The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 852: The Poorest Place in the Middle East
Saudi Arabia.

A military camp.

This place is located in the desert, with endless yellow sand and flying dust.

When Liu Tao arrived here, the mercenaries in the military camp had already assembled.

These mercenaries were fully armed, wearing camouflage uniforms, bulletproof vests and bulletproof helmets, and each was equipped with a Type 78 automatic rifle and a Type 78 pistol.

Even an ordinary mercenary is equipped with a Type 78 pistol.

装备方面，有着高射机枪、80式自行高炮、80式主战坦克、81式重型坦克、81式轻型坦克、81式步兵战车以及其他装甲车、军用运输车、车辆。

There are 5000 mercenaries in this camp.

Saudi Arabia has two military camps like this, with a total of 10000 mercenaries.

Saudi Arabia signed an employment agreement with the mercenary group, with the employment period lasting up to 10 years.

The two mercenary groups are responsible for part of Saudi Arabia's defense mission and help train the Saudi army.

Even though the total strength of Saudi Arabia's conventional armed forces now remains at 50, Saudi Arabia still feels it is necessary to hire mercenaries.

Liu Tao looked at the faces one by one. The youngest of these mercenaries was only 18 years old and the oldest was no more than 35 years old.

Many of the mercenaries who had participated in the Gulf War chose to leave the mercenaries after the war and return to their daily lives as ordinary civilians.

Liu Tao inspected this mercenary group. The flag of this mercenary group was very special, with an iron-eating beast as its flag.

After inspecting tens of thousands of mercenaries, Liu Tao arrived at the mercenary group's headquarters.

There are three maps hanging in the headquarters: the world map, the Middle East map, and the Saudi Arabia map.

Especially the Middle East maps and Saudi Arabia maps, they are all military maps.

Military maps and civilian maps are two different things.

For example, the map of the Middle East shows the main mountains, rivers, valleys, important military targets, and major transportation networks.

As for the map of Saudi Arabia, it is much more detailed. The topographic map of the entire Saudi Arabia is complete, clearly marking where the mountains, rivers, deserts and oases are.

The leader of the mercenary group, Li Fen, was introducing Liu Tao to the mercenary group and the latest situation in the Middle East.

Li Fen, 38 years old this year, once participated in the "Red Dragon's Roar" operation. After retiring, he joined the armed forces of Panshan Group. Later, he went abroad as a mercenary, and gradually worked his way up from squad leader to the current leader of the mercenary group.

During the previous Gulf War, Li Fen was still the deputy head of the regiment, but before Pang Hu left, he recommended him and Li Fen was promoted from deputy to full head.

To be honest, Li Fen had thought about leaving the mercenaries, like the mercenary commander Pang Hu, and returning to family life to be with his wife and children.

After all, he had been a mercenary for more than ten years. He was tired of seeing the swords and making a living on the edge of the sword. Moreover, his income was not low over the years, and his savings were enough for his family to live for a lifetime.

But he can't leave because of responsibility!
He has to shoulder the responsibility.

A mercenary group like theirs is considered a large mercenary group in the world.

Many mercenary groups consist of only dozens or hundreds of people, and those that can grow to a thousand people are considered large mercenary groups.

If he does not take on this important responsibility, there will be no one in this mercenary group who is suitable to be the leader of the mercenary group.

A snake cannot survive without a head!
He must shoulder this responsibility until someone emerges who is qualified and capable of serving as the leader of this mercenary group, and then he can step down.

There is currently no war in the Middle East. Iraq has been hit hard and is quietly licking its wounds. Persia is also licking its wounds from the Iran-Iraq War and is unable to provoke Iraq.

With the presence of the Arab coalition and Saudi Arabia playing the role of leader, the Middle East has rarely become peaceful.

Even Israel has been very calm these days, and has even begun to soften its tone on the issue of the establishment of a Palestinian state.

"But Saudi Arabia may attack Yemen." Li Fen analyzed, "Currently, public opinion in the Middle East is very unfavorable to Yemen."

"Attack Yemen? Are you crazy?" Liu Tao frowned, obviously a little surprised.

Yemen is located at the southernmost tip of the Arabian Peninsula. It has a sufficient population, rich oil resources, and superior trading ports. However, Yemen is a very backward country with corrupt government, poor people, and social chaos. Even the oil business, which can make money without doing anything, is not doing well.

Yemen has a land area of ​​52.8 square kilometers, bordering the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea. It has a coastline of 1906 kilometers. The climate in the mountainous and plateau areas of the country is relatively mild. It currently has a population of 1500 million.

The country has proven oil reserves of about 20 billion barrels and also has huge offshore oil fields. Its non-oil resources are also relatively rich, and its metal mines mainly include gold, silver, lead and zinc.

However, Yemen is the least developed place in the world and the poorest country in the Middle East.

In people's impression, the Middle East is known as the world's oil center, and Middle Eastern countries have made a fortune by relying on oil trade. The so-called miserable life of not being able to afford food, housing, or cars seems to have nothing to do with Middle Eastern countries.

But this is what happened in Yemen.

Even in Iraq, which was devastated in the Gulf War, life is much better than in Yemen.

Some experts believe that Yemen is a typical country that is deeply trapped in the "Malthusian trap". The so-called Malthusian trap is a population trap, which means that the population growth of a country (a country that has not achieved industrialization) cannot exceed the corresponding agricultural development level of the country. After all, the population of a region must be balanced with the agricultural production level of the region.

Yemen, on the other hand, does not have a pillar industry that can support the country's economic development, and its food production capacity is extremely low. Therefore, Yemen's population is in a state of rapid growth but rapid extinction, that is, Yemen's birth rate is high, but the survival rate is low, and many children do not live to adulthood, so Yemen is in a state of talent gap.

The land conditions in Yemen are very poor, water resources are scarce, and arable land is also very scarce. Although Yemen has oil resources, it has not seized the opportunity to develop oil resources like Saudi Arabia. Therefore, no matter how much oil there is underground, it will be wasted.

Moreover, European and American countries have set their sights on the Middle East's oil-rich region, and Yemen has excellent oil reserves and excellent trading ports. As a result, European and American countries frequently interfere in Yemen's domestic politics, which makes it difficult for Yemen to get a relaxed development space. Due to national unrest, public distrust, and riots by some local armed forces, the Yemeni government is unable to manage such a large country and complete the industrialization process.

Of course, there is another aspect, that is, Yemen has more than 400 tribes. In some countries in the Middle East, tribes are in charge of all the affairs of a place, from the grass and trees to the national thoughts. These are closely related to the tribes. After Yemen was established, the government obviously could not get over the local tribes, and there were constant conflicts between tribes.

(End of this chapter)