Chapter 1288 The Things Left Behind

Smit, an ordinary oil and gas field engineer, was sent to the capital Mogadishu because of a $30 billion oil and gas field development agreement between ExxonMobil and Somali authorities.

Although he had made various preparations before coming here, the dilapidation here finally exceeded his expectations.

He had seen it in travel magazines, and before the Civil War it was called the White Pearl of the Indian Ocean.

But now, there are only ruins of buildings with a bit of history, the bullet holes on the walls are clearly visible, most of the roads are potholes, and there is almost no greenery in the entire city. As long as you open your mouth, you will definitely be able to eat a stomach full of sand.

It is not only the greening that makes people criticize.

Because of the special local culture, there is no bar here, and drinking at will will be punished with whipping.

Although their executives tried to help them win the privilege of drinking without being whipped, but this privilege is limited to the staff dormitory, and the variety and quantity of the supply are quite limited, which is really not happy.

Therefore, for these employees who are dispatched here, the only entertainment here is to buy the latest newspaper, sit in a coffee shop near the company's residence, consume air-conditioning that the locals cannot afford, drink While away the afternoon with dollar-denominated hand-ground coffee.

It doesn't matter what newspaper it is.

It doesn't matter if it's the BBC or Playboy, as long as there are words, because life here is too boring.

As usual, Smit came to the coffee shop, ordered a cup of black coffee that was so bad that he could drink it all afternoon, and then took a newspaper and sat in a safe place far from the window.

Just when he was about to start reading the newspaper for today's pastime, he froze for a moment.

[Elewag victory! The Somali regular army has won a big victory! 】

What the hell?

April Fool's joke?

No, there is still half a year left.

The moment he saw the headlines in the newspaper, Smit's first reaction was that something must have been wrong.

He is well aware of the combat effectiveness of the Somali regular army. Even though they have received training from officers from various countries, they are still quite brutal in fighting. It can be said that replacing a rifle with a fire-breathing spear does not feel any sense of disobedience.

In contrast, the enemies they face are the pirates who have caused headaches for the governments of all countries in the world, and the devils who have survived the elimination and test of blood and fire for more than ten years.

Faced with such an enemy, let alone them, even if the US aircraft carrier is invited over, they may not be able to completely wipe them out, let alone the Somali Army, which cannot even make up a few tanks.

Feeling disbelief, he looked down the newspaper, but it didn't matter what he looked at, his eyes were immediately glued to the pictures in the newspaper and he couldn't move away.

To be precise, that's four sets of pictures.

Two of these were a "black coffin" suspended by a parachute, presumably captured with some sort of specialized remote filming equipment.

The other two photos are a distant shot of the drone swarm flying out of the black coffin, and thick smoke rising from an exploded ammunition depot hidden behind a hill.

The moment he saw these pieces of equipment, Smit was sure that the Somali authorities must have invited foreign aid.

These East African natives may not have even seen what a drone looks like, so how could they use high-tech equipment that even the US military has not installed on a large scale.

Sure enough, when he read down the text, he quickly found the answer between the lines.

"With the support of the Chinese side, the Somali ZF army launched the largest offensive this year to the Elwaq area occupied by militants. During the battle, the Chinese side dropped at least hundreds of aerial bombs to the battlefield, destroying the ammunition depot two There are more than ten places, and armed elements control more than ten outposts."

"At the same time, the reporter of this newspaper learned that a small unmanned aerial vehicle suspected to be controlled by AI, which can automatically identify the identity of militants and attack them has been invested in the battle against China. This unmanned aerial vehicle is similar to the recent Shenzhen City The logistics drones being promoted are highly similar in shape, and it is not yet certain whether they come from the same company..."

"Currently, the battlefield has shifted from open areas to street fighting, and many leaders of militants have been killed. According to the spokesperson of the Somali authorities, the armed forces active in the area have been unable to maintain control of the area, and the ZF Army is regaining the former Villages and towns controlled by militants. The turmoil is expected to last until the end of the year, and this newspaper reminds foreign employees working there to pay attention to travel safety."

"In addition, the reporter of this newspaper has already consulted the US military base in Ethiopia and asked for more information about this air strike. However, the person in charge of the military base has not revealed which type of aircraft participated in the air strike and where the air strike came from. Declined to answer in more detail."

"……God."

The Yankee actually helped Huaguo keep it secret?

The sun is literally out in the west!

Smit would never believe that those US troops would keep the weapons for launching air strikes secret for the Chinese. If they knew it, they would wish the whole world knew it too.

In this way, there is only one possibility...

That is, so far, they have not found enough evidence to prove who initiated the air strike and where it came from.

Just as the expression on his face gradually changed from doubt to disbelief, the voices of several other foreign employees whispered behind him.

Coincidentally, what they were discussing was exactly the same thing that he couldn't figure out and doubted his life.

"Have you read the news yesterday? The Somali ZF army actually won?!"

"Do you still need to watch it? This matter is being discussed on Twitter today! Many people say that Huaguo used some kind of terrible secret weapon. I heard from our resident bodyguard that his eldest nephew who was serving in the resident participated in that battle , They were already prepared for a life-and-death struggle with the militants, but after they went in, they patronized to collect the bodies of those militants."

As he said that, the man with stubble on his chin couldn't help but smashed his tongue, as if he had witnessed the battle, and continued in a heavy tone.

"You don't want to see that picture...it's like hell."

"What do you think that secret weapon might be?"

"I don't know, but many people say that it is an orbital weapon... If it is a fighter or bomber, it is impossible to fly so far, and it is impossible to escape the radar of the US military base!"

Listening to the discussions of several foreign employees behind him, Smit fell into silence, and it took a long time for him to finally say a word.

"It's just crazy..."

Orbital weapons?

Completely avoid the radar of the US military?

This is simply too absurd!

Let's just say that the Somali ZF has achieved an epic victory with the help of aliens!

After reading the newspaper in his hand, seeing that it was getting late, Smit drank the last bit of coffee in the cup, threw a dollar tip to the waiter, and stood up from his seat.

There were cheers and celebrations everywhere on the street, and the locals gathered in groups of three or four, as if they were celebrating and welcoming something.

For this lifeless city, this scene seems to come from another world, it is so unreal.

Although he was curious about what happened to be celebrated, Smit did not dare to approach the locals, because his skin color was too conspicuous to the locals, and he could easily be regarded as a fat sheep...

Over the next few days, strange things happened one after another.

First, a Chinese construction company moved in next door to them, soon followed by an oil company, and then an import and export trading company...

Later, there were more and more Chinese faces nearby, and gradually opened supermarkets, clothing stores, and even franchised bars.

Yes, it's actually a bar.

This made Smith envious.

Although their executives also tried to bribe local officials to see if they could find a way to open an American bar to entertain their employees, but those officials agreed when they collected the money, but when they were ready to open the bar When it was time, he immediately turned his face and refused to recognize anyone.

I don't know what those Chinese people used to buy them off, so that they bowed their heads to principles.

However, what's interesting is that those Chinese employees don't seem to be very interested in things like bars, and they are the only American and European employees who work for Shell and ExxonMobil who frequent them.

This naturally includes Schmitt himself.

Although jealousy is jealousy, there is nothing wrong with wine.

However, something happened later that annoyed Smit very much. One day, he suddenly discovered that the wine sold to them by those Chinese people was twice as expensive as that sold to their employees.

And when he questioned the bartender, the only answer he got was "the reason for the exchange rate", and there was no further explanation.

This is clearly killing people!

Although he was very angry, in the end Smit could only grit his teeth and admit it.

No way, who wants this piece, there is only such a bar?

Thanks to these Hua Guo guys who are so popular with the locals, even if they are very unpopular with him, at least he has a little more fun in his life, and he doesn't have to drink coffee and read newspapers like an old man.

Over the next week, things got more and more interesting.

There are more and more faces in Huaguo nearby, and it seems to have turned into a Chinatown.

Later, Smit learned from several British oil workers that those Huaguo construction companies were preparing to send an engineering team to the Elwag area to rebuild the city that the ZF army had recovered.

Now Smith is more and more sure that the Somali authorities must have reached some kind of ulterior deal with the Chinese side, contracting all the reconstruction work in that area to those Chinese people.

But Smith still couldn't figure it out.

Is there anything of value there besides stones and sand?

Bringing order to cacti and camels doesn't make any sense.

And frankly speaking, a chaotic Somalia can at least help the world steadily consume some of its surplus arms and feed at least 20,000 families who depend on it.

While drinking in the bar yesterday, he also heard a well-known arms broker complain that the construction workers in Huaguo took their jobs, and the remuneration paid to them by Lockheed Martin and other arms giants dropped sharply. , Now they have to give up the "market" they have finally opened up and go to the more dangerous Central African region.

When they said that, their eyes sparkled with excitement, like navigators in the sixteenth century.

It is said that there is a food crisis breaking out there, and wars between tribes and warlords continue.

Although they are not as "rich" as the pirates in Somalia, there are untapped diamonds, gold mines, oil, and every inch of the land there is filled with the smell of carrion - or banknotes.

Before the Huaguo people develop the market there, they can make a lot of money while it is still chaotic.

While drinking, the arms broker with a vicissitudes on his face fell asleep.

Smit didn't disturb his sweet dream, but was worrying about something to himself while drinking dull wine.

Now it's not just the newspaper, there are more and more things that he can't figure out.

Vaguely, he felt that the logic of this world's operation seemed to be undergoing some kind of huge change quietly.

He couldn't describe this feeling, he just had a vague feeling that this change seemed to have started a long time ago, but recently even he started to be affected.

For example, you can sit here and drink with swagger.

For example, you can stay outside the dormitory until ten o'clock in the evening... In order to protect those Chinese people, the local military and police have at least three times more police here. There is basically no shadow of a local.

However, it is impossible to figure it out.

After all, there seems to be only so much that a small person like him can witness with his eyes...