989 Tribal Militia
Li Du had an extra follower with him.
This pygmy was not a teenager anymore. He couldn't tell before because he could hardly see anything in the cave. In the military camp, however, Li Du could see the wrinkles on his head. From the look on his face, Li Du could tell that he was not very young.
However, he was as timid as a teenager. He was still grabbing onto Li Du's clothes and mumbling, "Halp meh! Halp meh! It's my one! I no steal!"
Li Du gave Sophie a phone call. Sophie used his account and immediately transferred 500,000 dollars to Remonin's account.
When Remonin saw the money in his account, he became extremely happy and couldn't stop smiling.
As Lu Guan saw that, he said softly, "Boss, isn't he a little sad for a warlord? What can you achieve with 500,000 dollars?"
Li Du gave him a glare and whispered, "Nonsense. This is not a warlord. This is a tribal militia."
Warlords and tribal militias were two different things. One acted with good reason, and one acted without justification.
If Remonin's army was a tribal militia, then he had the authority to legally own the army. Currently, there were many tribes who held autonomous armed power in Africa. This was the result of compromises in the government.
Everyone knew that before white people had entered Africa, there were few designated countries. Most of the places consisted of native tribes. There were often conflicts among these tribes, and tribal militias had formed, which ultimately resulted in tribal armies.
Later, white people established countries and managed their governments. In order to maintain their own rule, they adopted the strategy of enticing, isolating, and beating tribes.
The enticed tribes owned legal armed forces. The isolated tribes owned illegal armed forces. The beaten tribes could not own armed forces.
Thereafter, every country became independent, one after another. The white people left while the black people rose to power. In order to achieve independence, many tribes joined forces to oppose white people. They paid a huge price for this.
After independence, the governments began to allocate rewards. The tribes that had contributed more would enjoy more privileges. One of the privileges was to maintain legal tribal militias.
However, this did not mean that the government liked the tribal militias—it was a political compromise. Soon after, the armed forces of the major tribes were gradually weakened. And then, their military authority was retrieved.
The Chinese people were not unfamiliar with this kind of method. Among the feudal dynasties, such as the Western Han Dynasty, Song Dynasty, Tang Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, the centralized state power would have done the same. First, different emperors would be appointed. And then, they would gradually retrieve their territories and powers.
It was not an easy task maintaining a tribal militia. Aside from the diamond mine within the jurisdiction of Remonin's tribe, there weren't any other mines.
In South Africa, there was no income if there was no mine.
Therefore, 500,000 dollars was a really large amount of money for Remonin. It was enough to support his army for a long time. The salary of a tribal militia in South Africa was quite low. Most of the troops were tribal men. Food was all they needed.
Very soon, night came.
Remonin had prepared a banquet for Li Du. He went and had a look. A banquet? It was just normal western food served with bread, red wine, steak, fried fish, fried meat, salad, dessert, etc.
He did not eat much. First of all, he was not hungry. Second of all, this kind of food was nothing special. He would have preferred to try some African food. Normal food, of course. And not roasted mice, roasted bat, or any other sort of weird food.
Remonin agreed to hand Musa over to Li Du under one condition. "Have him obediently stay within the military. Do not allow him to leave the premises and prevent him from being seen by the miners."
Remonin had announced that Musa was sentenced to death in order to intimidate the miners.
Li Du had to stay for a couple more days. Remonin would gather the diamonds while Lion Hunter contacted the diamond appraisal experts. They would rush over to identify the authenticity and quality of the diamonds. And then, both parties would negotiate a price.
Li Du had saved Musa and did not chop off his d*ck to cook. Based on Li Du's actions, Remonin now understood his personality. He knew that Li Du hated violence, cruelty, and strict rule.
On the second day, Li Du stayed in the room to get some rest. In the meantime, he took the opportunity to communicate with Musa. He was very intrigued by this man's Mandarin and wanted to know who had taught him. He was also curious about some of the things Musa had mentioned.
In the end, this man seemed to have some mental issues. He was talking to himself in bed for the entire day.
However, he seemed physically fine and was able to eat. It seemed as if there was a rubbish bin inside the tiny body of his. A basket of toast was prepared. Godzilla ate half of the toast while the other half was shared amongst the group.
This half was also split into two halves. One half was shared between Li Du, Brother Wolf and Lu Guan, while the other was eaten by Musa.
On the third day, Remonin invited Li Du for breakfast. He cheerfully said, "Mr. Li, Are you free today? Want to follow me to visit the tahayi?"
"Tahayi" meant market. Besides the big cities in South Africa, no supermarkets could be found. The country relied on local markets to maintain trade.
Li Du asked, "Tahayi? Which town or city is this?"
"The tahayi in our tribe." Remonin smiled brightly. "The tahayi of our Golden Grass tribe."
Li Du now knew the name of his tribe. After understanding Li Du's personality, Remonin no longer spoke the name of his democratic army.
In fact, his army was really shabby. They did not have any heavy weapons, no armored tanks mounted with gun turret—none of these, nothing at all.
They did, however, own two helicopters. One of them could fly. The other unit was assumed to be disassembled for parts in order to maintain the working one.
The helicopter was really small, mounted with a machine gun, which was its only offensive weapon.
On the other hand, the deadliest weapon in his land army was a modified pickup truck. A high altitude gun had been installed on the trunk and had been modified to shoot at a lower level.
If Li Du believed Remonin, then he was not a warlord. He was a tribal militia leader that had been rejected by the government. A warlord of this quality would be worse than the army of Mozambique, and would have been wiped out by them long ago.
It was a gloomy morning. Li Du, Brother Wolf and Godzilla got on a Jeep to follow Remonin north.
They traveled with a total of three Jeeps. Remonin rode in the first one. Li Du and his group rode in the second one. The last one was carrying the black troops. They were protected by the modified pickup truck.
Li Du turned back to take a look and snapped a photo. This was his first journey protected by armed forces.
A couple of kilometers away from the military camp, he began to see some tents. He had seen these tents before on the helicopter. He had thought they were abandoned by the people who lived here previously.
In fact, there were people still living here; the tents were packed with many people. The tents formed a small colony.
These people were obviously from Remonin's clan. As the convoy of vehicles arrived, many of them ran to the roadside and waved excitedly. The troops in the vehicles also waved back excitedly. These troops had no discipline whatsoever.