With bonuses and salaries paid out, they had to get up early. On their way, they also used a truck to bring over a freight pallet that had arrived earlier that morning from the A400M.
There aren't many entertainment options in the war zone; team-building activities like group meals are the only thing that can be done.
Xia Yu originally planned to have an outdoor barbecue, but after the big sandstorms, small ones kept coming one after another, so the barbecue was changed to a hot pot.
Enjoying hot pot while the air conditioning is on is a great pleasure. Just then, Lao Yu returned to Afica after his vacation and sent the first batch of supplies.
Yes, other PMC companies use the airlift quota allocated by the military to transport weapons, equipment, and important supplies.
Unlike traditional firefighting, firefighters typically transport food and water.
Opening the tray revealed several aviation cold chain boxes inside, and Xia Yu casually opened the top one.
"Clatter"
A rose lobster the size of a fist almost jumped out of the box. Old Yu must have given it too much oxygen, look how lively it is.
Besides lobster, there are also grouper and sea bass. After getting tired of freshwater fish in Mari, I thought I'd try some seafood to change things up.
Then there are the vegetables in Mali, which are always the same three: carrots, onions, and potatoes. The last time Xia Yu ate leafy greens was when he got some water spinach and pumpkin vines at the Blue Helmet Camp.
Now I can finally enjoy leafy greens freely for a week. Underneath several boxes of seafood are chilled bok choy, Chinese cabbage, tender cucumbers with prickly tops, and lots and lots of cilantro.
Add the packaged tofu and duck blood at the bottom of the pot, and today's hot pot is complete.
Indeed, setting up the company headquarters in Guoyan was the right choice. As long as logistics were established, he would have the largest supply base for perishable food items.
This isn't Xia Yu being extravagant; the employees also have needs. For example, Paul, who came to help unload the goods, didn't even look at the seafood; he just picked up a cucumber, removed the small flower, and started eating it right away.
Who would want to eat pickled cucumbers when fresh ones are available? Vegetables have always been a luxury in many places, and people in cold and arid areas can't even get them. On the other hand, meat is relatively cheaper.
Bring water to a boil in a pot, then add the hot pot broth.
Tom and Mariano, who had the best knife skills, were in charge of slicing fish and opening lobsters, while those who weren't as good at knife skills helped Hans select vegetables and prepare other ingredients.
Those who had no work to do went to the containers to move wine and drinks. More than 30 people set up 6 pots, and by the time the air conditioning in the barracks came down, the pots were boiling.
The soldiers from Jihuo Defense were having a great time eating and drinking here; the food they ate in the mess hall was better than what Lao Mei had.
Even with limited resources, Chinese people still try to create something special, rather than just cooking the ingredients to get by.
"To put it simply, the company's market expansion in Mari is progressing very smoothly, which is inseparable from everyone's strong support. As the boss, I thank you all for your efforts and hope to continue our efforts in the future to help the client eliminate the remaining enemies of Auga."
Xia Yu stood up and addressed everyone.
After ending Oga's operations, there's also Kidal in the north, as well as Kinabalu and Niger.
The surrounding areas also include the turbulent Sudan, the ongoing war in Zhongfei, and the even more intense Libya...
In Afica, where chaos is the dominant theme, Xia Yu is not afraid of the company having no business. What's important is to seize the market and make more friends.
Xia Yu's goal was to first make a name for himself by conducting a round of attacks and establishing Jihuo Defense's reputation, which would also clear obstacles for him to open branch offices in the future.
Jihuo Defense cannot remain a small company forever. When it reaches a bottleneck in profit growth, it will naturally expand its scale and become bigger and stronger.
For example, if Xia Yu plans to increase to 5 train sets, then 2 to 3 train sets per line are already nearing their limit.
Monthly revenue can consistently exceed 10 million euros, and with more business, it can reach 20 million or even 30 million, but breaking through 50 million is extremely difficult.
Expanding to 5 vehicle crews, and then combining attack helicopters, reconnaissance and strike drones, fixed-wing air support... with more individual combat units, this month will definitely break 50 million.
Six hundred million a year may seem like less than the profit level of a single tank museum, but the cheapest thing in Afica is human life, while the most valuable thing is the various minerals buried underground.
Most PMC companies ultimately develop through mining, which is the only business that can reach a scale of hundreds of billions of dollars.
Without the support of strong military force and without good relations with local authorities, your mine simply cannot be put into operation.
This is why military contractors still consider strike operations as their core business, even though strike operations only account for a small percentage (around 10-20%) of their total profits.
The consequence of being unable to continue is like a white top hat: a whale falls and all things are born; the high-profit business is completely divided up.
"Therefore, always remember our slogan!"
Xia Yu scanned the crowd and finally spoke.
"Concentrate fire and launch an attack!"
Everyone present stood up and shouted.
They shout slogans every day, aiming for simplicity and clarity, just like their company name, which is as straightforward as it is.
Just crack down on it.
"cooked rice!"
"Yes, boss!"
Xia Yu sat down and started eating.
His worst habit was to launch into long, rambling speeches before meals, so even after becoming a boss, he didn't pick up this bad habit.
Pick up a slice of grouper and cook it in the clear broth of the hot pot.
Hmm, it tastes delicious, very much like the grouper from which he dissected the system.
It's a pity there's no second system, or rather, it's fortunate there isn't.
The official employees and the boss were drinking and chatting, while the logistics staff and the village protection team stayed in the barracks to eat their own food, and they preferred beef and mutton, which were much more expensive in Konglujia, to seafood.
They receive a decent salary and live in better conditions than at home, so they are very grateful and work very hard.
Without Xia Yu, these people would most likely be like Xiangzi from Heilongjiang, who, after realizing that no amount of effort could turn their lives around, became middle-aged drifters, just barely surviving one day at a time amidst the chaos of war.
It's not 100% safe now, but at least there's hope.
Several men in Oga have hit it off with local women and are planning to take them back as mistresses once the company finishes this deployment.
That's normal. They earn several hundred dollars a month. If they don't marry a few more, they'll be missing out big time.
It's a very simple idea, and Xia Yu respects local customs and traditions. However, he's happy that Domi doesn't have this idea, which shows that teaching by example is effective.
“I want to find a college student, someone knowledgeable and cultured. My husband said that older women are more suitable for me.”
At the dinner table, Domi was pushed forward by his friends to ask about his mate preferences. After all, the young man was almost eighteen years old, while his peers in Konglujia were already fathers of several children.
However, those words were not spoken by Xia Yu, but by Old Xia, who had lived in Aisai.
Because of their historically large intermarriage with people of Middle Eastern and European descent, girls from that region are often referred to as "Afica Mao girls," and quite a few Chinese men have actually married them.
In other countries, it's one thing, but not many relationships actually work out. Most people just rush in blindly, and once the hormones wear off, they realize it still doesn't work.
“The place called Aissa is not peaceful either. Besides the fact that the Zhomali youth team is involved, there are also conflicts among their own people. Maybe we have the opportunity to deploy there.”
Old Ke said, scalding a piece of green vegetable in the tomato broth.
He had been living in Kenniya before joining the Firepower Defense Force, so he was very familiar with the situation in the surrounding countries. Domi's wish to marry an elderly female college student might actually come true.
"Dun Du, what about you? Would you marry four?"
Domi asked his younger brother, Dundu.
"No way! I was raised by my stepmother, and my sisters treat me well, but I still want to stay with Papa!"
While eating the scalding hot mutton ear-shaped cured meat, Dundu's mouth was full of oil, and he took a big gulp of Sprite before he could answer.
With the village gone, he changed his religious beliefs and followed Xia Yu in believing in science.
We ate, drank, and chatted, and before we knew it, it was afternoon.
After tidying up the table, today's team building activity got down to business.
"Honey Badger, this is your portion."
Xia Yu picked up the tote bag with the code name Domi written on it and handed it to him.
"Thank you, boss!"
Domi, who played the entire game, received the full $170,000, which, combined with his salary and allowances for the month, brings him to just over $180,000.
With his previous savings, the young man became the second millionaire among the company's full-time employees.
This is the advantage of joining early. Sergei had a chance because he had won several bonuses, but unfortunately he only got a coefficient of 0.3 this time, so he will have to wait until next time to break the million mark.
He wasn't in a hurry. Firstly, good things take time, and secondly, he wanted to enjoy the moment with his brothers.
"Mongoose, this is yours."
Xia Yu handed the handbag to Hans.
This guy got promoted to tank commander and finally received his base salary of $7,000.
Okay, slightly lower than the $8,000 Andrei, and a far cry from the $1,000 Alvin.
That's just how the market works; the most expensive are always fighter pilots, followed by attack helicopter pilots, with vehicle commanders being the lowest tier.
Even with protective gear, they are not as good as veteran combat employees like Christian and his team.
Fortunately, the bonuses leveled the gap. In addition, Hans also had part-time jobs as a helicopter gunner, a fighter jet rear-seat weapons officer, and a mortar squad leader. His income was still in a class of its own in the company, far ahead of the competition.
Xia Yu continued to pay his employees. Paying tens or hundreds of thousands of yuan in cash wasn't a big burden, and wages and allowances weren't a problem either. The only issue was that if there was a big surprise in the next bonus distribution, then it would have to be deposited into the employees' accounts.
It wasn't that he didn't have enough cash; it was that it was inconvenient for his employees to carry it.
Switching to gold makes it easier to carry, but it more than doubles the weight. In the end, using a bank account is still more convenient.
After distributing the money, Xia Yu sent everyone back to rest, because they would be conducting their routine patrol of the war zone tomorrow, braving the sandstorm.
Meanwhile, Alvin's strike operation, which was delayed yesterday, has been rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon.
The operation was also temporarily modified; they were to drop a total of eight GBU-12 precision-guided bombs.
If it's less than four shots, Old A can handle it himself, but this is doubled, which is still too cruel for the old man.
So Hans will join the fruit bat crew tomorrow, and the two of them will work together to earn back the 360,000 euros.
Without having to bear the costs of fuel and ammunition, and after deducting aircraft maintenance costs and personnel salaries, this money is basically net profit.
While the earnings aren't as high as the 500,000 package that Busa repeatedly repurchased, the advantage lies in the fact that it can be deployed every three to five days, making it quite considerable overall. It follows a strategy of winning through volume.
The same principle applies to war zone patrols. Even if Xia Yu returns to China later, as long as this deployment is not over, the company can continue to operate and generate profits even without him.
Of course, coordinated operations within the military system are possible, but independent joint strikes are somewhat difficult.
Kuhn is capable of commanding ground operations, but even if you give him an attack helicopter, it's highly likely that Andrei will still have to take charge.
In combined arms operations, Hans, who had served as an attack helicopter gunner, was more talented, but he didn't coordinate very well with individual combat units like Sergei and Old K.
Let's all practice then. Find a small armed group of a hundred or so people, Xia Yu won't participate, and see if they can handle it on their own.
If you can manage to get him to go back, he can still take on jobs and make a fortune in euros. If you can't, then practice until you can.
The boss needs to make a profit. The unique feature of Jihuo Defense is that the boss is at the forefront. You can't fight a war if the boss isn't around.
Even without his morale boost, this versatile "unit," this cheat-like player, the focused defense still needs to demonstrate sufficient combat power.
The reason Xia Yu didn't want two Leclerc UAEs was that he hoped the ARV armored recovery vehicles could be used when he wasn't around.
Like a highly skilled army, they crush every target in their path, awaiting the triumphant return of their boss.
Nothing happened that night. Hans left for the airport early, while Xia Yu went to Leclerc's car.
Today, Andrei is on duty, and he'll be filling in for Hans as the driver of the French car.
Yeah, I also have to be a gunner.
Patrol missions are not very demanding and do not require a 120mm tank gun; a coaxial machine gun is sufficient to solve the problem.
At most, you can use the Galix grenade launcher, which can fire a wide variety of types of ammunition.
Xia Yu was thinking of equipping the T-64B1M with this as well, as the multispectral shielding smoke and infrared decoy flares would be quite useful.
During use, he discovered a weakness in the active defense system: due to the angle, it was not very effective against top-attack missiles.
Xia Yu wrote a report summarizing this in detail, and the feedback he received was that the next generation would solve this problem.
Previously, when encountering top-attack missiles such as Javelin, the battlefield generation system composed of Galix grenade launchers had to be used as a transition.
First, buy some time, then rush in and take them out. If there are too many of them, call for air support immediately.
Attack helicopters are more effective at engaging anti-tank units, given their superior position and clearer visibility.
Domi first climbed into the tank and started the engine, then turned on the vehicle's air conditioning. Only after the temperature dropped did he signal Xia Yu to get in the vehicle.
That was very thoughtful. The other three crews were also ready, and followed their long vehicle to form a convoy and drive out of the camp.
Meanwhile, hundreds of kilometers away in Niger, a Reaper drone was returning home in the dawn.
It gathered enough intelligence that soon a mixed convoy of Green Berets and local government troops also drove out of the US Army camp.
I don't know if it's a coincidence, but the departure times were about the same, yet the composition of the convoys was quite different.
On one hand, they're armed to the teeth, and on the other hand, it's like a road trip – even a Hummer is better than an unmodified SUV!
Unfortunately, they placed too much faith in the intelligence brought back by the Death Drones, believing that everything was under control, when in fact that was not the case.
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