Chapter 619: 619
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Until many years later, the civil wars in African countries gradually subsided, and the uninterrupted small-scale conflicts never stopped.
Even the war in the Middle East will continue to attract the attention of the international community. Only in Africa, continuous urban riots, frequent village massacres, the displacement of tens of thousands of people, as well as natural and man-made disasters such as plague, drought, hunger and so on, cause millions of abnormal deaths every year However, it has always received little attention from the international community.
It seems that everyone is deliberately forgetting.
I really regard the continent with more than one billion people as a primitive jungle and let it live and die on its own.
Is there really no one trying to end this?
Of course not.
Because of the previous plan, Simon has recently collected a lot of information about Africa. For example, Angola, which is in civil war at this time, has 7000 UN peacekeepers.
However, in the past few years when the international situation has changed rapidly since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the peacekeeping forces stationed in Angola have burned hundreds of millions of US dollars in military expenditure and suffered heavy casualties. However, they have never been able to change the civil war situation in this country. The two opposing armies in Angola are very resistant to the interference of these foreign forces, so they have been in vain for a long time The Chinese peacekeeping forces have begun to withdraw one after another.
This is not the case in other African countries.
It can be said that considering political, economic, military, cultural and other factors, the situation in Africa is indeed too complicated to imagine, and no one can change it at all.
The main reason is actually the last sentence of the old man just now: we are all civilized people, and we should follow the rules.
Even if the equipment is excellent, the combat effectiveness is not bad. However, the peacekeeping forces in Africa are often bound by all kinds of constraints and can not be as unscrupulous as the local warlords. This is also the main reason for the failure of peacekeeping operations.
Otherwise, take Angola.
In Angola, where the civil war is going on, the total strength of the government forces and the opposition forces is less than 200000. As for the combat capacity, most of the African forces are only equipped with individual weapons eliminated by the United States and the Soviet Union during the cold war. In front of the modern western forces, there is a gap between cold weapons and hot weapons.
During the Gulf War, the Iraqi troops, which were known as millions of soldiers, were a group of local chickens and lackeys in front of the powerful US forces. The African Army, not to mention the U.S. Army, even compared with the Iraqi forces of Saddam Hussein at this stage, can only be regarded as a group of local chickens and dogs, which shows the gap.
Therefore, Simon initially planned to organize a modern elite mercenary corps of 10000 people, which could easily occupy a large part of Africa without being bound by rules.
The problem now is that since we are in a "civilized world", it is impossible to use these means openly.
However, Simon didn't intend to give up. When the old man finished, he thought about it for a moment and quickly said, "ray, maybe I can go to Africa to do business, a very serious business."
Simon has not continued to explain, Raymond Johnston has understood the subtext of his words, and Simon has not given up the idea of building a violent machine belonging to the westero system.
When you think about it, it's really necessary.
The size of the westero system is now even beyond the scope of the chaebol, almost equivalent to a national economy.
In this case, if we want to ensure the sustainable development of this economy, it can not only have strong economic strength, but also have considerable political and military influence. Otherwise, no matter how big the "economy" is, it will be vulnerable to the powerful state machine.
Even if we don't think about the long term, if we buy those things from Eastern Europe in the future, it will be troublesome if we can't find someone to implement them.
It is certainly not appropriate to organize mercenaries to fight for territory in Africa. If there is a proper excuse, many things can be smoothly promoted.
Doing business is obviously the most appropriate excuse.
In order to ensure that the business in the war-torn areas can be maintained smoothly, it is natural for the westero system to train some private arms to maintain the safety of employees, factories or mines while doing business.
The larger the scale of Africa's business, the more private arms it needs.
If the industries of the westero system are blooming everywhere in Africa, and each industry only supports a dozen private soldiers, it will be a powerful military force that can easily change the situation in some regions if necessary.
More importantly, after breaking up the whole into parts, it will not attract much attention and rebound.
To sort this out quickly, Raymond Johnston was somewhat sorry.
If only it could be the Johnston system.
In this way, maybe in the future human history, they will have a strong influence on their families.
It seems that the identity of this boy should be publicized as soon as possible in private.
Making up his mind, Raymond Johnston went back to Simon's thought and said, "it's a good idea to cultivate a private army in the name of doing business. It's more reliable than simply recruiting mercenaries, because mercenaries will not be loyal without good reason and firm belief. Without loyalty, no matter how powerful the army is, it is difficult for us to use it in times of crisis. Now we recruit private arms in the name of family business. From the very beginning, we can instill in these soldiers the people they need to be loyal to, so that this army can have a sense of belonging to the westero system. With the help of this, we can get an army that has no idea of family and is completely loyal to ourselves in the future. "Simon nodded subconsciously, admiring.
It's really the old man. He just had a rather vague idea. He has grasped the essence of the matter.
If we recruit mercenaries from Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa according to Simon's original plan, and the funds are sufficient, these people can easily form a strong fighting force, and it is not difficult to carve out a territory in Africa to cultivate the puppet regime of the westero system.
However, because of the lack of belief and sense of belonging, more people just want to make money, so these mercenaries can not be loyal to the westero system.
In this state, it is not possible for the army to carry out dangerous actions to safeguard the interests of the Westeros family when it is needed, even if it wants a little smoother command. Some mercenary leaders stiffen their wings after taking Simon's large amount of financial aid, and may even break away from doing it alone, so that Simon can't steal chicken.
To make matters worse, it is not impossible to raise these mercenaries to counter the westero system.
Now, another way is to recruit in the name of maintaining the business of the westero system in Africa, and then train them completely according to the national model of training soldiers. From the beginning, the soldiers are taught what they need to be loyal to. The result is totally different.
If combined with powerful brainwashing measures, Simon can go even further and obtain a group of family dead men who are completely loyal to the westero system.
The loyalty of the traditional national army mainly comes from the sense of responsibility and belonging to the dependent country.
If the westero system is only a slightly larger company, it is not easy for the private armed forces to have a similar sense of loyalty. However, the current westero system is already a powerful economy that can compete with the economic strength of many countries.
When an individual finds that the object he serves is a powerful existence beyond the economic size of many countries, he will naturally have the psychology of attachment and worship. As long as there is such a tendency, he will be able to cultivate a further sense of loyalty relatively easily.
Of course, it is impossible to bind necessary interests.
Simon has already thought of more than just individual family soldiers. In the future, the whole family of most private soldiers can be integrated into the westerosian system, forming a group of "westerosian" that Simon has considered before.
As long as it can be carried out smoothly, these family private soldiers will have a stronger sense of belonging in the future, and even have the traditional idea that serving the westero system is equivalent to "defending the country".
In addition, it is more appropriate than other regions to choose Africa as a base to cultivate the private arms of this westero system.
Long term war, famine and extreme poverty have left most Africans with little sense of belonging to their country, which has given the westero system enough opportunities.
On the other hand, the ethnic composition of private soldiers is not a problem.
Simon doesn't plan to form a black army. The family army will be mainly white.
After hundreds of years of colonial rule, Africa is not all black, there are a large number of European white immigrants.
Because they have taken root in Africa and lost the nationality of their home country, many white people can only live here for a long time, especially those who gradually fall to the bottom of the society, and even suffer the reverse discrimination of the black people. If he wants to develop in Africa, the private armed forces of westero system can't completely exclude blacks, but the descendants of white immigrants who are incompatible with Africa are Simon's key recruitment targets.
He spent the whole afternoon around the open-air swimming pool of the beautiful shell villa. Simon seriously discussed with the old man the specific implementation details of the establishment of this private armed force. Then the topic turned to the recent problems faced by the westero system in North America. The old man seriously gave his own ideas.
Time flies away in this conversation, and it's evening in the twinkling of an eye.
Simon and Raymond Johnston moved from standing on the fence to sitting at a set of tables and chairs by the pool, and Anthony joined the discussion.
At dusk, the three finally got up and went back to the villa.
Arriving at the side door of the villa, Raymond Johnston thought of another thing and asked, "Simon, are you going to buy a lot of gold?"
Simon helped to open the glass door. He did not hide his thoughts to the old man. He nodded and said, "since we want to build the westero system into a separate 'economy', we also need a certain amount of gold reserves according to the Convention."
Hearing this explanation, the old man asked no more questions.
The reason is very good.
In addition, Raymond Johnston also has a general understanding of the financial situation of westero system. Last time he participated in the merger and acquisition of Rio Tinto, Simon made a one-time investment of US $2.5 billion, which is not a small sum for any enterprise giant. However, westero company fully used its own funds to easily pay.
Even so, Simon still has a large amount of cash in his hands because of the huge profits contributed by danielis entertainment, cersei capital, Verizon Telecom and other companies.
Because of the inevitable inflation, it is the best choice for enterprises or individuals to invest a large amount of cash as soon as possible. In Simon's view, the income from investment will definitely exceed the natural appreciation of goldHowever, for the current westero system, there is no such restriction.
Because as long as he has the right goal, even if Simon has spent all his surplus money on gold, it is easy to raise money for investment. With the current corporate reputation of westero and its low debt ratio of less than 10%, few banks in the world will refuse to provide loans to Simon.
When the three entered the villa hall, the old man thought about it for a moment and said, "it's good to buy gold, but in fact, you don't have to keep it yourself, so the cost will be very high. Even if you don't want to keep it in the United States, London vault or Swiss bank is a good choice. "
Simon certainly thought about it.
Just thinking about the fact that the United States refused to transport gold back to other countries in my memory, I gave up this idea. The United States can do so. When necessary, it is hard to guarantee that the United Kingdom and Switzerland will not do the same.
Shaking his head, Simon said, "I don't believe them. It's more reliable to have gold in my own hands."
Raymond Johnston insisted on Simon, but he didn't object: "let's store it in the basement of our headquarters in Melbourne. There are three floors in the basement of Johnston holding building. The lowest floor can be changed into a vault. It's certainly no problem to store hundreds of tons of gold."
Simon nodded in agreement.
The basement of Johnston holdings building is perfect.
They belong to their own territory and are not the long-term apartments of their families. If the Treasury is built in Johnston's house on the Yarra River, it will not only attract a lot of covet, but also threaten the safety of the family. If it is built in a completely unrelated place, the safety of gold itself will not be guaranteed to the greatest extent.
Simon has been looking for a special gold trading team during this period. Once the team is set up, it will immediately open acquisitions in several major gold exchanges in the world.
Things in the Treasury, including the supporting security team and protective measures, certainly can not be completed in one or two days. Therefore, although we don't want to put the gold elsewhere, we can only choose to deposit it in the early stage. When the construction of the vault in Melbourne is completed, a large amount of physical gold will be transported to Australia.
To sum up, the price of gold at this stage is at the lowest point in the 1990s, about $350 an ounce, far lower than the peak of $800 an ounce during the oil crisis in the 1980s.
Moreover, in Simon's memory, the price of gold was close to $2000 an ounce around 2012, which is more than five times the current price of gold. Even after 2012, when the global economy turned better, the price of gold did not fall below $1000 an ounce.
Therefore, the official media all over the world advocate that gold is a worthless commodity with negative investment income, which really involves some insider information related to the monetary standard.
An ounce of gold in the west is about 31 grams. According to the current gold price of $350 an ounce, the total value of a ton of gold is only about $11.25 million.
Simon could buy 100 tons of gold at one time if he didn't worry about the sharp rise of gold price caused by sweeping goods and the rebound of some countries that have been suppressing the price of gold, and there is not so much spot gold in the market, with the price of 11.25 million US dollars per ton.
Of course, I can only think about it.
Many countries do not have 100 tons of official gold reserves.
Simon's long-term plan is to save about 1000 tons of gold in the next 10 to 20 years.
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Until many years later, the civil wars in African countries gradually subsided, and the uninterrupted small-scale conflicts never stopped.
Even the war in the Middle East will continue to attract the attention of the international community. Only in Africa, continuous urban riots, frequent village massacres, the displacement of tens of thousands of people, as well as natural and man-made disasters such as plague, drought, hunger and so on, cause millions of abnormal deaths every year However, it has always received little attention from the international community.
It seems that everyone is deliberately forgetting.
I really regard the continent with more than one billion people as a primitive jungle and let it live and die on its own.
Is there really no one trying to end this?
Of course not.
Because of the previous plan, Simon has recently collected a lot of information about Africa. For example, Angola, which is in civil war at this time, has 7000 UN peacekeepers.
However, in the past few years when the international situation has changed rapidly since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the peacekeeping forces stationed in Angola have burned hundreds of millions of US dollars in military expenditure and suffered heavy casualties. However, they have never been able to change the civil war situation in this country. The two opposing armies in Angola are very resistant to the interference of these foreign forces, so they have been in vain for a long time The Chinese peacekeeping forces have begun to withdraw one after another.
This is not the case in other African countries.
It can be said that considering political, economic, military, cultural and other factors, the situation in Africa is indeed too complicated to imagine, and no one can change it at all.
The main reason is actually the last sentence of the old man just now: we are all civilized people, and we should follow the rules.
Even if the equipment is excellent, the combat effectiveness is not bad. However, the peacekeeping forces in Africa are often bound by all kinds of constraints and can not be as unscrupulous as the local warlords. This is also the main reason for the failure of peacekeeping operations.
Otherwise, take Angola.
In Angola, where the civil war is going on, the total strength of the government forces and the opposition forces is less than 200000. As for the combat capacity, most of the African forces are only equipped with individual weapons eliminated by the United States and the Soviet Union during the cold war. In front of the modern western forces, there is a gap between cold weapons and hot weapons.
During the Gulf War, the Iraqi troops, which were known as millions of soldiers, were a group of local chickens and lackeys in front of the powerful US forces. The African Army, not to mention the U.S. Army, even compared with the Iraqi forces of Saddam Hussein at this stage, can only be regarded as a group of local chickens and dogs, which shows the gap.
Therefore, Simon initially planned to organize a modern elite mercenary corps of 10000 people, which could easily occupy a large part of Africa without being bound by rules.
The problem now is that since we are in a "civilized world", it is impossible to use these means openly.
However, Simon didn't intend to give up. When the old man finished, he thought about it for a moment and quickly said, "ray, maybe I can go to Africa to do business, a very serious business."
Simon has not continued to explain, Raymond Johnston has understood the subtext of his words, and Simon has not given up the idea of building a violent machine belonging to the westero system.
When you think about it, it's really necessary.
The size of the westero system is now even beyond the scope of the chaebol, almost equivalent to a national economy.
In this case, if we want to ensure the sustainable development of this economy, it can not only have strong economic strength, but also have considerable political and military influence. Otherwise, no matter how big the "economy" is, it will be vulnerable to the powerful state machine.
Even if we don't think about the long term, if we buy those things from Eastern Europe in the future, it will be troublesome if we can't find someone to implement them.
It is certainly not appropriate to organize mercenaries to fight for territory in Africa. If there is a proper excuse, many things can be smoothly promoted.
Doing business is obviously the most appropriate excuse.
In order to ensure that the business in the war-torn areas can be maintained smoothly, it is natural for the westero system to train some private arms to maintain the safety of employees, factories or mines while doing business.
The larger the scale of Africa's business, the more private arms it needs.
If the industries of the westero system are blooming everywhere in Africa, and each industry only supports a dozen private soldiers, it will be a powerful military force that can easily change the situation in some regions if necessary.
More importantly, after breaking up the whole into parts, it will not attract much attention and rebound.
To sort this out quickly, Raymond Johnston was somewhat sorry.
If only it could be the Johnston system.
In this way, maybe in the future human history, they will have a strong influence on their families.
It seems that the identity of this boy should be publicized as soon as possible in private.
Making up his mind, Raymond Johnston went back to Simon's thought and said, "it's a good idea to cultivate a private army in the name of doing business. It's more reliable than simply recruiting mercenaries, because mercenaries will not be loyal without good reason and firm belief. Without loyalty, no matter how powerful the army is, it is difficult for us to use it in times of crisis. Now we recruit private arms in the name of family business. From the very beginning, we can instill in these soldiers the people they need to be loyal to, so that this army can have a sense of belonging to the westero system. With the help of this, we can get an army that has no idea of family and is completely loyal to ourselves in the future. "Simon nodded subconsciously, admiring.
It's really the old man. He just had a rather vague idea. He has grasped the essence of the matter.
If we recruit mercenaries from Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa according to Simon's original plan, and the funds are sufficient, these people can easily form a strong fighting force, and it is not difficult to carve out a territory in Africa to cultivate the puppet regime of the westero system.
However, because of the lack of belief and sense of belonging, more people just want to make money, so these mercenaries can not be loyal to the westero system.
In this state, it is not possible for the army to carry out dangerous actions to safeguard the interests of the Westeros family when it is needed, even if it wants a little smoother command. Some mercenary leaders stiffen their wings after taking Simon's large amount of financial aid, and may even break away from doing it alone, so that Simon can't steal chicken.
To make matters worse, it is not impossible to raise these mercenaries to counter the westero system.
Now, another way is to recruit in the name of maintaining the business of the westero system in Africa, and then train them completely according to the national model of training soldiers. From the beginning, the soldiers are taught what they need to be loyal to. The result is totally different.
If combined with powerful brainwashing measures, Simon can go even further and obtain a group of family dead men who are completely loyal to the westero system.
The loyalty of the traditional national army mainly comes from the sense of responsibility and belonging to the dependent country.
If the westero system is only a slightly larger company, it is not easy for the private armed forces to have a similar sense of loyalty. However, the current westero system is already a powerful economy that can compete with the economic strength of many countries.
When an individual finds that the object he serves is a powerful existence beyond the economic size of many countries, he will naturally have the psychology of attachment and worship. As long as there is such a tendency, he will be able to cultivate a further sense of loyalty relatively easily.
Of course, it is impossible to bind necessary interests.
Simon has already thought of more than just individual family soldiers. In the future, the whole family of most private soldiers can be integrated into the westerosian system, forming a group of "westerosian" that Simon has considered before.
As long as it can be carried out smoothly, these family private soldiers will have a stronger sense of belonging in the future, and even have the traditional idea that serving the westero system is equivalent to "defending the country".
In addition, it is more appropriate than other regions to choose Africa as a base to cultivate the private arms of this westero system.
Long term war, famine and extreme poverty have left most Africans with little sense of belonging to their country, which has given the westero system enough opportunities.
On the other hand, the ethnic composition of private soldiers is not a problem.
Simon doesn't plan to form a black army. The family army will be mainly white.
After hundreds of years of colonial rule, Africa is not all black, there are a large number of European white immigrants.
Because they have taken root in Africa and lost the nationality of their home country, many white people can only live here for a long time, especially those who gradually fall to the bottom of the society, and even suffer the reverse discrimination of the black people. If he wants to develop in Africa, the private armed forces of westero system can't completely exclude blacks, but the descendants of white immigrants who are incompatible with Africa are Simon's key recruitment targets.
He spent the whole afternoon around the open-air swimming pool of the beautiful shell villa. Simon seriously discussed with the old man the specific implementation details of the establishment of this private armed force. Then the topic turned to the recent problems faced by the westero system in North America. The old man seriously gave his own ideas.
Time flies away in this conversation, and it's evening in the twinkling of an eye.
Simon and Raymond Johnston moved from standing on the fence to sitting at a set of tables and chairs by the pool, and Anthony joined the discussion.
At dusk, the three finally got up and went back to the villa.
Arriving at the side door of the villa, Raymond Johnston thought of another thing and asked, "Simon, are you going to buy a lot of gold?"
Simon helped to open the glass door. He did not hide his thoughts to the old man. He nodded and said, "since we want to build the westero system into a separate 'economy', we also need a certain amount of gold reserves according to the Convention."
Hearing this explanation, the old man asked no more questions.
The reason is very good.
In addition, Raymond Johnston also has a general understanding of the financial situation of westero system. Last time he participated in the merger and acquisition of Rio Tinto, Simon made a one-time investment of US $2.5 billion, which is not a small sum for any enterprise giant. However, westero company fully used its own funds to easily pay.
Even so, Simon still has a large amount of cash in his hands because of the huge profits contributed by danielis entertainment, cersei capital, Verizon Telecom and other companies.
Because of the inevitable inflation, it is the best choice for enterprises or individuals to invest a large amount of cash as soon as possible. In Simon's view, the income from investment will definitely exceed the natural appreciation of goldHowever, for the current westero system, there is no such restriction.
Because as long as he has the right goal, even if Simon has spent all his surplus money on gold, it is easy to raise money for investment. With the current corporate reputation of westero and its low debt ratio of less than 10%, few banks in the world will refuse to provide loans to Simon.
When the three entered the villa hall, the old man thought about it for a moment and said, "it's good to buy gold, but in fact, you don't have to keep it yourself, so the cost will be very high. Even if you don't want to keep it in the United States, London vault or Swiss bank is a good choice. "
Simon certainly thought about it.
Just thinking about the fact that the United States refused to transport gold back to other countries in my memory, I gave up this idea. The United States can do so. When necessary, it is hard to guarantee that the United Kingdom and Switzerland will not do the same.
Shaking his head, Simon said, "I don't believe them. It's more reliable to have gold in my own hands."
Raymond Johnston insisted on Simon, but he didn't object: "let's store it in the basement of our headquarters in Melbourne. There are three floors in the basement of Johnston holding building. The lowest floor can be changed into a vault. It's certainly no problem to store hundreds of tons of gold."
Simon nodded in agreement.
The basement of Johnston holdings building is perfect.
They belong to their own territory and are not the long-term apartments of their families. If the Treasury is built in Johnston's house on the Yarra River, it will not only attract a lot of covet, but also threaten the safety of the family. If it is built in a completely unrelated place, the safety of gold itself will not be guaranteed to the greatest extent.
Simon has been looking for a special gold trading team during this period. Once the team is set up, it will immediately open acquisitions in several major gold exchanges in the world.
Things in the Treasury, including the supporting security team and protective measures, certainly can not be completed in one or two days. Therefore, although we don't want to put the gold elsewhere, we can only choose to deposit it in the early stage. When the construction of the vault in Melbourne is completed, a large amount of physical gold will be transported to Australia.
To sum up, the price of gold at this stage is at the lowest point in the 1990s, about $350 an ounce, far lower than the peak of $800 an ounce during the oil crisis in the 1980s.
Moreover, in Simon's memory, the price of gold was close to $2000 an ounce around 2012, which is more than five times the current price of gold. Even after 2012, when the global economy turned better, the price of gold did not fall below $1000 an ounce.
Therefore, the official media all over the world advocate that gold is a worthless commodity with negative investment income, which really involves some insider information related to the monetary standard.
An ounce of gold in the west is about 31 grams. According to the current gold price of $350 an ounce, the total value of a ton of gold is only about $11.25 million.
Simon could buy 100 tons of gold at one time if he didn't worry about the sharp rise of gold price caused by sweeping goods and the rebound of some countries that have been suppressing the price of gold, and there is not so much spot gold in the market, with the price of 11.25 million US dollars per ton.
Of course, I can only think about it.
Many countries do not have 100 tons of official gold reserves.
Simon's long-term plan is to save about 1000 tons of gold in the next 10 to 20 years.
Until many years later, the civil wars in African countries gradually subsided, and the uninterrupted small-scale conflicts never stopped. Even the war in the Middle East will continue to attract the attention of the international community. Only in Africa, continuous urban riots, frequent village massacres, the displacement of tens of thousands of people, as well as natural and man-made disasters such as plague, drought, hunger and so on, cause millions of abnormal deaths every year However, it has always received little attention from the international community. It seems that everyone is deliberately forgetting. I really regard the continent with more than one billion people as a primitive jungle and let it live and die on its own. Is there really no one trying to end this? Of course not. Because of the previous plan, Simon has recently collected a lot of information about Africa. For example, Angola, which is in civil war at this time, has 7000 UN peacekeepers. However, in the past few years when the international situation has changed rapidly since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the peacekeeping forces stationed in Angola have burned hundreds of millions of US dollars in military expenditure and suffered heavy casualties. However, they have never been able to change the civil war situation in this country. The two opposing armies in Angola are very resistant to the interference of these foreign forces, so they have been in vain for a long time The Chinese peacekeeping forces have begun to withdraw one after another. This is not the case in other African countries. It can be said that considering political, economic, military, cultural and other factors, the situation in Africa is indeed too complicated to imagine, and no one can change it at all. The main reason is actually the last sentence of the old man just now: we are all civilized people, and we should follow the rules. Even if the equipment is excellent, the combat effectiveness is not bad. However, the peacekeeping forces in Africa are often bound by all kinds of constraints and can not be as unscrupulous as the local warlords. This is also the main reason for the failure of peacekeeping operations. Otherwise, take Angola. In Angola, where the civil war is going on, the total strength of the government forces and the opposition forces is less than 200000. As for the combat capacity, most of the African forces are only equipped with individual weapons eliminated by the United States and the Soviet Union during the cold war. In front of the modern western forces, there is a gap between cold weapons and hot weapons. During the Gulf War, the Iraqi troops, which were known as millions of soldiers, were a group of local chickens and lackeys in front of the powerful US forces. The African Army, not to mention the U.S. Army, even compared with the Iraqi forces of Saddam Hussein at this stage, can only be regarded as a group of local chickens and dogs, which shows the gap. Therefore, Simon initially planned to organize a modern elite mercenary corps of 10000 people, which could easily occupy a large part of Africa without being bound by rules. The problem now is that since we are in a "civilized world", it is impossible to use these means openly. However, Simon didn't intend to give up. When the old man finished, he thought about it for a moment and quickly said, "ray, maybe I can go to Africa to do business, a very serious business." Simon has not continued to explain, Raymond Johnston has understood the subtext of his words, and Simon has not given up the idea of building a violent machine belonging to the westero system. When you think about it, it's really necessary. The size of the westero system is now even beyond the scope of the chaebol, almost equivalent to a national economy. In this case, if we want to ensure the sustainable development of this economy, it can not only have strong economic strength, but also have considerable political and military influence. Otherwise, no matter how big the "economy" is, it will be vulnerable to the powerful state machine. Even if we don't think about the long term, if we buy those things from Eastern Europe in the future, it will be troublesome if we can't find someone to implement them. It is certainly not appropriate to organize mercenaries to fight for territory in Africa. If there is a proper excuse, many things can be smoothly promoted. Doing business is obviously the most appropriate excuse. In order to ensure that the business in the war-torn areas can be maintained smoothly, it is natural for the westero system to train some private arms to maintain the safety of employees, factories or mines while doing business. The larger the scale of Africa's business, the more private arms it needs. If the industries of the westero system are blooming everywhere in Africa, and each industry only supports a dozen private soldiers, it will be a powerful military force that can easily change the situation in some regions if necessary. More importantly, after breaking up the whole into parts, it will not attract much attention and rebound. To sort this out quickly, Raymond Johnston was somewhat sorry. If only it could be the Johnston system. In this way, maybe in the future human history, they will have a strong influence on their families. It seems that the identity of this boy should be publicized as soon as possible in private. Making up his mind, Raymond Johnston went back to Simon's thought and said, "it's a good idea to cultivate a private army in the name of doing business. It's more reliable than simply recruiting mercenaries, because mercenaries will not be loyal without good reason and firm belief. Without loyalty, no matter how powerful the army is, it is difficult for us to use it in times of crisis. Now we recruit private arms in the name of family business. From the very beginning, we can instill in these soldiers the people they need to be loyal to, so that this army can have a sense of belonging to the westero system. With the help of this, we can get an army that has no idea of family and is completely loyal to ourselves in the future. "Simon nodded subconsciously, admiring. It's really the old man. He just had a rather vague idea. He has grasped the essence of the matter. If we recruit mercenaries from Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa according to Simon's original plan, and the funds are sufficient, these people can easily form a strong fighting force, and it is not difficult to carve out a territory in Africa to cultivate the puppet regime of the westero system. However, because of the lack of belief and sense of belonging, more people just want to make money, so these mercenaries can not be loyal to the westero system. In this state, it is not possible for the army to carry out dangerous actions to safeguard the interests of the Westeros family when it is needed, even if it wants a little smoother command. Some mercenary leaders stiffen their wings after taking Simon's large amount of financial aid, and may even break away from doing it alone, so that Simon can't steal chicken. To make matters worse, it is not impossible to raise these mercenaries to counter the westero system. Now, another way is to recruit in the name of maintaining the business of the westero system in Africa, and then train them completely according to the national model of training soldiers. From the beginning, the soldiers are taught what they need to be loyal to. The result is totally different. If combined with powerful brainwashing measures, Simon can go even further and obtain a group of family dead men who are completely loyal to the westero system. The loyalty of the traditional national army mainly comes from the sense of responsibility and belonging to the dependent country. If the westero system is only a slightly larger company, it is not easy for the private armed forces to have a similar sense of loyalty. However, the current westero system is already a powerful economy that can compete with the economic strength of many countries. When an individual finds that the object he serves is a powerful existence beyond the economic size of many countries, he will naturally have the psychology of attachment and worship. As long as there is such a tendency, he will be able to cultivate a further sense of loyalty relatively easily. Of course, it is impossible to bind necessary interests. Simon has already thought of more than just individual family soldiers. In the future, the whole family of most private soldiers can be integrated into the westerosian system, forming a group of "westerosian" that Simon has considered before. As long as it can be carried out smoothly, these family private soldiers will have a stronger sense of belonging in the future, and even have the traditional idea that serving the westero system is equivalent to "defending the country". In addition, it is more appropriate than other regions to choose Africa as a base to cultivate the private arms of this westero system. Long term war, famine and extreme poverty have left most Africans with little sense of belonging to their country, which has given the westero system enough opportunities. On the other hand, the ethnic composition of private soldiers is not a problem. Simon doesn't plan to form a black army. The family army will be mainly white. After hundreds of years of colonial rule, Africa is not all black, there are a large number of European white immigrants. Because they have taken root in Africa and lost the nationality of their home country, many white people can only live here for a long time, especially those who gradually fall to the bottom of the society, and even suffer the reverse discrimination of the black people. If he wants to develop in Africa, the private armed forces of westero system can't completely exclude blacks, but the descendants of white immigrants who are incompatible with Africa are Simon's key recruitment targets. He spent the whole afternoon around the open-air swimming pool of the beautiful shell villa. Simon seriously discussed with the old man the specific implementation details of the establishment of this private armed force. Then the topic turned to the recent problems faced by the westero system in North America. The old man seriously gave his own ideas. Time flies away in this conversation, and it's evening in the twinkling of an eye. Simon and Raymond Johnston moved from standing on the fence to sitting at a set of tables and chairs by the pool, and Anthony joined the discussion. At dusk, the three finally got up and went back to the villa. Arriving at the side door of the villa, Raymond Johnston thought of another thing and asked, "Simon, are you going to buy a lot of gold?" Simon helped to open the glass door. He did not hide his thoughts to the old man. He nodded and said, "since we want to build the westero system into a separate 'economy', we also need a certain amount of gold reserves according to the Convention." Hearing this explanation, the old man asked no more questions. The reason is very good. In addition, Raymond Johnston also has a general understanding of the financial situation of westero system. Last time he participated in the merger and acquisition of Rio Tinto, Simon made a one-time investment of US $2.5 billion, which is not a small sum for any enterprise giant. However, westero company fully used its own funds to easily pay. Even so, Simon still has a large amount of cash in his hands because of the huge profits contributed by danielis entertainment, cersei capital, Verizon Telecom and other companies. Because of the inevitable inflation, it is the best choice for enterprises or individuals to invest a large amount of cash as soon as possible. In Simon's view, the income from investment will definitely exceed the natural appreciation of goldHowever, for the current westero system, there is no such restriction. Because as long as he has the right goal, even if Simon has spent all his surplus money on gold, it is easy to raise money for investment. With the current corporate reputation of westero and its low debt ratio of less than 10%, few banks in the world will refuse to provide loans to Simon. When the three entered the villa hall, the old man thought about it for a moment and said, "it's good to buy gold, but in fact, you don't have to keep it yourself, so the cost will be very high. Even if you don't want to keep it in the United States, London vault or Swiss bank is a good choice. " Simon certainly thought about it. Just thinking about the fact that the United States refused to transport gold back to other countries in my memory, I gave up this idea. The United States can do so. When necessary, it is hard to guarantee that the United Kingdom and Switzerland will not do the same. Shaking his head, Simon said, "I don't believe them. It's more reliable to have gold in my own hands." Raymond Johnston insisted on Simon, but he didn't object: "let's store it in the basement of our headquarters in Melbourne. There are three floors in the basement of Johnston holding building. The lowest floor can be changed into a vault. It's certainly no problem to store hundreds of tons of gold." Simon nodded in agreement. The basement of Johnston holdings building is perfect. They belong to their own territory and are not the long-term apartments of their families. If the Treasury is built in Johnston's house on the Yarra River, it will not only attract a lot of covet, but also threaten the safety of the family. If it is built in a completely unrelated place, the safety of gold itself will not be guaranteed to the greatest extent. Simon has been looking for a special gold trading team during this period. Once the team is set up, it will immediately open acquisitions in several major gold exchanges in the world. Things in the Treasury, including the supporting security team and protective measures, certainly can not be completed in one or two days. Therefore, although we don't want to put the gold elsewhere, we can only choose to deposit it in the early stage. When the construction of the vault in Melbourne is completed, a large amount of physical gold will be transported to Australia. To sum up, the price of gold at this stage is at the lowest point in the 1990s, about $350 an ounce, far lower than the peak of $800 an ounce during the oil crisis in the 1980s. Moreover, in Simon's memory, the price of gold was close to $2000 an ounce around 2012, which is more than five times the current price of gold. Even after 2012, when the global economy turned better, the price of gold did not fall below $1000 an ounce. Therefore, the official media all over the world advocate that gold is a worthless commodity with negative investment income, which really involves some insider information related to the monetary standard. An ounce of gold in the west is about 31 grams. According to the current gold price of $350 an ounce, the total value of a ton of gold is only about $11.25 million. Simon could buy 100 tons of gold at one time if he didn't worry about the sharp rise of gold price caused by sweeping goods and the rebound of some countries that have been suppressing the price of gold, and there is not so much spot gold in the market, with the price of 11.25 million US dollars per ton. Of course, I can only think about it. Many countries do not have 100 tons of official gold reserves. Simon's long-term plan is to save about 1000 tons of gold in the next 10 to 20 years.
