When I went home for Chinese New Year, I spent a million times more money on my foreign wife.

The estate at No. 1 Tverskaya Street.

A pot of borscht sits on the table, with sliced ​​rye bread and pickled cucumbers on the side.

Katyusha sat opposite Chen Yang, resting her chin on her hand as she watched him eat.

Ivan pushed open the door and came in, followed by two assistants in dark suits.

The old man's face was grim.

"Go ahead and say it." Chen Yang scooped up a spoonful of soup and put it in his mouth.

Ivan plopped down on the sofa next to the dining table and slammed a stack of documents onto the coffee table.

"The front lines have collapsed. Not in terms of the fighting, but in terms of logistics."

Chen Yang didn't look up and continued drinking his soup.

"My convoy lost more than 400 heavy trucks this month. The other side used Western anti-tank missiles to target our supply lines. One missile and more than ten tons of supplies were burned to scrap metal."

Ivan grabbed a statistics sheet from the coffee table and slammed it down on the surface.

"The drivers have also quit. More than a hundred people died last week, and the rest are all on strike. I can't control the union; they're demanding triple pay plus war zone subsidies, which means the cost of a single transport trip has increased fivefold."

"Then why don't you talk to the military?" Chen Yang tore off a piece of bread and dipped it in soup.

"We talked! The military doesn't even have enough transport vehicles of their own, so they told me to find a solution." Ivan spread his hands. "What can I do? I'm in the energy sector, not the military industry."

What are the models of your cars?

"They're all heavy military trucks. Twelve-wheeled, starting at forty tons."

Chen Yang put down his spoon and wiped his mouth.

"Is your brain frozen?"

Ivan was taken aback.

"Using heavy military trucks to run supply lines makes you a bigger target than a house. The enemy can easily hit you with anti-tank missiles; it's like target practice. Why don't you switch to light vehicles and take the back roads?"

"Light vehicles can't handle it," Ivan shook his head. "The roads at the front are all muddy puddles; ordinary cars simply can't get through. And once they're hit—"

"Who told you to use a regular car?"

Chen Yang took out his phone and swiped it a few times on the table.

"I'll get you a pickup truck."

"A pickup truck?" Ivan's eyes widened. "You want me to use a pickup truck to deliver supplies to the front lines?"

One million vehicles.

Across the table, Katyusha picked up her teacup, took a sip, and her gaze fell on Chen Yang.

Ivan stood up from the sofa.

"Are you crazy? A million pickup trucks? Where are you going to get them?"

"China has plenty of car manufacturers. Longxiang Motors, Tieqi Heavy Industry, Beidou Off-Road. I place orders with them, and their production lines run 24 hours a day, delivering within two months."

"Two months? One million vehicles? Can the production capacity meet that?"

"China produces 30 million cars a year. One million of those are pickup trucks. If you divide them among three factories, each factory will produce over 300,000 trucks. Do you think that's enough?"

Ivan opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Chen Yang had already dialed the number.

"Chen Yue".

Ice City, Snow Palace International Global Center, top floor.

Chen Yue answered the dedicated phone line, placing the pen in her hand on the acquisition contract.

"elder brother."

"Contact the chairmen of Longxiang Motors, Tieqi Heavy Industry, and Beidou Off-Road. Tell them that Xuegong Group wants to place an order for one million pickup trucks, with full prepayment."

Chen Yue opened the industry catalog on the table and ran her finger across a few lines of data.

"Longxiang and Tieqi have no production capacity issues. Beidou Off-Road's diesel pickup truck just passed military-grade road tests last month, boasting the strongest off-road performance in its class. Bro, where are these trucks going for export?"

"Mo City. Take the Arctic Ocean route and load it onto the ship along with the third batch of cold-weather equipment."

"Understood. I'll have the contract drafted within half an hour."

"Price is negotiable. Pay the market price plus a 20% premium, and let them get the best configuration possible."

"receive."

Chen Yue hung up the phone, picked up another cell phone on the table, and started dialing.

The data on the seven monitors was still fluctuating. She was signing contract documents while on the phone.

Within thirty seconds, all three phone calls were made.

Mo City Manor.

After listening to the entire phone call, Ivan sat back down on the sofa.

"Even if you manage to get a million pickup trucks, they're still civilian vehicles," Ivan said in a low voice. "Bullets will hit them like they're hitting paper; they won't stop them at all. Sending drivers into the fire with pickup trucks is suicide."

Chen Yang pushed the phone over.

The screen displays a video.

The scene shows the shooting range at Harbin Institute of Technology. A gray pickup truck is parked in a fixed position fifty meters away. The truck body is covered with a thin, dark gray sheet, no more than eight millimeters thick.

Beside the firing range, three testers set up a heavy machine gun.

Gunshots rang out. A hail of bullets pounded the pickup truck.

Sparks flew everywhere.

After the firing stopped, the tester went forward to inspect the vehicle.

The surface of the thin plate has only shallow pits and no through-holes.

Screen switch.

An RPG rocket was ejected from the launch tube and hit the side of the pickup truck directly.

The smoke and dust from the explosion dissipated.

The pickup truck's body was largely blackened by the explosion, and the left door was deformed. However, the vehicle's structure remained intact; the windows were shattered, but the frame was not broken.

The tester opened the car door, sat in the driver's seat, and turned the key.

The engine is started.

The pickup truck drove away.

Ivan held the phone up to his eyes and looked at it again.

"What kind of material is this?"

"The new composite armor from Harbin Institute of Technology features a sandwich structure of nano-ceramics and ultra-high molecular weight polymers. It weighs only one-third of traditional steel plates, while offering four times the protective performance. Its cost is one-tenth of the most advanced armor currently available."

Ivan put down his phone and stared at Chen Yang for a full ten seconds.

"One million pickup trucks, all equipped with this kind of armor?"

"It's installed. It's welded on at the factory, so it can be driven directly to the front lines when it arrives in Mo City."

"What about the cost?"

"Adding a deck to a single vehicle costs $20,000. For one million vehicles, that's $20 billion."

Ivan's hands clenched tightly on his knees. Two hundred billion US dollars.

"This money—"

"You don't need to pay." Chen Yang took back his phone. "Consider it a gift from me."

Ivan remained silent.

Katyusha put down her teacup, stood up, and walked behind Chen Yang. She placed a freshly served bowl of borscht in front of him.

"The soup is cold. This bowl is warm."

Chen Yang picked up the spoon.

Ivan stood up from the sofa and walked to the window. Outside, the city of Mo was brightly lit.

He turned around.

"Chen Yang, what exactly are you after?"

"I want your Arctic oil and gas fields to operate smoothly. I want our shipping routes in the Arctic Ocean to be unhindered." Chen Yang took a sip of soup. "Only if your front lines are stable can my business continue."

Ivan didn't say anything more. He picked up the documents from the coffee table and walked towards the door.

He paused when he reached the door.

Thanks.

The door closed.

Chen Yang's phone vibrated. Chen Yue had sent him a message.

"Brother, all three car companies have signed contracts. The chairman of Longxiang Motors called personally and said the production line will start tonight. Tieqi Heavy Industry has postponed all its orders for export to the Middle East and is prioritizing your order. The first batch of 50,000 diesel pickup trucks from Beidou Off-road will roll off the production line within twenty days."

Chen Yang replied with two words.

"Keep a close eye on it."

He put down his phone and finished the soup in his bowl.

Katyusha took the empty bowl and whispered something in his ear.

Are you going to the charity gala tomorrow night?

Chen Yang stood up and pushed his chair back under the table.

"Who organized this?"

"The Grishin family," Katyusha said calmly. "They've allied with three oligarchs and invited half of Mor City's high society. The invitations were sent to the manor, specifically requesting my attendance."

"Grisham." Chen Yang walked towards the living room. "Is that the one who took benefits from the West and blocked your father's proposal to protect China within the military?"

"right."

Chen Yang opened the wardrobe and took out a black custom-made suit.

"go."

He hung his suit on the hanger and turned to look at Katyusha.

"I'd like to see who dares to lay a finger on you at the banquet."

Lei's phone rang right on time.

"Boss, the venue for the Grisham family's banquet has been secured. The Black Kite advance team of thirty has already infiltrated the banquet hotel and taken control of all entrances and exits."

Chen Yang unbuttoned his cuffs and tucked his phone between his shoulder and ear.

"How many bodyguards did Gerry hire?"

"Two hundred men. All of them are mercenaries hired by Western private military companies."

"Have Black Kite get ready."

Chen Yang hung up the phone and fastened his cufflinks.