“There was an accident at the border,” Jiang Chen looked at Timoshenko, smirked, then tossed the paper on the table, “Though I guess you already knew about it.”
The headline of the newspaper was exactly the tragedy that happened on the border between North and South Colombia. The spokespersons of both sides immediately came out with statements that accused the other side of causing the attack, which made the situation even more confusing.
To be honest, Jiang Chen’s thought Timoshenko self-directed and acted out this incident. After all, he really couldn’t believe that North Columbia dared to tear up the ceasefire agreement after the brutal defeat.
However, Timoshenko’s performance was too realistic. The pupils gleaming with anger, the tightly clenched fists, all made it look like it was real.
“These scumbags! Shameful liars! They tore up the ceasefire agreement!” He cursed in Spanish, which Jiang Chen couldn’t understand. Like an angry bull, Timoshenko grinded his teeth.
Although he cursed, he and his men had planned yesterday whether they should create an incident on the border as an excuse to tear up the ceasefire agreement. But coincidentally, North Colombia also shared the same thought, and was the first to act, and even accused North Colombia that this attack was “self-directed and self-acted”.
Regardless of how Timoshenko acted, Jiang Chen opened the flashing watch, leaned back against the chair, and answered the call.
The call was from Ayesha.
As soon as she received the news, Ghost Agents stationed in South America rushed to the scene of the incident. Through investigation, it was preliminarily determined that the attackers were the original Colombian Navy Special Force.
This special force and the FARC led by Timoshenko were old enemies. When South Colombia was not called South Colombia, and the FARC were still guerrillas fighting in the Andes, this special force were Colombia’s main counterinsurgency and anti-drug force. Many FARC executives died in the hands of this special force.
“I see.”
Jiang Chen nodded, hung up the phone, then focused his attention back on Timoshenko.
“The North Columbia Navy Special Force attacked the border post. You should be familiar with this name.”
“…I’ll remember them even if they turn to ashes,” Timoshenko said with a gloomy expression.
“I’ll lend you my Aerospace G100, and you will return home this afternoon.” After a pause, Jiang Chen continued, “I know what you are thinking, but I still maintain what I said before. Keep calm before the opportunity comes.”
“They are literally in our face, and you’re telling me to keep calm? The people are waiting to see my reaction. Tell me, how can I keep calm?” Timoshenko said angrily.
“I’ll allow you to retaliate against them appropriately, but no matter what, you must remember that maintaining the ceasefire agreement is our bottom line. Before getting my permission, if you tear up the ceasefire agreement without authorization, you will bear the consequences yourself.” Jiang Chen stared into Timchenko’s eyes and said in an irrefutable tone.
The silence lasted for about a minute, and Timchenko’s finally nodded reluctantly.
“…Okay.”
…
In the afternoon, the silver Aerospace G100, propelled by a ray of blue light, disappeared above the clouds. Jiang Chen lent his plane to Timoshenko so that he could return home as soon as possible and stabilize the situation in South Colombia.
The six soldiers at the border post were killed, and the walls were sprayed with insulting graffiti.
The pro-war faction in South Colombia was enraged by the humiliating action. Even the pro-peace supporters that originally supported the maintenance of the status quo were silent on this issue as they planned to change their status. This accident made everyone feel angry, and the anger was becoming increasingly uncontrollable.
It was impossible to do nothing. After Timoshenko returned home with Jiang Chen’s permission for “limited retaliation”, he immediately convened the Supreme Military Commission of South Colombia to formulate a retaliation.
It was too low-level to carry out the same attack on the border, and North Colombia was definitely prepared at this moment. If it was not carefully planned, the attack could be detected, and it would be difficult to explain. Timoshenko chose another angle and sent more than two hundred well-trained guerrillas across the border.
All electricity, water, and communication facilities were included in the targets of the attack. During a period, there were frequent fires at the North Columbia power plants, power failures occurred in the entire city, and civil communications were interrupted from time to time. These incidents had created headaches for the North Columbia authorities for a while. They had to seek help from the CIB to curtail the harassment of these guerrillas.
Of course, this alone was not enough.
In order to calm the anger of the pro-war faction and to prevent internal injuries caused by pent-up anger, on the morning of December 30th, there was a sudden explosion in a military camp on the outskirts of Monteria, North Colombia. A total of six soldiers died on the spot, two were seriously injured, and 17 soldiers were slightly injured.
North Colombia declared a national state of emergency, and at the same time condemned South Colombia’s attack as an act of terrorism and threatened to not rule out the use of military means to respond to this attack.
Just when North and South Colombia condemned each other as the side that provoked, NATO suddenly took a new stance.
At the NATO foreign ministers meeting held in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, the NATO Secretary General revealed a piece of breaking news in his speech—
NATO would send four more modern divisions to South Colombia within a year to stabilize the turbulent situation in South America…
“Bernice traced a donation, and there are many interesting names on the donation list,” Inside the office of the mansion, Ayesha reported to Jiang Chen.
“The recipient is?” Jiang Chen asked.
“The Columbia Unification Foundation is a fund specially established by the North Colombian government to facilitate the receipt of financial assistance from National Endowment for Democracy and purchase of arms from North American arms dealers through legal channels.” Ayesha gently placed a list on the desk, then said, “There are quite a few names are on it.”
After he looked at some of the incredible surnames on the list, Jiang Chen thought for a moment and said.
“If we publish the list…”
“It doesn’t make much sense. This list seems to be semi-public.” Ayesha shook her head and said, “And there is no direct evidence to prove that this donation is directly related to the incident that occurred on the border.”
“I see…” His finger lightly tapped on the armrest as he cast his gaze outside of the window, he said thoughtfully, “Is there any news from North America?”
“One more thing,” Ayesha nodded. “The day before the NATO foreign ministers meeting, a high-level military meeting was also held in the Capitol. We are unsure about the agenda of the meeting, but it is believed that the topics of the meeting are related to the defense budget… “
