Chapter 3511: Extort Them for a Sum!

The situation in Syria, due to Hamid's lucky survival and the Blackwater company's island platform, has entered a delicate balance.

Those high-ranking opposition figures who advocated killing Hamid, due to the failure of their plot and its public exposure, have been condemned by the international community and are now in a phase where everyone is shouting to beat them.

Although they may disregard international reputation, their internal authority has indeed been significantly affected; the people question them, internal vigilance targets them, and for them, the situation is indeed somewhat unfavorable, so in the short term, they absolutely dare not carry out any further mischievous operations.

Moreover, within the opposition itself, there are various factions; the core layer forms one faction, while some peripheral minor warlords, like Hamid, are in an awkward or even crisis-ridden situation; this Hamid ambush also served as a warning bell for them.

After Hamid returned safely, following Ye Chen's teachings, he maintained very close contact with some relatively peripheral figures within the opposition, continuously launching psychological offensives against them, making them also highly wary of the current rulers; everyone formed an alliance, determined to advance and retreat together on this matter.

However, Hamid currently does not know how strong the actual cohesion of this alliance is internally, nor how high its actual combat effectiveness becomes after uniting.

Therefore, he remains highly vigilant, and after purging internal spies, he has tripled the personnel responsible for usual patrols and security; drones equipped with thermal imaging have taken over takeoff duties, conducting 24-hour uninterrupted surveillance of the surrounding area within a radius of several tens of kilometers, fearing enemy sneak attacks.

When Ye Chen called him, Hamid, who had been inspecting for several hours, was still asleep.

Upon receiving Ye Chen's call, Hamid quickly became alert and excitedly asked: "Ye Younger Brother, what instructions do you have for me?"

Ye Chen asked: "Older Brother, how has the situation been these past few days?"

Hamid sighed and said: "Recently, I have been following your previous instructions, Younger Brother, secretly uniting some warlords within the opposition, and have reached a preliminary alliance agreement with them."

Ye Chen asked him: "How strong are these warlords?"

"Strength..." Hamid said embarrassedly: "Their strength is not great; they don't even control their own territories, and their forces have been integrated into the current so-called government army; however, due to my experience, they are now jumpy and all eager to find an opportunity to detach their forces."

Ye Chen advised: "You can rally these warlords similar to you, follow your model to establish autonomy; ideally, like you, they should control a region, build high walls and stockpile grain; nowadays, entrusting your back to comrades is not actually safe; if you can build your own copper walls and iron barriers, security will greatly improve."

Hamid lamented: "They would like to, but how could it be so easy to achieve?... The opposition's core layer has always been very wary of them; if they wanted to re-extract the already integrated army, the core layer would absolutely not agree."

Ye Chen smiled: "Before, they would not agree, but now the situation may be different; they are certainly also flustered, after all, they have already secured their position and are no longer the former opposition; this time they carried out such a terrorist operation, which has greatly damaged their image; added to internal military morale dispersal, if they continue to maintain high pressure on other warlords now, before the former government army returns, their internal affairs may already have collapsed; thus, now is a good time to promote the feudal system."

"Feudal system?" Hamid said, somewhat puzzled, not quite understanding Ye Chen's meaning.

Ye Chen said: "Put another way, it's a modern federal system; everyone, like you, strives for their own fiefdom, bringing their own arms to operate within their fiefdom, usually highly autonomous, but in major events such as foreign invasion or internal rebellion, they follow the dispatch of the federal administrators and jointly resist the enemy."

Hamid hesitated for a moment, then said: "Many people saw me nearly die in the Maldives and may have imagined they might face the same fate someday, possibly even worse luck than mine; now they are all individually panicked; if they could achieve high autonomy, it would certainly be the best choice, but I don't know if the core layer will open this door."

Ye Chen said lightly: "Whether they open this door depends on whether internal and external pressure is sufficient; when pressure is not great, everyone wants both; but when pressure is too great, everyone will automatically make trade-offs; since now there is great external pressure and also great internal rift, as long as these warlords like you can unite and strive for high autonomy, it is not a problem, provided the capital and economically prosperous regions are left to the core layer."

Hamid lamented: "If they cannot obtain the economically prosperous regions, even if the core layer agrees, they will likely have to start from scratch in a place where birds don't defecate; these warlords probably lack sufficient startup funds."

Ye Chen smiled: "This is why I called you; Bernard Arnault just called me, he is willing to donate two hundred million US dollars to you, to help you consolidate the situation in Syria; I think you can take out a portion to support your sworn brothers in building their own territories."

Hamid exclaimed: "Arnault donated two hundred million US dollars to me?! This... this should all be out of respect for your face, Younger Brother!"

Ye Chen smiled: "Whose face it is for doesn't matter; what matters is that these two hundred million US dollars can help you win over many hearts."

Hamid said gratefully: "Ye Younger Brother, you have helped me too much; I really don't know how to repay you..."

Ye Chen said: "Between us, there's no need for such formality; moreover, the foundation of the Wanlong Temple is also in Syria; in the future, we need you two sides to cooperate and assist each other, to huddle together for warmth; when you do well, the collective strength of our huddle will improve."

After saying that, Ye Chen asked him again: "By the way, after you returned, did you contact the opposition leaders?"

"No." Hamid said somewhat resentfully: "This bunch of untrustworthy, backstabbing scoundrels, I don't want to have any further contact with them!"

Ye Chen said lightly: "Don't be so hot-headed; he stabbed you in the back, didn't knock you down, then you should learn to take advantage of this opportunity to cause a ruckus and extort them a sum! Listen to me, today just go to them for an explanation, make them give you certain compensation; otherwise, you should never rest, not only cause trouble in Syria, but also make it known on the internet that everyone should know; even if there's nothing, you can register a personal account online, shoot short videos, do live streams; the bigger the commotion, the more they will dread you; in short, you should use every means to torment them, forcing them to reach a settlement with you."

"Settlement?" Hamid asked: "Ye Younger Brother, how do you want me to settle with them?"

Ye Chen said: "Let them at least give you certain compensation; best is to force them to agree to expand your territory; then you can send a survey team to check if there is oil or natural gas in your territory; if so, we will invest in extraction."

Hamid said: "Younger Brother, even if I could dig out oil, I have no channel to sell it; I lack import-export qualifications, and others won't do business with me, this warlord..."

Ye Chen smiled: "You don't need to sell it; as long as your territory can produce oil, I will have the Wanlong Temple invest in a refinery; gasoline and diesel will be directly consumed internally by the Wanlong Temple, heavy oil can be sold to Yisu Shipping, directly bunker to passing cargo ships, forming an internal closed loop; then let the Wanlong Temple settle with you, you just collect the money."