Liang En had a series of plans for the development of this land, especially after acquiring the title of chieftain, which led him to adjust his initial plans.
According to these plans, Liang En guaranteed that within ten years, this region would experience significant development, moving away from its current desolate state.
This discovery of the ruins was purely accidental, differing from previous discoveries. Although the ruins would indeed impact the area, they wouldn't have a decisive influence.
Fortunately, the impact was mostly positive. For instance, after a series of negotiations, Liang En managed to secure funding from the United States, intending to hire a Chinese engineering team to construct a simple road connecting to the future railway station.
It must be said that building roads to pave the way for prosperity is a valuable strategy in most places, one that yields tangible benefits.
For example, ever since the waterway was opened, even a small 200-ton boat brought about significant changes. As more vessels are put into use, this route will become the most crucial passage before the railway is built.
"This is our plan, Your Excellency." After descending from the ruins above, they arrived at the construction site’s conference room, where a model was laid out. Liang En pointed at the model and said, "Ultimately, we plan to purchase three 200-ton river cargo ships and use them to establish a waterway to the capital, Luanda, for the exchange of various goods and personnel."
"Additionally, I plan to build a simple dock and supporting facilities such as warehouses on this rocky shore, to serve as a place for external communication in the region."
"Of course, I also hope that everyone can contribute to this small dock and share the convenience it will bring."
"If that's the case, I’m willing to invest in the dock." As soon as Liang En finished speaking, the local king was the first to respond. "If you need manpower, I can also send people to help."
"I’m in too—" "Count me in!" Following the king's words, several chiefs who were present also expressed their desire to invest. After all, those who had received some education understood the significance of a dock.
Moreover, they asked Liang En what assistance he currently needed for this project, and indeed, Liang En required their help.
"The main issue is safety. The area around this river is not safe," Liang En said after seriously considering for a few seconds. "Apart from the lack of comprehensive hydrological data, there’s also the significant issue of insufficient security and the absence of mid-route supply points."
Undoubtedly, navigating this river at night was almost impossible without complete hydrological data or a navigation system. Therefore, it was essential to establish several stops along the route for overnight stays.
It’s well known that, even though large-scale wars have ended in this country, which has experienced decades of civil war, small-scale conflicts continue to erupt, making the security situation exceptionally poor.
This is especially true in towns far from major cities. For example, the desolate jungles along the river often harbor former civil war participants who have devolved into criminals.
There’s no doubt that for these people, who have retreated into the jungle and live like savages, these boats loaded with various supplies are like floating warehouses, making them prime targets.
The only good news is that these attackers aren't highly skilled in combat, so with proper preparation, Liang En's security personnel could easily handle three or four of them at once.
However, considering that these people are practically the jungle's masters, it would be nearly impossible to eradicate them from the jungle.
Given the adage that "you can’t guard against a thief every day," it’s essential to prepare for potential attacks from these raiders. Otherwise, if an attack does occur, it could cause significant trouble.
A simple solution would be to dispatch White Knight Security personnel on the boats. With adequate equipment and preparation, an ordinary squad could easily withstand an attack by 30 to 50 people.
This isn’t because the White Knight squads are exceptionally powerful, but because the attackers hiding in the bushes are likely less effective than armed civilians in some countries, with even lower morale.
Since being thoroughly defeated, they are no longer an army but merely a group of bandits huddling together for warmth, so they wouldn’t dare to fight to the death against a tough opponent.
The problem, however, is that these people wouldn’t be foolish enough to leave the jungle's cover and engage in a direct confrontation. Being familiar with the jungle, they might leverage the terrain to launch a series of hard-to-defend attacks, which would be extremely challenging for outsiders to guard against.
Moreover, Liang En's White Knight Security primarily operates on an elite strategy rather than using overwhelming numbers, making it impossible to dispatch multiple squads to protect the entire river for extended periods.
At this point, a feasible solution is to train local security personnel. Even if they’re slightly less capable in single combat, sufficient manpower could compensate for this deficiency.
However, adopting this approach might require heavy weapons for support, and obtaining approval to use heavy weapons isn’t easy.
But this problem was quickly solved by the local king. As the king of the country’s largest ethnic group, he had connections that were almost inaccessible to outsiders.
For example, he could contact many chieftains and local kings along the river and ask them to prepare some safe locations for overnight stops.
On the other hand, he could also negotiate with the Angolan government to allow Liang En's boats to be equipped with some heavy weapons for the security personnel.
Although the rebel remnants in the forest have managed to survive by relying on the special terrain and environment and have learned to contend with the military, they’ve paid a price for it.
For instance, they’ve lost almost all their heavy weapons, greatly diminishing their offensive capabilities and limiting their ability to launch effective attacks on prepared armed forces.
Therefore, once some heavy weapons are installed on the boats, they could inflict deadly damage on potential attackers, giving even slightly less trained operators a significant advantage.
Of course, Liang En had to pay a price to achieve his goals, but the cost was entirely acceptable.
For example, the price paid by the former was to allow their goods and personnel to board the ships and to charge fees for such goods. The latter’s price was to pay a certain amount of money annually as a licensing fee.
In short, because of the king's influence and the chieftains' traditions, these requests were easily granted, which is why Liang En brought up these issues in front of the king.
As it turns out, these requests were very effective, and the king assured Liang En that all these problems would be resolved in a short time.
Thank you for reading this far! You can access more chapters from HERE by joining my Patreon community. You'll gain exclusive early access to the COMPLETE NOVEL.
As a member of my Patreon community, here is what you'll get:
- Early access to the COMPLETE NOVEL.
- You also get access to all the novels I'm translating, you can find them here HERE.
- You Get Ad-free Chapters.
- Plus, you can Cancel your membership at any time.
