Empire of Shadows

In the evening, the federal arms sales representatives met with President Diego. As soon as they met, the president couldn’t help but ask about the arms sales situation.

These military sales representatives took out the new policies from the Federation. These policies had not yet been announced to the public and were considered a small secret.

When President Diego saw the contents of the price lists, he stood up directly, slammed the price lists on the coffee table, and then pointed at one of the military sales representatives and said, ”You’re out!”

A total of a dozen or so military sales representatives had come, and it was impossible for every one of them to get a share.

Arms sales are like this: often one or two companies take the vast majority, and the rest take some of the smaller categories. Many more will go to other countries to find opportunities.

Different countries will have different policies. For a populous country like Rapa, which was also mired in civil strife, the arms sales prices here were very outrageous.

For example, in the past, they had bought a 1010 bolt-action rifle from the Federation for about 170 Federal Sols.

Now, for them to buy the 1010 bolt-action rifle, export version, it would cost 300, and there was no bargaining.

The price of bullets had also risen a lot. In the past, a single bullet was about two Paras, but now, it was five Paras a bullet, and also no bargaining.

Only when it exceeded 100 million bullets would there be a small discount, just a little, not much at all!When he saw this price list, President Diego’s heart was already filled with anger!

Although he had not personally done business with these federal arms industry groups before, or imported weapons from them, he still had to look over the federal military equipment purchased by the Rapa government.

After all, this involved a large flow of funds. He definitely had to know if this money was, according to his ideas, going to the place where this money should go.

Or was it being embezzled by these damn ’little dears’ in certain places?

The problem of government corruption in Rapa was actually also very serious. After all, everyone, including the president, was frantically raking in money. With the top setting an example, the middle and low-level officials of the government were also frantically raking in money.

Raking in money seemed to be what government officials should be doing. They even dared to get their hands on the president’s money.

So President Diego knew the prices of military equipment in the past, at least he had a vague understanding.

Now that he saw this quotation was too outrageous, he thought that this military sales representative was toying with him, and his temper immediately flared up.

The military sales representative, who had been pointed at and told ”you’re out,” was not annoyed. He had encountered situations more excessive than this. To be able to represent the group company to go abroad for sales meant that his ability in business was definitely qualified.

He smiled at President Diego. ”Mr. President, I can assure you that there is no problem with this form. If you feel that its price exceeds your psychological price, then you can look at the others.”

Diego, listening to his words, had looked at the others with a look of doubt in his eyes. Soon he had picked up the price list of another arms industry group, and looking at the outrageous numbers on it, it was as if something in his mind was pulsing.

His blood pressure had risen.

Diego had high blood pressure. He not only had high blood pressure but also high blood lipids and high blood sugar, the three highs, and maybe even four or five highs.

But in this period, people were not very concerned about this. Including himself, he might not even know that his body was in a very unhealthy state.

He felt uncomfortable. He tore open his collar. Under the effect of the high blood pressure, he felt dizzy, and also a little short of breath.

This price list was even more outrageous than the last one. He didn’t curse anything, but just threw it on the coffee table, and then picked up the price lists of the others. He looked at every one of them.

With every one he looked at, he would get a little angrier, because not a single price on the price lists was normal. They were all fucking ridiculously high.

His eyes, with a kind of an aura that was unique to a ruler, were staring at these people. ”I need an explanation!”

Among them, the sales representative of McGreg Industries took his own price list from the others’, and put it back in front of himself. ”Mr. President, I know you are very dissatisfied with these prices.”

”In fact, I myself am also very dissatisfied with the prices on this price list, but there is no way, Mr. President.”

”In order to respond to the call of the federal government, these firearms are all designed and produced at the fastest speed.”

”They are not the standard-specification weapons. In other words, we cannot use the assembly lines that are currently in use to produce these weapons. We must use new assembly lines, new designs, and new processes.”

”Everything requires cost, and requires more cost!”

”If you have some understanding of industry, you should understand this.”

”The price of newly developed things will often be very high. Only after they have been sold for a period of time, and our costs have been reduced, will the price come down.”

”The price of these weapons is indeed a little high, but I promise, if you can buy more than one million, then our price can be appropriately more favorable to you!”

”For example...” he glanced at the price list in his hand, but in his mind, he was thinking, who the fuck had set this price? It’s so outrageous!

”295 a piece. This is already five less than 300.”

”If you can order two million, then I can make the decision to reduce this price to 290.”

”Similarly, if you can order more of these weapons, then we can appropriately lower the price, and to use the quantity to offset the costs. I hope you can understand what I am saying.”

”If you can buy five million, I can convince the company to give you a price of 250 a piece.”

President Diego looked at him, his emotions having calmed down a little. Perhaps it was his physical discomfort that had made him unable to continue to be angry with these people.

He held his forehead. ”Five million?”

”What the fuck?”

”Do you... know how many troops I have in my hands?”

”Two hundred thousand!”

”Two hundred thousand, an army of 200,000, and you are asking me to buy five million weapons?”

As he spoke, he himself couldn’t help but laugh. Of course, it wasn’t that he found this matter so comical, but that he was purely angry and had made himself laugh.

”I don’t need so many weapons.”

The McGreg Industries military sales representative could only, with great regret, put the price list back into his briefcase. He looked at the president’s eyes, and did not at all avoid the other party’s somewhat scary gaze.

”If you can’t buy that many weapons, and can only order 200,000, I can only make the decision to give you a discount of one dollar for each.”

Diego’s laughter grew even louder. ”One dollar?”

The McGreg’s representative nodded and said very seriously, ”Yes, one dollar.”

”Mr. President, don’t think that one dollar is a small price. Think about it, 200,000 weapons, and each one is one dollar less. This is a saving of 200,000 in costs.”

”To be honest, I may not even be able to earn 200,000 in my lifetime, but now, I can make the decision to waive this 200,000 for you. This is already the limit of what I can do.”

It might sound as if there was nothing wrong, but if you studied it more carefully, you would find that this was actually a very ironic matter.

Diego looked at the others. ”Are you all doing the same?”

The other representatives all nodded one after another. The weapons sold to the Yalan League region all had strict regulations. Although it was said that in the Federation, the large capital financial groups might not really take the federal government’s decrees as a serious matter, in the matter of arms sales to the Yalan League, they still did not dare to be reckless.

It wasn’t that these people who produced the weapons were now so in love with their country, and were willing to listen to any arrangements of the federal government, but purely that now, their biggest customer was the federal government’s arms sales.

Government arms sales, to the scale of several billion a year, and the scale would continue to expand.

If, because they had violated the regulations of the federal government, they had lost these arms sales, the people who had made these decisions would, with a high probability, suddenly disappear one day.

The company’s shareholders would kill them, because they had made the company lose a large sum of money in profits!

So to say 300, is 300, not a single cent less, unless they bought enough.

The matter of being able to lower the price if they bought enough, was also agreed to by the federal government.

As long as Diego bought enough weapons, it could tie up a large amount of the Rapa government army’s funds. The government’s funds pool would dry up, which would be of great help to the subsequent series of plans.

Diego sat there, his chest heaving. He looked at these people, and then casually picked up a few of the price lists, and casually flipped through them.

The more he looked, the more he felt that these people were toying with him, giving him a price that he clearly couldn’t accept, and then watching him get angry here. But now he had no way at all.

He had picked and chosen among them, and in the end, he had, with his eyes closed, kept the sales representative of Gray Industries.

It wasn’t that Gray Industries’ price was lower than the others, but that he was more familiar with Gray Industries. The Gray 1010 bolt-action rifle had always been the main equipment of the Rapa government army.

Including the weapons that were imported from the Jede Republic this time, they were also mainly the federal standard-issue weapons, and among them were a large number of Gray 1010 bolt-action rifles.

This situation is very common in sales. Considering the soldiers’ habits of use, when buying weapons, they will often choose the weapons that the soldiers are most familiar with, not the ones they are not familiar with.

The other military sales representatives were not too disappointed. They were still recommending other weapons, for example, sniper rifles, for example, grenades, for example, explosives or something.

But now, what Diego mainly wanted to talk about was the content of the rifles and ammunition.

The other sales representatives had then stood up and had taken their leave. They would continue to visit the Rapa government. They had all seen a great scale and market here.

And it wasn’t just the Rapa government, but also the anti-government armed forces’ side. They would also go and talk.

The two of them sat there. The room was quiet for a while. Diego had taken some of the special medicine from the Federation, and the headache situation had improved a lot.

He had taken a break for a while. Now he was getting more and more inseparable from the Federation’s special medicine, although its price was also starting to get more and more expensive.

For some reason, he had suddenly associated, would the Federation also add these special medicines to the list of banned exports?

Perhaps he should have someone get some more special medicines back from the Federation first, lest the Federation suddenly ban their export, and he would have no medicine to use.

After his mind had wandered for a while, he had looked at the sales representative in front of him. ”I need at least 250,000 rifles and ammunition. This is a long-term business.”

”From now until the end of the civil war, and even for a long period of time in the future, we will be using your company’s products, so I hope you can give us a more suitable price.”

The sales representative shook his head. ”I can’t promise you now, but I can guarantee that as you buy more and more things, its price will definitely get lower and lower.”

Diego had not gotten the result he had wanted, and he couldn’t say he was very disappointed. When he had opened his mouth and had tried to bargain, he had already been mentally prepared to be refused.

The sales representative had taken out the pen and the notebook he was carrying with him, and then had begun to calculate the price of this arms sale.

250 rifles, plus a large amount of ammunition, this was definitely a huge order, although Diego had not said that he would definitely buy from Gray Industries.

After a simple calculation, the sales representative had given Diego the calculated price, over 80 million.

Diego just glanced at it. ”I don’t have that much money now.”

”You should be able to see the economic situation of Rapa. From the second half of last year until now, Rapa’s agricultural output value has been almost nil.”

”The mineral resources, also because of the civil turmoil, many of the mines have almost stopped production. And the anti-government armed forces have cut off the transportation. Even if they are in production, it is very difficult to transport them out.”

”It is very difficult for us to come up with so much money at once to pay for this military equipment. However, we can consider another payment method.”

Before the sales representative had come, Lance had already given them a heads-up, so they knew how to respond.

The sales representative had not said that he must have money. He had nodded and had shown a listening expression. ”That depends on what it is. As long as it is of value, I believe the company’s side will not mind.”

Diego’s face did not have much of an expression. In his mind, he had calculated the resources on the territory of those ruling groups who were not in his group, and then had said, ”I can give you the mining rights of two silver mines and one gold mine.”

”These mines all have large reserves, and the mining time is not long. In a year, you can get at least...” he had seriously calculated, ”...about two to three million in profit.”

This was already a very sincere offer. The offer he had given to the Jede government was also about the same, but it had been changed to copper mines and some other resources that could be used in industry.

A profit of two or three million a year. In just thirty years, they would be able to cash in on the cost of this military purchase.

Maybe some would think that this time was a bit long, but in fact, it was not like that.

If the arms industry group itself did not want to mine, it could take this gold mine, have it appraised, and directly give it to a bank, and take away his arms sales payment.

And then the bank’s side would be in charge of the mining and would profit from it, until the value that was mined had met the bank’s expected return—the principal and the interest added together.

And the increase of the gold and silver mines would be able to make the bank more stable, and its risk resistance would also be stronger.

In fact, these high-quality resources were also acceptable to the capital groups, but this time was an exception.

He had thought that this sales representative would immediately agree. After all, those were gold mines and silver mines. What he had not expected was that the sales representative had directly shaken his head. ”Sorry, we don’t have any long-term mining plans.”

”If you can give us the smelted silver ingots, or gold bars, these are acceptable to us.”

Diego had, as if he had not heard what he had said, stared at him with wide eyes. ”I can give you the mining rights of a gold mine and a silver mine. You can mine as much as you want?”

”To refine them into silver bars and gold bars, isn’t that just a matter of convenience for you?”

The sales representative still shook his head. ”These mineral resources are not in the territory of the Federation, and we are not very familiar with the situation here.”

”We just want to sell the weapons in our hands, and then to take away the payment for these weapons and ammunition.”

”So... I’m very sorry, Mr. President. If you can only come up with these, then I’m afraid the deal between us cannot be done.”

Seeing that the other party really didn’t care about these mineral resources, and was not trying to take the opportunity to ask for more, this, on the contrary, had made President Diego not know what to do.

The sales representative said in a low voice, ”Mr. President, if these mineral resources you’ve mentioned are indeed worth so much money,”

”You can totally sell it to someone who is interested in it, and then use this money to pay for the military purchase.”

This sentence had made Diego’s eyeballs roll a little. Of course he knew that he could do this, but now, the two silver mines and one gold mine he had mentioned were not within his control.

In other words, he was using other people’s things to buy this military equipment. At least from the current point of view, it was very difficult to achieve.

And this was also a small trick of his. He had planned to use this method to tie the Federation’s arms industry groups to himself.

If he could win in the civil war, then he would be able to fulfill his promise.

If he had failed in the war, then to hell with it!

This way, the arms industry groups would be inclined to help him to win the civil war.

With the help of the federal forces, he was still very hopeful of winning the war.

Even if they didn’t help, they would find a way to make Lance and his group not be so excessive, after all, this involved an issue of more than 80 million in funds.

It was just that now, this plan seemed to be unworkable.

This was probably the most difficult time in Diego’s life. He shook his head, unable to think of anyone who could help him with this.

Because he needed to get the money now, it meant that he also had to, now, to hand over the property rights of the mine to someone else.

If others couldn’t get these resources, they certainly wouldn’t give the money. Not only would they not be able to provide him with any help, but on the contrary, they would help him to create an enemy who could, at any time, take out 80 million Federal Sols!

He was a little unsure of what to do.

Although he had tens of millions in cash lying in his bank, and although he still had many valuable works of art in his vault, he could, by putting them together, come up with this much money.

But as a ruler, he did not intend to use his own money to do this.

That money, those works of art, everything, was the last retreat for the Ravila family. It could not be touched.

Seeing that the president seemed to have fallen into a daze, the sales representative had, in a low voice, prompted, ”If you don’t have a suitable candidate, then maybe I can give you some suggestions.”

Diego had looked at him. He had said in a low voice, ”I hear that Mr. Lance White and his Empire Chamber of Commerce are very rich, and are also willing to invest locally. Maybe he will support your plan?”