Chapter 1072: Prosperity and War
After leaving the aircraft carrier formation, the helicopter stopped at Qiongdao Island to refuel, and then flew directly to Hong Kong.
That night, on the roof of the Hong Kong Bank headquarters building, Liu Tao looked at Victoria Harbour and admired the prosperity of Hong Kong.
As one of the most developed cities in Asia today, one of the most famous cities in the world, and also one of the world's financial centers, Hong Kong has in fact played the role and status of an Asian financial center.
The entire Hong Kong faces the entire Nanyang and the entire world. It is the most important window and bridge for exchanges between the East and the West. Many overseas companies have set up their Asian headquarters in Hong Kong.
In addition to reclamation of land and renovation of old houses, Hong Kong's current population has grown to 12 million.
Hong Kong has also become the most densely populated city in China.
This has also created the prosperity of Hong Kong. By now, Hong Kong's industrial structure has undergone significant changes, mainly focusing on international trade, tourism, Internet high-tech, high-end manufacturing, shipping, etc. As for low-end and medium-end manufacturing, they have all evacuated Hong Kong and moved north.
Many talents from the mainland choose to develop in Hong Kong, and celebrities and wealthy people often choose to obtain Hong Kong household registration.
Hong Kong as a whole can be said to be a land of wealth.
The "unrestricted war" that broke out in the United States on September 11 last year also affected the Hong Kong stock market, which fell for nearly two weeks before bottoming out and rebounding.
Now, the Hong Kong stock market has not only recovered its lost ground, but is also much higher than before September 11.
A lot of funds have flowed into the East, and most of them have arrived in Hong Kong. A large part of the funds that have come to Hong Kong have flowed into the stock market, which has driven the prosperity of the stock market.
Even the Internet technology companies that experienced the bursting of the Internet bubble last year have seen their stock prices rise.
Of course, part of the funds leaving the United States flow to the East, and part flow to Europe.
On January 1, the euro officially circulated in the markets of the 12 countries in the eurozone, and the original currencies of the 12 European countries, such as the franc and the German mark, became history and were replaced by the euro.
The euro officially became the official currency of the eurozone countries and began to circulate among European countries, marking the birth of the euro and an important milestone in the process of European integration.
If it is said that the euro is circulated in the 12 countries of the eurozone, the country with the most objections is not any other country, but the United States.
Many mainstream media in the United States have been pessimistic about the euro and are skeptical about it. If the United States had not launched the war in Afghanistan and needed the help of European allies, the Americans might have once again launched a big move near Europe.
Liu Tao came to Hong Kong. He planned to stay in Hong Kong for a week to deal with some things in Hong Kong.
While Liu Tao was staying in Hong Kong, Afghanistan, which was in winter, did not temporarily stop the war.
Now the coalition led by the US military has occupied half of the cities in Afghanistan, but the guerrillas' guerrilla warfare has made the coalition suffer enough.
Obviously, from the perspective of the battle line, the coalition has won victory after victory and occupied one Afghan city after another, but few guerrillas have been truly eliminated.
The guerrillas did not defend the city at all, leaving some guerrillas in the city or important towns to fight street battles. Moreover, unlike the brutal street battles, the guerrillas did not intend to fight to the death. They retreated after launching the attack, and then deployed mines and booby traps in the buildings. If they could fight, they would fight, and if they could not fight, they would enter the tunnel or sewer to evacuate.
Every time the coalition forces occupied a city, they inevitably suffered some casualties. Although the number of casualties was not large, the cumulative number was very large.
In addition, in order to deal with the guerrillas' street fighting, the coalition forces often destroyed an entire building, and the amount of artillery shells and missiles consumed was quite astonishing.
What made the coalition forces even more worried was that they were fighting in Afghanistan, where the terrain was complex, with many mountainous plateaus, and the transportation roads were extremely backward, which was not conducive to marching and fighting. Moreover, the transportation lines would be attacked by guerrillas from time to time.
The whole war seemed to be going smoothly, but in fact it was not going well.
The guerrillas were distributed in a wide range of mountainous areas and rural areas, which made it very difficult for the coalition forces to eliminate them.
More importantly, the coalition forces felt huge pressure from their own countries.
These damn guys were engaged in "unrestricted warfare" in their countries. Today, shopping malls exploded, tomorrow subway stations were protected, and the day after tomorrow, concert halls exploded. There were even attacks on schools and kidnappings of school teachers and students.
This led to huge social pressure on the ruling parties of various countries.
The lack of police force has caused countries to be exhausted in dealing with it, and then the citizens are very dissatisfied. They believe that if their country does not follow the United States to send troops to Afghanistan, it will not be attacked. They oppose their government's decision and demand that the army be transferred back to ensure domestic security.
The mountain roads in Afghanistan are rugged, and they seem to be the same everywhere.
But at this time, the guerrillas are walking very easily. If they were not carrying the heavy shells on their shoulders, they could almost walk fast.
Finally, after walking in the bare mountains for an hour, they arrived at their nest.
I saw a cave in front of me. The entrance of the cave is almost vertical, and there is a mountain on the opposite side blocking it. It is almost impossible to find it from the air. This natural cave is the natural base of this guerrilla.
The terrain here is hidden. When the Soviet Union marched directly into Afghanistan, even if the powerful Soviets wanted to wipe it out, they could not attack because the road was too rugged and the armored troops could not drive in. There is also a water source in the back mountain. The choice of this base is very good.
This time, the guerrillas broke up into small groups and dispersed, and they retreated back to their old nest.
As a result, in their old nest, they found enough food for their guerrillas to eat for three years, including grain, compressed biscuits, canned beef, beef jerky, canned fruit, etc., and there was no text on the bottles.
In addition to grain, there were also many AK47s and a large number of bullets, as well as mines, portable anti-aircraft missiles, shoulder-fired rocket launchers, etc.
This time they went out to fight, destroyed an American infantry fighting vehicle, killed ten American soldiers, and destroyed a Black Hawk helicopter. It can be said that they returned with a full load.
Then they also obtained rich spoils of war. In addition to weapons and ammunition, there was also a batch of supplies, many of which could not be brought back, so they were temporarily hidden and slowly moved back later.
The captain of this guerrilla team, 'Amir', was in a good mood. He asked people to go to the back mountain to fetch some water, cook dinner, and even opened canned beef.
Although there are many cans in this natural cave, they are usually managed very strictly. Only when they win a battle will they open the cans to celebrate.
Today, although they also suffered casualties, they definitely won a battle and it is worth opening the cans to celebrate.
Amir believes that as long as they continue to win, more and more warriors will join the guerrillas to fight against the invaders.
Afghanistan is the Afghanistan of the Afghans, not the Afghanistan of the Americans.
They can drive out the Soviets, and they can definitely drive out the Americans.
No matter whether it takes ten or twenty years.