The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 1072: Prosperity and War

After leaving the aircraft carrier formation, the helicopter stopped at Qiong Island to refuel, and then flew directly to Hong Kong.

That evening, on the rooftop of the Hong Kong Bank headquarters building, Liu Tao looked out at Victoria Harbour and admired the prosperity of Hong Kong.

As one of the most developed cities in Asia today, one of the most famous cities in the world, and also one of the world's financial centers, Hong Kong has in fact played the role and status of an Asian financial center.

The entire Hong Kong faces the entire Southeast Asia and the entire world. It is the most important window and bridge for communication between the East and the West. Many overseas companies have set up their Asian headquarters in Hong Kong.

Combined with land reclamation and renovation of old houses, Hong Kong's population has now grown to 1200 million.

Hong Kong also became the most densely populated city in China.

This also contributed to the prosperity of Hong Kong. Today, Hong Kong's industrial structure has undergone significant changes, focusing on international trade, tourism, Internet high-tech, high-end manufacturing, shipping, etc. As for mid- and low-end manufacturing, they have all withdrawn from Hong Kong and moved north.

Many talents from the mainland choose to develop in Hong Kong, and celebrities and wealthy people often choose to obtain Hong Kong household registration.

The entire Hong Kong can be said to be a land of wealth.

The 'unrestricted war' that broke out in the United States on September 9 last year also affected the Hong Kong stock market, which fell for nearly two weeks before bottoming out and rebounding.

Up to now, the Hong Kong stock market has not only recovered its losses, but is also much higher than before September 9.

A lot of funds flowed into the East, and most of them arrived in Hong Kong. A large part of the funds that came to Hong Kong flowed into the stock market, which drove the prosperity of the stock market.

Even Internet technology companies that experienced the bursting of the Internet bubble last year are seeing their share prices rise.

Of course, part of the funds leaving the United States flows to the East, and part flows to Europe.

On January 1, the euro officially began to circulate in the markets of the 1 countries in the eurozone. The original currencies of the 12 European countries, such as the franc and German mark, became history and were replaced by the euro.

The euro officially became the official currency of the eurozone countries and began to circulate among European countries, marking the birth of the euro and an important milestone in the European integration process.

When it comes to the circulation of the euro in the 12 countries of the eurozone, the country with the biggest objection is not any other country, but the United States.

Many mainstream media in the United States have been pessimistic about the euro and are skeptical about it. If the United States had not launched the war in Afghanistan and needed the help of its European allies, the Americans might have once again launched a big move near Europe.

Liu Tao came to Hong Kong. He planned to stay there for a week to deal with some matters in Hong Kong.

While Liu Tao was staying in Hong Kong, the war in Afghanistan, which was in the winter, had not yet stopped.

Now the coalition forces led by the US military have occupied half of the cities in Afghanistan, but the guerrilla warfare of the guerrillas has caused the coalition forces a lot of suffering.

Clearly, in terms of the battle front, the coalition forces achieved successive victories and occupied one Afghan city after another, but they actually eliminated very few guerrillas.

The guerrillas did not defend the city to the death. They would leave some guerrillas in the city or important towns to fight in street fighting. And unlike the brutal street fighting, the guerrillas did not intend to fight to the death. They would retreat after launching the attack. They would also deploy mines and booby traps in the buildings. They would fight if they could, and evacuate into tunnels or sewers if they could not.

Every time the coalition forces captured a city, they would inevitably suffer some casualties. Although the number of casualties was not large, the cumulative amount was huge.

Moreover, in order to deal with the guerrilla street fighting, the coalition forces would often bombard an entire building, and the amount of artillery shells and missiles consumed was quite astonishing.

What is even more troublesome for the coalition forces is that Afghanistan has a complex terrain, with many mountains and plateaus, and the transportation roads are extremely backward, which is not conducive to marching and fighting. Moreover, the transportation lines will encounter guerrilla attacks from time to time.

The whole war seemed to be going smoothly, but in fact it was not going well.

The guerrillas were widely distributed in mountainous areas and rural areas, which made it very difficult for the coalition forces to eliminate them.

More importantly, the coalition forces feel tremendous pressure coming from their own countries.

These damn guys are engaging in "unrestricted warfare" in their country. Today there is an explosion in a shopping mall, tomorrow there is security at a subway station, the day after tomorrow there is an explosion in a concert hall, and there are even attacks on schools, kidnapping teachers and students.

This has led to enormous social pressure on ruling parties in various countries.

The shortage of police force has caused countries to be overwhelmed in coping, and the people are very dissatisfied. They believe that if their country had not followed the United States in sending troops to Afghanistan, it would not have been attacked. They have opposed their government's decision and demanded that the troops be transferred back to ensure domestic security.

The roads in Afghanistan are rugged and seem to be the same everywhere.

But at this time, the guerrillas were walking very easily. If they were not carrying the heavy shells on their shoulders, they could almost walk briskly.

Finally, after walking for an hour in the bare mountains, they arrived at their nest.

I saw a cave in front of me. The entrance of the cave was almost vertical and was blocked by the mountain opposite. It was almost impossible to see from the air. This natural cave was the natural base of this guerrilla team.

The terrain here is concealed. When the Soviet Union sent troops straight into Afghanistan, even if the powerful Soviets wanted to wipe out this place, they could not attack because the road was too rugged and the armored troops could not get in. In addition, there is a water source in the back mountain, so this base is a very good choice.

This time, the guerrillas broke up into small groups and dispersed, and they retreated back to their old nest.

As a result, in their old nest, they found enough food for their guerrillas to eat for three years, including grain, compressed biscuits, canned beef, beef jerky, canned fruit, etc. There were no words on the bottles.

In addition to food, there were also many AK47s and a large amount of bullets, as well as mines, portable air defense missiles, shoulder-fired rocket launchers, and so on.

This time they went out to fight, destroyed an American infantry fighting vehicle, killed ten American soldiers, and destroyed a Black Hawk helicopter. It can be said that they returned with a full load.

Then they obtained rich spoils of war. In addition to weapons and ammunition, there was also a batch of supplies. Many of them could not be brought back, so they had to hide them temporarily and move them back slowly later.

The guerrilla leader "Amir" was in a good mood. He asked people to fetch some water from the back mountain, prepare dinner, and even opened a can of beef.

Although there are many cans in this natural cave, they are usually strictly managed and people only open the cans to celebrate after a victory.

Although they also suffered casualties today, they definitely won the battle and it is worth opening a can to celebrate.

Amir believed that as long as they continued to win, more and more warriors would join the guerrillas to fight against the invaders.

Afghanistan is the Afghanistan of the Afghans, not the Afghanistan of the Americans.

If they could drive out the Soviets, they could certainly drive out the Americans.

No matter whether it is ten or twenty years.

(End of this chapter)