternoon.
Before the start of the conference that was destined to make history, he needed some preparation.
