The rise of great powers: starting from military industry

Speaking of Yemen's present, we have to talk about its history.

Yemen has a history of more than 3,000 years of written records and is one of the cradles of ancient civilization in the Arab world.

From the 14th century BC to 525 AD, three dynasties, namely Mein, Saba and Hemiyyar, were established in Yemen. In the 7th century, Yemen became part of the Arab Empire.

The Portuguese invaded in the early 16th century. In 1789, Britain occupied the island of Perim, which belonged to Yemen, and in 1839, it occupied Aden. From 1863 to 1882, Britain successively annexed 30 chieftainships including Hadramaut to form the "Aden Protectorate", which separated most of the territory in southern Yemen.

It was also at that time that South Yemen became a British colony, and Britain established a buffer zone formed by a loose alliance around Aden.

In 1918, the Ottoman Empire collapsed, and North Yemen declared independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1918, establishing the Yemen Arab Republic, becoming the first Arab country to declare independence from colonial rule.

In 1934, the Kingdom of Yemen lost the war with the Saudi royal family. Britain took the opportunity to force it to sign an unequal treaty, recognizing Britain's occupation of South Yemen, and Yemen was officially divided into the north and the south.

From 1959 to 1963, Britain successively pieced together the six sultanates in southern Yemen into the "South Arabian League", and then the "Aden Bodi" announced its joining. A revolution broke out in North Yemen, and then a large-scale anti-British armed struggle broke out in South Yemen.

In 1967, Britain withdrew and the Republic of South Yemen was established. In 1970, it was renamed the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen and began to pursue pro-Soviet luxury.

With the development of the international situation, the two countries accelerated the pace of unification. In 1988, the two sides signed an agreement on the free transit of residents in the north and south and the joint development of oil and mining resources in the border area, which opened the prelude to accelerating unification.

In 1990, North and South Yemen announced their unification and established the Republic of Yemen.

Yemen seems to be unified on the surface, but in fact, the contradictions on issues such as unity are very sharp. There are also various contradictions in other aspects. Civil war may break out in Yemen at any time.

After the first oil crisis in 1973, oil prices rose. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Middle Eastern countries made a lot of money by relying on oil trade, but Yemen missed it. After the Iran-Iraq War, oil remained at a high level for more than ten years. Other Middle Eastern countries made a fortune in this wave of oil price increases, but Yemen still missed it because Yemen did not develop an oil extraction industry. Even if it has abundant oil, it is useless if it cannot be mined.

Therefore, the current situation in Yemen is not optimistic. There are many contradictions between the north and the south. It is basically a paper unity, a superficial unity, not a real unity.

And Saudi Arabia’s idea of ​​​​attacking Yemen is that Saudi Arabia has been smooth sailing in recent years, rich, and powerful. The military is strong and expanded, and wants to rely on force to solve the problem of Yemen, or more precisely, to solve the Shia in Yemen!

Saudi Arabia is a very unique country. In theory, Saudi Arabia has the legitimacy to launch a war against any Arab country in the Middle East.

Liu Tao frowned slightly. He did not expect this sign to appear.

This is not a good phenomenon.

It is not that he sympathizes with Yemen, or anything else.

But he can't help but think of the classic scene, the Saudi old soldiers with super high-tech equipment and armed to the teeth were beaten by the Yemeni slippers and became the captain of the transport team.

Although Saudi Arabia now has a total armed force of 500,000, to be honest, Liu Tao has a big question mark about its military combat effectiveness.

These old soldiers, no matter how advanced their equipment is, their combat capabilities are not strong, and their own military qualities are not enough.

Otherwise, in the contact with the Americans, the list of exports to Saudi Arabia, except for a very small number of strategic-level weapons, is not restricted.

The Americans know Saudi Arabia too well.

Liu Tao naturally does not want Saudi Arabia to use force, because Saudi Arabia now has a golden body and can bluff people.

Once the military action is launched, the underpants will be exposed, and the deterrent power will be lost. Perhaps the Middle East will start to be in turmoil again.

Liu Tao hopes that the Middle East will maintain overall peace, so that the oil export price will be relatively low and stable, which is naturally of great benefit to China, which is importing more and more oil.

Any increase in oil prices will increase costs and then be transmitted to the consumer end.

However, he cannot persuade, otherwise the Saudi king may be unhappy and destroy the friendship between the two sides.

"How do you think you should march and fight if you are in command of the troops?" Liu Tao looked at Li Fen and asked a question.

"I will mobilize at least 300,000 troops, divided into three armies, and launch attacks from the east, middle and west. Send the navy as an auxiliary to delay the Yemeni army and prevent the Yemeni army from concentrating." Li Fen picked up the pencil and baton and began to think and introduce.

From the perspective of comprehensive national strength, Saudi Arabia is undoubtedly much stronger. Saudi Arabia is too rich and can buy weapons, ammunition and supplies from all over the world.

Comparing the military strength of both sides, Saudi Arabia is obviously much stronger, with a large number of weapons and equipment, and its army, navy and air force are now the most powerful in the entire Middle East.

Because Yemen has no air force, no air defense force, and the navy can be almost ignored.

This means that Saudi Arabia can learn the tactics of the US military in the Gulf War, first use the air force to bomb the enemy forces, blow up the enemy's towns, arsenals, material depots, and transportation hubs, and cause a devastating blow to the armed forces of the hostile forces in Yemen.

At the same time, Saudi Arabia can subsidize the Sunnis, divide and disintegrate, and let these forces cooperate with the Saudi army to attack the hostile forces.

Liu Tao nodded slightly. Li Fen's ability is more than enough to go to Saudi Arabia to be a commander.

Of course, this is theoretically. In fact, it may happen that the Saudi army will fight a war with advanced weapons, and it may not be as good as the armies of the European powers in World War I.

And the probability of this is quite high.

Besides, the Saudi army is not necessarily strong in execution ability.

If Liu Tao were King Fahd, he would have at least three ways to eat up Yemen step by step to achieve the strategy.

Unfortunately, these methods are suitable for him to do, but not necessarily for the Saudis.

"You should pay more attention to things in the direction of Yemen." Liu Tao urged.

Now the situation has not happened, and he can't do anything.

Even if it happened, his main purpose was to make money.

As for sympathizing with the weak, he didn't have that much sympathy.

The essence of this world has never changed. It has always been the law of the jungle, the law of the jungle!

Since ancient times, it has been like this in ancient and modern times, both in China and abroad.

"Yes!" Li Fen replied cleanly and neatly with a "yes"!

Afterwards, Liu Tao and the mercenaries had lunch together. The canteen took care of the mercenaries from different places. All eight major cuisines were available, and they had whatever they wanted to eat.

It couldn't be called very delicious, but it was definitely pretty good.

Obviously, the mercenaries' logistical support capabilities were still very strong.