the world is at stake

The young people shook their heads like a rattle drum, flipping back and forth, "This is impossible, let alone impossible. Japan is very strong, and its technology has completely surpassed ours."

The old Xiao had a bad taste, and had a sly laugh, "Then remember today. An old man told you that China's GDP will surpass Japan in ten years, and surpass the United States in 30 years."

These words are too loud and frightening to death.

But after all, he is a college student in the imperial capital, and he knows that there are many capable people in the imperial city.They looked at each other, and one of them asked, "Old comrade, are you...in the system?"

"Hmm... that's it."

"Can I ask you something? Are we going to go to Afghanistan?"

Hearing this question, Lao Xiao knew that what he just said was useless.These boys didn't listen at all, their minds were full of airplanes, cannons, war and peace.

But when the young man asked, Old Xiao was still willing to talk casually.He shook his head and said: "No, we won't make too much investment in Afghanistan, and we won't even do more strikes against the 'Taliban'."

"Why?" The young man thought about expanding the territory. "We have the advantage now. We can take advantage of the situation and take Afghanistan."

Unexpectedly!

Is this to destroy the sun and the beauty?

Are young people so radical now?

"Afghanistan is a tasteless thing. It's tasteless to eat, and it's a pity to throw it away. Let's take it when we see it." Old Xiao grinned, and asked another topic: "You should be college students, right? Are you graduating soon?"

All the young people nodded.

"Have you found a job?"

The young man suddenly showed bitterness.This year, the state does not allocate packages to college students. They all choose jobs independently, and they have to find jobs by themselves.This is something that many young people don't know how to do.

One person said, "I want to be a civil servant."

The "Civil Servant Law" was passed four years ahead of schedule, and it will become more and more difficult to enter the system through the back door in the future.

Another said: "I want to go to sea to do business."

Doing business in the sea is a boom.

Another said, "I want to go abroad."

The craze for going abroad is at its peak.

The last person scratched his head and said distressedly: "I didn't think about it. Of course it would be great to be admitted to the civil service, but I don't care. Doing business requires capital, and I don't have it. It would be best to go abroad, but I can't.

However, recently state-owned enterprises have raised wages, and private enterprises have also raised prices.Many scientific research units are reforming, and the salary has doubled.I don't know what to do, maybe go to graduate school. "

What this person said is the most realistic, colleges and universities are expanding their enrollment, and the scale is larger than 'historical'.After all, a lot of money has been made by copying the homes of the powerful and powerful, and a national debt of 5000 billion has been issued. The central government has ample funds.

Xiao Jinlang was very satisfied with the ideas of several young people.He doesn't encourage anything, just as a 'experienced person', calmly observe and feel.

Domestic waves are slowly stirring, and the situation in Afghanistan continues to develop.

After being attacked by rockets for the second time, the fanatical mind of the 'Taliban' was poured with ice water and instantly sobered up.The attack came from more than 200 kilometers away, and the tribal armed forces in the form of guerrillas could not resist it.

The only way for the 'Taliban' is to copy what they used to deal with the Soviet invaders, withdraw from the big cities, and scatter to the countryside.So they quickly evacuated Kabul.

During the evacuation process, the 'Northern Alliance' took advantage of the situation to regain the capital, and incidentally continued to bombard a large number of the 'Taliban' evacuated troops with rockets.

After tossing a few times, the 'Taliban' lost all their heavy equipment, and hid in villages and caves in the mountainous area and disappeared invisible.

In the process, Kakhevich found an Al Jazeera reporter in Kabul, finally contacted his companions in Pakistan, and summoned a rescue helicopter.

Back in Peshawar in embarrassment, Kakhevich ushered in good news - although the 'Taliban' was extremely anti-American, but in the case of a common enemy, the 'Brotherhood' did not dislike this organization, but was willing to help it .

The CIA borrowed a C-17 transport plane from the US military to send a batch of military aid.In addition to light weapons, there is also a vehicle-mounted air defense system specially designed to deal with low-altitude and slow-moving targets.

It is the 'Avenger' who was despised to death by the US military - a 'Hummer' equipped with quadruple 'Stinger' anti-aircraft missiles.

For the convenience of transportation, the 'Hummer' vehicles are gone.Thermal imaging cameras and missiles can be installed on pickup trucks, or can be transported to the top of the mountain by a single soldier for security.

"With this thing, you can easily destroy the opponent's biplane reconnaissance aircraft, and you don't have to be afraid of the extremely simple guided rockets of the 'Northern Alliance'."

The 'Brotherhood' liaison officer who sent the equipment is still very confident about this, "As long as you are prepared, the United States can completely restrain any opponent."

'Brotherhood' also offered $1000 million in cash earmarked for buying hearts and minds.Don't underestimate the money offensive. If there is any problem in this world that money cannot solve, it must be that there is not enough money.

The 'Taliban' are anti-American, but not anti-dollar.

With money, equipment and the intelligence support provided by the CIA, Kakhevich was almost resurrected with full blood.

He took three selected candidates, more than 20 followers, more than 100 Pakistani mercenaries, and traveled to Kandahar in more than [-] vehicles with weapons, ammunition, medical radio and other equipment.

Such a large convoy was warmly welcomed by the remnants of the 'Taliban'. Its leader Omar personally greeted Kakhevich's arrival, calling him 'dearest brother'.

Wait... this title sounds a little familiar.

Haqqani, who was killed by a rocket bomb before, also welcomed Kahevich in this way.When embracing Omar, the latter subconsciously looked up at the sky—Kandahar is 450 kilometers away from Kabul, and rockets should not be able to fly there.

The defeat all the way made the strength of the 'Taliban' fall from nearly [-] backbones at its peak to less than [-].With the help provided by Kakhevich, Omar was able to regroup his staff and establish his prestige in Kandahar.

After half a year of reorganization, by the middle of 2001, the strength of the 'Taliban' not only did not decline, but was stronger than before, and it also adapted to the cruel modern warfare.

Kakhevich also helped the 'Taliban' train and prepare 1 'elites', ready to challenge the 'Northern Alliance' occupying Kabul again.

But the psychological shadow of being abused in the previous attack was too deep, and the 'Taliban' were very worried that they would be bombarded by rockets halfway and suffered heavy casualties.

So its leader, Omar, issued an 'invitation' to the enemy in the north, to the effect that - please brothers Masood to fire first.I made you a cage in Kandahar.

Masood squatted in Kabul for half a year, and he also refused to go south. He also issued a public appeal-please call Brother Omar, I have prepared a shroud for you.

"Masood, you bastard who has defected to the Russians. What are you looking at?"

"Omar, you stupid asshole. What's wrong with you?"

"Masood, Allah will punish you. Take another look!"

"Omar, you've been struck by lightning twice. Try it."

The 'Taliban' and the 'Northern Alliance' fought each other in the air, which confused Kahevich.Only now did he discover that the "Shanghai Cooperation Organization" dominated by China and Russia had no intention of unifying Afghanistan at all, and he did not bother to arm Masood.

Now the two factions in the 'Empire Graveyard' are rookies with 'insufficient offense and more than defense', so they can only play tricks - what is 'Holy Light' doing behind the scenes? !

making money.

Chapter 34

In early 2001, the 'Northern Alliance' formally occupied Kabul.

Due to the war, a large number of people fled, and the city was extremely depressed.The people at the bottom have no food or drink, and even basic life safety cannot be guaranteed.

The monk Faxian of the Eastern Jin Dynasty came to Central Asia and described this place as "there are no birds above, no animals below, looking around the vast, unpredictable, only looking at the sun to guide things, and human bones to guide the road."

The 'Northern Alliance' is an armed warlord united by local tribes, and its management level is very poor.Masood's prestige is high enough, but his ability is just that.

The social reconstruction work in Afghanistan is extremely difficult. People, funds, and materials are all in short supply, and external assistance is urgently needed-but the "Shanghai Cooperation Organization", as an inter-state cooperation organization, is not willing to invest money in this bottomless pit with no hope in sight.

But Afghanistan is not useless. The wrinkled plateau mountains are actually a sign of active crustal movement, and the minerals hidden deep in the ground are turned to the ground by the mighty force of nature.

Afghanistan is actually very rich in mineral resources, but it has not been developed.

Facing the "Northern Alliance" which is so poor, "Sacred Light" extended a helping hand, and bought the north of Kunduz, Faizabad and Tha Gold mining concessions near Lucan.

This price is not bad. After all, apart from 'Holy Light', who would dare to invest in Afghanistan, a place that doesn't shit?

Also through the matter of selling gold mines, Masood has seen the philistine and cunning of the 'Holy Light'.

Before the sale, the negotiators of 'Sacred Light' were picky. Some said that Zabad was too remote, another that the war caused insecurity, or that the gold reserves were unknown and the mining cost was high.

In short, it is to lower the price.

After the sale, only one-third of the 'US$8000 million' was in cash, and the rest was offset in kind.Including eating and drinking Lazard, construction machinery, medical medicine and so on.

The prospectors of 'Sacred Light' rented 'Il-76' from several Stan countries to transport mining equipment.A large number of equipment such as vehicles, explosives, and excavators were transported by air.

It was only later that Masood learned that what the 'Holy Light' took from several tribes in the 'Northern Alliance' was not just gold mines, but unrestricted exploration and mining rights.

However, 'Holy Light' itself has no exploration and mining capabilities, so it sold the corresponding contracts to several domestic state-owned mining companies, White Wolf, for US$15 billion.

Although the US$15 billion was paid in installments, the deal was also profitable.In order to get back the cost as soon as possible, the speed of action of the two state-owned enterprises cannot be described as unpleasant.

Is the place too remote for transportation?The state-owned enterprise directly builds an airstrip in the local area, which can take off and land 'Il-76', and builds a local factory to produce precious metal concentrate powder, which is transported back to the country for refining.

As for the accompanying copper mines, it is also easy to handle. Find a way to build roads and transport them out with heavy trucks.After all, there is a lack of copper in the country.

War leads to insecurity? The first thing that 'Holy Light' did when it was authorized was to recruit and train mine guard teams including locals.The number of people quickly expanded from two to three hundred at the beginning to several thousand.

When Turkey's Kakhevich re-armed the 'Taliban' with the advanced equipment supported by the 'Brotherhood', the backbone of the mine guard team from Baotou and Changchun was collecting heavy weapons abandoned by the 'Taliban' in Kabul.

Afghanistan used to be a satellite country of the Soviet Union and received a lot of Soviet aid. After the 'Taliban' occupied Kabul, they took over most of the government's heavy equipment, but failed to make good use of it.

After the 'Northern Alliance' repaired Kabul International Airport, the mine protection team of 'Holy Light' recruited manpower locally and used large military transport planes to transport engineering and maintenance equipment, preparing to repair the heavy equipment abandoned by the 'Taliban'.

After all, if you are poor, you can save a little bit.

This even includes tanks and armored vehicles that were destroyed by rocket attacks during the march, and they must be collected on trailers for recycling.

Lao Li, who is in his early sixties, took a monthly salary of 2 yuan from "Shengguang" and was ordered to come to Kabul from China to build a repair factory and serve as the factory director.

When the Boeing 737 passenger plane took Lao Li and more than 100 engineers and technicians to Kabul Airport, when they landed, they saw 'Il-76' loading and unloading oil tankers.

'Holy Light' assigned Lao Li a Kazakh guy who could speak English as a translator and assistant.After greeting each other, he asked about what he saw and heard at the airport.

The Kazakh guy laughed and explained: "The original oil depot at the airport was blown up. After it is repaired, we have to buy fuel from other places. The oil tankers are collected from several 'Stan' countries in Central Asia. They are all Soviet goods, cheap. ,durable.

Not just tank trucks, 'Shengguang' purchased thousands of second-hand construction vehicles from the former Soviet republics in order to save money.The most are trucks, and the other is all kinds of repair equipment. "

Kabul, a poor place, is not picky about food, and many Japanese second-hand cars that are about to be scrapped run around in the city.Lao Li's mount is a Mitsubishi Pajero with paint peeling off, the car body is full of bumps and bumps.

The domestic engineers who accompanied Lao Li wanted to see the battlefield site in the north of Kabul, where the 'Guardian-1B' launched ultra-long-range shelling and caused the 'Taliban' to flee.

The Kazakh guy acted as a guide and drove seven or eight people to the outskirts of the city.Pointing to an open valley road, he said, "You guys are late, this place has almost been cleaned up."

On the side of the road, a crawler crane is dragging the damaged T-54.Its turret was penetrated by anti-armor submunitions and a big hole was broken, but the ammunition did not explode.

Lao Li and others moved forward and found that there were still two charred bones in the turret that had not been cleaned up.The Kazakh boy laughed and said, "We hired some local laborers to clean it up, but they obviously didn't do a good job."

The principle of 'Holy Light' in operating Afghanistan is never to be taken advantage of, and to maintain a virtuous cycle only by earning a profit. Therefore, it takes great effort to save money and make use of local resources as much as possible.

Lao Li gave a general assessment of the T-54 in front of him, "The turret is useless. After dismantling it, it may be used as an infantry fighting vehicle. If it is not good enough, it will be converted into a high-powered tractor to cultivate the land and grow wheat."

'Valley of Death' can't see any death scenes, but the repair shop on the outskirts of Kabul is stepping up construction and is full of vitality.

When Lao Li arrived, a large number of technicians hired from Central Asia were busy building the factory.

The Kazakh guy continued to explain: "We found an ordnance warehouse in the city, which was left by the Afghan government forces more than ten years ago, and the 'Taliban' seemed to have completely ignored it after they occupied Kabul.

The warehouse was opened, and it was full of equipment aided by the Soviet Union. Most of them were broken, but they could be repaired as long as there were spare parts.This can save a lot of money. "

The machinery repair shop has not yet been built, but from the outside it looks like a simple cross-beam shed, at best it is a shelter from wind and rain.Lao Li smiled wryly, thinking to himself that 'Shengguang' was so stingy that he didn't even bother to build a decent house.

The electricity supply in Afghanistan is almost blank, and only 5.00% of the population in the country can get electricity supply.Kabul is powered by power lines pulled from Uzbekistan and two small hydropower stations on the Kabul River.

When the 'Taliban' withdrew, they blew up the substations and transmission towers on the outskirts of the city, and it was necessary to rely on 'Holy Light' to transport equipment for repairs.

The Kazakh guy said: "These are all included in the $8000 million payment, which belongs to the 'Holy Light' advance fund to restore Kabul's urban functions."

While chatting, several light bulbs on the construction site of the repair shop suddenly turned on.The Kazakh guy smiled happily: "It should be that the line of the Mahipar Hydropower Station has been repaired, and I heard that it will be expanded in the future.

In addition, the 'Northern Alliance' wants to auction off the oil exploration rights in the provinces west of Kabul. They want to sell at a higher price, but there seems to be no other buyer except for 'Holy Light'. "

Does Afghanistan have oil?There really are.

In 2011 in the original history, PetroChina went to explore, and the proven reserves were 38 billion barrels. It decided to split it with the Afghan government, and it only got "three".

Now that 'Shengguang' has a specific drilling location, the difficulty and cost of development are greatly reduced, and it is facing the weak 'Northern Alliance' - President Zhou means to take away '[-]%', Masood is still struggling.

In modern society, with the supply of electricity and oil, there is a foundation for all development, and Lao Li and others can carry on their work.In Kandahar, 450 kilometers away, Kahevich is also facing a shortage of electricity and fuel.

Kandahar used to rely on Iran for electricity, and there were only a few diesel generators in the city to support the government.But after the 'Taliban' seized power, they resisted any modern industrial civilization except weapons, and they cut off the power supply facilities themselves.

Kakhevich rushed over with the military aid provided by the 'Brotherhood', and was stunned to find that there was no electricity in this ghost place.As the sun went down, the city was almost completely dark except for the vital areas powered by diesel generators.

This is not possible without electricity!

Kakhevich wanted to discuss the restoration of power supply with the leader of the 'Taliban', but learned that Iran refused to restore power supply.Even if the jihadists threatened to blow up all the power supply equipment, the other party would not agree.

Wait... what logic is this?

Blow up your own power supply equipment to threaten others?

Yes, the 'Taliban' really think so.

After learning about this, Kakhevich really wanted to kill him head-on.He really underestimated the stubborn minds and ridiculous ideas of extremists.

Compared with the arrogance of the 'Taliban', the native chickens who dream of establishing a 'Great Turkestan' are all down-to-earth.

To solve Kandahar's electricity supply, the $1000 million given by the 'Brotherhood' is simply not enough.Kakhevich could only bite the bullet and ask the 'fraternity' for another 1000 million US dollars to purchase large-scale diesel power generation equipment.