Two days later, Song Heping finally returned to the Hassan Oil Field.
When he arrived in the afternoon, the cook greeted him with a big hug.
"Let's go!"
The cook pointed to the off-road vehicle beside him.
"Let's take a look at our oil fields!"
Both oil fields were now under the protection of "Musician" defense, and the cook was eager to show Song Heping around his turf.
"These aren't our oil fields."
Song Heping said with a smile as he got into the car, correcting the cook, "They belong to the Wood Energy Group."
"Who cares whose they are, we're the ones in charge now."
The two drove towards the Cook Oil Field.
The Cook Oil Field was about 20 kilometers away from the Hassan Oil Field.
It was a bit larger than the Hassan Oil Field.
On the way, Song Heping asked the cook about the situation at the oil fields over the past few days.
"Has anyone tried to hit the oil fields these days?"
"Yes, it was the people from the Freedom Force."
"Freedom Alliance?"
"Right."
"Did we suffer any losses?"
"Not much, just a few people were wounded," the cook said. "But the Cook Oil Field suffered a harder blow."
"What happened?"
"It seems the Kurd Armed Forces thought Lars had taken out their people, so for the past two days, they attacked the Cook Oil Field twice."
"At what intensity?"
"Hundreds of people. Lars's men suffered heavy losses, but luckily, we hadn't taken over before the attack, so Wood Energy didn't blame us for it. However, I've heard through the grapevine that Black Water is furious and has sworn to find out who set them up. We need to be careful."
"Don't worry, Hunter changed his guns, and right now, Black Water Company has a heap of troubles to deal with and no energy to come after us. They even used CIA connections and came up with nothing. I believe there won't be any problems for a while."
Suddenly, the cook picked up a bottle of water and handed it to Song Heping.
Song Heping was momentarily stunned.
He quickly grasped the cook's intention.
He took the water, unscrewed the cap, and took a sip.
The cook looked at him with a grin and said, "What? Is the stress reaction over?"
Song Heping nodded, "Yeah, I felt nauseous for two days and wanted to vomit at the sight of water."
The cook said, "Damn, I've never respected many people in my life, but you're one of them."
Song Heping said, "By the way, I've arranged the shipment of weapons well. The warehouse is on the outskirts of Baghdad; it's a property of the Temporary Management Committee, which should be quite safe. I've deployed a squad there to guard it, but..."
"But what?" the cook asked.
Song Heping said, "Right now, we're facing two major problems. One is how to offload the weapons. I spent over a million on the arms this time, and if we can't sell them, we're stuck with them."
"Don't worry about that," the cook said. "Leave it to me. My friends back home will definitely be interested. They're involved in organized crime, and many of them are well connected with criminals around the world. You think we can't sell guns? But..."
"But what?"
"Transportation. That's the real difficulty. In the arms trade, it's not hard to find buyers, but the paperwork and transportation are the challenges. These arms didn't come from legitimate sources, so if we have to move them out, we need a transportation channel. My friends from Russia probably won't be able to intervene here, after all, this is the American's territory."
Transportation?
Yes, transportation is a big issue.
When buying the weapons, Song Heping saw the profit margins and didn't consider the details.
He had, however, prepared for the worst.
If he couldn't sell them, his Mercenary Corps would use them.
A force of several hundred mercenaries could use it for years and have enough.
It was cheaper than buying from Harvey, and the savings on the difference could make up for the cost.
But this was just the worst-case scenario.
In business, one must prepare for the worst but not let the worst become reality.
Now it seemed, although the arms business was highly profitable.
It wasn't for everyone.
There were many intricacies involved.
"I'll think about this. Get in touch with your friends back home to see if they're interested, and we'll figure out the transportation together."
"No problem."
Suddenly, the cook remembered something.
"Right, you said we had two problems to face. What's the other one?"
"Training," said Song Heping. "We've recruited so many people all at once, and although they're all former government soldiers, I have no idea about their combat level. I suppose we need to organize professional tactical training for them."
"I don't understand about training," the cook said. "You're the military expert, you handle it. As we agreed before, I'll be responsible for external contacts, and you'll take care of military matters. But, it's not easy to find a training ground. In the past, when we practiced shooting in Baghdad, we had to borrow the coalition's firing range.
Now that everyone's here at the oil fields, we can't be hauling people back to Baghdad every time we need to train; it's too inconvenient."
As the cook spoke, Song Heping's gaze stayed on the scenery outside the car window.
Outside was a flat expanse of the Gobi desert. The terrain here was mostly like this—many hills, some of them rolling, but mostly flat land.
"I think we should set it up right here."
He pointed outside the window.
"What?"
The cook followed his finger to look outside.
"Is there anywhere better suited for tactical training than this?" Song Heping said. "Inside the oil region, we can also conduct some defensive tactical training. For shooting, we can just go out into the wild. With so much space, not to mention shooting, we could even train with artillery."
Speaking of artillery, the cook got excited.
"I heard you bought quite a few cannons this time?"
"Yes," Song Heping said, "We have 100 mortars alone, 20 107mm rocket launchers, and 90 Arrow-3 surface-to-air missiles. Our current munitions are enough for a small-scale annihilation battle. I'm thinking, if those guys from the Freedom Force come over to cause trouble again, we need to make them feel the pain."
"You're planning to fight an annihilation battle at that time?" the cook asked.
Song Heping said, "An annihilation battle, yes, but you might have misunderstood my meaning, Cook."
"Misunderstood?" The cook was confused.
Song Heping said, "The annihilation battle I'm talking about is to wipe out the Freedom Alliance organization altogether."
"Wipe them out?!"
The cook was shocked.
Even someone as bold as he found it unbelievable.
"Are you crazy?! They have at least a thousand men!"
More than three hundred people wanting to take down a thousand.
That's like two reinforced platoons wanting to take down two reinforced battalions.
If that's not madness, what is?
"Song, our current fortune has come entirely by luck, you haven't inflated to this extent, have you?"
Song Heping also knew it would be difficult, but he had already made up his mind.
Once he decided something, it couldn't be changed.
"Cook, it's not that I'm inflated, it's an issue with the direction of my situation assessment. Think about it, why would the Kurd Armed forces support the Freedom Force in attacking the oil fields? These oil fields belong to the Americans. Logically speaking, shouldn't the Kurd Armed forces show some respect to their benefactors?
For many years, the Americans have been supporting the Kurd people against Sadam. Logically speaking, they're on the same side, so suddenly changing like this, don't you find it odd?"
"It's all interests."
The cook said, "I'm very clear about that. The Kurds just want the big oil field up north. Their goal is financial resources. If they get this oil field, it means they have a stable financial source. With financial resources, they can be entirely self-sufficient and don't have to look at Americans' faces, not having to treat the Americans like godfathers every day asking for help."
"Yes," Song Heping said, "You think the same as I do, but beyond that, the Kurd Armed forces have even bigger ambitions. Think about it, if they could get the oil fields, they could sell millions of barrels of crude oil each day. That means their financial power is secured. With that, they'll have more than enough ability to occupy a seat on Illiguo's political stage.
What they want is not just money, but power."
"So, the Kurd Armed forces are backed by the Americans, the Freedom Force is backed by the Kurd Armed forces, and if we wipe out the Freedom Force, wouldn't that be directly slapping the Americans in the face?"
The cook felt it was too crazy.
It's not that he feared death.
But with their current strength, they couldn't possibly contend with the US Army.
It's not just tilting at windmills. It's like throwing dust into the ocean—there wouldn't even be a ripple.
"I don't see it that way," Song Heping analyzed, "Do you think the American intelligence agencies are so powerful that they don't know it's the Kurd Armed forces supporting the Freedom Force? They don't know that the attacks on Hassan and Cook Oil Fields are backed by the Kurds? They know, they know everything…"
Song Heping took another sip of water, his gaze seemingly lost in contemplation as he looked into the distance.
At this moment, they were driving westward; the sunlight stinging their eyes gave a dizzying sensation.
Amidst this dizziness, Song Heping reflected for a long while before finally voicing his final judgment.
"I think the Americans would love it if someone taught the Kurd Armed forces a lesson, or even better, if someone could take down the Freedom Force, this troublemaker. Do you believe that?"
These words left the cook speechless.
He couldn't say a word for a long while.
This judgment was incredibly bold.
If the judgment was accurate, eliminating the Free Army would stabilize the security of the oil fields.
But if the judgment was wrong, it would be akin to directly starting a fight with the US Army.
Whether one could even make it out of Illiguo alive was another question.
"Even if you want to kill them, you'd have to know where their den is, right?" The cook couldn't answer Song Heping's question, so he could only change the subject, "Without that intelligence, how could we make a move?"
The stronghold of the Free Army was on the border near the Kurd Armed forces' area of control and toward the direction of the 'soil chickens,' where there were many tribes and villages. The terrain there was different from the oil field area—it was mountainous with many mountains.
Finding the enemy's hideout indeed wouldn't be easy.
"When the time comes, I'll see if Ferrari can get us some intelligence; even if it costs money, we must locate them," declared Song Heping decisively.
The cook couldn't help but say, "Song, why are you so fixated on having to take down the Free Army?"
In his eyes, Song Heping seemed obsessed with taking down the Free Army, as if he had sworn to grind them down. This did not seem very wise.
Song Heping said, "Do you think I want to fight them to the death? I've said it before, they're just a tool, they don't have any autonomy. As long as the Kurds' ambition for power doesn't change, they won't stop attacking us. So, wiping them out is equivalent to warning the Kurd people not to get their filthy hands on us."
The cook asked, "What if they become fixated on us as well and continue to support an organization to resist us? Then what?"
"If they plan to cultivate another organization, that too will require time and funds. At the very least, we'll have a lot more peace for a year or two," Song Heping said coldly. "What scale, what strength will we have in two years? Just wipe them out again, won't we?"
The cook was still not reassured, "But what if the Kurd people come at us personally? Their military strength is ten times more than that of the Free Army."
This time, Song Heping couldn't help but burst into laughter.
"They come at us personally? An organization built up by an American going after American oil fields? That would be fine; we wouldn't even need to handle it ourselves. When that time comes, we can use public opinion to pressure the US Army. What do you think the US Army would do? Wouldn't they have to wipe them out?
I believe the Kurd leaders aren't that stupid. If they really are that dumb, then they might as well not live at all and be cannon fodder altogether."
After the past two encounters, Song Heping suddenly realized the value of public opinion.
Sometimes it can be more effective than a gun.
Once things here are done, he must visit Angel in the United States himself, to thank her for her help.
Thinking of this, he suddenly remembered something.
His passport.
He dared not go to the China embassy now.
After all, his sister had mentioned over the phone that someone had come to the door.
Though it might not be anything serious, it was also not necessarily safe.
He currently was the legal person for Musician Defense, which was too sensitive an identity.
In the future, he might have to do more things that wouldn't stand the light of day—wouldn't that mean he could never see his brother and sister again?
At this thought, he began to feel a headache.
It seemed necessary to come up with a solution.
Perhaps the best method was to get a fake passport.
But a fake passport was ultimately fake, and there would come a time when it would be exposed, posing a risk as well.
What to do?
It's truly annoying...