Schmidt was an ordinary oil and gas field engineer. He was sent to the capital, Mogadishu, because of a $30 billion oil and gas field development agreement between ExxonMobil and the Somali authorities.
Although he had made various preparations before coming here, the degree of dilapidation here ultimately exceeded his expectations.
He once read in a travel magazine that this place was known as the White Pearl of the Indian Ocean before the civil war.
But now, only broken walls remained of the historic buildings. The bullet holes in the walls were clearly visible. Most of the roads were full of potholes, and there was almost no greenery in the entire city. As long as he opened his mouth, he would inevitably eat a stomach full of sand.
The greenery wasn't the only thing that was criticized.
Because of the local culture, there were no bars here, and drinking without permission was punishable by whipping.
Although their executives tried to help them fight for the privilege of drinking without being whipped, this privilege was limited to the staff dormitory, and the variety and quantity of alcohol available were quite limited. It was really difficult for them to be happy.
Therefore, for the employees dispatched here, the only entertainment here was to buy the latest newspaper, sit in the coffee shop near the company base, enjoy the air-conditioning that the locals couldn't afford, and drink the hand-ground coffee that was priced in US dollars. They spent the afternoon there.
It didn't matter what newspaper it was.
Whether it was BBC or Playboy, as long as it had words, life here was really boring.
As usual, Schmidt came to the coffee shop, ordered a cup of black coffee that was so bad that he could drink it all afternoon, then took the newspaper and sat in a safe position far away from the window.
Just as he was about to start reading the newspaper for today's entertainment, he suddenly froze.
[Elwage Victory! The Somali army has won a complete victory!]
What the hell?
April Fool's Day joke?
No, there's still half a year left.
The moment Schmidt saw the headlines in the newspaper, his first reaction was that there must be something wrong.
He was well aware of the combat effectiveness of the Somali regular army. Even though they had received training from various military officers, they were still quite barbaric when they fought. It could be said that they had replaced their rifles with spears that could spit fire. There was no sense of incongruity at all.
In contrast, the enemy they faced was the pirates that caused headaches to governments all over the world. They were the devils that survived more than a decade of blood and fire.
In the face of such an enemy, even if the US military aircraft carriers came, they might not be able to completely destroy them, let alone the Somali Army, which did not even have a few tanks.
With a feeling of disbelief, he looked down the newspaper, but as soon as he looked, his eyes were immediately glued to the picture in the newspaper.
To be precise, there were four sets of pictures.
Two of them were of a 'black coffin' suspended by a parachute. It was probably taken through some kind of professional remote camera.
The other two photos were of the drone cluster flying out of the black coffin, and the smoke rising from the explosion of an ammunition depot hidden behind a hill.
The moment Smith saw these pieces of equipment, he was certain that the Somali authorities must have gotten reinforcements.
These East African natives might not even have seen drones before, so how could they use high-tech equipment that even the US military did not have on a large scale?
Sure enough, as he continued reading, he soon found the answer between the lines.
"With the support of China, the Somali military launched the biggest offensive this year in the Elwag area occupied by militants. During the battle, China dropped at least hundreds of aerial bombs on the battlefield, destroyed more than 20 ammunition depots, and controlled more than 10 outposts.
"At the same time, our reporter learned that in the battle, China used a small drone that is suspected to be controlled by AI, which automatically identifies the identity of militants and launches attacks on them. This drone is highly similar to the logistics drones recently promoted in Shenzhen. At present, it is still uncertain whether they are from the same company …
"At present, the battlefield has shifted from open areas to urban warfare, and many militant leaders have been killed. According to the spokesman of the Somali authorities, the local armed forces active in the area are no longer able to maintain control of the area, and the military is recovering the villages and towns originally controlled by the militants. It is expected that this chaos will continue until the end of the year. Our reporter reminds foreign employees working in the area to pay attention to travel safety.
"In addition, our reporter has consulted the US military base in Ethiopia and inquired more about the air strike. However, the person in charge of the military base has not disclosed the type of aircraft involved in the air strike or where the air strike came from, and refused to answer in more detail. "
"… God."
The Americans are helping China keep a secret?
Did the sun rise from the west?!
There was no way Smith would believe that the US military would be tight-lipped about the weapons used in the air strikes. If they knew, they would want the whole world to know.
In other words, there was only one possibility …
That was, so far, they had not found enough evidence to prove who launched the air strike and where it came from.
Just as the expression on his face gradually changed from suspicion to disbelief, he heard the voices of several other foreign employees behind him.
Coincidentally, the thing they were discussing was the same thing that he couldn't understand and was doubting his life.
"Did you see yesterday's news? The Somali government actually won?! "
"Do you still need to see it? Today's Twitter is talking about this! A lot of people say that China used some kind of terrible secret weapon. I heard from our base's bodyguard that his nephew, who was serving in the base, participated in the battle. They were already prepared to fight to the death with the militants, but in the end, they only cared about collecting the bodies of the militants. "
With that said, the man with stubble on his chin couldn't help but lick his tongue as if he had personally experienced the battle. He continued in a heavy tone.
"You don't want to see that scene … It was like hell."
"What do you think the secret weapon might be?"
"I don't know, but many people said it was an orbital weapon … If it was a fighter or a bomber, it would be impossible to fly so far, and it would be impossible to escape the radar of the US military base!"
Smith listened to the discussion of several foreign employees behind him. He fell into silence, and after a while, he squeezed out a sentence.
"This is crazy …"
Orbital weapon?
Completely avoided the radar of the US military?
This was simply too preposterous!
Why don't we just say that the Somali military achieved an epic victory with the help of aliens!
After Smith finished reading the newspaper in his hand, he saw that it was getting late. He drank the last bit of coffee in his cup, threw a dollar tip to the waiter, and stood up.
There were cheers and celebrations everywhere on the street. The locals gathered in groups of three to five, as if they were celebrating and welcoming something.
For this lifeless city, this scene seemed to come from another world. It was so surreal.
Although Smith was curious about what happened that was worth celebrating, he didn't dare to approach the locals because his skin color was too eye-catching for the locals, and he could easily be treated as a fat sheep …
In the next few days, strange things happened one after another.
First, a Chinese construction company moved in next door, then an oil company, then an import and export trading company …
Later, there were more and more Chinese people in the neighborhood. Slowly, supermarkets, clothing stores, and even licensed bars opened.
Yes, bars.
Smith's eyes turned red with envy.
Although their executives had tried to bribe the local officials to see if they could find a way to open an American-style bar to entertain their employees, the officials agreed when they received the money, but when they were ready to open the bar, they instantly turned their backs on them.
Smith didn't know what the Chinese people used to bribe them to make them lower their heads.
However, interestingly, those Chinese employees didn't seem to be interested in bars. Only the American and European employees who worked for Shell and ExxonMobil often visited bars.
Naturally, this included Smith himself.
Although he was jealous, there was nothing wrong with the alcohol.
However, something happened in the end that infuriated Smith. One day, he suddenly discovered that the alcohol sold to them by the Chinese was twice the price of the alcohol sold to their employees.
When he questioned the bartender, the answer he got was only "because of the exchange rate". There was no further explanation.
This was a blatant rip-off!
Although Smith was furious, in the end, he could only grit his teeth and accept it.
There was nothing he could do about it. There was only one bar in this area.
Thanks to these Chinese people, even though he didn't like them, at least he had more fun in his life. He didn't have to drink coffee and read newspapers like an old man anymore.
In the next week, the situation became more and more interesting.
There were more and more Chinese faces nearby, and it became a Chinatown.
Later, Smith learned from several British oil workers that the Chinese construction companies were preparing to send an engineering team to the Elwag area to rebuild the city that had been recaptured by the government.
Now, Smith became more and more certain that the Somali authorities must have reached some kind of secret deal with China, and all the reconstruction work in that area was contracted to the Chinese.
But Smith still didn't understand.
Was there anything valuable there other than stones and sand?
There was no point in bringing order to the cactus and camels.
And frankly speaking, a chaotic Somalia could at least help the world steadily consume some of the surplus arms and feed at least 20,000 families who depended on it for a living.
Yesterday, when he was drinking in the bar, he also heard a familiar arms broker complain that the Chinese construction workers took away their jobs. The compensation paid by Lockheed, Martin, and other arms giants had plummeted. Now, they had to give up the "market" that they had painstakingly opened up and go to the more dangerous Central Africa region.
At this point, their eyes shone with excitement, just like the navigators of the sixteenth century.
It was said that there was a food crisis there, and the tribes and warlords were constantly fighting.
Although they weren't as "rich" as the pirates in Somalia, there were unexploited diamonds, gold, and oil. Every inch of land there was filled with the smell of rotten meat or the smell of money.
Before the Chinese opened up the market there, they could take advantage of the chaos there to make a lot of money.
As he drank, the arms broker with a weathered face fell asleep.
Smith didn't disturb his sweet dreams. He just minded his own business, worrying about something and drinking to drown his sorrows.
Now, it wasn't just the newspaper. There were more and more things that he couldn't understand.
Vaguely, he felt that the logic of the world seemed to be quietly undergoing some kind of huge change.
He couldn't describe this feeling, but he vaguely felt that this change seemed to have started a long time ago, but recently, even he was beginning to be affected.
For example, being able to sit here and drink.
For example, being able to stay outside the dormitory until ten o 'clock at night … In order to protect the Chinese, the local military and police at least sent more than three times the number of police here. In the past, they would occasionally encounter robbers, but now, as long as they didn't walk out of this street, they basically couldn't see a single local.
However, it couldn't be helped that he couldn't understand it.
After all, for a small character like him, there seemed to be only so many things that he could witness with his own eyes …
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