Chapter 916 - 921: Your People Are No Good
The thing about people is, it doesn’t always matter how smart they are; what really matters is whether they pick the right side to stand on.
Pretending to have powerful connections is something anyone can do; isn’t claiming to know someone important just a typical example of trying to impress by association? Whether or not Mughal is the United States’ lapdog doesn’t matter; the important thing is that he knows Nicholas can’t beat Big Ivan—that’s all that counts. As for how he explains himself to the Americans, well, that’s something Nicholas will have to survive to deal with.
And does it really matter if Jethro has an actual connection to Big Ivan? As long as Mughal believes that Jethro is linked to Big Ivan, that’s good enough.
Of course, Jethro really could have some ties to Big Ivan.
Even though both are arms dealers and competitors, Deyo and Big Ivan hadn’t always been at each other’s throats.
In the past, Big Ivan had gotten supplies from Deyo, and Deyo had gotten supplies from Big Ivan. It’s impossible for one person to completely monopolize the market; neither can the arms market. Each has their own customer base, and if they don’t have the goods in hand while having buyers, it’s only natural to adjust and acquire the necessary merchandise.
It’s fair to say that Nicholas is the main culprit behind stirring up the conflict between Deyo and Big Ivan. Yang Yi didn’t believe that, once the news reached Big Ivan’s ears, he would still tolerate Nicholas’s existence.
So, there’s no need to personally get involved in everything. If you can just follow in Big Ivan’s footsteps and pick up a ready-made bargain, why not do it?
As long as Jethro can stabilize the Middle East, stabilize Mughal, then it’s half the battle won.
Speaking of which, why did Yang Yi need to keep Mughal around? It was because previously, Jethro only bought and never sold; he didn’t have a team directly responsible for transactions. And arms dealing isn’t something you can just enter into by hiring a couple of salespeople. So, he needed to keep an established channel, a mature team—even though there was some risk, it would allow for a rapid takeover of the market.
Yang Yi had already done so much; if Jethro couldn’t control the situation now, then he deserved to die.