Chapter 1811: Only eat half!

Very soon, with the viral video, the Wanlong Palace also became an object of enthusiastic pursuit by global netizens.

Many people who previously had no feelings for mercenary organizations, or were even somewhat repulsed, were now ignited with passion by the Wanlong Palace's actions and praised the Wanlong Palace highly.

This allowed the Wanlong Palace to instantly gain a large wave of casual fans and also caused their reputation to rise rapidly.

On the internet, there even appeared many collective petitions from netizens.

They requested the Wanlong Palace to completely annihilate these rampant pirates, letting this group, which should have disappeared in civilized society long ago, completely exit the historical stage.

Over the past few decades, piracy in the Gulf of Aden had been repeatedly banned but never stopped, and as the Gulf of Aden was the throat of maritime transport with no other alternatives, the whole world had no way to deal with these pirates.

However, the Wanlong Palace's performance today gave many people hope.

Ye Chen had originally thought that letting the Wanlong Palace gradually "wash clean" would take at least a year or two.

But the praise on the internet today made him realize that, in fact, it was very simple for the Wanlong Palace to wash clean; they just needed to find a heinous villain to act as a stepping stone, and they could step on his corpse to rise to the top.

Right now, there was a good opportunity right in front of them.

As long as the Wanlong Palace's first battle with the pirates was fought beautifully, it would be enough to make the Wanlong Palace's reputation soar.

And at this time, Bader, who was at the base camp, didn't yet know that he had become the Wanlong Palace's first stepping stone.

When he saw the video released by the Wanlong Palace, he was instantly filled with rage.

He wished he could immediately dispatch all his speedboats to seek revenge on this freighter.

However, for pirates like them, finding a specific ship on the vast ocean was an almost impossible task.

Furious, he immediately had his subordinates announce to the outside world that from now on, they would be at odds with the Wanlong Palace. At the same time, he also shifted his anger onto the owner of the *Xinglong*.

He immediately issued a public statement, demanding that the owner of the *Xinglong*, which was China's Yisu Shipping, compensate him with 50 million US dollars in cash.

At the same time, he also made harsh threats, demanding that Yisu Shipping must permanently abandon the Wanlong Palace's armed escort services.

Otherwise, they would ambush all of Yisu Shipping's ships in the Gulf of Aden, making Yisu Shipping pay a painful price!

He even threatened that any shipowner or shipping company that dared to cooperate with the Wanlong Palace in the future would face his endless retaliation.

Once this statement was issued, public opinion was instantly in an uproar.

No one expected that a pirate leader could be so arrogant, not only wanting to be enemies with the Wanlong Palace but even wanting to retaliate against a shipping company because of it.

But to everyone's surprise, Yisu Shipping didn't take Bader seriously at all.

They even publicly declared that all of Yisu Shipping's armed escort business had been exclusively entrusted to the Wanlong Palace, and in the future, every freighter of Yisu Shipping passing through the Gulf of Aden would be provided with armed escorts by the Wanlong Palace.

Once this announcement was made, the whole world praised Yisu Shipping's tough attitude.

Bader was furious and immediately clamored that he must make Yisu Shipping pay the most painful price and make Yisu Shipping unable to ever set foot in the Gulf of Aden.

Just as Bader's announcement was released, Wan Pojun called Ye Chen and said: "Mr. Ye, your subordinate just saw the announcement released by the pirate organization. These people are used to running rampant in the Gulf of Aden and are truly ignorant of life and death. Do you think we should carry out a decapitation strike against him as soon as possible?"

Ye Chen said without hesitation: "Of course! Not only must we carry out the decapitation strike as soon as possible, but we must also do it cleanly and beautifully!"

Wan Pojun, having received Ye Chen's approval, immediately said: "Then I will have Chen Zhonglei lead several five-star battle generals to sneak in tonight and directly kill that Bader!"

Chen Zhonglei's strength in the Wanlong Palace was second only to Wan Pojun; with him leading the team, assassinating a pirate leader was naturally extremely easy.

Thus, Ye Chen said: "After killing him, the Wanlong Palace will immediately announce to the outside world that this decapitation strike was to maintain the safety of the Gulf of Aden shipping route. If the pirates in the Gulf of Aden continue to oppose the Wanlong Palace, the Wanlong Palace reserves the right to use force to resolve all threats."

As he spoke, Ye Chen added: "Now, all shipowners and shipping companies around the world are watching this conflict between the Wanlong Palace and Bader. You must use this event to make all shipowners and shipping companies trust the Wanlong Palace immensely. At the same time, you must also make those pirate organizations understand one truth: if they dare to oppose the Wanlong Palace, they have only one road—death! Our ultimate goal is that as long as a freighter is escorted by the Wanlong Palace, no pirate will dare to touch it. In this way, the Wanlong Palace can achieve absolute hegemony in the field of armed escorts."

Wan Pojun asked hurriedly: "Mr. Ye, if this is the case, these pirates will have no way to make money, and I'm afraid they will fight us to the death. The Wanlong Palace is not afraid of these small fry, but if they really resort to extreme measures to retaliate against merchant ships, I'm afraid it will cause other losses."

Ye Chen laughed: "That's why what we will do in the future is to be the hegemon of armed escorts, not the monopolist of this industry."

"The Suez Canal has an annual throughput of around 20,000 freighters. Calculated at several hundred thousand US dollars per escort trip, the armed escort market in the Gulf of Aden alone is worth over 10 billion US dollars a year. We cannot eat up such a large market entirely."

"Therefore, you must make it clear to these shipowners and shipping companies that the Wanlong Palace can cover at most 50% of the total escort demand in the Gulf of Aden. That is to say, out of these 20,000 freighters a year, the Wanlong Palace will only eat half; we won't take a single one more."

Speaking of this, Ye Chen smiled slightly and continued: "As for who gets the quota for those 10,000 ships a year, let them bid for it themselves. If the previous price was 500,000 US dollars per trip, then with the Wanlong Palace's escort quality being so high, it's only reasonable to charge at least 700,000 to 800,000 US dollars per trip."

"If the bidding is successful, naturally the Wanlong Palace will provide the escort. If the bidding is unsuccessful, they can only go find other escort companies. In this way, the Wanlong Palace can be considered to have left a bowl of rice for those pirates. As long as they don't come to find trouble with the Wanlong Palace, how they rob the remaining 10,000 freighters is their own business."

Ye Chen let the Wanlong Palace do armed escorts, firstly to wash clean, and secondly to let the Wanlong Palace continue to profit through legitimate channels.

Therefore, the Wanlong Palace has no obligation to wipe out all the pirates in the entire Gulf of Aden.

Moreover, due to the special geographical location and political environment of the Gulf of Aden, it is impossible for the Wanlong Palace to launch a large-scale attack on any pirate organization. The most useful method is a decapitation strike, and decapitation can only form a strong deterrent to pirate organizations, but it cannot completely crush them.

In Ye Chen's view, the most favorable situation for the Wanlong Palace is to use powerful strength and tough methods to make all pirates fear the Wanlong Palace, and then turn their attention to the other half of the freighters.

In this way, not only will the Wanlong Palace's escort costs be greatly reduced, but the escort fees can also continue to rise in the competition among major shipping companies.

At the same time, although those pirates dare not provoke the Wanlong Palace, they can still have a bowl of rice after avoiding the Wanlong Palace, so they won't be forced to fight the Wanlong Palace to the death.

Wan Pojun also immediately understood Ye Chen's meaning and said respectfully: "I understand, Mr. Ye. After solving Bader tonight, I will send people to talk to these pirate organizations. As long as they don't oppose the Wanlong Palace, we will leave them a way to live; otherwise, kill them without mercy!" ===== CHAPTER 1812 =====