Chapter 267: Placing the weights

As Zhou Ming's words were translated by the female leader, the atmosphere in the room suddenly dropped to freezing point. Whether it was Chief Sheik Ghailan and his daughter or the other servants who followed, they all looked at Zhou Ming with a gaze as if they were ripping his heart out.

After a moment of silence, Chief Jao Lan said to Zhou Ming, 'I think there must be some kind of mistake, or perhaps a translation problem. I can allow you to say it again, and I hope that this time you can discuss it with my daughter, Ria, first. This will avoid some unnecessary misunderstandings.'

From Gaolan's words, Zhou Ming learned that the Kurdish princess who was the female leader of the guerillas was originally named Rhea. Zhou Ming listened to her translation and waved his hands uselessly and said, 'I don't think there's any need to discuss this anymore. If the translation just now is indeed about helping the Salm regime fight against the multinational forces led by the United States, then I don't think there is any misunderstanding between us.'

'Why?' This time, Lea did not even have time to translate, and she directly questioned Zhou Ming, 'Do you know what you are saying, Huaxia people? You said before that you came to bring us the news of the establishment of the Kurdish state, and I only brought you here. Now you are telling me that you came to be a lobbyist for Saddam?'

In the face of Lea's questioning, Zhou Ming replied without changing his expression: 'I have come to bring you the news of the founding of the state of Kurdistan, but at the same time I also hope that you can send troops to help the Salm regime fight against the multinational forces.'

'And why? Because of your ridiculous story about Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves? I'll tell you, Salm is not a kind thief, but a demon!'

Rhea said to Zhou Ming, 'I am not old, but I have seen the hatred between the Kurds and Salm grow. Twelve years ago, when Salm staged a coup and became president, We Kurds and his war began. In these twelve years, as many as a million of our Kurdish compatriots have died at his hands. I even witnessed his troops using poison gas to massacre 10,000 of our compatriots in the town of Abya!'

'Can you imagine the pain I saw in their faces? And they were all unarmed, just old women and children, they posed no threat at all, how could he do that?' Lea became more and more agitated as she spoke, and finally she roared, 'So you still want us to fight for that scum? What are you thinking?'

After listening to Lea's angry rant, Zhou Ming remained silent for a long while before saying, 'I know all about the hatred between you Kurds and the Salm, but I still have to say that, given the current situation, you helping the Salm is the inevitable choice.'

Rhea was about to say something, but then Zhou Ming interrupted her and continued, 'The reason is simple. Unless you can leave Iraq, you will continue be massacred by Saddam's army, or do you want to see again, Princess Leia, what happened in the town of Abya, and see your countrymen suffering from the effects of poison gas, their bodies festering and ulcerating...'

Before Zhou Ming could finish his sentence, Lea covered her ears and shouted, 'Of course I don't want to! But why must we help that evil man, Salm?'

'Before I answer that question, I want to ask you, Princess Lea, what do you think is the biggest reason why you can't defeat Salm right now?' Zhou Ming asked.

Leia looked at Zhou Ming blankly. She was now completely confused by him. She didn't understand why, instead of explaining why he was helping Salm, he suddenly asked such an irrelevant question. But she answered honestly: 'I think it's the difference in equipment. He has planes, tanks, and cannons, but we don't have any of those.'

'No exactly, that's the problem!' Zhou Ming said, 'So let's look at why Saddam was able to have these weapons. It's because he was the central government and controlled the largest resources in the whole of Iraq.'

'Then now,' Zhou Ming concluded, 'when Saddam's army has lost its morale in fighting against the multinational forces, if you cooperate with him at this time, he will have to spare no effort to support you in order not to be defeated by the multinational forces, right? No matter aircraft, tanks and artillery will all be at your disposal. With this equipment, what do you have to fear from Salm?'

Hearing Rhea suddenly understood, 'So you mean to say that we are to pretend to help Salm against the multinational forces, but in fact secretly accumulate these weapons and equipment he has given us?'

'Yes and not,' Zhou Ming told her, 'You must really do your best to help Salm hold off the attack of the multinational forces, because you are, after all, are enemies, and Salm is not an idiot. To gain his trust, you must show your strength and determination.'

At this point Zhou Ming paused for a moment before continuing: 'But war is, after all, cruel, especially when the opponent is an armed to the teeth high-tech army like the US military. Casualties among your soldiers are inevitable.'

'As long as get the chance to establish the Republic of Kurdistan, we Kurds will not fear any sacrifice!' Lea said proudly.

Zhou Ming smiled and nodded. He then said to Lea, 'I think with Princess Lea's intelligence, you must have understood what I meant, right? Then could you would you mind translating for Sheikh Ghazal?'

Rhea then realised her duty. She had just spoken to Zhou Ming in English, so she immediately translated Zhou Ming's meaning to Ghazal.

Compared to Rhea , the Kurdish sheikh was much more composed. He merely raised an eyebrow and showed no particular emotion, but in fact he had already been able to guess something from Lea's reaction when Zhou Ming explained it to her.

After listening to Lea translation, Gaoran fell silent for a long time before saying, 'Take advantage of the Gulf War to secure cooperation with Salm and gradually build up their own weapons advantage, and finally seek independence. This is indeed a better solution than what we have done in the past.'

Gao Lan said suddenly changed his tone and said, 'But Huaxia, you seem to have forgotten one thing. My soldiers are all Kurds, and their relatives and friends have all died at the hands of Salm. they all hate Salm so much that they want to eat all of his flesh. How can I convince these angry people to fight for Salm?'

'Chief Qa'oran, whether it is you or your people, I think you all need to figure out one thing: what you are facing now is not a war to help Salm, but a holy war for all True Christians to face the invasion of the infidels, to preserve their faith and fight for the sake of God! Zhou Ming threw this answer.

Jihad?

Zhou Ming could see that when he heard this word, Gaoran's eyes had a hint of brightness in them, but they quickly retracted. He thought for a moment and then asked Zhou Ming, 'I have one last question. I'm curious: as a Chinese person, why did you want to get involved in this war? And why did you risk your life to help Salm come to Mahad as a lobbyist?'

'It's simple. Because this This war is not just a war, it is also a business war. My competitor is on the other side, and as for my homeland, it can sell arms and contain the opponent, so why not do it?' Zhou Ming replied.

Gao Lan sighed and said 'I don't understand anything about the international situation. I need to go back and think about it. You can't just say whatever you want when faced with such a big issue. Even if what you say is reasonable, as the sheikh, I always need to be responsible to my people.'

At the end, Jaoalan looked looked at the floor clock next to him and said to Zhou Ming, 'It's getting late. I really appreciate the surprise you've brought me, but now I think you need to rest more. My daughter will take you to the guest room, and I hope you can get a good night's sleep there.'

With these words, and Lea gave a few last instructions before leaving the room. Zhou Ming did not try to stop him, and then Lea came over and gave Zhou Ming a gesture of invitation. Zhou Ming smiled and got up, following Lea to the guest room.

Jiaolan explained that the guest room prepared was on the western side of the palace, an independent villa-style building. However, this was not the only one; there was another next to it, which according to Lea was used to entertain VIPs.

When Zhou Ming and the others arrived here the door next door suddenly opened and several people in suits walked out. They saw Zhou Ming and his entourage and froze for a moment, before furrowing their brows and asking, 'Why is there a yellow-skinned monkey here? It really is the world's most evil nation. I never thought you would even get involved in this just and righteous Gulf War.'

Zhou Ming couldn't understand why this white man, whom he had never met before, would say such racist things. Could it be that his balls had been cut off by a Chinese doctor? But that didn't stop him unmercifully retorted: 'So, white pigs, why are you here? You claim to be righteous, but all I see is you killing and burning.'

'You lying bastard!'

the white man cursed angrily . But then he remembered something and said to Lea: 'Although I never thought you Kurds were honest, I didn't think you were stupid enough to do something like this. What are you doing bringing these yellow-skinned people here? Are they also also your honoured guests? You naively think that they will give your wish to build a country any chance? But I tell you, that is absolutely impossible!'

'Is it possible to be like not just something you say.' Zhou Ming still refused to give face and confronted him, 'It's just like 40 years ago on the Korean battlefield, you didn't think you would lose either.'

The white man spat in Zhou Ming's face and said, 'Yellow-skinned monkey, you can say whatever you like now, whatever your purpose is, the facts will prove you to be rubbish!'

After the white man had ranted and raved for a and went back to his villa. At this point, Lea explained to Zhou Ming: 'He is an official from the CIA and also came to talk to us about cooperation. He said that as long as we are willing to cooperate with them attack the Salm regime, they will allow us to establish a country in the Somal region in the future...'

At this point, Lea suddenly covered her mouth, looking flustered, and said, 'Oops, I've let the cat out of the bag.'

After saying this, Lea hurriedly left with him, leaving only Zhou Minghe's desert squad and an English-speaking servant.

Zhou Ming watched as Lea back, shook his head helplessly, and then walked with them into the villa that had been prepared for him.

Although it was late, Zhou Ming and the others did not rush to rest, but gathered in the living room on the first floor.

'What do you think of the current situation what do you think?' asked Zhou Ming.

He shook his head and said, "I don't know what the situation is like, but that Princess Lea's acting is really bad.'

Zhou Ming laughed, "Not only is it bad, she's not even a qualified actress. But it doesn't matter, we've already met the Americans next door, and the Sheikh's intention was to let us know that he has other options, or that we are simply here as leverage for him to continue to raise the price with the Americans.'

Zhou Ming nodded: 'That's . Otherwise, he wouldn't have arranged for us to live next door to each other, and he would have deliberately let Lea slip the information about their identity in front of us. Whatever he means, our situation is now very dangerous.'