Chapter 72: Secret War (4)

The ambassador came quickly. He first listened to Briand's scolding and reprimand, and then asked Rene to repeat the request just now. The ambassador nodded and bowed in a good manner, while expressing his apology for causing such a big deal to the respected Prime Minister. He said he would immediately contact China to find out the problem and asked for five days. Brian felt that the attitude of the Italians was quite good, and his anger was half gone, so he took the initiative to add 2 more days, giving 7 days for the ambassador to investigate, after all, he was far away in North Africa.

In fact, the truth of the matter was known to the ambassador after he returned to the embassy. Just when he went to receive a reprimand, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a telegram to him. Contini took the matter directly to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, first explained the specific situation, and then asked them to buy as much time as possible.

What time are you trying to gain? Strive for time for the pipeline to be connected. Oil will be released in 5 days after the pipeline is connected.

This behavior is of course a strict violation of national legal procedures. Contini is just the president of the United Group. Even if he serves as the Secretary-General of the Fascist and has the title of parliamentarian, he cannot interfere with the normal operations of the government. Even if he is treated as a government official, he should not be dictating the diplomatic system. However, probably only the rigid Germans will abide by this dogma. Anyway, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will never care about whether Contini has command authority. They only know that the leader has issued an order to cooperate with the president as much as possible.

This sentence is enough!

Now Italy is the world of leaders, and in the future it will be the world of the president. No one can offend the president. Besides, the president didn’t make any excessive demands. He only asked to delay for a few days and told them the truth. The Italian Army had no troops to cross the border. It was the oil guards’ self-defense. This was a corporate act and the government was not allowed to interfere... That was enough. !

The ambassador understood what he was thinking, and instead of being verbose with his countrymen, he said straightforwardly, "I understand!"

Hurry up!

Under the urging of this slogan, the final stage of oil pipeline construction aroused great enthusiasm. Contini spent twice his salary and started work day and night, and finally connected all the pipelines on the night of the fourth day. On the fifth day, following Toth's order, the crude oil extracted from each oil well entered the pipeline. The dark crude oil gurgled into the oil pipe and rushed towards Tripoli along with the pressure. Of course, it would take some time to reach the outlet. The crude oil After all, it is not water, and its fluidity is not that good, so it needs to be partially pressurized in the middle.

But what makes Contini and Toth happy is that the quality of the oil pipeline project is quite good. There are very few leakage points during inspections, and even if there are, they will be repaired quickly.

"President, what are you going to do next? The French will not give up!" Toth said worriedly, "I'm worried that they will soon attack or even close the oil fields..."

"This is very possible, so I have made preparations." Contini pointed to the people filming and taking photos behind him and said, "Look, these are the reinforcements I brought here."

"Reinforcement? Troops?" Toth was a little surprised, "I'm sorry I can't tell..."

"You will understand, doctor, your expertise lies in organizing production and completing projects. It is not your specialty to engage in conspiracy research and countermeasures. Just watch." Contini smiled confidently, "Don't withdraw all the workers for the time being. Finished, leaving some for emergency repairs.”

On the evening of October 31, the Italian Ambassador gave a formal reply to Rene and Briand: "Dear Prime Minister and Minister, after in-depth communication and detailed investigation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the military of our country, we have requested the Governor-General of Libya to Mr. Ruiz verified and replied as follows: The Royal Italian Army has never crossed the borders of Libya and Algeria, let alone carried out the military mission you mentioned..."

Rene suppressed his anger: "What do you mean, do you mean that the French government is deceiving itself?"

"I didn't say that, Your Excellency." The ambassador smiled slightly. "To prevent omissions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also contacted the United Group's office in Libya. The other party stated that a group of Algerian militants did come to the oil fields to cause trouble, but they had been The guards were expelled and eliminated. This situation had happened once before, because the Algerian Governor-General said that they did not have enough troops to suppress them, so the United Group could only send additional security forces..."

Briand and René looked at each other and said that this explanation might be true: the Italian army was busy wiping out the Libyan guerrillas, so how could it have time to take care of Algeria's affairs? Maybe it was really the work of daring oil guards. What's more, people have also said it: The Governor's Mansion said that it has insufficient troops and can't help, so the only choice is to do it yourself.

"How many oil guards are there now?"

"I'm not sure about this. There are always 1,000 or 2,000 people, right?"

"There are so many people?" Brian was shocked.

"Your Excellency, the oil field area is not small. 1-2 thousand people are allocated to less than 1 person per ten square kilometers." The ambassador shrugged, "If there is only one policeman within 10 square kilometers of Paris, you think there will be chaos. What does it look like?”

Brian was immediately upset that he had been robbed of this meal by the other party, but the ambassador's words were correct and could not be refuted. In fact, the concept has obviously been changed here. How many people are there within 10 square kilometers of Paris? How many people are there in Algeria?

"Also, my government believes that since this is a matter about an enterprise, it should be treated with caution. Our government is also very concerned about protecting the legitimate rights and interests of its own enterprises. We do not want to see relevant issues complicated and politicized..." After explaining these things, the ambassador's mission came to an end for the time being. He knew that the follow-up would definitely be unfinished. Now it was up to him to see how the president would take over. To be honest, he was also very interested.

"What do you think about this?"

René pondered for a long time: "It is true that armed tribesmen attacked the oil fields, and the news media reported it, so the other party's response is reasonable, but reasonableness does not mean that the United Group can do whatever they want, let alone the whole thing. I tend to think that the whole thing is The oil guards were responsible for this incident, but it would be a bit hasty to directly pin the blame on it. I think it is necessary to conduct a comprehensive investigation into this incident and come to a convincing conclusion.”

"Then what?"

"For reasons such as violating the lives and property of Algerian tribal people and using excessive force, we announced the shutdown of these oil fields of the United Group until the other party submits!"

"Okay, let Bastian do this. I will see the conclusion within ten days!"

"President, the Governor's Office sent someone to investigate. They aggressively accused us of being involved in the bloodbath of tribal armed forces, and threatened to shut down oil field production."

Contini smiled slightly: "I know, this is inevitable..."

"What now?"

"Just wait and see..."

While Bastian was investigating intensively, another group of people arranged by Contini also dispatched. The one who set off was the brave Ji'an, who found other tribes.

"I know you went to those oil fields some time ago. To be honest, I'm not worth it for you..." Ji'an has obviously become a little familiar with the tribesmen. "The French paid you a little money to destroy them. , but we can give you the greatest help.”

"What help?"

"Guns, ammunition, Briand's vest, Sickert cocktail..." Ji'an showed the inventory he brought over, and then said, "If you don't want independence, then you should go and fight with the French, rush What do you mean by looking at us? We are just oilfield operators. If you become independent in the future, we can give you the share we gave the French..."

"But you took too much."

"Brother, we explored the mines, we bought the equipment, we dug the oil wells, we laid the pipelines, we hired the workers... You don't have to do anything. You can get one-third of the harvest just by sitting at home. If you don't want to I can give you oil in hard currency, is there anything so cheap in the world?"

"That's right...what do you want us to do?"

"Go and create a few incidents to awaken the indomitable fighting spirit of the Algerian people, and let the French see that you are still fighting for the nation and for freedom!" Ji'an waved his hand heroically, "As long as you are willing to do it, these 100 rifles , 2,000 rounds of ammunition, 200 sets of vests and 500 cocktails are yours...no money!"

The leaders of the tribe looked at each other and became jealous. This was not a small number.

"Okay, let's do it, for my friends!"

On November 8, the Governor's Office issued a notice, accusing United Oilfield of recklessly using force against local people in Algeria, violating the regulations and relevant regulations of the Governor's Office, and requiring the United Oilfield to be shut down. United Group strongly refuted this: it believed that the oil field was under The working environment in Algeria has deteriorated and Algeria has no choice but to resort to self-defense. How can it be said that it is an abuse of force? On the contrary, they also complained to the French government that the Governor-General was unable to effectively suppress local public security and had dereliction of duty.

"I asked you to complain about my dereliction of duty, but you accuse me of disorderly public security!" Bastian said viciously at the Governor's Palace, "Come here, send troops to seal off the United Oil Field for me."

"Sir, how many people should you send... The oil guards are said to be fully armed. If there are few people, I'm afraid..."

"Then let's go as a group."

A regiment was sent out here, and preparations were made over there. The brave men and commandos from the country dressed up as Algerians and began to rush towards Algiers. With one regiment missing, Algiers The defense is very empty!

On November 11, Briand was still thinking happily about the scene when Bastian closed the oil field and Contini humbly begged to come to him. An urgent telegram suddenly woke him up: a terrorist incident occurred in Algiers and terrorists attacked. He entered the Governor's Palace and blew up Bastian's car with a roadside bomb... The Governor himself was seriously injured!

"What?" he was shocked. "The Algerians are rioting again?"

The Minister of the Interior who hurried over frowned and said: "How can it be such a coincidence? There must be a reason here!"