Chapter 491 - 437: Morins' Pressure

"Boss, I've found the thing you wanted."

Henry's voice carried a hint of mystery.

"It seems like things are a bit complicated, the trouble with ELN might be significant."

"What's the situation?"

Song Heping frowned.

Henry said, "I've sent all the collected intelligence and clues to your private mailbox. It's hard to explain over the phone, you should see for yourself."

"Okay."

Song Heping hung up the phone, asked Jiang Feng to keep an eye on things, then jogged back to his quarters, entered his room, and sat down at the table to turn on his laptop.

Soon, he connected online and downloaded the intelligence Henry had sent from his email.

It included a report and some pictures.

The pictures showed the troop movements of the AUC Armed Forces—nothing surprising there;

after all, Song Heping had guessed that the other side might make a move soon.

But the subsequent pictures shocked Song Heping as he continued viewing them.

They were secretly taken photos of the Colombian military's troop movements, which even included figures from the US military advisors.

Judging by the personnel and equipment involved, the scale was not small, encompassing two Land Army Corps and the CCOPE Special Operations Command.

"Damn it, how is the government army involved again..."

He remembered a previous encounter in the jungle with the Colombian AGLAN Special Forces; even though he didn't care much about their combat power, things could get much more complicated with the government army's involvement.

AUC itself held a significant manpower advantage, and if the government army was also secretly assisting, things were bound to become even more complicated.

Officially, the relationship between the AUC Armed Forces and the government army was unofficial, and both sides had always denied this rumor.

However, it was an undeniable fact that the government army secretly funded the AUC Armed Forces.

From a strategic perspective, the government army used AUC to strike at both ELN and FARC armed groups, curbing their growth through political maneuvering.

Typically, funding for internal armed organizations in Colombia came from three sources.

The most crucial was involvement in drug trade, including drug trafficking and taxation of drug production.

The second layer, as violent as the drug trade, involved extortion of businesses or taxation of landowners.

The third layer involved kidnapping and ransom, especially targeting the disobedient wealthy and companies who refused to pay taxes.

Because AUC was a right-wing organization, they were more lenient towards large corporations and the wealthy, thus drug trafficking was their essential source of funding.

ELN, being a left-wing group, showed no mercy towards the wealthy and large corporations, but seldom engaged in drug trafficking.

Compared to them, AUC's actions were less defensible.

If the government army, which controlled the power, got involved with them, their own image would suffer significantly.

The report also mentioned that the AUC Armed Forces had recently conquered territories from ELN, recruiting even more personnel, increasing their strength to over twenty thousand.

This number was far beyond the mere thousands of ELN fighters, reaching a multiple-fold advantage.

Now, the government army was stepping in.

It seemed they intended to crush the ELN in one fell swoop and then focus their forces on dealing with FARC, the largest anti-government armed force.

Hastily, Song Heping fetched a map of Colombia, pinned it to the wall, and based on the reported troop movements, began marking the government army and AUC's probable troop movements and deployment locations.

Half an hour later, he finished marking.

Stepping back, Song Heping's gaze landed on the map.

From his current position, he could clearly view the deployment overview of AUC and the government forces; they had formed an encircling gesture.

From Ocaina in the north to Bolei and Tame in the midlands, down to San Jose in the south, larges forces had been mobilized and deployed in these three points.

The northern and southern ends were mainly AUC forces, while the troops near Tame in the middle were the government army in motion.

Song Heping began strategizing on the map, placing himself in the perspective of the government army and AUC to view the overall attack.

Eventually, he concluded—

Indeed, AUC and the government forces were cooperating because the ELN's territories near the Venezuelan border formed a narrow, snake-like region stretching from north to south.

How do you strike a snake?

Of course, you hit its vital spot.

If AUC forces attacked ELN simultaneously from the north and south, and once ELN's forces were drawn towards Ocaina and San Jose, all the government army needed to do was make a breakthrough from Tame, splitting ELN's territory in two. This division would leave the entire ELN militia unable to focus on both ends. If the government army then advanced from both the north and south, Morins would face a lethal dilemma—should he withdraw troops to resist the government army or continue defending against AUC?

Perhaps both choices led to dead ends.

"This is a serious problem..."

Song Heping returned to his chair, sat down, and stared at the laptop screen, reviewing the picture with the US military advisor over and over.

"Is that an American acting as their military advisor?"

He had no doubt that this tactic was advised by US military advisors.

After all, the campaign's deployment was well executed, highly skilled, and if carried out according to this tactical setup, then ELN would face a total collapse or even disappear completely from the Colombian stage.

He turned around, sat in his chair, and stared at the map for a long time, thinking about how to fight this war if he wanted to help Morins.

He originally wanted to assist Morins in eliminating the AUC forces, and he would have taken action sooner or later.

It was just that he did not anticipate that the AUC also had this intention, which came earlier than his planned timing.

From the map, it was estimated that it would take less than half a month for the opposition to mobilize their troops.

By the time that was done, the war would erupt.

Just facing the AUC forces alone, Song Heping felt no pressure.

However, with the addition of two Colombian Land Army Corps and the CCOPE Special Forces Command, the situation became more complicated.

AGLAN Special Forces was just a subordinate branch of CCOPE, which had multiple battalions of special operations units under it; even if only two battalions were deployed, it would be hard for the ELN forces to resist while being attacked by AUC forces from both the north and south.

If they bombed these government forces, things would truly escalate.

Bombing the AUC forces was just infighting among anti-government armed forces, but bombing the government army was akin to declaring war, and that would stir up a hornet's nest. By then, it was expected that the government army would come out at full force against ELN, gaining a justified cause for their action.

All morning long, Song Heping couldn't come up with a good idea.

He decided to inform Morins first, to prepare him.

If it really came down to it, they might have to abandon some territory in advance, consolidate their forces, and choose either the south or north to secure themselves first rather than leaving Tame vulnerable to the government army.

Unexpectedly, as soon as Morins heard about voluntarily giving up territory, he immediately became displeased.

"Song, I spent a lot of money to hire you to fight this battle, not to persuade me to give up existing territories! Do you know how much territory I would lose according to your suggestion? Half! At least half! This is unacceptable!"

He had always followed Song Heping's advice and held him in high esteem.

However, his tone now was noticeably agitated, as if he had eaten gunpowder.

"Pulling back the punch is to better strike the enemy later; don't you understand this principle?" Song Heping was still trying desperately to persuade him to accept his suggestion.

However, before he could finish, Morins immediately refuted, "Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

His decibel level rose sharply.

"You must be crazy! Song! You don't understand the situation here. Do you think because I am the leader of ELN, I can just decide on such matters alone? The territory was fought for by all past ELN leaders together, it's not my private property! If I hold a meeting and talk about giving up the south or north according to your suggestion, retracting to one direction, like you said about pulling back the punch in order to strike better, do you think the guerrilla members from the mountain jungles, who can hardly recognize a few characters, would understand this?"

"No! They wouldn't understand! They would only see that I am giving up the achievements we've struggled for all these years. They would think I am a traitor! A coward! They might even mutiny on the spot and depose me, dragging me into a ravine to shoot me in the back of the head! Don't think I'm joking with you, Song! This is no joke! You're sending me to my death! Why don't you come here and explain it to them? Do you dare?!"

Morins's impassioned outburst directly rendered the normally eloquent Song Heping speechless.

Indeed.

What he said was the truth.

For a guerrilla composed of peasant mountain people, explaining these military theories was like playing the lute to a cow.

It might really happen as Morins said, leading directly to a mutiny followed by execution.

"Calm down, just hear me out."

"Are you coming or not?"

Morins was still fixated on that question, pressing Song Heping.

Song Heping helplessly said, "How would my coming be of any use? If I could solve the problem, I would definitely go, but if I can't solve the problem, am I supposed to die with you?!"

Morins responded, "Song, you are the owner of a Defense Company, I've spent tens of millions of US Dollars on you to solve problems, not to add to them! If you can't solve the problem, we need to discuss the contract issues between friends, the three million dollars in munitions and two million dollars in training fees, plus the subsequent five million dollars consultancy fee, all gone! Gone!"

Song Heping felt a shiver in his scalp.

Damn, in the past his temper would have exploded at Morins for saying such things.

But upon closer thought.

It was just the man speaking the harsh truth.

If he can't survive, what money is there to give you?

To secure the money, he had to eliminate the AUC; otherwise, without the existence of ELN, the client was done for, and who would they collect from, King Yama?

He took a deep breath, suppressed the surge of anger, and tried to speak in as calm a tone as possible, "Alright, since this suggestion doesn't work, I'll think of another way. But I've already informed you of the intelligence. You need to prepare yourself; the government army and AUC are mobilizing troops right now, and I estimate they will be ready within half a month, and they will definitely launch an attack, you must prepare beforehand."

"What plan have you thought of?!" Morins asked.

Song Heping said, "Can't you reach out to FARC forces and discuss joint operations? At least you both are left-wing armed forces; aren't you comrades in the same trench?"

Morins chuckled a few times over the phone and said, "Of course I can seek help, but do you think those folks from FARC are saints and kindred spirits? They would definitely hit me with a price, and their demands wouldn't be less than what AUC would take to swallow my territory. To hell with kindred spirits! Song, among armed groups, only interests speak! If ELN fell, do you think those guys from FARC would be saddened? No, they are just waiting to take a bite out of me when I'm at my weakest!"

Song Heping got a rough understanding of the relationships among these groups.

Essentially, the dynamics among FARC, AUC, ELN, and the government army were like the Three Kingdoms.

There were no absolute enemies and no everlasting friends.

"Alright, now that you've mentioned this, I roughly get it. But still, prepare yourself and give me some time; I'll figure out a way to solve this crisis."

Hearing Song Heping speak in such terms, Morins's tone softened.

"Song, you are a person I admire greatly. I know you'll find a way, but we don't have much time left. I'm waiting for your good news in Colombia, don't disappoint me; that's a ten million US Dollar deal."