Chapter 346 Medellin
After finishing the mining work, Zhang Ailun led his men away from the survey site and contacted Andre, a Colombian mining businessman. He conveyed his desire to buy a mining machine and explained his identity and purpose.
When Andre received the news, his first reaction was not joy, but shock and horror.
Andre: You want to buy my mining machine? Are you working for the guerrillas of Silver Island? Don’t dream! ! I have been fighting with you guerrillas for a long time. Don’t even think about taking any assets from me! I am ready to sell the factory to the government and the country. At least they are willing to give me some money for my retirement. You will get nothing! Damn guerrillas! !
When the chief leader received his message, he immediately realized that this guy must be overly vigilant.
But it is understandable. After all, he used to be a wealthy man with no worries about food and drink, but now he has been tortured by the guerrillas and has no food or sleep, and his family is almost broken up and he is separated from his wife and children.
Zhang Ailun: You misunderstood me, Mr. Andre. I am not a guerrilla. On the contrary, I am friends with the Colombian government. Now Silver Island is my asset. I am going to invest in some mining work on it. I have arranged the manpower and only need some professional equipment. You are living on San Andres Island now, right? If it is convenient, I can bring people to visit you now and discuss the acquisition.
Andre: You even know where I am? And you still say I'm not a guerrilla?
Zhang Ailun: It's not a secret, right? Haven't you read the recent news about Colombia? I had friendly talks with Colombian Congressman Dutch, and they sold me Silver Island. I've also dealt with the guerrillas, and there was a guy named Gorzan who had a plane crash. It was unfortunate.
Andrei: Guerrilla Gorzan encountered a plane crash? Really? I don't really know much about this, please wait a moment.
Andre was shocked, and quickly went to his friends in the government to inquire about the relevant situation. The result he got was true, so he quickly sent a message to the chief leader.
Andre: I'm sorry, Mr. Kim, I was too sensitive and mistakenly thought that you were a guerrilla and were helping them plunder my assets!
Andre: The guerrillas were too hateful. They had been harassing me and my family, using all kinds of mean means to take away my mining equipment and property, which made my life miserable. I had no choice but to seek help from the government, spend a lot of money on charity donations to obtain political asylum, and take my family to abandon the property in Medellin and take refuge on San Andres Island.
Zhang Ailun: It’s okay. You businessmen doing business in Colombia do need to be more vigilant. You are right. I only recently came up with the idea of buying Silver Island. Now I have successfully taken over the island. There is no threat anymore, so I can focus on mining.
Andre: Mr. Kim, how did you take back the island from those guerrillas? They were ruthless terrorists.
Allen Zhang: Because I have a good relationship with the US military, I have seen more elite troops, doing things related to gun trading and so on. In comparison, the guerrillas in Colombia are really not worth mentioning.
Got it, you're an arms dealer.
No wonder they could easily deal with the guerrillas. Their firepower competition with the arms dealers was like an egg hitting a stone. Andre was completely relieved after hearing this and warmly welcomed the chief leader to acquire his assets.
Andre: It is my honor that Mr. Jin has the idea of purchasing mining equipment from us. I have more than ten factories of various sizes in various mining areas in Colombia. We have all kinds of professional advanced equipment and engineering mechanics. I can be said to be the only one in Colombia. Other mining companies cannot compare with me.
Andre: But I was targeted by the guerrillas before, so I had to cancel the share investment in factories in various regions. At present, there is only one large mining factory in Medellin. My company once had mining work in the Buritica Mine in Medellin. This is also the most modern large-scale gold mining project in Colombia, creating a large number of jobs for local workers. But since the guerrillas came to my door, they tried to coerce and induce me with despicable means. My company has not been open for business for a long time, and the important machinery and equipment are also there. If you have the idea of purchasing it, I can sell it to you at a low price, provided that the guerrillas can dispel their coveted ideas.
Zhang Ailun: I have dealt with the guerrillas in Silver Island. Those guerrillas who covet your factory equipment should be from the same organization. I believe they will not offend me. You can do things under my banner. I guarantee that no one will provoke you unless they want to be shot!
Andre: Mr. Jin, I can take you to the Medellin factory in Colombia to observe the equipment, and then we can discuss the purchase price. I can also help you with the transportation.
Allen Zhang: That would be great.
After chatting for a few more sentences and agreeing to meet at the airport in Medellin, Zhang Ailun put away his phone, called Bocteau and Bailey, and asked them to take a few people and fly to Medellin, Colombia.
Silver Island is not far from Colombia. It took dozens of minutes for the plane to successfully reach the Medellin airport and land smoothly. The Warthog A10 arrived ten minutes in advance.
During the flight, Zhang Ailun had already communicated this matter with Congressman Dutch in advance, so an armed attack aircraft flew into Colombian airspace and landed inside the airport, and all procedures went smoothly.
After arriving at the Colombian airport, Zhang Ailun contacted Andre again. Andre had already taken a private plane from San Andres Island to the Medellin airport and was currently taking a private car to pick him up. After the chief leader received the news, he also chose to wait at the airport with his men.
I sat in the VIP service area of the airport to rest and drank a cup of coffee to refresh myself. Fully armed soldiers were on guard nearby. The airport staff also received a notice from the government that a distinguished guest would land at the airport and were ready to receive him.
But unexpectedly, an American Warthog attack aircraft came and arrived at the Medellin Airport first, and then a Cirrus private jet landed on the airport runway, with armed bodyguards on board!
The airport manager felt that this distinguished guest must be someone important, so after preparing a registration list of personnel, he brought people over to greet him.
"Mr. Jin, do you have any other needs? If you are not sure about your personal safety and have other special needs, I can introduce you to a professional security team. They will ensure your personal safety throughout your trip to Medellin and provide protection for your local sightseeing."
The airport manager also brought someone to introduce the chief leader.
There are many guerrillas recruited by the government, and they will set up local security teams to serve and escort the rich. They are familiar with the local ecology and can also help the rich avoid unnecessary harassment and trouble. After all, they only need to say hello to other organizations in advance.
Don't move this person, or something terrible will happen! !
If you dare to touch him, the government forces will come to attack you the next day.
"I'm waiting for someone to pick me up here. I don't need any other services for now. You can just go about your own business." Zhang Ailun replied.
Taking a look at these security teams, every one of them is a former guerrilla.
While waiting, the chief leader also noticed that many people were paying attention to the situation here. There were good and bad people and their identities were unknown, so he didn't want to attract widespread attention here.
After all, this is the first time that the leader has come to Colombia, and it is in Medellin.
Although there are no big drug lords here now, drug trafficking groups, smuggling activities and guerrilla organizations still exist, and the security level is not guaranteed, but it is much better than before.
If you are an ordinary traveler or a poor person, then you are safe.
After all, no one wants to spend energy on poor people. Poor people are not very healthy. They smoke and drink. Their lungs are black and their kidneys are weak. If you are rich, healthy, and have no background, then you are not so safe to a large extent. Medellin, you are really in trouble, my good brother!
As soon as you pass the checkpoint with the medical examination report, someone will come to welcome you aboard the bus enthusiastically.
It's not up to you where to go.
After communicating with the chief, the airport staff turned around and left.
The soldier on guard observed the situation outside and came back to report to the chief leader: "Commander, there are at least a dozen local gangs, smuggling teams, drug dealers, and guerrilla spies outside. The airport here is also a densely populated area, and kidnapping and smuggling cases often occur."
"Don't worry about it. This is an airport. Many passengers from other countries will board planes here. They can't cause a riot here unless they want to become internationally famous! Each of their kidnapping plans is also purposeful. It's impossible for them to act rashly just because they target a rich person."
Zhang Ailun didn't care about it. No matter how brainless the kidnappers were, they couldn't do anything without following the rules. Such an organization would have been wiped out by the government army or other hostile forces long ago.
After checking the time, he instructed, "You guys should also drink some water and take a rest. Don't worry, just think of it as a sightseeing trip here."
The soldiers did not comment on this. On the surface, they sat down and ordered a cup of coffee and dessert, but secretly they became more vigilant. It was not until Andre's convoy arrived at the airport, got off several off-road vehicles, and rushed over with a dozen security teams that they felt relieved.
Andrei and his men asked the airport staff and learned about the VIP room where the chief leader was. He also brought people over to knock on the door and greet him.
"Hello, Mr. Jin, I'm Andre."
Zhang Ailun went out and looked at the middle-aged man with white hair, and shook hands with him with a smile, "Hello, Mr. Andre, I am Hamburger Juankin."
"Mr. Jin, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting for a long time. I hope you haven't encountered any trouble here?" Andre asked eagerly.
"I can't imagine anyone who would be so desperate as to come and cause trouble for me." Zhang Ailun smiled.
"You are right, is that Warthog attack aircraft outside yours?" Andre noticed an A10 parked at the airport and was amazed.
"That's right. Have you taken care of your personal affairs? Can you take me to visit the factory and mining equipment now? I have other things to deal with in the afternoon and evening." Zhang Ailun also urged a little.
"It's done. I can take you there now." Andre hurriedly asked someone to prepare the car, took the leader to the waiting area, and got on the off-road vehicle.
Zhang Ailun asked Bailey and Boktu to wait at the airport, and took only a few people to the mining machinery factory by car.
The vehicle left the airport and headed for the mining area in Medellin. Everything went smoothly on the road without any setbacks. The surrounding towns were developing rapidly and had made great progress compared to the last century. They were not as dilapidated as imagined. After all, Medellin had the largest gold mine in Colombia, which to some extent would radiate wealth to working-class families.
It took just over ten minutes to reach the mining machine factory.
After getting off the car, Zhang Ailun took a look at the seemingly empty mountain area. There were basically no people there. Except for the factory buildings and a few shanty towns, the rest seemed even more empty.
Andre also invited the chief leader to go to the factory. After arriving here, he saw various equipment parked inside, and there were more than a dozen engineering mechanics living here.
Andre asked them to start up various types of equipment and conduct inspections to ensure that there were no quality issues with the equipment and that it could be put into use after purchase.
He also explained, "Due to the harassment and obstruction of the guerrillas, I have not officially started work for several months. During this period, I also laid off many people and lost a lot of money. Previously, people from the government came forward to negotiate with me and wanted to purchase this entire set of industrial equipment. I am still considering it because these equipment were advanced equipment imported from abroad using US dollars, but the government was only willing to settle for me in Colombian pesos, which will undoubtedly cause me to lose a lot of money. Now that Mr. Jin is willing to come forward to purchase these things, of course I don’t need to worry about it anymore."
Zhang Ailun took a look at the equipment. There were all kinds of mining machines and there were no problems with them. After being transported to Silver Island, they could be directly put into mining work.
Inquiring: "Mr. Andre, what price do you plan to sell these equipment for?"
"I spent a total of 1500 million . dollars to buy this advanced equipment. I often hire people to debug and maintain the equipment. Now, with the surge in demand for mining work in Colombia, the price of these equipment has increased instead of decreased, and can be sold for 2000 million . dollars."
Andre explained: "The price I negotiated with the Colombian government is 875 billion pesos, which is about 2000 million . dollars. But if Mr. Jin is willing to settle all in . dollars, I only need to sell it at the original price of 1500 million . dollars."
Zhang Allen searched the prices of various mining equipment and found that if this set of equipment was purchased on the West Coast, just a set of advanced stone crushers would cost nearly $500,000. If it was a package of ultrasonic large stone crushers, it would cost at least $2 million.
Like other drilling machines, rock drills, mining shovels, pneumatic picks, water pumps, crushers, excavators, heavy trucks, belt conveyors... such a complete set of modern industrial equipment, even if it is a second-hand product, you can't get it without more than 20 million US dollars.
The initial investment requires so much money, not to mention the labor, water and electricity costs. It is more expensive than the entire Silver Island. No wonder those guerrilla members want to take the wrong path and rack their brains to get this equipment for free.
Moreover, they are not sure whether there are really silver coins and gold on Silver Island. If they spend nearly 3000 million US dollars to purchase equipment but no silver coins are produced, who will bear the loss?
The scenery on the island has been destroyed, and the treasure has not been mined. No one is willing to come here if they want to continue to develop tourism. Since the risk is so great, it is better to continue to sell tickets under the gimmick of the treasure of Silver Island.
This is also one of the main reasons why the guerrillas have held the Silver Island for so many years but have not mined the treasure. Another part of the reason is the resistance from the government. The people within the guerrillas are not united and are reluctant to give up the ticket revenue of Silver Island. They want both.
Now the money is gone and the island is gone.
All of them were given to the chief leader at a low price.
(End of this chapter)
