The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 783 Return to Beijing
Early in the morning, six o'clock.

The morning sun has illuminated the entire campus, and the freshmen spontaneously put on their military training camouflage uniforms and went out.

They will go for a morning run.

Regarding morning jogging, in fact, just like folding quilts, it has no practical significance. I just hope that students can develop good habits of getting up early through this.

Running is boring.

The instructor’s commands, the students’ laughter, the loud whistles, and the chaotic footsteps.

After the morning run, it’s time to have breakfast.

The breakfast at Southwest Associated University is very rich, including steamed buns, steamed bread, noodles, corn, sweet potatoes, soy milk, milk, goat milk, and peanut soup.

Of course, if you want to drink porridge, you can also choose white rice porridge, sweet potato porridge, or millet porridge.

Just choose whatever you want to eat, then swipe your student ID, employee ID or instructor ID at the last exit and you're done.

No one takes more than they can eat.

It’s not that everyone has such good qualities, but once they have been criticized and educated by those aunties wearing red armbands, no one will waste it.

There was once a person who wasted food repeatedly. The aunt criticized and educated him again and again, but he didn't change. Then the report was reported to the school, and the student was sent to a farm, where he raised pigs and grew vegetables. After a semester, the bad habits were corrected.

Not only students will not waste, but faculty and instructors will also not waste.

Almost all the faculty and staff of the school choose to bring their families to the cafeteria to eat, so as to avoid getting up early to cook.

Only during holidays do families cook their own meals.

Liu Tao did not eat in the headquarters cafeteria today. Instead, he went to the cafeteria of Southwest Associated University. He randomly selected a cafeteria and went in.

There is more than one cafeteria in Southwest Associated University, but they are all similar.

Every once in a while, he would come to the Southwest Associated University cafeteria to eat, both to eat and to get to know the people in person.

Among the necessities of life, food is not a small problem.

Whether a school is run well or not can be seen from the food.

Almost all of Southwest Associated University’s funding came from Panshan Group, so Liu Tao naturally didn’t want these funds to be wasted.

It doesn’t matter that Southwest Associated University has the highest funding in the country, Panshan Group can afford it, but the money must be spent effectively.

He queued up for breakfast, which was simple: a glass of milk, a meat bun, two pieces of corn, and a fried dough stick. Then he swiped his employee ID at the exit.

Then Liu Tao found an empty seat and sat down. There were both four-person and two-person seats in the cafeteria. The seat Liu Tao chose happened to be a four-person seat, and the other three seats were occupied by three girls.

These three girls are wearing military training camouflage uniforms. Just by looking at their attire, you can tell they are freshmen this year.

The three girls recognized Liu Tao and immediately became reserved.

Liu Tao was friendly and took the initiative to chat with them, and soon the three girls became less reserved.

This chat lasted for half an hour.

At about nine o'clock, walking on the playground, you can see teams standing at attention and marching in formation everywhere.

Compared to the first day, it's much better.

In Yunnan Province, military training starts in elementary school, but it is not necessarily the case in other places. Even now, not all colleges and universities are conducting military training.

There are only more than 100 colleges and universities in the country that are conducting military training, and some of the training lasts only two weeks.

This also resulted in the students of Southwest Associated University having different and uneven performances.

Especially students from Hong Kong and Taiwan and overseas Chinese students are much worse in this respect. They are much less aware of obedience. As for some white students, they complain even more.

On this day, Liu Tao received a phone call and returned to Beijing on his own private plane.

But the Sultan is about to come to China.

As an old friend, naturally I need to receive him.

Panshan Group also needs the help of Saudi Arabia for many of its affairs in the Middle East.

Many friends, many paths.

Maybe someday this friend will be able to help.

Moreover, the international crude oil price has been pushed down to below US$25 per barrel, and Liu Tao also wants to import more crude oil at this time as strategic reserve oil.

Although the construction of an oil depot cannot be completed overnight, everything must be prepared in advance.

Now that the Gulf War has ended, the situation in the Middle East is becoming increasingly peaceful, but the situation in southern Europe is full of tension.

So far, the Soviet Union and the United States have not achieved any constructive results.

The Soviet Union accused the United States of implementing the "Vanta Plan" on the Soviet economy and destroying the Soviet economy; but the United States did not accept this at all, explaining that it was just the private behavior of Vanta and others, not the behavior of the US government.

The two sides enjoyed a war of words.

The confrontation is unfolding in an all-out manner, and the only thing left is the actual fighting.

I clearly felt that an accidental discharge of the gun might happen at any time, but it didn't happen.

On the contrary, Yugoslavia, located on the Balkan Peninsula in southern Europe, is becoming increasingly troubled and may not survive this year.

The eight federal units of Yugoslavia included six republics: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and two autonomous provinces within Serbia: Kosovo and Vojvodina.

Yugoslavia is now facing numerous internal and external contradictions. After Tito's death, there is no strong man coming down from the sky to integrate all parties in Yugoslavia.

In recent years, although Yugoslavia has been doing well relying on oil revenues, it should be noted that oil is unevenly distributed within Yugoslavia, which inevitably leads to uneven distribution of benefits.

In Japan, the economy has been in a mess since the bursting of the real estate and stock market bubbles, which has dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese economy. Coupled with the huge expenditures in the Gulf War, Japan's economy has been in a mess.

But the Japanese yen is still appreciating against the US dollar. It’s not that the Japanese yen does not want to depreciate against the US dollar, but that it cannot do so.

Liu Tao returned to the capital early to prepare for the reception of Prince Sultan.

The two will meet in private to discuss things that are not suitable to be made public.

Liu Tao also hopes to get more orders from Saudi Arabia and attract Saudi Arabia to increase investment in China, because up to now, China still lacks funds for development.

And Saudi Arabia is a big tycoon!

Even though the international crude oil price has been pushed down to $25 per barrel, Saudi Arabia still makes considerable profits.

To be honest, in recent years, everyone has been resentful of the United States for starting large-scale money printing, which has led to a flood of dollars pouring into the world and causing a sharp depreciation of the dollar. If resentment could kill, tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of Americans would have been killed long ago.

But on the other hand, oil-rich countries such as Saudi Arabia continue to earn large amounts of US dollars. During the Iran-Iraq period, Saudi Arabia's annual oil revenue was no less than 600 billion US dollars. At its peak, its annual oil revenue even exceeded 800 billion US dollars.

The cost involved is not that much, because the cost of oil extraction in Saudi Arabia and other countries is very low. To put it in an exaggerated way, if you take a hoe and dig into the sand, oil will gush out.

It is conceivable how much profit Saudi Arabia makes from its oil exports.

If Saudi Arabia distributed its oil profits to all its citizens, then Saudi citizens could live the best life in the world.

(End of this chapter)