() A few days after Natasha left, an atmosphere of panic brewed throughout Basra. From high-level officials to low-level soldiers, as well as ordinary people, they began to worry about the food supply in Basra. The price of food in the trading market became increasingly expensive. The money in their hands became less and less valuable. After fu stopped providing any financial support to Basra Province, the atmosphere of panic began to spread to more and more people. Although they had faith in the prophet, what was the use of faith if there was no food? Woolen cloth.
For the war-torn people of Basra, faith is never the first priority, food is the first priority. Faith can only be based on the prophet who will bring them peace and eliminate poverty so that they can live a good life. On top of it, not on hunger.
Food is the most important thing for people, and this is true everywhere in the world.
A week later, the food on the market was no longer enough to enable the people of Basra to survive their daily lives. Whenever the food was put on the market, it would be swept away. While the entire Basra was calm, a tense atmosphere was brewing. Although the government has opened ports and liberalized policies to allow fishermen to fish without tax, it is still a drop in the bucket.
The Shias and Sunnis of the provincial government quarreled every day, but they could never come up with any solution. Oil wells are the main source of tax revenue in Basra, which promotes all the economic conditions here. Now the military has closed the oil wells, and the entire Basra is in chaos. Most of the tax revenue was gone in an instant. Fu was uncoordinated and could not get any external help at all. The prophet even turned away envoys from all Middle Eastern countries and could not get any foreign aid at all.
"If this continues, I'm afraid there will really be civil strife in Basra." During the meeting, some officials made such a pessimistic voice.
The regular meeting ended again. Assad and Chiram found the Minister of Administration Vivian at the same time, hoping that she could ask the prophet to let go. As long as the oil wells were reopened, they could support them for a long time and with the tax revenue, they could In order to be able to operate, the oil wells also provide job security for local people, so everything will develop in a good direction.
In fact, Vivian has been coordinating these things these days, but it is obvious that although Basra was a prosperous area in ancient times, since the discovery of oil, agriculture here has basically been put on hold. It is too difficult to recover, and people have already After being accustomed to modern life, few people would be willing to go farming.
"I don't understand why the prophet closed the oil well. This not only offended the oil companies that signed the contract, but also caused the economy of Basra to completely collapse. It is estimated that within a week, two million people in Basra will fall into hunger. Hunger is more terrifying than the plague. Minister Vivian, I hope you can give some advice to the prophet. After all, his decisions may not all be right," Chiram said.
Assad also has the same opinion. Although he is Canglong's father-in-law now, it is obvious that Canglong himself does not recognize this family relationship. Amira has gone to Canglong's office many times and has not seen anyone from him. Until now So far, he has naturally never met Canglong, let alone used his identity to persuade Canglong.
"I know what you are saying. Why hasn't the prophet thought about it?" Vivian thought, "But you have never thought about another issue."
"What's the problem?" they both said in unison.
"Basra is rich because of oil, but what will this city do if there is no oil?" Vivian suddenly said, "In other words, if a war breaks out one day and the enemy attacks the oil wells first, what will Basra do once all the oil wells are destroyed? , everyone raise their hands and surrender?"
Both of them were stunned. It seemed that Basra's prerequisites made them think that such a problem would not arise. However, this kind of problem has occurred many times in history, from the Gulf War to the Iran-Iraq War to the US military's invasion of Iraq. The oil wells in Basra will be the focus of the enemy's attention.
Once the tax revenue generated by the oil wells is lost, the entire Basra economy will be completely paralyzed. It will completely rely on external support to continue to develop. It cannot even be said to be development, but a transition.
"We can completely exploit oil while using taxes to develop agriculture and so on. Aren't other countries in the Middle East doing this?" Assad suggested.
"I also think this is feasible." Chiram also nodded.
"Don't you still understand the prophet's intention?" Vivian sighed, "In fact, the prophet does not want Basra to rely too much on oil to survive, but to make the people adapt to a life without oil, which means that we have to abandon the oil economy. Although your proposal is very good, you can develop agriculture while extracting oil, but the war is imminent, the Americans will not give us that much time, and Baghdad will not give us that much time."
"Then how do we get through the current difficulties? Do we rely on our faith in the prophet?" Assad asked.
"After some time, he will come to the province in person to formulate the next development plan." Vivian said.
"But the situation is urgent. If the food problem is not solved, the whole city will riot." Chilam said, "All the efforts made by the prophet before will be in vain."
"Needless to say, the prophet will solve everything." Vivian said coldly, "It's enough for you to just do your part and get out."
The two nodded helplessly and left Vivian's office with worried faces.
At the same time, in Baghdad, Natasha was looking at the intelligence about Basra. Judging from some pictures taken by drones and spy satellites, Basra was now on the verge of a riot and only needed a fuse. , all Canglong's deployments will completely collapse.
"Uncle Sam, what means do you think he will use to quell the riot?" Natasha asked calmly.
"The people of Basra are on the verge of starvation, and with our incitement, their faith will become less solid. Even if the mysterious prophet can appear the first time and quell the riots, it may not work the second time." The sea eagle could no longer stop Vivian from calling him Uncle Sam.
"But I always feel that he is not an opponent that can be defeated easily. There is news from the consulate that the prophet has not appeared yet. Likewise, there is no movement from the prophet army. Only the militia is working hard to maintain order in Basra. This is abnormal." Natasha's face was solemn.
"There are always people in this world who can't solve problems. Take the current situation in Basra, for example. He is a smart man and is good at being a killer, but he is not necessarily suitable to be a leader. Maybe he has been forced into a difficult situation by you and is now unable to make a decision. Fight back." Haidiao smoked a cigarette and wrote lightly.
"It would be great if that was the case." Natasha mused, "But in my impression, he is not such a person. The greater the pressure, the stronger his counterattack. Maybe he is waiting for an opportunity, as if he has broken away. The lone wolf in the pack patiently waits for the best opportunity to achieve the sure kill."
"It seems you really know him well." Haidiao smiled and did not offer any advice. Vivian is a person who knows how to think clearly and has the demeanor of a leader. Now that he is giving advice to Vivian, he may mislead her judgment.
Sure enough, after pondering for a long time, Vivian suddenly picked up the phone and dialed the intelligence department: "Gather all the recent news about China in the Middle East and send it to my office."
The intelligence department worked very efficiently. After ten minutes, all the trends about China in the Middle East were gathered on Vivian's desk. She looked at each word without missing a beat. After a long time, she suddenly smiled and said: " Found it."
With that said, she handed the document to Hai Diao and said: "I thought he had some solution. It turns out that he is still using China to solve the problem."
Haidiao read it and saw that the content of this document was some news discovered by the military intelligence department in the Middle East, mainly the Chinese fleet escorting merchant ships to the Persian Gulf. Although the destination of this merchant ship was Iran, Vivian still found clues.
"What do you think this merchant ship is carrying?" the sea eagle asked.
"Food, according to Chinese intelligence, the early rice harvest of Oriental International No. 1 under Canglong has begun. It must be transporting the food that Basra needs most. Moreover, this merchant ship used to transport oil and has never been in Iran. Record of the stop." Natasha smiled.
"Then what are you going to do?" Haidiao asked strangely, "Half of the Persian Gulf is Iran's inland sea. If we take action here, we may conflict with the Iranian navy. The Ministry of National Defense has not formulated a combat plan against Iran. .”
"It's very simple. Let the Navy's aircraft carrier battle group deployed in the Persian Gulf launch a military exercise in the Persian Gulf. No commercial ships are allowed to pass until the end of the military exercise." Natasha said calmly.
"What a good idea. The navy's military exercises will take about half a month." Sea Eagle said expressionlessly, "And Basra's current food cannot sustain it for so long. By the time the military exercises are over and the merchant ships pass by, I'm afraid Basra's system will have collapsed. But I think this is not very thorough. We might as well let the navy seize the opportunity to seize the merchant ship first, claiming that the goods it is transporting do not match the goods actually advertised as being transported."
"I'll do as you say." Then Natasha picked up the phone and dialed the intelligence department again, "Get me the Ministry of Defense."
Half a month later, the situation in Basra became more and more intense. People began to demonstrate in the streets to relieve hunger. The Prophet Army did not come forward to suppress it. This directly led to the people throughout Basra starting to demonstrate. They demanded that the government open the oil wells. Thousands of people gathered in Basra Province to restore the economy.
There was no riot as imagined, but everyone knew that if the prophet did not relent and allowed hunger to continue to spread, riots would happen sooner or later.
"The U.S. military and the Saudi Arabian navy were conducting military exercises in the Persian Gulf and seized merchant ships transporting food." Vivian rushed to the Prophet Army headquarters base eagerly and told Canglong the urgent news. "Now it's a mess outside. , if you don’t come forward now, the hungry people will riot."