Chapter 38: The Energy Base

  Chen Xiru's first stop was the Euphrates River Valley in Syria, where there was a small base of 500 armed men from the Zhongyong Army, protecting the Euphrates River Valley, a light oil field belonging to British Bartolde Energy Company.

  At that time, in order to obtain the development rights of this place, it also went through a lot of twists and turns.

  Because Zhou Yu did not know the exact location, he bought the mining rights for a large area, which also included parts of the Ottoman Empire.

  This immediately alarmed the two larger oil companies of the Ottoman Empire, the Deutsche Bank's Deutsche Petroleum-Aktiengesellschaft and the Anglo-Saxon owned Ottoman Oil Company.

  After much coordination, the entire exploitation rights of the area were finally acquired at a cost of ￡1 million. The original agreement with the local government was ￡180,000, but due to the intervention of two oil companies, Bartol Petroleum had to spend tens of millions more pounds to acquire the rights, almost bleeding them dry.

  In those days one million pounds was more than most countries' annual revenue.

  Zhou Yu just smiled when he heard that, because Zhou Yu knew: the oil quality in this place is very good, with at least 500 million barrels of extractable reserves, and it's also easy to extract and refine. Compared to that, tens of millions of pounds are nothing.

  When he arrived at the base, he was received by Lu Bing, the military commander-in-chief of the base. Lu Bing told Chen Xiru that the oil field had already produced oil and conservatively estimated that it could produce about 150,000 barrels of high-quality oil per year. The Zhongyong Army could get around 100,000 barrels, which was enough for the long-term reserve use of the Zhongyong Army after refining.

  Chen Xiru took a look at the data report of the Zhongyong Army's records and felt deeply relieved in his heart. Zhou Yu repeatedly requested that no matter how many, as long as they were high-quality oils, all would be fully supplied to each base of the Zhongyong Army.

  Although Chen Xiru did not understand the significance of Zhou Yu's actions, he still faithfully carried out Zhou Yu's instructions, to the point where the Zhongyong Army is now unable to receive dividends from the oil company and instead has to pay a portion of the difference in fees to the company.

  Originally, the dividends of oil companies were used for people's livelihoods, but now they can only be used to make up for other projects.

  Looking at the current international energy market, energy companies are a gold mine, an industry that makes huge profits. However, he himself has not created wealth for Zhou Yu, so he feels tremendous pressure.

  However, Zhou Yu told him that after his diesel trucks and gasoline Benz cars were mass-produced, he could sit at home and count the money. After the event, it was proved that what Zhou Yu said was indeed as accurate as a prophet.

  Then Chen Xiru asked about the training situation of Lu Bing's troops.

  Please be assured, Mr. Chen, our training has always been synchronized with the headquarters, it's just that some advanced and confidential weapons and equipment can only be operated at night when there is no one around, and also because the brothers feel a bit lonely and miss home. Lu Biao reported with a helpless expression.

  Why don't you consider: regularly swapping troops with Vietnam, letting the brothers go home and take a look, isn't that great?! I'll be responsible for submitting the application for you.

  Good! Thank you, Mr. Chen! Lu Bing still looked a bit embarrassed.

  Isn't it that you also want a wife? Haha! I heard that your wife is a great beauty! Chen Xiru took the opportunity to tease Lu Bing.

  Who told you such nonsense? It's not true at all. Am I not speaking on behalf of the brothers? Lu Bing's face turned bright red.

  Wow! You're still shy, just admit it, what's there to be afraid of? Although our principal is very strict in governing the school, he still cares about everyone's life.

  Really no! Otherwise I'll just stay here. Lu Bing's expression became even more awkward.

  Haha! Chen Xiru laughed heartily, I was just joking with you, now let's get down to business! Take me around to see the place!

  Well! Chen Xiru didn't take it to heart, and Lu Bing immediately returned to normal, taking Chen Xiru to various places for inspection.

  All the way, Chen Xiru found that the situation of the base and the oil field was almost the same as what Lu Bing reported. After understanding all aspects very thoroughly, Chen Xiru bid farewell to Lu Bing and rushed to his next destination, Kirkuk, Iraq.

  In the Kirkuk region, the Barturdi Energy Company has several oil and gas fields, with conservative estimates of reserves exceeding 2 billion barrels. Therefore, in the Kirkuk region, Zhongyong Army not only has energy company security personnel but also a military base of 5,000 people to ensure the safety and stability of this area and the company.

  Because of this, Kirkuk is now quite chaotic, without a strong local government, and instead has many small tribal and familial powers.

  At the macro level, various Western empires led by Britain and France have expanded their influence in the entire Middle East region.

  In order to compete for the colonization of the Middle East, even the negotiations between the heads of state of Britain and France in London did not actually solve any problems. After a series of prolonged mutual humiliation and fierce negotiations, Britain used its superior power to gain control over most of the Middle Eastern colonies, while the Bartol Petroleum Company also followed closely behind Britain's development footsteps, penetrating deep into the Middle East and becoming the largest energy company in this region.

  The Zhongyong army has a total of over 10,000 people in the Middle East region. I remember that once Chen Xiru curiously asked Zhou Yu: Why send so many troops? Zhou Yu smiled and told him that the Middle East region will have more development potential than any other region in the future, and he is occupying the market.

  Actually, Zhou Yu didn't tell Chen Xiru that in the future World War I, the Middle East region was a special channel for Zhou Yu to make a fortune from war. Zhou Yu had fostered several local armed forces in the Middle East, forming a hidden dark force, which also provided significant help to the Zhongyong Army.

  In the Euphrates River Valley in Syria, there was no feeling of anything, but when Chen Xiru arrived at the Kerkuk base in Iraq, he felt that the conditions here were worse than his imagination. The temperature was extremely high and the wind and sand were huge. Even if they had brought windproof clothing and hats beforehand, they still ended up with yellow sand all over their faces and mouths.

  He sincerely admired the officers and soldiers of the Zhongyong Army stationed here, this is where people live! Chen Xiru spat out the sand in his mouth while muttering to himself, the one who came to pick him up was Wu Tong, the highest commander-in-chief of the Zhongyong Army stationed in the Middle East.

  Wu Tong smiled: After waiting for a long time on this side, you will understand how to protect yourself. Now, we are all used to it. Just like when we first came here, we were not very adapted either.

  What about your usual supplies then?

  We regularly report the situation here to headquarters through wireless telegraph, and we have also cultivated a part of local armed forces in the locality, their forces are relatively large.

  We gave most of the French arms we captured to them, increasing their strength.

  You know that French weapons and our equipment are incompatible. To us, they're useless junk, but to the armed personnel here, they're the most advanced weapons available.

  The main problem is that the equipment of heavy weapons is more troublesome. In order to maintain secrecy during peacetime training, we usually choose a relatively remote and sparsely populated area to establish a military base, just like our headquarters in the Middle East region, which covers a large area but has good concealment, so outsiders do not know the specific situation of our base.

  These were all repeatedly emphasized by the principal, and we also cultivated various skin-colored special forces in the base to execute assassinations and confidential tasks. These are all reliable personnel developed by Huang Feihong's Intelligence Agency, who have sworn to join the Kuomintang and become peripheral intelligence personnel of the Intelligence Agency.

  They were also brainwashed by the political instructors in the base, instilling them with the idea of "fighting for the only true God" and their families were relocated to Hawaii, solving their worries.

  These, all were arranged by our principal, and you wouldn't say, these people's training on the principal's design, targeted at their national beliefs, is really effective. You can even let them strap explosives to themselves and go out with a bang together with the target, they are all smiling while executing it. Among them, Arabs are the craziest, they can sacrifice everything for their faith.

  Sometimes, I just can't understand how our principal knows so much knowledge and has an exceptionally perfect grasp of people's minds. The principal told us: "That's called spiritual opium, spiritual faith suggestion method."

  In fact, all the people of the later generations on Earth knew that those notorious bombers might have been only around 10 years old. Zhou Yu brought that set from the later generation and used it, which was shocking and astonishing!

  So all the way, Chen Xiru was a faithful listener, listening to Wu Tong's chatter about their base, but also listened with relish. For Zhou Yu's strange and eccentric ideas, he was also fascinated.

  When they arrived at the base, Chen Xiru was shocked: "Is this a base? This is simply the United Nations!"

  Inside, there are people of all ethnicities, the base's land area is also extremely large, heavily guarded, and Chen Xiru saw a large number of single-barreled 40-caliber 152mm rapid-fire guns, single-barreled 76mm rapid-fire guns, 37mm rapid-fire guns, etc.

  As for the 1814 Type 20mm large-caliber fully automatic gas-operated machine gun, Chen Xiru muttered to himself in his heart: The principal is going to war! Building the base like a fortress.

  Chen Xiru also found that the vast number of officers and soldiers here were in good spirits, and the warriors did not have any unusual emotions.

  Wu Tong told him: Regularly, there are local armed forces providing Arab beauties to serve them, although they have to pay for it. However, compared to these soldiers' wages, which are quite high, they can still afford to splurge. Many of them even ended up marrying Arab concubines, and were completely carefree.

  Although so, Chen Xiru still seriously inspected the base and oil and gas field site, filed some materials, and in the base reflected some main situations to headquarters, including the situation in Syria.

  After finishing, he bid farewell to Wu Tong and others, and went on to continue his inspection work.

  Unlike the children of overseas Chinese who were hired from outside, the internal cultivation of talents led by Tan Sitong and Ye Zhichao was more in line with the rapid development pace of the Loyal and Brave Army.