The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 851: Trip to the Middle East
The entire project was not completed until the millennium.

Currently, shipping all flows into the sea along the original river channel.

But every year we have to pay a hefty river crossing fee to others.

Naturally, not everyone is satisfied with this project. After all, if it is completed, the downstream will lose tens of millions of dollars in river crossing fees every year.

More importantly, it is the strategic aspect.

Then Liu Tao inspected the China-Laos-Cambodia Railway. This railway was under construction in full swing, but it would take until the millennium to be completed and open to traffic.

The China-Laos-Cambodia Railway is a mixed passenger and freight railway with an initial operating speed of 60 km/h. The speed will be gradually increased to 160 km/h. This speed-up process will go through four stages and the final speed of 160 km/h was not reached until 2010.

The China-Laos-Cambodia railway will take several more years to be completed and open to traffic, but the China-Laos-Cambodia highway has already been opened to traffic.

With the China-Laos-Cambodia Highway as the core, roads in Laos and Cambodia are constantly being added to the China-Laos-Cambodia Highway. It is precisely because of these roads that Laos and Cambodia have developed rapidly in recent years.

After three days of inspection in Cambodia and Laos, Liu Tao returned to the warship in a "Radar" helicopter.

During these three days, the Type 818 electronic reconnaissance ship has cooperated with the reconnaissance satellite to mark every valuable target.

We left the Gulf of Thailand and went through the Strait of Malacca without staying in the Strait of Malacca for long, and then arrived at the Thai side of the Andaman Strait.

Here, the Kra Canal is under construction.

There is no need for a cofferdam, just direct excavation. The soil is continuously transported to soil-transporting ships via conveyor belts. These soil-transporting ships will then carry the soil to the Hong Kong River for land reclamation projects.

Thailand sent a division to protect the smooth construction of the project.

The entire Kra Canal adopts a two-way waterway, is 400 kilometers wide, has a water depth of 25 meters, and the entire construction period is 10 years.

When the Kra Canal is put into operation, it will be large enough to accommodate 40-ton cargo ships passing through the Kra Canal.

As for the 50-ton cargo ship, it will not be able to pass through the Kra Canal and will have to continue through the Strait of Malacca.

This canal has huge development potential because it shortens the voyage by 1200 kilometers and saves 2 to 5 days of shipping time. For a 10-ton tanker, it can save $35 in freight per trip, which will save a lot of shipping costs and time costs for logistics and freight in ASEAN and East Asia.

After inspecting the Kra Canal, Liu Tao was relieved to find that although some difficulties were encountered, they did not hinder the continued construction of the project.

Panshan Group invested a huge amount of real money in this project.

That is to say, here in Thailand, if it were in China, it would not take 10 years, but at most 5 years to open.

After inspecting the Kra Canal, meeting with some old friends in Thailand and tasting Thai food, Liu Tao left Thailand.

Instead of heading to the South Asian subcontinent, it went directly to the Arabian Sea. The warships belonging to Pakistan were separated from the escort formation here and returned to Pakistan.

It won’t be long before the Pakistani navy becomes much stronger and surpasses its old rivals.

Then, they arrived at the Persian Gulf. At this time, the warships following the escort formation left and returned to their own countries.

Liu Tao’s first stop was Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

After arriving in Saudi Arabia, Liu Tao finally understood what a wealthy person is. There are all kinds of cars on the road, including Chinese cars of all types and European luxury cars, such as Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Rolls-Royce, etc. The Saudi royal palace is very luxurious. Chocolates are placed in exquisite bowls, flowers are placed on every coffee table, and there is a golden clock the size of a wardrobe. The palace is decorated with satin, crystal chandeliers, oriental carpets, luxurious sofas, etc., and the king's portrait is hung on the wall.

Liu Tao was secretly envious. The Saudi royal family was so luxurious that it made people envious and jealous.

Nowadays, when people talk about wealthy families, they often think of the Saudi royal family. The Saudi royal family has 2,000 to 3,000 members, and each of them lives a luxurious life.

Even the princes and princesses of the Saudi royal family live in luxury when they come to China.

Even though the international crude oil price is now below $25, the Saudi royal family still lives an extremely luxurious life.

It can't be said to be good, it can only be called 'luxury'!
This was Liu Tao’s first visit to the Middle East and Saudi Arabia, where he received a warm welcome.

Prince Sultan went to the port to greet him in person. The car he drove was not a limited edition Rolls-Royce, but a Huaxia luxury car, which was obviously a special consideration.

When they arrived at the palace, King Fahd personally went to the palace gate to welcome Liu Tao with a very warm attitude.

After more than ten years of cooperation with Panshan Group, Saudi Arabia’s military strength has been greatly enhanced and its political status has also been greatly improved.

Now the Saudi army has replaced the Iraqi army and become the first army in the Arab world. The Saudi air force is also the first air force in the Arab world. The Saudi navy has become the overlord of the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden.

Saudi Arabia is the leader of the Arab League, OPEC patriarchs and the Arab coalition.

Of course, Saudi Arabia is not interested in unifying the Arab world. What Saudi Arabia advocates is that everyone achieve integration, learn from the European Union, and the Arab world unite to produce oil, make some money, and live a good life.

While the oil resources are still here, we should stop simply selling oil now and build a petrochemical industry. In the future, we can export refined oil, asphalt, fertilizers, etc. It would be best if we can seize the opportunity and achieve industrialization.

King Fahd specially held a palace dinner. The luxury of the palace dinner was so great that even Liu Tao, who was not interested in delicacies from land and sea, was amazed by it because it was so luxurious.

Steak is the best part of the best cow.

Lamb, the best kind.

Wine, the best red wine and the best white wine.

Even here, Liu Tao can still see Moutai, Fenjiu and Wuliangye, which are almost invisible in the market, and they are all styles from ten years ago.

Obviously, King Fahd had planned this carefully.

When seeing the Saudi royal family and princesses, Liu Tao secretly sighed that reincarnation is really a technical job. If he were to be reincarnated into the Saudi royal family, he would surpass 99.99% of the people in the world.

If you become a Saudi prince, you don't have to worry about lack of money. The monthly pocket money is enough to live a very comfortable life. If you are in a higher position, you can own luxury cars and private jets. If you are in a high position, you will say you want to buy Buckingham Palace when you see it.

If you become a Saudi princess, you only need to do three things in life: travel around the world, go shopping, and elope.

Last year, a princess of the Saudi royal family traveled to Paris. She only needed one room, but her entourage had to accommodate more than 40 rooms. In the end, they only stayed for a few days, but the princess spent more than million US dollars on hotels alone and spent more than million US dollars on crazy shopping in a few days.

This incident shocked the whole of Europe.

(End of this chapter)