Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 1545 A Wonderful Year (Third Update, Please Subscribe)
This is a year that is destined to go down in history, and no amount of exaggeration can overstate the extent of it in the days ahead.

Because in this year, mobile communications, optical cables, the Internet and other products that lead the future of mankind were put into use one after another.

When people look back on this year in the future, they will find an amazing coincidence: many inventions that have affected their lives were put into practical use one after another in this year.

Besides these amazing inventions, there is another reason… Industry.

“SEA has truly emerged as the world’s third largest economy.”

This is by no means an empty statement. In terms of basic industries, SEA's production capacity has left the United Kingdom, Germany and France far behind.

This is true for coal, steel and oil, which are the foundation of heavy industry.

In that year, the Soviet Union's steel production was 8500 million tons, coal was 5.5 million tons, oil was 2.23 million tons, and electricity was 4590 billion kilowatt-hours.

This series of data firmly places China in second place in the world.

This year, SEA's steel production exceeded 6000 million tons and coal exceeded 5 million tons. Although its domestic oil production was only 500 million tons, its overseas oil fields in the Persian Gulf region and Libya had a total output of more than 2 million tons. As for electricity, it was 7890 billion kilowatt-hours.

In terms of these three industrial indexes, SEA even reached a level comparable to that of the Soviet Union.

Unlike the Soviet Union, SEA cannot support this industrial capacity with its own local resources. Although it has excellent super-large open-pit coal mines, it does not have metallurgical coal. It also lacks iron ore. Both coking coal and iron ore need to be imported from Australia.

In fact, more than 70% of the resources needed to maintain SEA's economic operation need to be imported. SEA's economy is unable to sustain itself by relying on local resources. From a traditional perspective, SEA is a lame giant.

For this reason, for Li Yian, maintaining world peace is not for all mankind, but for the supply of overseas resources.

Therefore, most of the time, Li Yian tends to maintain peace. After all, only in a peaceful environment can SEA obtain the resources needed for development from around the world through trade and earn foreign exchange by exporting industrial products.

“This year has been truly amazing!”

But while expressing his emotion, Li Yian felt helpless. Although he knew the significance of the Internet very well, and he knew that the phrase "a gift to all mankind" in the newspaper was not an exaggeration, in the world of this era, almost no one would care about this great invention.

It’s not that they don’t care, but they simply don’t realize how much change the Internet will bring to their lives and to the world.

Just like when the Internet was first born, not many people thought it had much potential for development.

It has quietly come into this world and will continue to change the world in the days to come. Only after the human world has been completely changed will people realize how great this invention is.

"Well, all great things ultimately begin small"

While feeling emotional, Li Yian stared at the thin desk calendar and saw October written on it. He thought that it was this year, this month, that Khrushchev was ousted from power.

In fact, among all the Soviet leaders, the one that Li Yian left the best impression on was the Corn Emperor.

As a Soviet leader, Khrushchev was a man of true faith and was willing to build the Soviet Union according to his own understanding. The problems he saw were also the problems that existed in the Soviet Union, so he was committed to changing them, and this was also the reason why he "reformed".

In other words, Corn Emperor really wanted to get things done, but his strength limited his performance.

To a certain extent, the Soviet Union really came to an end after Khrushchev, because it was after Brezhnev that they really lost their ideals. For Brezhnev and his ilk, maintaining power and enjoying life were Brezhnev's first goals. Everything they did was to maintain the status quo and facilitate corruption for themselves and other bureaucrats.

That's it!

As for Brezhnev and those who followed him, Li Yian was too lazy to even comment on them, because they were really not worthy of comment, especially the Emperor of Medals.

If you think about it this way, this year has been extremely exciting - the escalation of the Vietnam War marked by the Tonkin Gulf incident, then Khrushchev's resignation, and then a certain major power's entry into the nuclear club.

Together with optical cables, a series of inventions including the Internet that opened the door to the world's future were put into practical use this year.

This world is just too wonderful!
While feeling the wonderful world, Li Yian frowned. He walked to the window silently and stared at the night sky outside.

As he smoked a cigar, one thought kept coming up in his mind. His brows furrowed tighter and tighter, and his expression became more and more serious.

Will Khrushchev step down as planned this year?

Is his resignation a good or bad thing for the world?
Li Yian didn't know the answer because this was far beyond what he could have anticipated in the future.

Besides, who had the ability to prevent Khrushchev from stepping down?

Even if I remind him now, the question is... will he believe it?

But perhaps a storm is already brewing in Moscow.

A "serious blow" might be imminent.

It does!

That day, Shelepin returned home without saying a word. His serious and cold expression was visible to everyone. Now, many members of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union had different ideas.

Unlike many people, the most fundamental reason why Shelepin had different intentions was that he believed that Ruchev had betrayed the Soviet Union.

To a large extent, Shelepin was a steelist who advocated a tough stance toward the West.

But Khrushchev disappointed him again and again, which is why he turned to the conspiracy group.

Shelepin was definitely not the only one in that conspiracy group who wanted to move against Khrushchev, but he was the only one whose position was not for power! Unlike the others, Shelepin believed that what he was going to do was for the country.

The young leaders headed by Shelepin believed that Khrushchev was too conservative. They believed that after overthrowing him, they could advance reforms in great strides.

But in order to overthrow the supreme authority of the Soviet Union, there is one department that cannot be avoided: the KGB.

As the former leader of the KGB, Shelepin left office three years ago, but the current KGB head, Semichastny, is his confidant.

Semichastny was basically promoted by Shelepin. It was simply that Shelepin took up one level and Semichastny took over the next level. The two had this kind of relationship from the time when they were the Youth League Secretary of the Moscow Municipal Party Committee. Until Shelepin took over as the Chairman of the KGB, the position of Secretary of the Central Committee of the Soviet Youth League was left to Semichastny. Shelepin entered the Central Presidium and Semichastny became the Chairman of the KGB.

Because of this, in everyone's eyes, Shelepin and Semichastny were like brothers, and their relationship was absolutely close.

In Moscow, the KGB was not only the Kremlin's defense force, but also its eyes and ears.

As long as this department exists, no one can bypass the Lubyanka to threaten the Kremlin. For this reason, after defeating Beria, Khrushchev immediately let his confidant, Shelepin, take control of the KGB. It was because he controlled the KGB, the ears and eyes of the Kremlin, and controlled the fists that he was able to turn defeat into victory in the subsequent attack by Malenkov and others, and thus took control of power.

Shelepin now entered the Central Presidium, but the KGB under Semichastny still took orders from him.

After all, Semichastny was Shelepin's confidant, so in theory Khrushchev's position was impregnable.

"Now the imperialists must be very happy with our repeated compromises."

Shelepin expressed his dissatisfaction with Khrushchev without any conspiracy in front of Semichastny. The compromise he mentioned refers to Khrushchev's repeated concessions to Western countries on many international issues in the past two years.

Semichastny did not say anything. He was only 40 years old this year. In fact, he became the chairman of the KGB at the age of 36. His backer was Shelepin. It was with Shelepin's support that he was able to achieve this position.

“How many supporters there are.”

"Many people, look at what he has done in the past few years. In order to obtain food from Ethiopia, he provided hundreds of millions of rubles in loans every year, and a large amount of fertilizers and machinery were provided there, which directly led to a reduction in domestic food production. In the end, he had to take hundreds of tons of gold to fill the domestic gap.

The domestic food shortage has led to rising prices, and the people are complaining.

Not to mention the humiliation of the Cuban Missile Crisis, we may have seemed to have gained the upper hand, but in reality, we were humiliated. Not only did we publicly withdraw our missiles from Cuba, but we also promised not to continue to deploy those weapons there.

He said the Americans had made concessions, but they had quietly withdrawn their missiles from Italy and Turkey.”

Shelepin's tone was full of dissatisfaction. As a steelist, his complaints against Khrushchev actually originated many years ago, at the moment when Khrushchev overthrew steel, but he had always hidden his inner thoughts.

Listening to Shelepin's complaints, Semichasny shook his head and analyzed,

"We can't do it alone, and Suslov is not enough either. We must understand Brezhnev's attitude. In the Central Presidium, Brezhnev is the second-in-command. Without him, we simply cannot succeed."

Then Semichasny added:
"And there is also the military. When Malenkov and his gang started the trouble, it was with the support of the military that Khrushchev was able to dispatch military aircraft to send the Central Committee members from all over the country to Moscow. It was with their support that Khrushchev was able to turn the tables. Be careful of the Ukrainian gang, they are a very powerful force."

The Ukrainian gang has nothing to do with Brezhnev. As the second largest republic in the Union, the Ukrainian gang has always existed and is a force that cannot be ignored. Back then, Khrushchev received support from the Ukrainian state because he was an official from Ukraine.

The so-called "Ukrainian Gang" is actually a small group of officials from Ukraine, and this small group has a great influence in Moscow.

"There is no problem with this. After the missile crisis ended, although we seemed to have saved face, the military's dissatisfaction has been accumulating."

Shelepin smiled and said,
"It is impossible for the military to support Khrushchev like they did last time. As for the other members, they will not support Khrushchev anymore. After all, everyone's interests have been damaged in the past few years."

In the final analysis, everything is about interests. One of the reasons why they stood against Khrushchev was that their interests were damaged.

After all, the first blow of Khrushchev's reforms was aimed at themselves and their privileges.

"As for Brezhnev..."

After a brief pause, Shelepin spoke.

"He was part of the group and he was the one who connected everything."

Shelepin's answer made Semichasny open his eyes wide and look at his backer. Obviously, he did not expect that Brezhnev was the leader of this conspiracy group, but he was relieved after just a little thought.

After all, Brezhnev was the second-in-command of the Central Presidium. As long as Khrushchev was ousted, he would become the master of the Kremlin.

Who can resist such temptation?

Now I feel relieved. After all, they have been preparing for all this for a long time. If it wasn't Brezhnev, who else could it be?

After a while, he spoke.

"Well, I really didn't expect that. If that's the case, then there shouldn't be any problem.

I think if we are going to do something, we should wait until Khrushchev is not in Moscow."

Semichasny said as he made his suggestion.

"After all, being in Moscow and not being in Moscow are two completely different things. In just a few days, he will go on vacation to the Black Sea!"

(End of this chapter)