Efficiency

Gao Fei brought the cash and the good news about Sokholov back to the position. As usual, the good news came first. "Sokholov is out of danger. He's in a Moscow hospital right now—I just spoke to him on the company commander's satellite phone." Glaski had known Sokholov longer. Hearing news of him, he said, thrilled, "Fantastic! Word on that bastard at last. Not bad—those bastards finally did something decent for once." Cursing logistics whenever there was a spare moment was a Wagner mercenary tradition, so there was no need to spell out who "those bastards" were. Seeing that Gao Fei's expression hadn't brightened, Glaski's laughter quickly died down. Looking uneasy, he asked, "What? There's bad news too?" Gao Fei pulled the paper bag from his pack and said in a low voice, "The overdue bounties came through. Forty thousand. In euros. Cash." If combat bounties were handed out right after a battle, it was cause for celebration. But when they were delayed for days and then suddenly paid out all at once, it boded ill. Glaski froze for a moment, then whispered, "Another big battle's coming. Any replacements?" Gao Fei shook his head. What could Glaski say? He could only let out a soft sigh and say resignedly, "Of this money, fifteen thousand is yours, five thousand is Sokholov's, and five thousand goes to Samir. None for Parker. Andrey's from the penal battalion, so strictly speaking he shouldn't get any, but as things stand now, let's just have him split the remaining fifteen thousand with the others. If you have no objections, let's distribute the cash right now." The most critical fight had been fought by five men: Gao Fei, Andrey, Sokholov, Samir, and Parker. Gao Fei had no objections, but he still asked in a low voice, "What about the fallen brothers? Don't they get a share?" "The dead get death benefits, not bounties. Only the living can keep fighting, so when the higher-ups hand out bounties, they never factor in the dead. Sokholov didn't die, so he gets his cut. That's always been the rule; no one can argue with it." With that, Glaski stood up and shouted, "Everyone over here! Money's in!" Glaski's split was fair. Dividing fifteen thousand among five men gave each of them three thousand euros—not that much less than what Sokholov and Samir got for taking part in the final countercharge. The entire 1st Squad gathered around. As squad leader, Glaski took charge of distributing the bounties. Holding the paper bag of money high, Glaski yelled, "The bounties from the last fight have arrived—forty thousand in total! I'm handing them out now. Rex, fifteen thousand for you." There was no discussion, no need to ask anyone's opinion; Glaski simply doled out the cash. Four stacks of hundred-euro bills. He handed one full stack directly to Gao Fei, then broke into another stack, counted out five thousand for Gao Fei, and held out the remaining half toward Samir. "Five thousand for Samir." "And five thousand for Sokholov—I'll count that out. The remaining fifteen thousand will be split among the five of us, three thousand each." As the money was handed out, most were happy as they waited to collect their cash, but a few quick-witted ones had already caught on. "Squad Leader, why did the bounties drop all of a sudden? We aren't about to get thrown into another big fight, are we?" Glaski answered without hesitation, "Yes. As long as you know. If anyone wants to send money home, let me know. Hand over the cash, and I'll arrange for someone to go to the field bank and wire it all together." Mercenaries had provided bank accounts when signing their contracts. For Russians, wiring money was relatively straightforward, but for foreigners like Gao Fei and Samir, it was anything but convenient. No one asked for a wire transfer. The bounty had been paid in euros, but if transferred, it would arrive in rubles, calculated at the official exchange rate. Seeing that no one spoke up, Glaski finished handing out the money and said, "If no one wants a transfer, get back to your positions. Nothing more to say. As for when we attack, just wait for orders." The mood should have turned heavy; back at company command, everyone was already full of dread. But in 1st Squad, the reaction was rather strange. Not wanting to transfer the money was surprising enough, but none of them seemed to show the expected dread either. "With Rex around, none of us are dying. I'm not wiring it either—I'll keep the cash and take it home." "Once this battle is over, we'll be able to sell guns again. As long as artillery doesn't blow us to pieces, we'll be fine. I'm keeping the cash too. I trust Rex." Even Gao Fei didn't have that much faith in himself, yet not a single one of them—including Samir, and even Glaski—seemed particularly afraid. Andrey in particular grinned, saying with immense satisfaction, "The folks at company command are scared out of their minds, but we've got nothing to fear. With Rex here, we're sure to go from victory to victory! To victory! Squad Leader, bring out that last bottle of liquor and let's drink it!" Not only were they not afraid, they even had a great excuse to drink. Glaski readily agreed to Andrey's request. Seven men, two bottles of liquor—seven-hundred-and-fifty-milliliter bottles. Divided up, each man got less than half a jin. It wouldn't get them drunk anyway, so they might as well drink it all. Gao Fei drank along in a daze, waiting light-headedly until night fell and Li Jie arrived. The transactions had established a fixed routine: whichever squad was supplying the goods was responsible for delivering the firearms, and once Li Jie paid, they would notify the sellers to collect their cash. Today, however, Gao Fei had an extra item on his agenda. Counting both US dollars and euros, Gao Fei now had over twenty-four thousand in cash. Gao Fei planned to ask Li Jie if he could help remit the money. If he could, Gao Fei would start with five thousand as a test. If Li Jie truly transferred the money to his father's account, he would remit the rest bit by bit. Five thousand the first time, ten thousand the second—that was Gao Fei's plan. But before he could even ask, he heard news he desperately wished he hadn't. The first thing Li Jie said upon meeting was, "A major battle is about to start. Tonight is the last time I'm coming to collect weapons. Any future business will have to wait until this fight is over." Surprised and baffled, Gao Fei asked Li Jie, "How do you know? Didn't you say you'd never provide intelligence? Why bring it up on your own?" Li Jie replied nonchalantly, "The Russians moved an entire division in. The Ukrainians have already mapped out all the Russian positions, while the Ukrainian side has been urgently mobilizing troops for defense. Trenches in the rear are already dug. If the Russians don't attack, Ukraine will probably launch a counteroffensive. These troop movements are on the news—they're not secrets at all. How is this intelligence? Who doesn't know?" After the retort, Li Jie added abruptly, "Oh, right. You guys don't have TVs. You're the only ones who don't know." Gao Fei was utterly speechless. This war was being waged so openly that military secrets weren't even worth mentioning. Whether modern reconnaissance was just too advanced or the Russians' sense of operational security was too abysmal, one thing remained certain: in the end, it was the cannon fodder on the frontline who would die. Gao Fei pondered for a moment, then asked, "The unit brought in is a Russian division? Not Wagner—a division from the regular armed forces?" "An infantry division, an armored brigade, and apparently two combined arms battalions. Add in the units already stationed here, and Russia has gathered at least ten thousand men. It's a massive battle, but they won't break into Bakhmut. Ukraine has massed at least ten thousand troops of their own, anti-tank ditches are already dug behind them, and they've laid two lines of anti-tank mines." Li Jie gestured behind him with his thumb and said, "This is all public knowledge, not classified, so there's no harm in saying it. Well, I hope and wish you all make it through safely. I'll be waiting to keep doing business with you after the big fight is over." After saying his piece, Li Jie was about to leave. He claimed it wasn't intelligence, but he clearly wanted to give Gao Fei and his crew a heads-up. After all, nobody wanted to see their business partners get wiped out in a single battle. Gao Fei hesitated no longer. Looking at Li Jie with a solemn expression, he said, "Could you do me a favor? I have some money I want to send back home to China. It's not convenient on the Russian side. Can you help me wire it?" Li Jie thought for a moment. "How much?" "Twenty... twenty-four thousand. Some US dollars, some euros, mostly euros. My family used to do foreign trade, so we have existing accounts set up to receive foreign funds." "Have you hit the fifty-thousand-dollar annual foreign exchange limit per person?" "No." "Then that's easy. We can use Western Union. There'll be a two to five percent exchange spread, but the funds will arrive in a few minutes. We can handle everything right here. Euros, dollars—I'll count it all as dollars; I don't have time to calculate exchange rates for you. On top of that, I'll take a twenty-four-hundred-dollar cut. Don't call me greedy—the sender pays the transfer fees, plus I'm taking a risk carrying your cash back, and I was even worried you might shoot me in the back. If not for how long we've been working together, if not for you being reliable, and if not for the fact that I actually need cash, I would never do this favor." A ten percent fee was certainly steep, but with the money arriving in minutes, Gao Fei felt it was well worth every cent. Without hesitation, Gao Fei said, "I know Western Union—I've received payments through it before. No need for online ID verification, no MTCN number needed, straight into the bank account. I'll give you the cash and the account number right now, and you process it on the spot." Watching from the side, Samir piped up hurriedly, "Transfer mine too! Help me wire mine!" Li Jie replied without hesitation, "Just the two of you. Any more and I can't do it—carrying too much cash is dangerous. The two of you had better keep quiet about this. Come on, give me the account info and hand over the money. I'll get ready to wire it." Gao Fei decisively pulled out the cash, and Li Jie counted it immediately to his face. Once the money was tallied, Li Jie placed a call right away, asking someone to wire the funds into Gao Fei's father's account. Dollars sent, yuan received; there was a slight loss on the exchange rate, but it was acceptable. The main thing was how fast it went—it truly took only a few minutes. Gao Fei called his father to tell him to expect the money. The entire process took ten minutes: twenty-one thousand six hundred dollars had cleared into the account. Upon getting confirmation that the money had arrived, Gao Fei didn't have time to explain things to his father. He hung up immediately and said to Li Jie, "I owe you another favor. I'll probably need your help again down the line, so I won't waste words on thanks. If there's ever anything you need from me, just say the word—if I can help, I definitely will!" Li Jie hadn't hesitated to take the money, but upon hearing Gao Fei's words, he fell silent for a moment before saying with great politeness, "If you'd said that earlier, I wouldn't even have charged you the fee. Tell you what—how about I give that twenty-four hundred back to you?" Gao Fei hadn't expected Li Jie to say something like that. It seemed Li Jie really did have something he might need help with. Twenty-four hundred dollars—over ten thousand yuan. Saving money was always preferable, but doing a favor for an arms dealer on a battlefield—if he saved that money, the price he ended up paying might well be his life. Gao Fei knew where the line was, so he replied without hesitation, "Business is business. Money paid out is money spent—I'm not taking it back. If there's ever anything I can help with, just say the word. If I can help, I absolutely will!"