The rise of great powers: starting from military industry

After the meeting.

According to his memory, Liu Tao began to dispatch some mercenaries to some Arab countries.

As the saying goes, "Planning is the key to success, while lack of planning leads to failure." Since you are a little pessimistic, make some preparations in advance to avoid uncontrollable things happening in the future, which would make it difficult to regret later.

By the way, Liu Tao called some friends in the Arab world and seriously reminded them that the Americans were behind this and asked them to be careful and not to be careless.

Do your best and leave the rest to fate!

Liu Tao asked his secretary to pay close attention to news related to the "Arab Spring" and report new developments to him every day.

Then the focus was on regional integration meetings.

Throughout 2010, a large amount of Chinese capital poured into Nanyang, greatly promoting its development.

The construction of a large number of infrastructure facilities and investments in factory building have made the entire Nanyang seem like it had taken a tonic.

Moreover, there is zero tariff within the region, unified external tariffs, and no so-called visas, which greatly facilitates the flow of people and greatly improves the business environment.

As one of the world's major consumer markets, China has consumed all the tropical fruits, seafood, grains, etc. produced in Southeast Asia.

There is no need to export to other countries, just export to China.

China's industrial products also have a larger market, offsetting the impact of declining consumption in Europe and the United States.

Even some Chinese factories were moved to Southeast Asia.

Because of the relaxation of policies, this is also encouraged.

One of the important reasons why this conference was chosen to be held in Hong Kong is that Hong Kong is the most important window facing Southeast Asia. Over the years, Hong Kong has actually become the economic center of Southeast Asia!

A large number of wealthy businessmen from Southeast Asia would deposit large amounts of money in Hong Kong banks, purchase properties in Hong Kong, and send their children to school in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has an enormous influence throughout Southeast Asia.

This can be seen from the box office of Hong Kong films in Southeast Asia.

While the regional integration conference in Hong Kong is in full swing and attracting worldwide attention, the Arab world is in turmoil due to the 'Arab Spring'. These people optimistically foresee the prospect of 'the birth of a new Middle East' as the prospect of this movement, and believe that this 'Arab Spring' belongs to 'a young generation that is familiar with the Internet and demands basic democratic rights like most other parts of the world'.

The death of a small Tunisian vendor aroused the long-standing anger of Tunisians over rising unemployment, rising prices and government corruption, leading to clashes between local residents and the Tunisian National Guard. The incident then spread to many parts of the country, causing large-scale social unrest across the country and causing many casualties.

Some institutions are stirring up trouble and adding fuel to the flames.

Even if the Tunisian government knew about this, it would not dare to take any measures against these institutions because it was afraid of Europe and the United States.

This makes these institutions even more arrogant.

The US propaganda machine was activated, praising it highly, calling it the "Arab Spring". Because jasmine is the national flower of Tunisia, this action was also called "*****" by the US media.

The same or similar cultural background, language environment and social conditions caused the unrest in Tunisia to spread rapidly to other Arab countries.

At the beginning of 2011, Egypt, as the most important country in North Africa, took the lead and forced President Mubarak to resign and transfer power to the Supreme Council of the Egyptian Armed Forces.

When some American organizations tried to launch the same campaign in Libya, they were violently suppressed by Libyan political strongman Gaddafi. People from these American organizations were arrested by the Libyan military. At a press conference, Libya cursed the Americans for their intention to disrupt Libya and their ill-intentions. The great Libyan people would never be fooled by the Americans.

Since the outbreak of the global financial crisis, the world's energy consumption market has declined, especially in Europe, Libya's main oil export destination. This has made life in Libya worse than before.

Libyan citizens generally feel the decline in social welfare.

As a result, Libyan citizens are dissatisfied.

Coupled with the online news about the luxurious life of Gaddafi and his family, the younger generation in Libya believes that all the money was embezzled by Gaddafi and his family.

As for Libya's high social welfare, which is the best in North Africa and one of the best in the entire Arab world, the Libyan people don't even think about it.

Their deepest feeling is that life has become difficult.

It is no longer like before, when you could live comfortably with the money given by the government even if you didn’t work!

Gaddafi's move angered the United States.

In less than a month, more than a dozen European and American countries began to intervene militarily in Libya, and the Libyan war officially started.

Faced with the military strikes launched by the US-led coalition, Libya initially achieved quite good results with the help of air defense missiles and anti-ship missiles. But everyone knows that after foreign aid is cut off, Libya will not be able to hold on for long.

The war is not only raging in Libya, but also in Yemen.

When the "Arab Spring" was about to spread to other Arab countries, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates all announced a three-month state of emergency and took repressive measures against the people who were deceived by the Americans in order to quell the chaos.

Arab countries are angry at the United States for being behind the 'Arab Spring' because the Americans are here to overthrow their rule.

Although I don't intend to break off relations with the Americans, that doesn't stop me from disgusting them.

A large amount of weapons and equipment poured into Libya from Egypt.

Tripoli.

The air defense alarms continued to sound, and it turned out that the United States and other coalition forces launched a new round of air strikes.

At the air defense position, one anti-aircraft missile after another flew up and headed towards the incoming cruise missiles.

When the intercepted missiles exploded, beautiful fireworks were formed.

In the underground command center, Gaddafi listened to the report with a serious look in his eyes.

Russia's withdrawal of its Mediterranean fleet has put Libya in an extremely unfavorable position.

After all, Libya alone cannot resist the US-led coalition.

This time, the United States mobilized three aircraft carrier fleets!

Combined with the warships of other countries, it appears very powerful, far beyond the reach of the Libyan Navy.

Even with the help of Russia's Mediterranean Fleet, Gaddafi did not have much confidence.

Unless Russia increases its power!

"What's going on in Russia? Is there any response?" Gaddafi asked in a deep voice.

Although he is beginning to receive some weapons and equipment assistance from the Arab world, Gaddafi knows that his greatest hope still lies in Russia.

Libya’s own military strength is too weak!

Libya's current population is only 6.5 million, and it has always pursued a policy of elite troops to build a small but strong military force.

The entire Libyan regular army has only 50,000 people, 50 ships of various types, more than 250 aircraft of various types, and hundreds of Type 80 main battle tanks, Type 72 main battle tanks, etc.

Such military strength makes Libya a powerful military force in North Africa, but it is not enough to face the United States.

As early as last month, Gaddafi began a full mobilization and rapidly expanded the military, but military expansion also takes time.

Even if the military expansion is completed as planned, it will still be no match for the US-led coalition.

This time, the United States used Libya's suppression of freedom and democracy as an excuse, held high the banner of "democracy and freedom", shouted "democracy and freedom are above sovereignty", and blatantly violated Libya's sovereignty.

The enormous pressure brought by the three aircraft carrier formations can only be felt by facing them in person.

Libya can still resist now because it has stockpiled a large number of air defense missiles and anti-ship missiles.

But these have been in service for more than ten or twenty years!

As for the past decade, due to its ties with Russia, Libya has rarely imported weapons and equipment from the East. The largest military order is the order of a Type 001 light aircraft carrier.

But even if Libya has an aircraft carrier formation, without considering the impact of tonnage and the difference in performance of carrier-based aircraft, Libya's aircraft carrier formation is no match for the three major American aircraft carrier formations.

"Russia's Black Sea Fleet has been dispatched, and they will increase their support for us!"

Upon hearing this, Gaddafi secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

The Black Sea Fleet was a powerful naval fleet during the Soviet era. At its peak, it had more than 100,000 troops and was equipped with 835 ships of various levels, including 28 submarines, 2 anti-submarine aircraft carriers, one carrier-based aircraft carrier, 6 missile cruisers and first-class large anti-submarine ships, 20 second-class large anti-submarine ships, destroyers and frigates, 40 patrol boats, 30 small missile ships and missile boats, about 70 minesweepers, 50 landing ships and landing craft, and more than 400 naval fighter jets. It also has multiple military ports from Ismail to Batumi.

In the Russian era, the Black Sea Fleet was greatly weakened. However, even so, the Black Sea Fleet still has 25,000 people and is equipped with 388 ships.

In recent years, Russia's Mediterranean Fleet has actually been maintained with the help of Libya, but even so, this fleet has not replaced new warships for 20 years.

Even Gaddafi was somewhat grateful to Turkey for completely breaking off relations with the Americans during the Iraq War. Otherwise, it would be a dream for the Black Sea Fleet to enter the Mediterranean through the Turkish Straits.

At this time, the three US aircraft carriers stationed in the Mediterranean Sea were taking off one after another, forming a formation and heading towards Libya.

After several days of probing, the Americans have basically figured out Libya's situation and the deployment of its air defense forces.

Electronic warfare aircraft are the first to carry out electronic jamming.

Libya was equipped with a large number of SAM missiles, which were declared to be out of service and became targets.

These technologies, which belong to the 1950s and 1960s, seem very outdated today and are unlikely to be of any use in modern warfare.

However, with the assistance of the "Aegis" air defense missiles, Russia's S300 air defense missile system, and Russia's Mediterranean Fleet, the United States suffered heavy losses in this wave of attacks on its carrier-based aircraft.

"Boom~~"

A frigate was hit by a torpedo fired by a submarine, and a large hole was blown in the entire warship.

Alarms continued to sound in the fleet, and anti-submarine aircraft captured them and dropped depth charges.

Finally, the submarine was hit.

Although exchanging a frigate for a submarine was not a loss, it still made the commander of the Libyan war angry.

You know, the United States has strong anti-submarine warfare capabilities.

Logically speaking, it is difficult for a submarine to get close to a warship, as it will be discovered before it gets close.

But now, this submarine is so close. If it gets close to an aircraft carrier, the consequences will be disastrous.

Moscow.

The atmosphere seemed a little solemn.

It takes great courage to make the decision to support Libya.

After all, the United States is still very powerful, much stronger than Russia.

The economic crisis has not been easy for Russia either.

If it were not for the East Asian energy market and the European energy market, which could provide Russia with a safety net and provide it with large amounts of foreign exchange income, Russia's economy would be much more difficult than it is now.

The weather in Moscow was very cold at this time, but it became even colder after this decision was made.

Because there is a possibility of large-scale military confrontation or even a large-scale war between the two sides.

But everyone knows that Libya belongs to Russia. If Russia ignores Libya, the chain reaction it triggers will be something Russia cannot afford.

Only because of Libya does Russia have a Mediterranean fleet and a military presence in the Mediterranean.

If there were no Libya, Russia would have no Mediterranean fleet and its deterrent power in the Mediterranean would be greatly weakened.

After making this decision, Moscow also made special calls to major European countries such as France and Germany to explain the situation to them, as it did not want to create any misunderstandings with them.

As for the United States, the Libyan war at this time was driven by the United States. The main force of the coalition forces was the three major aircraft carrier formations of the United States. As for the warships of the other dozen countries, they were almost negligible. The United States was pulling its allies to boost its momentum.

Although Britain also participated in the Libyan war this time, it only sent a frigate as a show.

Moscow is well aware that Russia's core interests lie not in the Far East but in Europe.

In addition to cultural reasons, there are also practical problems, that is, most of the Russian population lives in Europe, and as for the Far East, Russia has very few people at all.

Russia has always considered itself a member of Europe.

But for hundreds of years, other European countries have been afraid of Russia.

European Gendarmerie!

In modern history, Russia at that time grew from a super small pocket country to the world's largest country in terms of land area, spanning the Eurasian continent, and dominated Europe, which was very powerful.

"European Gendarmerie" was the very resounding title given to Tsarist Russia by the European people at that time. This title was enough to show the status of Tsarist Russia.

Later, Russia defeated Napoleon, who had swept across Europe without a single defeat, and made the Tsarist Russia's reputation even more resounding.

Russia has always been proud of this glorious history, but behind it are the hard work and tears of a large number of European countries, and it is a fear engraved in their bones.

Even now, many European countries are very afraid of Russia, fearing that Russia will start a war against them.

The United States uses the media to brainwash and intimidate Europe, causing many European countries to fear and guard against Russia. (End of this chapter)