Central Asia.
Afghanistan was a strange country. This place, known as the Graveyard of Empires, was a place with a special power. Starting from Alexander the Great, the monarch who conquered three continents failed here.
Then Genghis Khan did not gain anything in Afghanistan.
In modern times, the British Empire was at its peak in the 19th century. It was known as the Empire where the sun never sets, but it also failed in Afghanistan.
In modern times, the Soviets' invasion of Afghanistan brought no benefits to the Soviet Union other than increasing the death rate of their own soldiers.
The United States didn't believe it. As the number one battlefield in the 21st century's war against terrorism, the United States had been mired in Afghanistan for more than a decade.
No matter what the United States' original purpose was, whether it was really anti-terrorism or to plant its own forces in Central Asia and the Middle East. But more than a decade had passed. It couldn't be said that the United States had completely failed, but for Congress, the benefits from Afghanistan were very, very limited.
This was a far cry from their original predetermined goal. In terms of strategic intent, the war had actually failed. In Afghanistan alone, nearly 3,000 US soldiers had died in the war over the past decade, and even more were seriously injured and disabled.
The continuous conflicts consumed a lot of resources, and the waves of rebellions made the US military exhausted. What worried Congress even more was the increasing war budget every year.
The United States was the country with the highest assets in the world, but it had invested too much military power in the wars in Central Asia, the Middle East, and Northeast Africa. Modern wars were fought with money.
Now Congress's budget was exceeded every year, and there was a budget deficit every year. This gave the financial department a headache. Congress didn't have a good time either, because the number of soldiers killed in action was too high.
Domestic opposition to the war was growing, especially with the high unemployment rate in the United States. The people preferred the government to invest money in civilian construction, rather than casually spending millions to see the fireworks of a Tomahawk missile.
Under these circumstances, the withdrawal plan from Afghanistan was put on the table. The big shots in the Congress had had enough of paying for the decisions of the previous cabinet and the Congress. They didn't want to continue to invest money in Afghanistan.
Starting this year, the US military had begun to gradually withdraw from Afghanistan. The country that had been ravaged by war for decades (including the previous Soviet war and the rule of terrorism) seemed to have ushered in the dawn of peace.
The withdrawal of the US military was only one aspect of it. The more profound aspect was the launch of the new energy plan.
The reason why Tony's new energy plan was called the most important revolution of the 21st century was not just limited to replacing traditional fossil fuels.
In the revolutionary wave of new energy, the value of the Middle East and Central Asia, which originally represented important energy supply areas, began to decline.
Of all the wars that had taken place in the world in the past 15 years, the conflict over oil was the most common. No matter what kind of skin it wore, the core of it was simple and naked oil interests.
The United States has begun to adjust its foreign policy, including the gradual loosening of its control over Iran, Iraq, and the Persian Gulf.
Originally, Afghanistan was not an oil-producing country, but due to its special geographical location and national territory (Afghanistan's territory was in the shape of a long and narrow corridor), it was a corridor connecting Central Asia and the Middle East to East Asia. On one side of this narrow corridor was the former Soviet Union, and on the other side was China.
From a strategic point of view, the US needed to control such a strategic location. Because of its geographical location, this country had become an important forward base in the fight for Central Asia and the Middle East over the years.
But just like the simplest business, when the value of oil was not so important, or it was not worth the lives of countries to fill it, the value of Afghanistan also plummeted.
Because oil was not so valuable, the big bosses who had supported the warlords in the Middle East and Central Asia suddenly withdrew their funds.
These idiots who only knew how to destroy and did not know how to build now controlled various oil fields and oil wells, but they began to gradually lose their value. Wars that relied on oil profits had become a joke.
Because all the smart people saw that oil may still be used in chemical products in the future, but it was only a by-product. After the most important energy value was stripped, no one would fight for the raw materials of some chemical products.
Because there was no source of funding and various weapons provided by the financiers behind them, the major warlords in the Middle East and Central Asia seemed to have stopped fighting in an instant. The so-called War of Faith and Holy War were just ridiculous excuses. The warlords started the war only for their own interests.
As long as they had money, they could simply sell the lives of their compatriots as commodities!
Now that no one wanted the commodities, it was time for the warlord business to shut down. The conflict in the Middle East that had troubled the world for decades seemed to see the light of a solution at this moment.
For a moment, it seemed that peace was really coming to this war-torn land.
Countless ordinary people were looking forward to it. As long as peace came, even if life was a little hard and tiring, at least there was still hope for life.
There would be no one holding a gun and forcing them to die at any time, and there would be no missiles suddenly falling from the sky when they were sleeping at home.
For many people, a peaceful life was more precious than anything else.
In Afghanistan, Gmira, because of the withdrawal of the US military and the recent lack of funding, the warlords were forced to cease fire. This small city entered a period of relative peace.
Some people who had left their homes because of the war returned to live here. After all, it was difficult to leave one's homeland.
Gmira was a very, very small city. The largest building in the city was an oil refinery built by the former Soviet Union. Because this oil refinery used to be a place where many warlords fought with each other, but now it was abandoned. Because the oil couldn't be sold at a high enough price, it wasn't enough to support the warlords to use precious weapons and ammunition to seize this place.
At its peak, Gmira had a population of more than 70,000, but today, there were only less than 10,000 people living in and around this small city.
Because of the war, a large loss of population was inevitable.
But as long as there was hope to rebuild their homes, there would always be people who returned here to contribute to their hometown. For example, Dr. Ethan.
As a talented scientist in the field of biology and medicine, Ethan could go to other countries to seek a high-paying position. After all, a talent like him was welcome all over the world.
Not to mention that he had saved Tony Stark's life. In the United States, Tony basically treated Ethan as the chief scientist of the company.
But because of the new energy, Ethan and Tony fell out. Because compared to Tony, Ethan felt the pain of the war caused by energy interests. His family had died in this kind of war.
New energy, the power to change the world! How powerful it was, how much damage it would cause to the world. Ethan had a deep understanding of this. He repeatedly persuaded Tony Stark to postpone his plan, or to implement it after he had a complete plan.
But Tony's pride and arrogance hurt Ethan. In the end, the good old man could only give Tony a final warning by leaving. And the war in Eastern Europe that happened later confirmed Ethan's previous conjecture.
There seemed to be a ceasefire in Eastern Europe now, but Ethan knew it was only temporary. By the time Durm and the P5 were fully prepared, the war would only intensify.
Ethan sighed. It was already one o 'clock in the afternoon. It was time for him to go to the temporary school to teach the children. As a scholar, Ethan firmly believed that only by mastering the knowledge of this era could his compatriots survive in the future, and only people with wisdom could live better in this world.
New energy was a crisis, but it was also a turning point. As long as the next generation seized the opportunity, it was not impossible to build a new, beautiful Afghanistan.
Ethan found himself a hat and put it on. There weren't many students in the school, only less than 50. And he was the only teacher, but he had always been in awe of knowledge and science.
Just 1.5 kilometers away from the oil refinery, an abandoned house and temporary tents were all the school had.
When Ethan stepped into the school, he found that there was one more person in his school. An adult man.
He was dressed in a well-ironed suit that was spotless, which seemed very out of place in Gmira. The most striking thing was that Ethan saw the man wearing ten rings on his hand.
This man with ten rings had a dignified square face and a pair of eyes that were full of spirit.
At the same time, he had a head of thick black hair, which was about the length of his back. He kept a carefully trimmed beard that looked very similar to Tony Stark's.
This was a man who had been in a high position for a long time. Ethan could make the simplest judgment in an instant. And he looked like an East Asian, which was obviously different from the Afghans of Central and West Asia.
But this man was just standing in front of him without saying a word, but he still looked very imposing. If Ethan had read Hong Kong comics, he would definitely think that this man looked like the most popular villain in Wind and Cloud, Xiong Ba. The man who looked like Xiong Ba looked at Ethan and suddenly said, "Are you Dr. Ethan?"
He spoke in authentic Arabic. There were many people who spoke Arabic in Afghanistan, and Dr. Ethan happened to be one of them.
The man who looked like Xiong Ba looked at Ethan and suddenly said, "Are you Dr. Ethan?"
He nodded and said, "I am. May I ask who you are?"
The man who looked like Xiong Ba smiled. "You can call me Zhang Tong. I'm here to ask for your help."
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
