I Really Didn’t Want To Make A Lot Of Money

Chen Ling asked puzzledly: "Straight to the sea?"

Mali is a landlocked country without a seaport.

"Yes, Dakar port in Senegal. Patriarch, did you know that Mali and Senegal used to belong to the same colony called French Sudan. The French built a 1,300-kilometer railway to connect Bamako and Dakar? ."

"You mean the meter-gauge railway between Bamako and Dakar?"

"Exactly! The construction of this railway began at the end of the nineteenth century and was only completed in 1924. Now, due to poor maintenance and lack of investment, this railway is seriously damaged, and freight capacity is severely reduced. Passenger transport is often late, and there have been several incidents. Derailment incident."

Chen Ling knew about this railway, and Hu Xiaoxiao mentioned it on the phone. Because Hu Datong came to Mali for this railway.

There was another wave in Chen Ling's mind. Is there any connection in these things?

"Saidu, do you want to build the railway?"

"Patriarch, if this railway can be modernized, it can play a very important role. It will benefit our family and our entire Mali a lot..."

"Are there so many funds?" Chen Ling asked. As a large-scale infrastructure, railways can certainly play a great role. The problem is that building railways is a huge investment.

The Dakar-Bamako railway has not been transformed so far, because the funds needed are too great, and the governments of the two countries cannot raise so much funds.

Saidu smiled embarrassedly: "There are not so many. However, there is a chance."

Next, Saidu carefully said his original plan.

Since Saidu was elected as an elder, he has made two ambitions. The first is to retrieve the patriarch's token, and the second is to revive the family's trade and restore the status of the family's trading magnate back then.

In order to realize the first ambition, Saidu sent some young people in the family to neighboring countries to make a living while looking for tokens. Most people in the family, including Saidu himself, do not have much confidence to retrieve the tokens, but this is a "political task" that must be carried out.

It was against this background that Morris first went to North Africa, and then he got into the snakehead circle and made a mistake.

In order to realize the second ambition, Saidu made several arrangements. One is to grow cash crops, peanuts and cotton on the family’s land; the second is to explore on the family’s land to find natural resources.

The result of this second arrangement was the discovery of a large amount of gold in the land, and it was precisely because of this discovery that the leader and a group of people were ready to move, and then caused the opposition between the elders and the leader, and the mining of gold has been delayed. Undecided, the revival of trade has also been put on hold.

Saidu insisted not to sell the land and independently developed gold mines, which brought great pressure to itself. Many people in the elders actually criticized Saidu's persistence.

After all, it is the nature of most people to value short-term interests and ignore future interests. These people agree not to sell the land, but the gold mine can be developed by others, and the money will be taken first.

In order to relieve the pressure and appease the elders, Saidu began to tell stories, put forward the idea of ​​using the wealth passed down by the ancestors to obtain the right to operate the Bamako-Dakar railway, and commissioned a professional consulting agency to come up with a plan.

This idea won unanimous support from the elders and centrists. It is said that the ancestors left a huge amount of treasures, but they have never seen it before. Finding an excuse to revive the family business, just dig it out for the benefit of future generations.

The chiefs clearly opposed Saidou's ideas and began to increase the sale of land, which attracted the French company ODF and suppressed the elders.

On the one hand, the ODF Company directly supported the force of the leader faction, and on the other hand, it helped to buy some important members of the elder faction. The two-pronged approach is difficult for the elders to resist.

Fortunately, Chen Ling descended from the sky with the ring and returned in the manner predicted by the ancestors, allowing Elder Saidu to realize his ambition of retrieving the patriarch's token in one fell swoop. His reputation soared and regained the support of most of his tribe.

Seeing that the situation is not good, the chiefs gathered their strength, and in turn went to dig the treasures left by the ancestors first. ODF smelled it, and did not give up its support for the leader, but increased its strength to ensure the success of the treasure digging.

"Saidu, what is the value of the treasure left by the ancestors?" Chen Ling asked.

"Patriarch, there is no accurate data on this value, only a textual description. According to this description, we estimate that there are tens of thousands of kilograms of precious metals."

"You mean gold?"

"Yes, we only produce this precious metal in Mali. There are many, many, many. I think it should be enough to repair the railway, so I dare to put forward this idea."

Chen Ling smiled and said, "How do you know how to turn so much gold into money?"

"This...sell slowly on the market. Someone wants gold." Although Saidu is a savvy person, he has never dealt with such a large amount of precious metals, so he thinks things simple.

Chen Ling shook his head and said, "It's not like that. When we confirm that there are so many precious metals, let's talk about it. I have channels and can quickly sell a large amount of gold. In fact, I am more concerned about another matter..."

"Patriarch, please say."

"This railway is a large-scale state-owned infrastructure, and it belongs to two countries, Mali and Senegal. I'm afraid it can't be bought if you have money."

Saidu touched his white beard, confident. He proposed to build the railway, which is obviously the conclusion after careful consideration.

"Patriarch, what you said is correct. Under normal circumstances, this kind of state-owned assets will not be sold, but now the governments of the two countries have difficulty maintaining this railway. They have begun to raise funds internationally to transform this railway. Upgrade the meter gauge to a standard track and purchase new vehicles. Large companies from many countries have participated, such as your CR company in China, ODF company in France..."

Chen Ling frowned. There is still a direct competitive relationship between CR and ODF!

"Saidu, these are all international giants. Are you confident that you can compete?"

Seeing the patriarch Chen Ling frowned, he thought Chen Ling was dissatisfied with his thoughts, and quickly said: "Patriarch, we are a local Mali family, different from them. The current president of Mali and the president of Senegal, I can In direct contact, if I say that I can pay to upgrade the railway, they will definitely be willing to accept it. After all, although foreign companies have brought in funds, there are always many conditions."

Chen Ling nodded: "Just think about it clearly. We will discuss this in detail later. The first task now is to get rid of the leader. Pay special attention to the ODF company."

Saidu echoed: "Caught the leader, is to cut off the black hand of ODF company reaching into our family..."

"It's not that simple. I suspect that the ODF company is very ambitious! They want to buy our land, dig our mines, destroy our agriculture, and take our railways! If they succeed in their conspiracy, I am afraid Mali's economy will gradually fall into They have it!"

Saidu thought about it for a while, and said in surprise: "ODF company wants to recolonize us!"

"Re-colonization is impossible. The railway artery goes straight to the Atlantic Ocean. This is a good thing, but it depends on who manages and serves the railway! So, the leader, the ODF company, we have to clean up together!"

Saidu agreed with Chen Ling’s statement, but did not have the confidence: “The patriarch, ODF is a behemoth. With you, I have the confidence to defend our family’s wealth, and I have the confidence to take down the ownership of the railway, but clean up the ODF. I'm afraid I can't do it!"

"Be confident! Soon, we will catch them all, interrogate them slowly, and then we don't need to take action, naturally someone will clean up the ODF!"

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