Nanyang 1931: From piglets to giants

Chapter 298 Before leaving, with Zheng Yi's little fangirl
"Two billion US dollars should have arrived in the designated account by yesterday afternoon."

After coming out of the bar, the two of them strolled for a while, and Mai Shuai spoke first.
"Yes, it's already in the designated account. After discussing it with Little John, we've basically decided that half of the money will be invested in Tunisia and Israel, and the other half in Southeast Asia. And in Southeast Asia, the main focus will be on Calcutta."

"It sounds like you've suffered a loss."

Zheng Yi smiled and said, "Suffering a loss is a blessing, isn't it? Besides, Tunisia was saved by me, and my people are still fighting the French army there. Mr. John Jr. wants the United States to build a US military base in Tunisia, but I estimate that it will take him several years to discuss it, and it is unlikely to happen before the end of President Du's term."

"And if we wait until President Du's term ends, even if he doesn't run for re-election, that will be four years from now. Four years, haha. SAARC has already established deep roots in Tunisia. Those who come first get the meat, and those who come later get the shit. This has always been the way of the world."

The essence of developing Tunisia is actually developing Europe. The Marshall Plan was originally intended to provide loans to Europe to enable it to develop.

The current disagreement between the two parties, or between Zheng Yi and President Du, is nothing more than how to give the money and to whom. President Du means to transfer production capacity directly to the European continent, especially the United Kingdom and France. The United Kingdom is bound to become the most important partner of the United States.

Zheng Yi, or the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), meant to go directly to Tunisia. This place is very close to Europe and faces Venice across the Mediterranean Sea. It can still use African resources and Middle Eastern energy. It has good ports and can sell its products directly to Europe, thus making money from Europeans.

The only economic weakness of investing in Tunisia and directly investing in Britain and France is that it is located in Africa. The basic quality of the people is far behind that of Europeans, and the culture and system are also not good. In the eyes of these Europeans and Americans, Africans are no different from monkeys that have just come down from the trees.

But the city of Tunis has now been completely cut off. The SAARC is now the political force that dominates the city of Tunis. The personnel are insufficient. Zheng Yi has already brought nearly two million workers from Japan.

I really don't look down on Europeans and Americans. Japanese workers, at least the Japanese workers of this period, are far ahead of Europeans and Americans in terms of discipline, organization, hard work, and even basic education and professional qualities.

Besides, if there is a lack of high-end talents, wouldn’t it be the same to just hire them from Europe? How does Tunisia look like an African city now? That place used to be Carthage, and it had been in a love-hate relationship with Rome for thousands of years.

To put it bluntly, where to invest the Marshall Plan is no longer an economic consideration, but a purely political consideration.

It is a game of whether the future of US-EU relations will follow the Atlantic strategy or the Mediterranean strategy.

The former regards Britain as the most important ally and partner, uses the old system of Britain and France to control the whole of Europe, maintains the international order before World War II as much as possible, and basically recognizes their colonies.

In the latter case, Italy and Israel will become close allies of the United States, transferring as little industry as possible to Europe, or even not at all, and completely destroy their industries while the United States is experiencing overproduction and Europe's industrial infrastructure has been destroyed.

The former is to directly control the European political arena through the additional political clauses in the Marshall Treaty, control Europe through American agents, and use the Atlantic Treaty to form a community of interests between the United States and Europe to divide the world together.

The latter is to destroy Europe through dumping through the Middle East's oil, Africa's minerals, Japan's labor, Italy's ports, and Israel's finance, thereby colonizing Europe economically and dividing the world together with the Southern Association for Regional Cooperation, and even cooperating with the Soviet Union when necessary.

The former is the Democratic Party narrative, which is also what the British and French want to see most. The latter is the Republican Party narrative, which Zheng Yi is the main force promoting.

In fact, both are acceptable to the United States. However, in the United States, especially when the gap between the two parties is not big, the final result must be that Britain, France, and Germany also have loans, Tunisia, SAARC, and Israel also have loans, and everyone develops together, but everyone's money is not very rich.

The United States has always been like this, or perhaps it is considered good enough that it is still like this now.

If the two parties can compromise with each other, neither party will suffer too much loss, and neither party will overturn the table, they can at least get by and maintain their position as the world's number one hegemon.

When there is no longer any compromise between the two parties and the steering wheel is turned to the left and then to the right, things may be even worse.

"Brother, I've invested quite a bit of money in Los Angeles recently. On the upstream side, I've also set up a film company that specializes in film and television. On the downstream side, the shopping malls that Xiaoying and Lao Dong are building now all have cinemas. It won't be long before they can become a cinema chain."

Coach Mai smiled and said, "I heard that you haven't been doing your job properly lately. You were said to be hanging out with Hollywood actresses all day in Los Angeles. You weren't afraid of my sister-in-law punishing you. I heard you even wrote a few scripts yourself."

Zheng Yi: "Hey, I was just writing this for fun. As for me and female celebrities... God knows, there are indeed many who throw themselves at me, but if I have to say who I actually slept with, it's only Maryland Monroe. And it was just a one-night stand, nothing more."

"What I'm trying to say is that movies and television will definitely become the best and biggest tools for influencing American public opinion and exporting American values ​​in the future. I'm running a film company, but I'm not counting on making money, at least not for now. I plan to use some big-budget blockbusters to capture the European market."

"Brother, have you ever thought about making a heroic biography movie based on you?"

"This... I don't need it. After all, I've already retired and I'm no longer involved in politics."

"Who says that only those who work in politics can be considered as participating in politics? Now that you have retired, your reputation at home and even internationally will be even better. You are a true war hero."

"I'm planning to make a series of blockbuster films, all with budgets of $5 million, or even $10 million or more. Anyway, I'm going to make anything, so why not you?"

Zheng Yi did not pursue the Hollywood blockbusters he had seen in his previous life. First of all, he was not a professional screenwriter. At most, he could only tell the general framework and did not have time to enrich the details.

The most important thing is that the American film industry at that time was not mature. Everyone started from scratch. Even if he really wrote a blockbuster of the level of Saving Private Ryan, Hollywood would not be able to make it.

Anyway, it's just a matter of spending money. As long as you are willing to spend money, the film you make will definitely be good, at least in this era. No one has seen a blockbuster movie, and what he has to do is to guide the concept of blockbuster movies.

Anyway, he is not short of money and does not expect to make money from movies. For the time being, he even doesn't care about the output of public opinion and ideology. It is not the right time yet and there is no need.

What he is doing now is digging holes and planting trees. It will take at least ten or twenty years for the saplings to grow into towering trees and bear fruit for him to eat.

Coach Mai was curious: "Why do you have to make such a big-budget movie? What's the use of it to you?"

Zheng Yi: "Of course it is useful. To put it simply, it helps me train my own film team. This will make it easier for me to collaborate with film companies in Southeast Asia in the future, and it will also help improve the American people's good impression of Southeast Asian people."

"To put it in a broader sense, if the United States wants to be a world hegemon, it must export its culture abroad. The effects that soft power and public governance can achieve are definitely much better than hard hegemony, and the costs are much lower."

"American films have broken through the blockade and are truly conquering the world. This is a concrete sign that the United States has become the United States of the world. Ultimately, it is all about globalization. I also need the export of American films to assist our SAARC in conquering Asia, Africa, Latin America, and even Europe."

"If I can influence this process myself, it will be faster, and I really want to lead it. Whoever controls public opinion and ideology will have the right to speak on globalization. Film is just one part of that."

"Television stations, newspapers, magazines, novels, comics, all cultural things are essentially ideological struggles. If you do these things well, you can go up to higher levels and become professional knowledge in colleges and universities."

"Political science, law, journalism, history, literature, these upper-level knowledge can all be colored. The Agency for International Development is about to be established. When that time comes, I will give you an extra $50 million a year to set up a special agency to influence these liberal arts majors. The core idea is one: to advocate internationalization, discredit nationalism, including American nationalism, and promote international division of labor, freedom, and mobility."

"Over time, America's standards will become the world's standards. Those liberal arts programs in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe will have no choice but to follow our lead. Once these people enter society, they will dominate the positions of professors, experts, scholars, and even politicians. In this way, the entire world will be at our disposal."

“That’s when globalization will reach its peak.”

"To achieve this goal, film is the foundation of everything. Only what reaches the masses is professional. We can't brainwash the masses. Focusing solely on the ideology of the elite will inevitably backfire." Coach Mai scoffed. "They say big capital hates nationalist narratives. It seems to be the case. But alas, I won't see that day. The world now belongs to you young people."

The two chatted casually. To put it bluntly, what Zheng Yi wanted Coach Mac to promote was really a bit of the white left's approach. Anyway, he had to show sympathy to the Asian, African and Latin American countries. Only in this way could he turn to further criticize European powers such as Britain and France in public opinion.

There was even a bit of selfishness in this, that is, General MacArthur was in charge of the Asian battlefield and was fighting the Japanese, and China and the United States were allies in this war.

As long as the narrative is one of colonialism, rather than the so-called narrative of common Western values, China will inevitably be the one to be saved, the victim, and will be saved together with Asia, Africa and Latin America. At the very least, this will greatly reduce the US hostility towards China.

It is good for both the country and yourself.

"When will you go back?"

"Just for a few days. Now that you're back, I can go back without any worries. There are indeed more and more things going on at home."

"Haha, you trust me so much."

As he was speaking, he suddenly heard someone shouting from behind: "Mr. Zheng? Marshal Mai?"

Zheng Yi turned around and saw a girl who looked to be in her twenties. She was wearing a white dress and had golden curly hair flying in the wind. She was running towards him with her mouth wide open.

The two bodyguards tried to stop him, and Zheng Yi frowned slightly. He was a little face-blind when it came to Europeans and Americans. As long as they were not very familiar to him, he would usually have to think for a while before recognizing them. At first, he just felt that this girl looked a little familiar, and he seemed to know her, but he really couldn't remember who she was.

On the contrary, it was General Mai who recognized the person and said, "No need to stop him."

After a while, the woman came running over and said, "Hello, Uncle Mai."

Then she dived into Zheng Yi's arms, gave him a big windmill hug, and hugged him tightly.

Zheng Yi was still confused. He turned his head and mouthed to Coach Mai, "Who is it?"

Coach Mai: "Miss Mary, what day is it today? Why are you back in Washington? Are you here to congratulate your father on his re-election?"

[Mary? Re-election? Oh~ Mary Margaret Du Lmen, President Du’s daughter]

Zheng Yi remembered that he had indeed met Mary a few times, but they were not very familiar with each other.

Moreover, he was really a little face-blind when it came to Americans, especially Mary, who had no special features in her appearance, just an ordinary American, so he really didn't recognize her at first.

"I'm not here to see my dad. I heard Mr. Zheng was in Washington, so I flew over. Mr. Zheng, do you think this is fate?"

Zheng Yi: “Ah?”

Zheng Yi was a little confused for a moment, thinking, are we very familiar with each other?
"What's the matter, Miss Margaret?"

"Zheng, I heard you're going back? Back to Southeast Asia?"

"Well, I'm almost back."

"Then you...then you...you...will you be my boyfriend?"

"what?"

Zheng Yi felt as if his brain had exploded. He instinctively wondered if he had misheard.

"What do you say?"

"I said, I want you to be my boyfriend and I'll be your girlfriend, okay?"

"what?"

On the side, Coach Mai, who was a little depressed because of his resignation, was no longer depressed. Instead, he became energetic, his eyes widened, and he looked at the two people with great interest.

"I... really admire your talent, Mr. Zheng. You know, when I sang the songs you wrote for me, I truly felt... a resonance from my soul. I knew you were the one I'd been waiting for."

"Puchi~" On the side, Coach Mai couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"What the hell! I have so many children, and I've been married for over ten years. Don't you know my wife? You know my wife better than me."

Zheng Yi remembered that Margaret was a singer. In order to ease the tense relationship between him and President Du during the election, Zheng Yi specially composed some songs for her to please President Du.

But Li Jiazhi is responsible for this matter.

"Aren't you Chinese allowed to marry as many wives as you want?"

"That's not called having many wives. We Chinese marry one husband and one wife with multiple concubines. Li Jiazhi is my only wife. I admit I have other women, but they are all concubines. Uh... I also know this tradition is not good. Our generation is the last, so we won't do this anymore."

"Then, then I can also be your, that...concubine. I asked your wife, and she said it's okay."

"That's bullshit! That woman...what the hell is she!"

"I don't care, Zheng, let's go on a date."

Zheng Yi: “…………”

(End of this chapter)