Chapter 498: Small punishment or big beating

Liu Tao had to postpone his departure from Beijing.

In order to deliver this batch of orders from Libya, he had to coordinate some missiles with the military.

Otherwise, with such a large quantity, emergency production would be too late.

In addition to the military coordinating some missiles, the anti-aircraft missiles in the combined brigade must also be coordinated first.

Coupled with inventory and production, it can be delivered in about a month.

When Liu Tao left Beijing, he had received news that mercenaries had transported 355.5 tons of gold to Tanzania and were preparing to transport it back to the country in batches.

Naturally, such a large amount of gold cannot be transported in one go.

Because the risk is too great.

This risk comes from nature. When a boat travels on the sea, it will inevitably capsize. If the boat sinks, everything will be gone.

At the same time, risks also come from people. For example, pirates will always appear on islands and vast seas. Every year, countless merchant ships are robbed by pirates. In addition to pirates, it is inevitable that there will be other mercenaries and even other countries who want the gold after getting the news.

Therefore, so much gold naturally has to be transported back in batches, and it cannot just be transported by sea, but also by air.

United States, Pentagon.

The news that the Perry-class frigate was sunk has returned to the Pentagon.

It's not that there are people alive on the frigate who can send the news back, but that the Perry-class frigate has lost the news. The Navy Command took the initiative to contact the Perry-class frigate, but has never received a response.

An investigation process was then launched, and it was soon determined that the Perry-class frigate was sunk 10 nautical miles off the coast of Libya in the Mediterranean.

This news undoubtedly made the Pentagon extremely angry.

Because since 1945, the U.S. Navy has replaced the British Royal Navy as the world's maritime hegemon, and few countries have been able to sink U.S. Navy warships.

The most recent one was the Vietnam War, when the USS Card was bombed and sunk in the port by Vietnamese frogmen.

Now, Libya dares to attack US warships and sink a Perry-class frigate.

This is a declaration of war on the United States!

Later, the Pentagon chief took several people to the White House.

Then I saw CIA Director Rosen Colby reporting this to Reagan.

Reagan changed his usual personable and smiling image, and his tough and fierce expression made people shudder. He said angrily: "The patience of the United States has its limits. We must not remain indifferent to this kind of provocation and declaration of war. We Punish them!"

"You must come up with a specific plan, one month, I only give you one month!" Reagan's eyes were about to spit fire.

He never thought that Libya would dare to sink the Perry-class warship.

If there was no retaliation in this matter, he would definitely be drowned in the saliva of the angry citizens.

And for him, this is also a good opportunity.

Move the contradiction outward and shift the focus of the people.

Since taking office, Reagan tried to save the U.S. economy and bring the United States out of the quagmire of the economic crisis. To this end, he proposed a series of economic policies, which are known as "Reagan New Economics."

It's just that his efforts, although effective, failed to bring the United States out of the quagmire of the economic crisis. High oil prices made the United States miserable. For this reason, it had to abandon a large number of manufacturing industries and transfer a large number of manufacturing industries to labor. Relatively cheap place.

Moreover, the size of the national debt is rising rapidly.

When he first came to power, the U.S. national debt was less than 1 trillion U.S. dollars, but now it has reached 1.6 trillion U.S. dollars, which means that in just a few years, the U.S. government has borrowed more than it had in the past hundred years, and it is still Much more.

The United States can survive only by issuing national debt.

But in recent years, the yield on government bonds has been very high. For example, in 1980, the interest rate on ten-year government bonds reached 15.83%. Although the interest rate on ten-year government bonds issued in other years was not so high, it still exceeded double digits.

This made Reagan criticized, and it would have been difficult for him to remain in this position if no one had been willing to take over this mess.

There is a lot of public anger in the country now, and they need an outlet.

And Libya is a good target.

Soon, the news spread throughout the United States and quickly spread around the world.

Everyone's eyes involuntarily turned to the United States, the Mediterranean, and Libya.

The entire United States was in a state of excitement, and Cardano was criticized both verbally and in writing.

This year is definitely not a good year for the United States.

The high unemployment rate, double-digit inflation rate, and the continuous influx of immigrants have all made Americans resentful.

Especially on January 28, the space shuttle Challenger was launched from the Kennedy Space Center. As a result, the space shuttle exploded at an altitude of 15,000 meters 72 seconds later, killing all seven crew members and causing losses of more than three billion US dollars. This explosion was the world's most tragic space accident. It shocked the whole world and greatly shocked Americans.

The space shuttle is the pride of the American people.

But this pride has now suffered a big blow.

This time the Perry-class frigate was sunk by Libya, and 180 officers and soldiers sank into the sea. Americans all resented Libya and hated the dictatorship of Cardano.

They will not think about why their country's warships went to the Libyan coastline.

After all, the United States is a big empire!

The people of the empire never think about these things.

While the whole world was discussing this matter, the first batch of delivered goods had officially set sail from Yangcheng Port and began to be shipped to the African continent.

Liu Tao watched this batch of goods set sail. As for whether this batch of goods would be intercepted, he didn't care, because it had nothing to do with the Southwest Ordnance Industry Group. Libya paid for the transportation itself and signed an agreement with others.

"Libya will probably suffer a big loss this time!" Liu Tao sighed secretly. Every day's news is about this aspect. Liu Tao can feel from it that the Americans are furious and the whole world is caught in the undercurrent.

He had to admire Colonel Ka's courage. This courage is really shocking. Even now, Colonel Ka's voice is still loud, intending to pull the banner of the Soviet Union.

After all, the only country in the world that can challenge the United States is the Soviet Union.

In the past, Libya was wearing the same pants as the Soviet Union, and even imported a large number of weapons and equipment from the Soviet Union.

It's just that Colonel Kadiz's repeated jumps and his constant approach to Europe in recent years have made the Soviet Union quite dissatisfied. It's just because Libya's strategic position is too important, so the Soviet Union has been trying to win over Libya to prevent Libya from falling into the arms of the United States again.

Liu Tao is very curious whether the United States will use force to teach Colonel Kadiz a lesson this time. If it does use force, will it be a small punishment, or will it directly fight a war of national extinction?

Looking at the current news, it seems that there will be a big fight, but if there is a big fight, it must be a long-term transportation of materials and troops, and at least one or even two aircraft carriers must be mobilized to the Mediterranean.

This project is not small.