American Strategic Deception Bureau

　The San Fernando Valley seems to be getting hotter in recent years. Scientists say it's an urban heat island. It can make people faint in the winter!

　Walt Disney, the founder of Disney, stood nearby and nodded in agreement, saying, "It would be too hard for employees to wear thick puppet costumes in this kind of temperature all year round. It would be worse than working in a mine. Many people simply can't stand it."

　However, the environment here is indeed very suitable for people who do not wear clothes to live for a long time.

　The warm, dry air is good for health, but the rivers flowing here prevent the air from being too dry.

　"It's just that... this river is too unnatural. Even the artificial rivers in Disneyland should be decorated with grass and rocks."

　Looking at the Los Angeles River, whose banks were completely covered with cement and even the riverbed was cement, Walt Disney complained with a bit of disgust.

　Although the Los Angeles River is less than 100 kilometers long, it is renowned in the field of civil engineering. This is because it is the first river in the world to undergo a comprehensive transformation, with even the riverbed paved with cement, completely transforming it from a natural river into an artificial one.

　Starting in 1938, in order to prevent floods from hitting Los Angeles, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers carried out large-scale construction here, pouring river embankments and riverbeds with gray concrete, and converting all natural river channels into artificial cement channels, making it the first channelized natural river in the United States.

　How should I put it? If the river were a person, this would be like giving him a highly cybernetic makeover, turning him into something like Adam Hammer, all technology and brute force, minus the flesh...

　In other words, after the transformation is completed, the Los Angeles River will become the equivalent of an ancient Roman aqueduct: it's just not elevated.

　——When the United States was still an infrastructure maniac, it did undertake many spectacular projects, far more than the Hoover Dam and the Empire State Building.

　This allows humans to precisely control the volume and level of the Los Angeles River. Even in the event of a torrential downpour, floodwaters can be diverted and released in advance to prevent flooding in the city. In theory, if Los Angeles floods again in the future, it will only be due to man-made mismanagement, not natural disasters.

　Just like the Fukushima nuclear power plant, although there are a lot of problems and issues, the direct cause is ultimately the natural disaster caused by the earthquake and tsunami.

　The Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster had nothing to do with natural disasters; it was purely the Soviets' own fault.

　The problem is that after the concrete paving was completed, the Los Angeles River became a cyberpunk-style river. Furthermore, the water volume of the Los Angeles River is usually very small, with only a small amount of water at the bottom of the riverbed. From a distance, it looks like an oversized sewer, which is an eyesore.

　"The Los Angeles River, paved with concrete, certainly doesn't look very pretty. But we didn't intend to build the Garden of Eden right next to the river.

　And, Mr. Disney, it seems like you could open another Disneyland tropical theme park here.”

　As the initiator of the Eden Town project in the San Fernando Valley, Fieri's eldest brother, former Congressman Bernard, who lost his election last year, immediately interrupted with a smile on his face and said, "Look, according to the description in the Bible, the Garden of Eden should be surrounded by four rivers.

　We plan to divert water from the Los Angeles River and create four artificial streams in the town of Eden, which will eventually flow into an artificial lake.

　But the water in the artificial lake still needs to continue flowing downhill. So, building a tropical theme park on the banks of the river that flows out of the Garden of Eden, where people can dress up as African natives and Amazon warriors, will surely attract many tourists and provide the town's residents with a place to relax and have a vacation...."

　"Well, it sounds good, but that's for the future. Now let's take another look at the building land in Eden Town."

　Meanwhile, Marita, who was standing in the back, whispered into Feri's ear, "If I hadn't heard the conversation between the two old men, I would have almost missed it. Although I felt the valley was hot when I first came here, the San Fernando Valley has been getting hotter and hotter over the past two years. This winter, I don't even need a blanket to sleep.

　Come on, dear, did you do something?"

　Faced with Marita's questioning, Fili rolled his eyes, looked around, and found that no one seemed to be paying attention to him, so he nodded.

　Marita:??!!!

　Wouldn't it be a slap in the face if you portray yourself as a villain?

　Combined with the fact that nine out of the eleven major cities in the UK have elected Muslim mayors, it always feels a bit strange - the Saxons conquered the Celts, and the Normans conquered the Saxons. Is it possible that the British Isles are about to embark on a new ethnic conquest?

　Chapter 390: Build a theme park, look to Disney (Part 2)

　As a kind of idealistic power, users of magic and divine arts can influence the surrounding environment to a certain extent.

　For example, in fairy tales, castles occupied by witches or demons often become dark and gloomy, and the areas around the castles are either burnt with grass and trees, turning into bald mountains, or covered with swamps, with plants in strange shapes - it feels like the castles are deliberately creating a horror atmosphere.

　But after the hero successfully defeats the witch or the devil, the style of the castle returns to normal, with flowers blooming and green grass all around.

　Similarly, in the world of DND, there will be frequent volcanic activities around the red dragon's dragon nest, the green dragon's residence is always surrounded by dense forests, and the black dragon's dragon nest is mostly surrounded by swamps - this is not only because the dragon will choose the environment it likes to build its nest, but also because the dragon itself will affect the environment around it.

　Of course, the extent of this influence is limited. A black dragon squatting in the desert usually cannot create a muddy oasis out of thin air.

　As the favored follower of the Prince of Lies, Xirik, Firi also possesses similar abilities to influence the environment.

　Although it is impossible to instantly turn a forest into a swamp, raise land from the sea, or turn a desert into an oasis - such large-scale environmental magic requires a great arcanist to cast "Marvin's World Weaving" or "Island Creation", or for the gods to directly perform miracles.

　But with the help of system plug-ins, Firi can still influence the weather on a small scale: this is a matter of probability adjustment.

　And Fieri’s choice is…the already hot San Fernando Valley gets even hotter in the winter!

　- As long as the unpredictable metaphysical probability is slightly influenced, so that the San Fernando Valley, which is surrounded by mountains, has as little rain as possible, the clouds and moisture are blocked outside the valley by the mountains, and the cool sea breeze cannot blow in, then the bright sunshine in the Los Angeles area will be enough to turn this valley into an oven.

　As for water shortages caused by drought? Well, that's certainly a problem.

　However, the water resources in the San Fernando Valley and the entire Los Angeles are far from enough to supply a large city with a population of one million!

　Even drinking the Los Angeles River dry wouldn't be enough; water must be transferred from other places to prevent people and plants from dying of thirst. As early as 1913, Los Angeles built 450 kilometers of pipelines and canals to transfer water from the far north to the city.

　Under natural precipitation conditions, Los Angeles should have been just a dry grassland, with no palm trees growing at all.

　In fact, even in the 21st century, the Los Angeles area is still dominated by a desert landscape. Aside from the lowlands irrigated by rivers and artificial irrigation, and the mountain ranges along the coastline (Beverly Hills is a hilly area near the coast), which appear to have relatively lush green vegetation, the vast majority of the mountains inland from Los Angeles are completely bare, with only grass and few trees.

　Take, for example, the row of white "HOLLYWOOD" signs on the Hollywood Hills. If they were placed on a hilltop on China's southeastern coast, they would likely be buried by vegetation in a few years, making them obscured. But in arid Los Angeles, they have stood for centuries, unobstructed by vegetation.

　So, ever since Ferry moved into the San Fernando Valley, he has been secretly making the San Fernando Valley warmer in the winter, so that now it is almost "permanent summer" - the winter in this place is really hotter than the summer in Moscow!

　The result is that, apart from the valley floor irrigated by the river, the surrounding hillsides have experienced severe desertification. Many hills are covered with nothing but cacti and Achnatherum splendens, leaving farmers who rented land to plant orchards with nothing to show for it.

　After hearing Ferry's answer whispered in Spanish, Marita, who had asked the tentative question, was suddenly speechless.

　In order to allow the female slaves to live a comfortable naked life and not give them an excuse to wear clothes, this bad master really put a lot of thought into it!

　Alas, he clearly possessed the power to change the world, but instead he spent half of his energy on debauchery, playing with the naked female slaves around him who could not resist. As for the rest of his energy, he used it to... make the world even more chaotic and bizarre?

　For example, turning the San Fernando Valley outside Los Angeles into a "Garden of Eden" on earth?

　Ahhh, I really want to bite this bad guy!

　Thinking of this, Marita subconsciously opened her mouth, revealing her little fangs... But Ferry had already jumped away and stood in front with several big men, listening to an engineer explain the location advantages of the Eden Town in the San Fernando Valley and the preliminary design draft.

　As mentioned earlier, the San Fernando Valley, though called a valley, actually covers over 800 square kilometers. Standing at one end of the valley, you can't see the other. So even if you decide to build a town in the San Fernando Valley, the specific plot of land within the valley you choose will require careful consideration.

　The location chosen by Firi was in the northwest of the valley, on a dry plain not far from the foot of the mountain where he lived in the refuge villa.

　Roughly speaking, the mountain refuge villa where he lived was only

　It’s a little over one kilometer in a straight line, and you can have a panoramic view from the balcony.

　It's like a monarch sitting in a castle, overlooking his own city and kingdom.

　Of course, in order to conceal this little thought, he also found a lot of excuses in front of the big guys:

　First, the southeastern part of the San Fernando Valley, near the Burbank area in the city center, has been heavily urbanized. If one wants to expropriate enough land here to build a town, the demolition costs alone would be astronomical.

　Furthermore, as a nude community, Eden Town should be located as far away from the densely populated city center as possible to avoid harassment from low-class people and gang members. As we all know, in modern America, the poor live in the city and the rich live in the suburbs. Although this population migration trend has only just begun, the general pattern has already been established.

　In recent years, black riots and anti-war movements have occurred frequently in major cities across the United States, each accompanied by large-scale arson and zero-dollar shopping, and the entire country has been in a mess. So if possible, it is better to keep Eden Town farther away from such violent cities.

　(During the Vietnam War, the US trained and established seven "civil war" special forces units totaling 15,000 personnel, specifically for domestic suppression operations. It's no exaggeration to say the country was in a state of civil war. The subsequent "Black Lives Matter" movement seems tame in comparison.)

　Secondly, the land chosen by Fieri is also the hottest in the entire San Fernando Valley (Fieri's handiwork), with temperatures above 27 degrees Celsius year-round. While a bit harsh for the average person, it's perfect for a permanent nudist camp.

　Again, despite the hot and dry weather, a tributary of the Los Angeles River runs through the area, providing water for the artificial water features within the town of Eden.

　Finally, the Army Corps of Engineers had already expropriated land on this site to build a refugee camp, now under the jurisdiction of Phiri. This left behind a good asphalt road and a large area of ​​land that had been cleared of vegetation and leveled, with a basic water and electricity supply.

　On this basis, as long as the Vietnam War refugees in the camp are transferred to other refugee camps, the existing simple wooden houses are demolished, and the vacated land is expanded, it will be enough to build a town that can accommodate thousands of people.

　Moreover, the refugee camp is surrounded by barren state-owned land, which will make it easier for the town to expand in the future.

　In view of Firi's above-mentioned reasons (deception), investors and local governments finally agreed to this plan.

　By now, the design team hired by Disney has come up with preliminary sketches and introduced them to the people who came for field visits.

　——According to this design sketch, the Eden Town will not be built as an open community, but will be modeled after Disneyland. The entire town will be surrounded by tall walls, and there will be a large parking lot at the entrance of the town. In principle, foreign vehicles are generally not allowed to enter and can only be parked outside the town.

　Within the wall, the town covers an area of ​​about four square kilometers. Four artificial rivers flow through the town, forming an artificial lake in the center of the town, named Lake Eden. Surrounding the lake, 400 single-family houses with courtyards and 5 four-story apartment buildings are planned to be built, plus a lakeside park with large green spaces and artificial beaches, squares, hospitals, sanatoriums, town offices, post offices, schools, gymnasiums, residents' activity centers, religious temples, commercial streets, high-end hotels and supermarkets, etc., as well as independent tap water systems and backup emergency power supply systems.

　The designers even didn’t forget to dig underground shelters, which have become standard features in luxury communities, underneath the Garden of Eden. This would allow the residents of the Garden of Eden, who were as naked as Adam and Eve, to enjoy a comfortable modern civilized life without leaving the city walls.

　In order to ensure the quietness, environmental protection, cleanliness and hygiene of the Garden of Eden and avoid pollution from car exhaust and other industrial waste, the naked residents within the city walls can only use electric four-wheeled vehicles similar to golf carts (early version of the Old Man's Car) to travel, with a maximum speed limit of 10 kilometers per hour.

　——Many people often mistakenly believe that electric cars are a gadget that has only become popular in the 21st century. In fact, the history of electric cars is much earlier than that of internal combustion engine cars. In the early 20th century, electric cars were already running everywhere in prosperous cities such as New York and Boston in the United States.

　Because electric cars emit no exhaust, their electric motors are quieter than internal combustion engines, and their ride is less jerky than earlier cars, Westerners at the time considered them a "ladylike" mode of transportation. Consequently, men typically drove internal combustion engines, while women drove electric cars.

　Of course, the problems of slow charging, short battery life, and short range for electric vehicles certainly weren't solved back then. In fact, they were even more serious. Fortunately, cities were smaller back then, so if you were just commuting around town, the range of an electric vehicle was more than adequate.

　More importantly, the performance of early cars at that time was not very good, and they were more prone to breakdown than electric cars, which did not give them an advantage in the competition.

　However, the heyday of electric vehicles lasted only about two decades in the 20th century. After 1920, with the continuous improvement of internal combustion engine vehicles and the rapid expansion of urban areas, the "shortcomings" of electric vehicles gradually became apparent.

　In addition, the wealthy and powerful American oil groups deliberately suppress clean energy for their own interests.

　Pushing for legislation to restrict the use of electric cars—just as they did a hundred years later to suppress Tesla's electric car: only that time, they were suppressing Mr. Tesla himself.

　Therefore, in the second half of the 1920s, electric cars were gradually phased out, and the streets of the United States were gradually replaced by gasoline-powered cars.

　However, unlike the 21st-century attempts to "rely on archaeology to find the moon landing," it's relatively easy to unearth electric cars from the archives these days. Furthermore, while gasoline cars have become increasingly popular, electric cars have never completely disappeared. Disneyland in Los Angeles boasts electric rides, and children's electric toy cars can be modified to run around the town of Eden.

　Then, now that the hardware equipment is in place, the next issue is the personnel and management system for the software.

　In the future, in addition to "Tantric masters" and their partners and families, there will definitely be a variety of service personnel living in Eden Town.

　Recruiting workers willing to work nude wasn't difficult. However, Eden Town's economic focus was on medical treatment, relying on "medical tourists" who paid for treatment. So, after the town opened and the first wave of domestic "Tantra masters" moved in—at a time when American real estate transactions were all completed, with no pre-sale options—who would use "sex therapy" to heal the first wave of patients?

　Fortunately, this problem seems relatively easy to resolve. Dr. Kissinger stated that the Bali women's prisoner-of-war camp (nudist camp) he previously oversaw had trained over 1500 female "Tantra Masters," including over 300 Indonesian women who had reached Level 4 or higher, capable of using "sexual healing techniques" to cure any disease during intercourse. Even though many had been transferred away, there were still over 200 remaining.

　As for the American soldiers who have become "Tantric Masters" above level 4 by having sex with Indonesian women day and night, there are also as many as 500 of them piled up in Bali.

　With just an order from the Pentagon or the White House, they can be deployed to the San Fernando Valley to handle the initial influx of customers in the town.

　“I understand everything else, but why is Disney the one managing Eden Town?

　The tantric master who engages in adult sports every day and Disney who brings joy to children seem to have a very different style.

　While listening to the architect's explanation and everyone's discussion, Marita moved up behind Fili, stood on tiptoe, bit his earlobe and asked.

　“But don’t you think the two gardens are very similar, except that one serves children and the other serves adults?

　The Garden of Eden is a garden that needs to attract tourists, and Disneyland is also a garden where people pay to visit. When it comes to running such a garden with a large population and huge flow of people, while also ensuring safety and comfort, in terms of experience in this area, who can compare with Disney?

　What’s more, Disney’s headquarters is in Los Angeles.”

　Fili whispered to her, "My brother wants to run for Congress again next year, so he has to befriend some big local companies..."

　After hearing this, Marita imagined the bustling Disneyland and the town of Eden, which also relied on "special tourism," and found that the two were indeed very similar - the former brought joy to children, and the latter brought joy to adults...

　"At this point, everything is in place for this project, except for a potential shortage of funds. The first phase of construction will take approximately 18 months, and the entire Eden Town will take three years to complete. If domestic inflation and the devaluation of the dollar continue to stabilise, the budget will likely skyrocket in the later stages of construction, not to mention the potential for strikes and riots during construction."

　Fili continued with a hint of worry, "If prices in the United States continue to rise by 20% to 30% over the next few years, as they did last year, then even if the budget planned now is generous, it will still skyrocket in the future."

　But don't worry, I'll use my persuasive skills to convince investors to approve the additional budget."

　He said this to Marita in a comforting way.

　If they had achieved a few glorious milestones in the war or won a few victories on the Vietnam War front, it would have boosted market confidence to some extent and prevented the dollar, which had lost its anchor and turned from "US dollar" into green paper, from depreciating so quickly.

　But unfortunately, in both areas, President Johnson received bad news.

　Let's start with the Space Race. Five years had passed since President Kennedy announced the launch of the Apollo moon landing program. Dr. von Braun, the "Nazi remnant" who invented the V-1 and V-2 missiles, had already completed the design and manufacture of the Saturn V launch vehicle after being rehired by the United States. Hughes and another successful American company also completed the design and development of the Apollo spacecraft.

　In February 1966, the first Apollo 1 spacecraft was launched into low Earth orbit, conducting unmanned space flight and re-entry tests. Subsequently, two unmanned spacecraft, Apollo 2 and Apollo 3, were launched from Cape Canaveral, both of which were successful.

　Seeing that the Apollo spacecraft had successfully conducted three unmanned flight tests, the entire NASA was celebrating and jubilant. President Johnson was also very happy and asked NASA to conduct the first manned flight test as soon as possible, allowing astronauts to take an Apollo spacecraft for a spin in space. Even if they could not fly to the moon for the time being, at least they should be able to make a declaration to the ground in the universe like Gagarin of the Soviet Union!

　So, despite repeated warnings from quality inspectors and engineers that the recent domestic unrest had led to disruptions in domestic industrial production, many parts and components used on the spacecraft might not be truly qualified and needed more detailed inspections to ensure that there were no problems... President Johnson still insisted on his own way and decided to ask NASA to launch Apollo 4 with astronauts on board as soon as possible in order to increase public support for his government.

　Then, a tragedy in the history of human space flight happened as expected due to the political interference of the White House.

　--In January 1967, the Apollo 4 spacecraft carrying three American astronauts was standing on top of the Saturn V rocket 66 meters above the ground at the Cape Canaveral launch site. When the launch had entered the countdown stage, a bright fire suddenly exploded in the spacecraft!

　Suddenly, thick smoke and fire erupted from the spacecraft's cabin, which was filled with pure oxygen. The three brave American astronauts were overcome by the smoke before they could react! Although the launch pad crew desperately rushed toward the blaze, risking their lives to save the crew, they completely ignored the fact that if the fuel-filled Saturn V rocket exploded, everyone on board would be wiped out...

　But in the end, the three astronauts were burned to death, and the Apollo 4 spacecraft was burned into a charred metal shell.

　After the accident, NASA formed a 15-member investigation committee. After two months of investigation, it was finally determined that the cause of the fire was poor insulation of the wires next to an astronaut's seat. In addition, the layout of the wires in the cabin was too messy, resulting in a short circuit and electric sparks, which caused the flames to spread rapidly in the cabin filled with pure oxygen and flammable materials, and eventually became uncontrollable.

　To this end, NASA urgently modified the next Apollo spacecraft, adjusted the wiring of the wires, and strengthened the insulation of the wires and the fire protection of the materials. It thought it should be foolproof, but during the next launch, there was no problem with the spacecraft, but the problem was with the rocket!

　——Accompanied by a deafening roar and a bright flame like two suns hanging in the sky, the Saturn V rocket carrying the Apollo 5 spacecraft exploded less than a minute after launch, blowing the spacecraft into pieces and sending metal fragments falling like heavy snow!

　Audiences across the United States watched these two launch failures on television, further shaking America's confidence in winning the space race.

　Fortunately, the Soviet Union also successfully launched its Soyuz 1 manned spacecraft into orbit in April 1967. However, it failed to return to Earth, and Komarov, who was aboard the spacecraft, became the first Soviet cosmonaut to die in the line of duty (many American astronauts had already died).

　In order to commemorate Komarov's sacrifice, the Soviet Union held a funeral of the highest standards for him. 15 people spontaneously saw him off. Komarov's ashes were transported across Red Square by military vehicles and buried under the red walls of the Kremlin. It can be said that he received the utmost honor.

　Since both the United States and the Soviet Union suffered tragic defeats, the United States failed twice, but the Soviet Union did not win a new victory.

　Next, on the Indochina Peninsula, the US troops stationed in Vietnam and Thailand also suffered a series of frustrating defeats.

　The Central Highlands Federation, one of the two puppet regimes that the United States had cobbled together on the front line in Vietnam three years ago and which served as an "outer firewall", finally collapsed in the late autumn of 1966, and its entire territory was occupied by the Viet Cong or the "Republic of South Vietnam".

　Another "ally," Quang Nam, also lost nearly half of its territory in the 1966 war, including Nha Trang and Cam Ranh Bay in the south. It was left with only the coastal plain area of ​​more than 10,000 square kilometers from Da Nang to Qui Nhon, which had not yet been touched by the Viet Cong.