Chapter 0 sequence
Under the leadership of Augustus, the rough Latin people defeated the Greek Empire, brought the barbaric Latin people into civilization, and created the brilliant Western classical civilization.
These civilizations include the Arc de Triomphe, which symbolizes victory and glory, the Pantheon, where the gods reside, the Trevi Fountain, where only piety can bring blessings, etc. However, the most familiar one is the Colosseum in Rome, Italy, which is known as one of the eight wonders of the world. Although it has been weathered by thousands of years, the ancient Roman Colosseum still stands there like a gladiator, and one glance at it reminds people of the bloody killings that once took place in this arena.
The Colosseum is a symbol of ancient Rome, representing that this empire that pioneered Western classical civilization rose in blood. What it left to future generations is not only these long-dried buildings, but also an endless group of people, a mob who only care about money and not their lives.
These ragtag groups are called mercenaries, a group of savage warriors who bring death and suffering to others, and their only motivation for fighting is money.
Mercenaries originated in the ancient Roman Empire, and after thousands of years of evolution, they eventually became a special profession in the world. They are separated from normal life, and their job is to engage in brutal battles.
Today they can fight for you, tomorrow they will accept money from others to kill you. Only money is the only thing that drives the war of this special group of mercenaries, unless they die.
Since the 1990s, international wars have continued. The territorial dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea has not yet been resolved, war has resurfaced in Sri Lanka, and at the same time, a dispute has arisen in Sierra Leone...
In this huge war frenzy, a strange army has emerged, and its name is mercenaries. It can be said that in recent years, as the UN peacekeeping operations have suffered setbacks , mercenaries are increasingly becoming the protagonists in countries and regions with turbulent situations and constant wars.
In the 1980s, influenced by the United Nations "International Convention against Mercenaries", mercenaries gradually faded out of people's sight and transformed into commercial organizations.
From the outbreak of the Iraq War in 2003 to the withdrawal of the US military in 2010 , more than 4,600 US soldiers died in the Iraqi battlefield. As a result, the domestic opposition in the United States has become louder and louder, forcing the United States to once again push mercenaries onto the historical stage and recruit a large number of mercenaries to work for the government.
From then on, mercenaries appeared in all military operations of the US military. They were always at the forefront of the war and would not disappear from people's sight until the US soldiers were safely stationed there and then they would get the commission they deserved.
After the US government broke the International Convention against Mercenaries designated by the United Nations in the 1980s, various countries began to follow the US's example and recruit mercenaries to fight in various battles to reduce the number of deaths of their own soldiers.
The mercenary group, which has been silent for decades, has once again become the focus of international attention.
Simply put, this is a group of professional killers who make a living from war.
They are hired to carry out assassinations, kidnappings, combat operations, and even coups. If you uncover the mystery of mercenaries, you will find that the composition of mercenaries is actually very complex, with all kinds of people, but they have one thing in common, that is, they all like war, and war is everything in their lives.
Working for whoever pays is a basic principle that mercenaries follow and is also their professional ethics.
Fan Shao , a well-known American mercenary, said: "Now as long as someone is willing to pay me, I will work for him. I don't know what is wrong. I can work for Reagan and I can also work for Gaddafi."
Existence is reasonable. Although the international community strongly opposes the use of mercenaries, the actual situation is that the scale of mercenaries is still expanding. Now one in every five soldiers in Iraq is a foreign mercenary; 80% of military operations in Afghanistan are carried out by mercenaries; the unrest in Libya is directly caused by mercenaries...
This is a new form of war economy. Currently, global mercenary companies control a huge market with an annual revenue of about 1 trillion US dollars. As some operations of the United States' foreign wars continue to be privatized and outsourced, mercenary activities driven by huge commercial interests will not stop. Some Western scholars even believe that as military reforms deepen, mercenaries may even become one of the main participants in future wars.
The world's famous mercenary companies include the French Foreign Legion, the American Blackwater Security Company, the South African Private Armed Company (EO), SI Company, the Military Professional Resources Company (MPRI), the Cossack Mercenaries, the Spanish Foreign Legion, the Nepalese Gurkha Mercenaries, etc.
These are the ones on the surface, and there are some mercenary organizations in secret that are fully capable of fighting against or defeating these mercenaries. It's just that they would rather live in the dark and work for one employer after another. They are the real leaders of the war.
