Chapter 2629

At this moment in Eastern Europe.

Three container trucks sped along the highway of the Turkish port city of Antalya.

The containers loaded on these three trucks carried three disassembled AK-360 close-in weapon systems of former Soviet manufacture, along with their matching ammunition.

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Turkey, Ukraine, and Georgia have gradually become the leaders of the entire Eastern European arms black market.

After the Soviet collapse and the upheavals in Eastern Europe, nearly all countries bordering the Mediterranean have become black markets for arms trade, with these three countries being especially notable.

Hundreds of millions of various Soviet-made weapons and equipment are sold from these countries to the world, and the wonder here goes far beyond the massive transaction volume; what is even more impressive is that, as long as you have money, you can buy almost any weapon or equipment here except strategic nuclear missiles and fifth-generation fighters.

Not to mention former Soviet close-in weapon systems—if you pay enough, in these places you can even gather enough raw materials for nuclear weapons.

Among these, Turkey hosts a world-renowned nuclear black market; after the dismantling of former Soviet nuclear submarines, their reactor fuel rods are mostly removed and flow into this black market.

With sufficient money, buying over ten kilograms of enriched uranium from here and assembling a large bomb at home is no difficult task.

Therefore, in such a place, three close-in weapon systems can only be considered an inconspicuous, ordinary transaction.

Several Eastern European arms dealers escorted these three container trucks to the port of Antalya, where a container cargo ship was already about to be fully loaded.

After the three trucks entered the port, they were immediately assigned to a berth of this container cargo ship.

Three Americans had already been waiting by the berth for a long time; upon seeing the trucks arrive, they immediately stepped forward to meet the person in charge of the convoy.

The surrounding personnel had already been cleared in advance, so that the arms trade began in broad daylight between the two parties.

Neither party spoke; the person in charge of the convoy opened the containers of the three trucks, allowing the three Americans to board and inspect them one by one.

After confirming everything was correct, the three jumped down from the containers, and one of them waved at the cargo ship; immediately, a small loader on the ship lowered a six-hundred-kilogram iron box.

The convoy supervisor immediately stepped forward, opened the iron box, and found it filled with gleaming gold bars; he then signaled to those nearby, and several people quickly brought equipment to extract, inspect, and weigh the gold bars one by one, then pack them into several bundles they carried.

The iron box contained five hundred kilograms of gold, all bars remelted before departure and cast in flat molds, with no steel stamp anywhere on them, naturally leaving no trace.

After confirming the five hundred kilograms of gold were neither short nor light, the convoy supervisor smiled and approached the three Americans, saying: "Five hundred kilograms is no problem; gold prices have risen by two points since we negotiated, and I won't refund this difference."

An American said: "No need to refund; doing business with you, if gold prices rise you don't refund the difference, and if they fall we'll make up the difference for you."

The man laughed: "To speak frankly, I just love doing business with you people from Blackwater—simple, efficient, and satisfying."

One American said coldly: "Remember, if you tell anyone the name of Blackwater Company, we won't let you off."

"No problem!" the man laughed heartily, then added with a smile: "I still have plenty of NATO weapons from Western Europe here; if you're interested, I can give you a quote."

The American frowned and asked: "When did you start dealing in NATO weapons?"

"Haha!" the man laughed: "Go to Ukraine when you have time—NATO weapons are piling up there, more than half of the weapons aid from NATO member states flow into the black market; tell me what you want, and I can get it for you!"

The leading American nodded slightly and said calmly: "We'll contact you again if needed; we must prepare to depart now."

The man hurriedly said: "OK, contact us again if needed, happy cooperation!"

Soon, the gantry crane lifted these three containers onto the ship.

After confirming everything was correct, the three also boarded the cargo ship, which then set sail overnight toward the Suez Canal.

The cargo ship's route is from Turkey via the Suez Canal to South Africa, but no one knows that among the thousands of containers it carries, three are meant to be disembarked en route.

The straight-line distance from Antalya to Cyprus is only over two hundred kilometers; even reaching the southern shore of Cyprus is no more than three or four hundred kilometers.

When the cargo ship sailed away from Turkey and entered the vast Black Sea, night had already fallen.

Numerous soldiers of the Wanlong Temple, disguised as crew members, had already begun processing those three containers.

They first opened the containers and inspected the interiors to ensure no tracking or positioning devices were present.

After confirming everything was clear, they installed their own positioning equipment inside the containers, then began reinforcing the loaded weapons and ammunition by welding numerous fastening brackets inside with an electric welder, then securing the weapons and ammunition firmly inside using thickened lifting straps capable of bearing several tens of tons.

Afterwards, they used waterproof material to seal the container seams, then fixed several devices similar to oxygen tanks around the bottom of the containers.

When the cargo ship was less than a hundred kilometers from Cyprus, it was already deep night; suddenly a storm broke out on the sea, wind and waves gradually intensified, reducing visibility to extremely low levels—beyond a hundred meters, nothing could be seen clearly.

Yet at this moment, the Wanlong Temple soldiers were on deck, orderly preparing for the weapons handover.

They used GPS positioning; upon reaching the preset coordinates, they immediately threw these three containers into the vast sea.

Miraculously, just seconds before the containers hit the water, the devices around them resembling oxygen tanks suddenly exploded, then rapidly expanded and inflated into multiple large airbags, steadily supporting the containers on the water surface.

As the three containers entered the water one after another, the cargo ship did not pause but continued toward the Suez Canal.

Meanwhile, these three containers floating on the sea surface were successfully captured by a light transport ship that had been waiting nearby.

Afterwards, the light transport ship increased power and raced toward the port where the copper mine is located, arriving at the dock near the copper mine before dawn.

Since the copper mine's supervisor had long ago cleared all connections, the three containers attracted no attention upon unloading and were immediately transported into the copper mine interior.

At the same time, Wan Pojun had already arrived with Lang Hongjun, waiting early at this location.

Lang Hongjun is skilled in communications technology and also has experience with radar and infrared technology; Wan Pojun had personnel purchase infrared night-vision equipment and thermal imaging equipment, and this time he requested Lang Hongjun to collaborate with the Wanlong Temple weapons experts to link these devices with the close-in weapon systems.

At the three high points of the copper mine, Wan Pojun had already had people erect three inconspicuous glass houses; the newly arrived three close-in weapon systems are intended to be installed in these three glass houses.

These three high points can fully cover the open areas inside the copper mine and form a crossfire network; once the three close-in weapon systems lock onto a target, they will rotate and attack from three directions, creating a three-dimensional firepower coverage composed of different trajectories at the target's location and within tens of meters around it.

If a count from the Qing-destroying association truly comes knocking, after these three close-in weapon systems greet them, even their DNA might be hard to leave behind…