Era: Starting from divorce from female college student

Bang!
A water glass was angrily thrown out, and the porcelain glass shattered instantly upon hitting the ground.

"Are you all incompetent? You haven't even investigated this properly? Did this hundred-kilometer-long Great Wall in the forest just appear out of thin air?"

Inside his White House office, Reagan was furious.

Recently, the space agency's satellite reconnaissance team observed the forest wall on the border between Yunlan City and Ethiopia, which appeared almost overnight.

So the matter was reported, and then the fifth person in charge, Antonius Howard, sent people to investigate.

However, the survey results were not satisfactory.

No one knows where the raw materials for this Great Forest Wall came from, or why it appeared out of thin air.

The main reason is that no one expected the appearance of the Forest Wall, and there were hardly any people nearby, which led to many people not realizing what was happening after the Forest Wall appeared.

Outrageous!
Reagan, Antoninus Howard, and others were furious that the specific details of the incident had not been thoroughly investigated.

But what good is it to get angry again?

However, while Reagan and his men were angry, His Highness Nasser, the eldest prince of the Saudi Empire, was very happy. He kept pestering Lü Yangui to donate money and asked if they could build a forest wall near the capital of their Saudi Empire.
People in water-rich tropical rainforest regions cannot understand Nasser and his ilk's fervent love for oases.

Because they live in the desert, where water is extremely scarce, they see very little greenery throughout the year.

Yunlan City is connected to its neighbors Kenya and Ethiopia by a forest wall made up of trees that are over 20 meters tall, which is really exciting.

Nasser was overjoyed and was even willing to pay a certain amount of money for it.

Zhao Mancang learned of this from Lü Yangui, but remained unmoved.

Even though he could easily dig up such tall trees from the Amazon rainforest in South America.

There are also many such tall trees in the tropical rainforests of Luzon Island and other parts of Southeast Asia.

But Zhao Mancang was busy taking care of the children and didn't have time to deal with these things.

Longze Nanako and Hou Feifei have already given birth to their children and are currently in their postpartum period. Although they have postpartum nannies to help take care of them, it's still not the same as before.

Moreover, Zhao Mancang is the child's father, so he'll definitely come to help.

In fact, Zhao Mancang is quite busy right now and doesn't have much time at all.

Lin Wan and Liu Baochan need him too; he can't just stay out of the public eye for too long, can he?
In addition, I need to have meals with the kids like Xiao Shitou to build a relationship with them.

Even if it weren't him, these little brats would still come looking for him.

There are only 24 hours in a day, so you can't just create another 24 hours out of thin air, can you?
So he was at a loss.

However, Zhao Mancang felt much more relaxed after Longze Nanako and the others finished their postpartum confinement.

However, just as Zhao Mancang had some free time, he received another call from Yunlan City, saying that Ethiopia next door was causing trouble again.

What are they going to do?
It's because Yunlan City previously seized nearly 200,000 square kilometers of land from them, and they're not happy about it.

At the same time, Antoninus Howard and his team came to support them.

With new weapons and equipment, plus manpower and money, Ethiopia felt confident that it could do it again.

"So they're getting arrogant again?"

After the Black Cross commander finished his report, Zhao Mancang asked with a smile.

"Yes, Boss, they've amassed at least 150,000 troops on the other side of the wall this time."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Mancang smiled but remained silent.

This isn't like World War II forty or fifty years ago, where fighting was simply a matter of numbers.

It's more about outsmarting the enemy and using advanced weaponry than about having a large number of people.

Besides, when did Yunlan City ever rely on manpower to build it?

Drone swarms are not commanded by humans, but by computers.

In Yunlan City, there are several supercomputers that can perfectly control these drone swarms in combat.

To be honest, the existence of the Black Cross forces is mainly for deterrence; in actual combat, they are no longer needed to be on the front lines.

That's the situation right now.

Ethiopia may believe that the reason they lost last time was simply because their weapons and equipment were not good enough.

But they didn't even consider that Sam hadn't won when he fought against Yunlan City before.

Why should they be guaranteed to win now that they've acquired Sam's weapons and equipment?
"Ignore them, and you don't need to be at the forefront."

After the Black Cross commander finished speaking, Zhao Mancang smiled and said:
"I've already made arrangements at the factory to speed up the production of more drones. Then we'll use drone swarms to fight and show these bumpkins what modern warfare is all about."

This is a classic example of dimensional reduction attack!
The Black Cross troops and others nodded in agreement. They were very excited. Although they wanted to take up arms and go to the battlefield, who would want to go to the battlefield if given the chance?

After all, they are very satisfied with their current life and work, and naturally don't want to die.

If they kick the bucket, everything they have will vanish.

Therefore, upon hearing Zhao Mancang's arrangements, all the leaders of the Black Cross forces nodded with smiles.

They were so happy.

Drone swarms are the core of modern warfare; their combat power is all-round and without blind spots, no matter how the enemy tries to hide.

There are many modern reconnaissance methods, such as radar, electronic, acoustic, ground-based, drone, and satellite.

Among these methods, drone reconnaissance is undoubtedly one of the core techniques.

Because drones can conduct long-term, wide-area reconnaissance by flying at high altitudes, acquiring high-definition images and videos, and even transmitting them in real time.

Furthermore, drone reconnaissance has advantages such as high flexibility, relatively low cost, and good concealment.

Combined with other means such as satellite reconnaissance, radar reconnaissance, and electronic reconnaissance, it would be a huge surprise to these so-called Ethiopian neighbors who are supposedly equipped with advanced weapons.

After arranging everything, Zhao Mancang turned and left, instructing the Black Cross unit leader to handle the matter and to notify him immediately in case of any emergency.

After driving to the Yunlan City Government office compound, Zhao Mancang stopped the car, sat inside, and rested for a while.

The front yard of the office compound is very large, and the parking lot alone can accommodate hundreds of cars.

This represents the face of Yunlan City, so it's naturally quite different.

Near the office compound, there is a large grove of trees, dozens of meters tall, that surrounds the entire compound. The streets of Yunlan City, and many government office compounds, are characterized by their shady trees—a unique phenomenon.

The landscaping is done very well.

Trees tens of meters tall are a common sight in Yunlan City.

This is why many first-time visitors to Yunlan City mistakenly believe that Yunlan City is a large city that has existed for decades.

After all, the trees here look like they've been growing for decades, otherwise there wouldn't be so many tall trees.

Zhao Mancang, who was sitting in the car, thought about Sam's intentions for a moment before getting up and getting out of the car.

Sam's intention to cause trouble is both unexpected and perfectly logical.

The sudden expansion of Yunlan City by 200,000 square kilometers, moving towards a land area of ​​one million square kilometers, was certainly a bad thing for Sam.

why?
It's important to know that there are only about 190 countries in the world, and of them, only 29 have a land area of ​​more than one million square kilometers.

Egypt, ranked 29th, has an area of ​​1,010,000 square kilometers, while Mauritania, ranked 28th, has an area of ​​1,026,000 square kilometers.

Of course, none of this matters.

The problem is that Yunlan City has super strong technological capabilities and is about to make up for its population shortage. If so much land is developed within its territory, it will take time for Yunlan City to digest all of this land.

Once these lands are transformed into arable farmland, they will be able to achieve food self-sufficiency.

That definitely won't work.

Sam would spare no effort to do anything to help Yunlan City.

What's more, this time it was Yunlan City that stirred things up, wiping out the pirates without saying a word and taking back all the land.

Reagan, of course, refused.

"Heh, you won't agree? You want to cause trouble? I'll play along!" Zhao Mancang sneered as he got out of the car and walked into the gate of the office compound.

"Boss, you've arrived! Please have a seat."

As Zhao Mancang pushed open the door and entered the office, Lü Yangui and the others hurriedly stood up.

Clearly, they had been waiting for quite a while, and although Zhao Mancang arrived a little late, no one said anything.

The entire operation of Yunlan City, including all matters large and small, seemed to be controlled by Lü Yangui and his group, while Zhao Mancang appeared to have no involvement.

However, in reality, several factories in Yunlan City are unmanned factory workshops, which is what makes Zhao Mancang truly terrifying.

Furthermore, the Black Cross troops only obey Zhao Mancang's orders, and it is Zhao Mancang who funds and supports this group of killing machines.

In addition, many of Yunlan City's money-making projects, such as landscaping projects, were supported by Zhao Mancang behind the scenes.

Therefore, even though Zhao Mancang doesn't pay much attention to the affairs of Yunlan City, it doesn't prevent him from controlling the entire city, and Lü Yangui and the others dare not have any disloyal thoughts.

"I heard that Saudi prince hasn't left yet? He's so stubborn, insisting that we get them this big tree?"

After sitting down, Zhao Mancang asked with a smile.

After seeing the Forest Wall, His Highness Nasser, the eldest prince of the Saudi Empire, was very excited and insisted that Yunlan City help build a similar Forest Wall.

Even if it costs a lot, we will not hesitate.

In fact, they have already spent more than 100 billion US dollars on greening projects, so spending a little more money on these vanity projects like the Great Wall of Forests doesn't seem like a big deal.

Who can blame them when the Saudi Empire has so much money?
Over the past year or two, international crude oil prices have fluctuated between $18 and $20 per barrel, without breaking out of this range, and the growth has been relatively stable.

Of course, this is also due to the large-scale oil drilling in the North Sea and Alaska oil fields, as well as the distrust among OPEC member countries, which leads to them secretly injecting liquidity into the market from time to time.

Just like the Date Empire and a few other countries, they never controlled the amount of oil they produced. They mined as much as they could and sold it directly.

Right now, only the Saudi Arabian Empire, the dominant power, is still upholding these principles, refraining from such actions, and adhering to its bottom line.

However, they also export large quantities of oil to Yunlan City.

After all, they are going to carry out a desert greening project, and one project costs 100 billion US dollars, which is no small amount of money.

It's unrealistic to expect the Saudi Empire to come up with so much money, and Yunlan City doesn't need that kind of cash; what it needs are oil, food, minerals, gold, and the like.

In international trade, currency is important, but it is not the most crucial factor.

"Yes, that prince hasn't left yet. We've refused him multiple times, but he keeps raising the price; it's already reached 20 billion US dollars."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Mancang nodded and said:

"Okay, let's leave him be for now, just ignore him."

“This time, our neighbor Ethiopia is going to cause trouble, but you don’t need to worry about that. What you need most right now is to send more engineering teams to make all the land we’ve already acquired our own.”

"Didn't we conduct an assessment of the greening project a while ago?"

"This time, we'll gather them all together and execute the project according to the standards set for greening projects."

Previously, in order to recruit and select sufficiently experienced planting workers, Yunlan City conducted an assessment for the Saudi Empire's 10,000 square kilometer desert greening project.

Tens of thousands of people applied, but only one thousand were accepted.

But this time, Yunlan City covers a total area of ​​200,000 square kilometers, all of which are Gobi desert. So, if we want to completely transform them into fertile fields and forests, we will need more manpower.

If we use the standard of 1,000 people per 10,000 square kilometers, then an area of ​​200,000 square kilometers would have 20,000 people.

However, Zhao Mancang didn't want to go through all that trouble, so he decided to make a quick decision.

Gather all these people and quickly turn that 200,000 square kilometers of land into our own territory.

"Boss, isn't this going to cost too much?"

Lu Yangui and his group were immediately dumbfounded. After all, it was easy to gather a thousand people, but if each person was paid an annual salary of 100,000 US dollars, that would amount to 100 million US dollars.

But if it's tens of thousands of people, or even nearly a hundred thousand, then that's tens of billions of US dollars.

If a group of people all have this much money, the impact on Yunlan City as a whole will be quite significant.

Moreover, although the current price level in Yunlan City seems very stable, it is already extremely fragile.

"No!" Zhao Mancang shook his head.
"Don't overthink it. If everyone has money, then import more luxury goods and produce more high-quality products." (End of Chapter)